how would you implement critical thinking in your classroom

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How To Promote Critical Thinking In Your Classroom

Promoting Thinking

November 25, 2006, by The Critical Thinking Co. Staff

Modeling of critical thinking skills by instructors is crucial for teaching critical thinking successfully. By making your own thought processes explicit in class - explaining your reasoning, evaluating evidence for a claim, probing the credibility of a source, or even describing what has puzzled or confused you - you provide a powerful example to students, particularly if you invite them to join in; e.g., "Can you see where we're headed with this?" "I can't think of other explanations; can you?" "This idea/principle struck me as difficult or confusing at first, but here's how I figured it out." You can encourage students to emulate this by using them in demonstrations, asking them to "think out loud" in order for classmates to observe how they reason through a problem.

Develop the habit of asking questions that require students to think critically, and tell students that you really expect them to give answers! In particular, Socratic questioning encourages students to develop and clarify their thinking: e.g., "Would your answer hold in all cases?" "How would you respond to a counter-example or counter-argument?" "Explain how you arrived at that answer?"

This is another skill that students can learn from your example, and can use in working with each other. Providing regular opportunities for pair or small group discussions after major points or demonstrations during lectures is also important: this allows students to process the new material, connect it to previously learned topics, and practice asking questions that promote further critical thinking. Obviously, conveying genuine respect for student input is essential. Communicating the message that you value and support student contributions and efforts to think critically increases confidence, and motivates students to continue building their thinking skills. An essential component of this process is the creation of a climate where students feel comfortable with exploring the process of reasoning through a problem without being "punished" for getting the wrong answer.

Researchers have found consistently that interaction among students, in the form of well-structured group discussions plays a central role in stimulating critical thinking. Discussing course material and its applications allows students to formulate and test hypotheses, practice asking thought-provoking questions, hear other perspectives, analyze claims, evaluate evidence, and explain and justify their reasoning. As they become more sophisticated and fluent in thinking critically, students can observe and critique each others' reasoning skills.

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom

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(This is the second post in a three-part series. You can see Part One here .)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?

Part One ‘s guests were Dara Laws Savage, Patrick Brown, Meg Riordan, Ph.D., and Dr. PJ Caposey. Dara, Patrick, and Meg were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Today, Dr. Kulvarn Atwal, Elena Quagliarello, Dr. Donna Wilson, and Diane Dahl share their recommendations.

‘Learning Conversations’

Dr. Kulvarn Atwal is currently the executive head teacher of two large primary schools in the London borough of Redbridge. Dr. Atwal is the author of The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community , published by John Catt Educational. Follow him on Twitter @Thinkingschool2 :

In many classrooms I visit, students’ primary focus is on what they are expected to do and how it will be measured. It seems that we are becoming successful at producing students who are able to jump through hoops and pass tests. But are we producing children that are positive about teaching and learning and can think critically and creatively? Consider your classroom environment and the extent to which you employ strategies that develop students’ critical-thinking skills and their self-esteem as learners.

Development of self-esteem

One of the most significant factors that impacts students’ engagement and achievement in learning in your classroom is their self-esteem. In this context, self-esteem can be viewed to be the difference between how they perceive themselves as a learner (perceived self) and what they consider to be the ideal learner (ideal self). This ideal self may reflect the child that is associated or seen to be the smartest in the class. Your aim must be to raise students’ self-esteem. To do this, you have to demonstrate that effort, not ability, leads to success. Your language and interactions in the classroom, therefore, have to be aspirational—that if children persist with something, they will achieve.

Use of evaluative praise

Ensure that when you are praising students, you are making explicit links to a child’s critical thinking and/or development. This will enable them to build their understanding of what factors are supporting them in their learning. For example, often when we give feedback to students, we may simply say, “Well done” or “Good answer.” However, are the students actually aware of what they did well or what was good about their answer? Make sure you make explicit what the student has done well and where that links to prior learning. How do you value students’ critical thinking—do you praise their thinking and demonstrate how it helps them improve their learning?

