In the national core curriculum published in 2014, the first section of the transversal competence is thinking and learning to learn. The purpose of this thesis is to examine, how the teachers who participated in the study support the development of thinking and learning to learn through a concrete model and mediated learning. In addition, the impact of the theory of mediated learning on the teachers' thinking is examined. Five primary school teachers and 20 students participated in the study. The data was gathered by observing lessons and interviewing both teachers and students. The methods used to analyze the data were content analysis and grounded theory. Three main goals were discovered in teaching thinking and learning to learn that were pursued by specific methods of mediated learning: 1) The student's independent thinking was enhanced by supporting and activating the student's thinking. 2) The awareness of one's thinking was developed by asking the student to explain or justify his or her thinking. 3) In order for the skills of thinking and learning to learn to become a permanent capital of the student, the skills were bridged from the lessons to reality. Based on the data material, the adopting of the theory of the mediated learning had had an impact on the teacher's thinking and pedagogic actions. The teacher's awareness of his or her own thinking and assumptions seemed to be important in supporting the students' thinking and learning to learn.

Goals. The aim of this thesis was to examine how Finnish curriculums of 2004 and 2014 differ from each other in relation to thinking skills, learning to learn and multidisciplinary learning sets. These three themes were selected as subjects for research, as they are an integral part of the concept of broad-based competence introduced in the new curriculum. Broad-based competence is defined as the skills that the learner is expected to need in order to cope with future challenges. The purpose of this thesis was to find out whether these themes are also present in the Finnish curriculum of 2004 and if so, how their discourse may differ from the 2014 curriculum. This type of systematic comparison has not been made between these curricula before and also not with these themes. Thinking skills and learning to learn were studied separately from the multidisciplinary learning sets, as they are areas of broad-based competence, whereas multidisciplinary learning sets are more of its method. Thinking skills and learning to learn were dealt with, in particular, Robert Sternberg's theories of intelligence and its sub-areas. Methods. The data of the thesis are therefore the Finnish curriculums of 2004 and 2014. However, only the general parts were included in this thesis, as the goal was to get a picture of the underlying ideas and perspectives of each curriculum. The study was carried out using two mutually supportive analytical methods. The analysis started with a computer-based, instrumental thematic text analysis, which aims to find references to certain themes from the texts using a dictionary built by the researcher. This method was chosen because it was a clear and simple way to visualize the differences between the references in the texts. Another analytical method was a content analysis in which theory-based and data-based methods were used. Concerning thinking skills and learning to learn, content analysis was made by using the theory-based method with Sternberg's theories as a basis. Data-based analysis was used when studying multidisciplinary learning sets. Results and conclusions. The thinking skills were referred to equally as much in the general parts of the curricula of 2004 and 2014, but the content of the curriculum for 2014 was more comprehensive and could easily be categorized using Sternberg's theories. The same was true of learning to learn, although it was apparent that in relation to the curriculum of 2004, there were more references to learning to learn than in the curriculum of 2014. In the case of multidisciplinary learning sets, the result again indicated that the curriculum of 2014 was broader both in terms of content and text. Based on these results, it can be generally interpreted that although these same themes have been dealt with in the previous curriculum, the new curriculum has really become substantively centralized and sought to find a wide range of these perspectives.

Objectives. The aim of education is to prepare the students with proper knowledge and skills for the unknown future. The academic field introduces the term 21st Century Skills as a response to the rapidly changing world. Definitions suggest that thinking skills are one of the main skills needed in the future. However previous study has not been able to deliver a solution on how these skills could be effectively taught and learned at the school level. Alternative pedagogues have offered alternative methods for the traditional school – methods that closely remind the objectives of the 21st Century Skills. Maria Montessori developed concrete materials in order to teach thinking skills to the children already in the 19th Century. The purpose of this study is to research on whether the Montessori materials could provide a solution on how the 21st Century Skills also known as future thinking skills can be taught and learned. Methods. The data was collected with a web-based questionnaire that was designed for the study from international Montessori network. The target group of this study was Montessori coaches (N = 39) and the majority of the responses came from North America (N = 21). The e-form consisted of a multi-choice questionnaire and open-ended questions. The quantitative data was analyzed with a factor analysis which helped the further data analysis. The qualitative data was analyzed with theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. The Montessori coaches agreed that Montessori materials support the development of thinking skills today. The results also indicated that Montessori Education is an entity and the materials work most effectively as part of the existing method of Montessori Education. As a conclusion, I present that Montessori materials are suitable tools for teaching thinking skills if the teacher has proper knowledge of the Montessori Education and its principles.