Learning conversations to encourage deeper thinking

We often feel as teachers that we have to provide feedback to every students’ response, but this can limit children’s thinking. Encourage students in your class to engage in learning conversations with each other. Give as many opportunities as possible to students to build on the responses of others. Facilitate chains of dialogue by inviting students to give feedback to each other. The teacher’s role is, therefore, to facilitate this dialogue and select each individual student to give feedback to others. It may also mean that you do not always need to respond at all to a student’s answer.

Teacher modelling own thinking

We cannot expect students to develop critical-thinking skills if we aren’t modeling those thinking skills for them. Share your creativity, imagination, and thinking skills with the students and you will nurture creative, imaginative critical thinkers. Model the language you want students to learn and think about. Share what you feel about the learning activities your students are participating in as well as the thinking you are engaging in. Your own thinking and learning will add to the discussions in the classroom and encourage students to share their own thinking.

Metacognitive questioning

Consider the extent to which your questioning encourages students to think about their thinking, and therefore, learn about learning! Through asking metacognitive questions, you will enable your students to have a better understanding of the learning process, as well as their own self-reflections as learners. Example questions may include:

• Why did you choose to do it that way?
• When you find something tricky, what helps you?
• How do you know when you have really learned something?

‘Adventures of Discovery’

Elena Quagliarello is the senior editor of education for Scholastic News , a current events magazine for students in grades 3–6. She graduated from Rutgers University, where she studied English and earned her master’s degree in elementary education. She is a certified K–12 teacher and previously taught middle school English/language arts for five years:

Critical thinking blasts through the surface level of a topic. It reaches beyond the who and the what and launches students on a learning journey that ultimately unlocks a deeper level of understanding. Teaching students how to think critically helps them turn information into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom. In the classroom, critical thinking teaches students how to ask and answer the questions needed to read the world. Whether it’s a story, news article, photo, video, advertisement, or another form of media, students can use the following critical-thinking strategies to dig beyond the surface and uncover a wealth of knowledge.

A Layered Learning Approach

Begin by having students read a story, article, or analyze a piece of media. Then have them excavate and explore its various layers of meaning. First, ask students to think about the literal meaning of what they just read. For example, if students read an article about the desegregation of public schools during the 1950s, they should be able to answer questions such as: Who was involved? What happened? Where did it happen? Which details are important? This is the first layer of critical thinking: reading comprehension. Do students understand the passage at its most basic level?

Ask the Tough Questions

The next layer delves deeper and starts to uncover the author’s purpose and craft. Teach students to ask the tough questions: What information is included? What or who is left out? How does word choice influence the reader? What perspective is represented? What values or people are marginalized? These questions force students to critically analyze the choices behind the final product. In today’s age of fast-paced, easily accessible information, it is essential to teach students how to critically examine the information they consume. The goal is to equip students with the mindset to ask these questions on their own.

Strike Gold

The deepest layer of critical thinking comes from having students take a step back to think about the big picture. This level of thinking is no longer focused on the text itself but rather its real-world implications. Students explore questions such as: Why does this matter? What lesson have I learned? How can this lesson be applied to other situations? Students truly engage in critical thinking when they are able to reflect on their thinking and apply their knowledge to a new situation. This step has the power to transform knowledge into wisdom.

Adventures of Discovery

There are vast ways to spark critical thinking in the classroom. Here are a few other ideas:

• Critical Expressionism: In this expanded response to reading from a critical stance, students are encouraged to respond through forms of artistic interpretations, dramatizations, singing, sketching, designing projects, or other multimodal responses. For example, students might read an article and then create a podcast about it or read a story and then act it out.
• Transmediations: This activity requires students to take an article or story and transform it into something new. For example, they might turn a news article into a cartoon or turn a story into a poem. Alternatively, students may rewrite a story by changing some of its elements, such as the setting or time period.
• Words Into Action: In this type of activity, students are encouraged to take action and bring about change. Students might read an article about endangered orangutans and the effects of habitat loss caused by deforestation and be inspired to check the labels on products for palm oil. They might then write a letter asking companies how they make sure the palm oil they use doesn’t hurt rain forests.
• Socratic Seminars: In this student-led discussion strategy, students pose thought-provoking questions to each other about a topic. They listen closely to each other’s comments and think critically about different perspectives.
• Classroom Debates: Aside from sparking a lively conversation, classroom debates naturally embed critical-thinking skills by asking students to formulate and support their own opinions and consider and respond to opposing viewpoints.

Critical thinking has the power to launch students on unforgettable learning experiences while helping them develop new habits of thought, reflection, and inquiry. Developing these skills prepares students to examine issues of power and promote transformative change in the world around them.

‘Quote Analysis’

Dr. Donna Wilson is a psychologist and the author of 20 books, including Developing Growth Mindsets , Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains , and Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (2 nd Edition). She is an international speaker who has worked in Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, Jamaica, and throughout the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Wilson can be reached at [email protected] ; visit her website at www.brainsmart.org .

Diane Dahl has been a teacher for 13 years, having taught grades 2-4 throughout her career. Mrs. Dahl currently teaches 3rd and 4th grade GT-ELAR/SS in Lovejoy ISD in Fairview, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @DahlD, and visit her website at www.fortheloveofteaching.net :

A growing body of research over the past several decades indicates that teaching students how to be better thinkers is a great way to support them to be more successful at school and beyond. In the book, Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains , Dr. Wilson shares research and many motivational strategies, activities, and lesson ideas that assist students to think at higher levels. Five key strategies from the book are as follows:

• Facilitate conversation about why it is important to think critically at school and in other contexts of life. Ideally, every student will have a contribution to make to the discussion over time.
• Begin teaching thinking skills early in the school year and as a daily part of class.
• As this instruction begins, introduce students to the concept of brain plasticity and how their brilliant brains change during thinking and learning. This can be highly motivational for students who do not yet believe they are good thinkers!
• Explicitly teach students how to use the thinking skills.
• Facilitate student understanding of how the thinking skills they are learning relate to their lives at school and in other contexts.

Below are two lessons that support critical thinking, which can be defined as the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.

Mrs. Dahl prepares her 3rd and 4th grade classes for a year of critical thinking using quote analysis .

During Native American studies, her 4 th grade analyzes a Tuscarora quote: “Man has responsibility, not power.” Since students already know how the Native Americans’ land had been stolen, it doesn’t take much for them to make the logical leaps. Critical-thought prompts take their thinking even deeper, especially at the beginning of the year when many need scaffolding. Some prompts include:

• … from the point of view of the Native Americans?
• … from the point of view of the settlers?
• How do you think your life might change over time as a result?
• Can you relate this quote to anything else in history?

Analyzing a topic from occupational points of view is an incredibly powerful critical-thinking tool. After learning about the Mexican-American War, Mrs. Dahl’s students worked in groups to choose an occupation with which to analyze the war. The chosen occupations were: anthropologist, mathematician, historian, archaeologist, cartographer, and economist. Then each individual within each group chose a different critical-thinking skill to focus on. Finally, they worked together to decide how their occupation would view the war using each skill.

For example, here is what each student in the economist group wrote:

• When U.S.A. invaded Mexico for land and won, Mexico ended up losing income from the settlements of Jose de Escandon. The U.S.A. thought that they were gaining possible tradable land, while Mexico thought that they were losing precious land and resources.
• Whenever Texas joined the states, their GDP skyrocketed. Then they went to war and spent money on supplies. When the war was resolving, Texas sold some of their land to New Mexico for $10 million. This allowed Texas to pay off their debt to the U.S., improving their relationship.
• A detail that converged into the Mexican-American War was that Mexico and the U.S. disagreed on the Texas border. With the resulting treaty, Texas ended up gaining more land and economic resources.
• Texas gained land from Mexico since both countries disagreed on borders. Texas sold land to New Mexico, which made Texas more economically structured and allowed them to pay off their debt.

This was the first time that students had ever used the occupations technique. Mrs. Dahl was astonished at how many times the kids used these critical skills in other areas moving forward.

Thanks to Dr. Auwal, Elena, Dr. Wilson, and Diane for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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How to promote critical thinking in the classroom.

A comprehensive guide for educators on enhancing critical thinking skills among students through innovative classroom techniques.

Empower Your Students with Critical Thinking Skills

In the evolving landscape of education, fostering critical thinking in the classroom has become paramount. As educators, it's essential to cultivate an environment where students can analyze information critically, engage in meaningful debate, and approach problems with a solution-oriented mindset. This article explores practical strategies to enhance critical thinking skills, leveraging the power of inquiry-based learning and open-ended questioning.

Asking open-ended questions is a cornerstone of promoting critical thinking. By challenging students with questions that require more than a yes or no answer, educators can stimulate deeper thought and encourage students to explore multiple perspectives. Integrating these questions into lesson plans can transform the classroom into a dynamic space for intellectual exploration.

Debate is another powerful tool in the critical thinking arsenal. Structured debates on relevant topics not only sharpen students' argumentation skills but also teach them to consider and respect different viewpoints. This form of student-centered learning fosters a sense of ownership over the learning process, making education a collaborative and engaging experience.

Inquiry-based learning activities are designed to put students in the driver's seat of their educational journey. By posing questions, problems, or scenarios, teachers can guide students through a process of discovery that encourages critical analysis and independent thought. This approach not only boosts critical thinking but also aligns with the natural curiosity and creativity of learners.

Utilizing AI teaching assistants, like those offered by Planit Teachers, can further enhance critical thinking in the classroom. These innovative platforms provide tools such as Lesson Plan Generators and AI Marking Assistants, which free up valuable time for educators to focus on developing student-centered learning experiences that promote critical thinking.

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How to Promote Critical Thinking in the Classroom

By elearning inside, february 05, 2024.

Promoting critical thinking is an essential goal in education, equipping students with problem-solving skills that extend beyond the classroom. In this article, we’ll explore practical strategies for teachers and schools to foster critical thinking among students.

Fostering a Growth Mindset

Encouraging a growth mindset is fundamental to promoting critical thinking. Teachers can cultivate this mindset by praising effort rather than innate abilities.

When students understand that their abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work, they are more likely to embrace challenges and think critically to overcome obstacles.

Questioning Techniques

One of the most effective ways to promote critical thinking is through questioning. Teachers can employ various questioning techniques to stimulate thought, such as Socratic questioning.

By asking open-ended questions that require students to think deeply, analyze, and evaluate, teachers can guide students to explore complex issues and construct well-reasoned responses.

Real-World Problem Solving

Incorporating real-world problem-solving scenarios into the curriculum can provide students with practical opportunities to apply critical thinking. These problems can range from scientific experiments to ethical dilemmas, encouraging students to assess situations, weigh evidence, and make informed decisions.

Encouraging group collaboration on these tasks can further enhance critical thinking by promoting different perspectives and solutions.

Creating a Physical Environment that Supports Critical Thinking

Classroom design and furniture also play a role in promoting critical thinking. A flexible classroom setup allows for collaborative learning and group discussions, encouraging students to engage in critical dialogue.

By providing comfortable seating options and ensuring that the classroom layout is adaptable, teachers can foster a more dynamic learning environment conducive to critical thinking.

Encouraging Divergent Thinking

Divergent thinking is a vital component of critical thinking, as it involves generating multiple solutions to a problem. Teachers can encourage this by using brainstorming techniques, mind maps, or role-playing exercises.

By allowing students to explore various angles and creative solutions, educators nurture their capacity for innovative problem-solving.

Analyzing Multiple Perspectives

Critical thinking is not limited to one perspective; it involves considering multiple viewpoints. Teachers can introduce debates, case studies, or simulations where students must analyze and argue from different angles.

Encouraging students to appreciate different viewpoints and make informed judgments fosters a more well-rounded and critical thinker.

Scaffolding Critical Thinking

To ensure that students of all ages can develop critical thinking skills, educators can scaffold the learning process. This involves providing support and gradually increasing the complexity of tasks.

For instance, younger students may begin by identifying problems, while older students progress to proposing solutions and evaluating their effectiveness.

Metacognition and Self-Reflection

Metacognition is the practice of thinking about thinking. It encourages students to assess their thought processes and strategies. Teachers can promote metacognition by encouraging students to self-reflect on their learning experiences.

When students consider how they approach problems and what strategies work best for them, they can refine their critical thinking skills.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Breaking down the barriers between subjects can also promote critical thinking. Interdisciplinary learning allows students to make connections between different fields of knowledge, encouraging them to draw on a wider range of information and skills to address problems.

Teachers can collaborate to create lesson plans that bridge the gaps between subjects, promoting a more holistic approach to critical thinking.

Feedback and Assessment

Effective feedback and assessment play a significant role in promoting critical thinking. Constructive feedback helps students understand where they can improve and refine their thinking.

Moreover, formative assessment strategies can help educators gauge students’ critical thinking abilities and adjust their teaching accordingly.

In summary, cultivating critical thinking within educational settings is a complex task that necessitates fostering a growth mentality, utilizing efficient questioning methods, advocating for real-life problem resolution, and supporting diverse thought processes.

Moreover, it entails emphasizing metacognition, appreciating numerous viewpoints, integrating interdisciplinary education, and offering evaluation and feedback. By adopting these pragmatic strategies, teachers can enable students to develop critical thinking skills, equipping them to face future obstacles effectively.

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A Critical Thinking Framework for Elementary Students

Guiding young students to engage in critical thinking fosters their ability to create and engage with knowledge.

Critical thinking is using analysis and evaluation to make a judgment. Analysis, evaluation, and judgment are not discrete skills; rather, they emerge from the accumulation of knowledge. The accumulation of knowledge does not mean students sit at desks mindlessly reciting memorized information, like in 19th century grammar schools. Our goal is not for learners to regurgitate facts by rote without demonstrating their understanding of the connections, structures, and deeper ideas embedded in the content they are learning. To foster critical thinking in school, especially for our youngest learners, we need a pedagogy that centers knowledge and also honors the ability of children to engage with knowledge.

This chapter outlines the Critical Thinking Framework: five instructional approaches educators can incorporate into their instruction to nurture deeper thinking. These approaches can also guide intellectual preparation protocols and unit unpackings to prepare rigorous, engaging instruction for elementary students. Some of these approaches, such as reason with evidence, will seem similar to other “contentless” programs professing to teach critical thinking skills. But others, such as say it in your own words or look for structure, are targeted at ensuring learners soundly understand content so that they can engage in complex thinking. You will likely notice that every single one of these approaches requires students to talk—to themselves, to a partner, or to the whole class. Dialogue, specifically in the context of teacher-led discussions, is essential for students to analyze, evaluate, and judge (i.e., do critical thinking ). 

The Critical Thinking Framework

Say it in your own words : Students articulate ideas in their own words. They use unique phrasing and do not parrot the explanations of others. When learning new material, students who pause to explain concepts in their own words (to themselves or others) demonstrate an overall better understanding than students who do not (Nokes-Malach et al., 2013). However, it’s not enough for us to pause frequently and ask students to explain, especially if they are only being asked to repeat procedures. Explanations should be effortful and require students to make connections to prior knowledge and concepts as well as to revise misconceptions (Richey & Nokes-Malach, 2015).

Break it down : Students break down the components, steps, or smaller ideas within a bigger idea or procedure. In addition to expressing concepts in their own words, students should look at new concepts in terms of parts and wholes. For instance, when learning a new type of problem or task, students can explain the steps another student took to arrive at their answer, which promotes an understanding that transfers to other tasks with a similar underlying structure. Asking students to explain the components and rationale behind procedural steps can also lead to more flexible problem solving overall (Rittle-Johnson, 2006). By breaking down ideas into component parts, students are also better equipped to monitor the soundness of their own understanding as well as to see similar patterns (i.e., regularity) among differing tasks. For example, in writing, lessons can help students see how varying subordinating conjunction phrases at the start of sentences can support the flow and readability of a paragraph. In math, a solution can be broken down into smaller steps.

Look for structure : Students look beyond shallow surface characteristics to see deep structures and underlying principles. Learners struggle to see regularity in similar problems that have small differences (Reed et al., 1985). Even when students are taught how to complete one kind of task, they struggle to transfer their understanding to a new task where some of the superficial characteristics have been changed. This is because students, especially students who are novices in a domain, tend to emphasize the surface structure of a task rather than deep structure (Chi & Van Lehn, 2012).

By prompting students to notice deep structures—such as the characteristics of a genre or the needs of animals—rather than surface structures, teachers foster the development of comprehensive schemata in students’ long-term memories, which they are more likely to then apply to novel situations. Teachers should monitor for student understanding of deep structures across several tasks and examples.

Notice gaps or inconsistencies in ideas : Students ask questions about gaps and inconsistencies in material, arguments, and their own thinking . When students engage in explanations of material, they are more likely to notice when they misunderstand material or to detect a conflict with their prior knowledge (Richey & Nokes-Malach, 2015). In a classroom, analyzing conflicting ideas and interpretations allows students to revise misconceptions and refine mental models. Noticing gaps and inconsistencies in information also helps students to evaluate the persuasiveness of arguments and to ask relevant questions.

Reason with evidence : Students construct arguments with evidence and evaluate the evidence in others’ reasoning. Reasoning with evidence matters in every subject, but what counts for evidence in a mathematical proof differs from what is required in an English essay. Students should learn the rules and conventions for evidence across a wide range of disciplines in school. The habits of looking for and weighing evidence also intersect with some of the other critical thinking approaches discussed above. Noticing regularity in reasoning and structure helps learners find evidence efficiently, while attending to gaps and inconsistencies in information encourages caution before reaching hasty conclusions.

Countering Two Critiques

Some readers may be wondering how the Critical Thinking Framework differs from other general skills curricula. The framework differs in that it demands application in the context of students’ content knowledge, rather than in isolation. It is a pedagogical tool to help students make sense of the content they are learning. Students should never sit through a lesson where they are told to “say things in their own words” when there is nothing to say anything about. While a contentless lesson could help on the margins, it will not be as relevant or transferable. Specific content matters. A checklist of “critical thinking skills” cannot replace deep subject knowledge. The framework should not be blindly applied to all subjects without context because results will look quite different in an ELA or science class.

Other readers may be thinking about high-stakes tests: how does the Critical Thinking Framework fit in with an overwhelming emphasis on assessments aligned to national or state standards? This is a valid concern and an important point to address. For teachers, schools, and districts locked into an accountability system that values performance on state tests but does not communicate content expectations beyond general standards, the arguments I make may seem beside the point. Sure, knowledge matters, but the curriculum demands that students know how to quickly identify the main idea of a paragraph, even if they don’t have any background knowledge about the topic of the paragraph.

It is crucial that elementary practitioners be connected to both evolving research on learning and the limiting realities we teach within. Unfortunately, I can provide no easy answers beyond saying that teaching is a balancing act. The tension, while real and relevant to teachers’ daily lives, should not cloud our vision for what children need from their school experiences.

I also argue it is easier to incorporate the demands of our current standardized testing environment into a curriculum rich with history, science, art, geography, languages, and novels than the reverse. The Critical Thinking Framework presents ways to approach all kinds of knowledge in a way that presses students toward deeper processing of the content they are learning. If we can raise the bar for student work and thinking in our classrooms, the question of how students perform on standardized tests will become secondary to helping them achieve much loftier and important goals. The choice of whether to emphasize excellent curriculum or high-stakes tests, insofar as it is a choice at all, should never be existential or a zero-sum game.

From Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom: Engaging Young Minds with Meaningful Content (pp. 25–29) by Erin Shadowens, Arlington, VA: ASCD. Copyright © 2023 by ASCD. All rights reserved.

Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom: Strategies and Activities

ritical thinking is a valuable skill that empowers students to analyze information, think deeply, and make reasoned judgments. By promoting critical thinking in the classroom, educators can foster intellectual curiosity, enhance problem-solving abilities, and prepare students for success in an ever-evolving world. This article explores effective strategies and engaging activities to promote critical thinking among students.

1. Ask Thought-Provoking Questions

Encourage critical thinking by asking open-ended and thought-provoking questions that stimulate students' analytical thinking. For example, in a history class, instead of asking "When did World War II start?" you could ask "What were the underlying causes of World War II and how did they contribute to its outbreak?" This prompts students to go beyond simple factual recall and encourages them to analyze historical events, evaluate multiple factors, and develop a deeper understanding of the topic. Instead of seeking one correct answer, focus on guiding students to explore different perspectives, evaluate evidence, and justify their reasoning. Engage students in discussions that require them to analyze, compare, and synthesize information.

2. Provide Real-World Examples

Connect classroom learning to real-world applications by providing relevant examples and case studies. By presenting authentic scenarios, students can apply critical thinking skills to analyze and solve complex problems. Encourage students to think critically about the implications of their decisions and consider the broader impact of their choices.

3. Foster Collaboration and Debate

Promote collaborative learning environments where students can engage in respectful debates and discussions. Encourage students to express diverse opinions, support their arguments with evidence, and listen actively to others' viewpoints. Through collaborative activities, students can learn to evaluate different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and develop their critical thinking skills.

4. Encourage Reflection and Metacognition

Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their thinking processes and metacognition. Ask students to evaluate their own problem-solving strategies, analyze their decision-making processes, and assess the effectiveness of their critical thinking skills. By promoting self-awareness and reflection, students can enhance their critical thinking abilities and become more independent learners.

5. Incorporate Problem-Based Learning

Integrate problem-based learning activities that require students to apply critical thinking skills to solve complex problems. For example, in a science class, present a real-world scenario where students need to design an experiment to test the effectiveness of different fertilizers on plant growth. This activity prompts students to analyze information about fertilizers, evaluate different options, and develop a well-reasoned experimental design. By engaging in hands-on problem-solving experiences like this, students can develop their critical thinking abilities while also building their content knowledge.

Promoting critical thinking in the classroom is essential for developing students' analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, and intellectual curiosity. By incorporating strategies such as asking thought-provoking questions, providing real-world examples, fostering collaboration and debate, encouraging reflection and metacognition, and incorporating problem-based learning, educators can create an environment that nurtures critical thinking skills. By equipping students with this valuable skill set, we empower them to navigate complex challenges and become lifelong learners.

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Critical Thinking: Facilitating and Assessing the 21st Century Skills in Education

So many times we hear our students say, “Why am I learning this?”

I believe that Critical Thinking is the spark that begins the process of authentic learning. Before going further, we must first develop an idea of what learning is… and what learning is not.  So many times we hear our students say, “Why am I learning this?” The reason they ask is because they have not really experienced the full spectrum of learning, and because of this are actually not learning to a full rewarding  extent! We might say they are being exposed to surface learning and not authentic (real) learning. The act of authentic learning is actually an exciting and engaging concept. It allows students to see real meaning and begin to construct their own knowledge.  Critical Thinking is core to learning. It is rewarding, engaging, and life long. Without critical thinking students are left to a universe of concepts and memorization.  Yes… over twelve years of mediocrity! When educators employ critical thinking in their classrooms, a whole new world of understanding is opened up.   What are some reasons to facilitate critical thinking with our students? Let me begin:

Ten Reasons For Student Critical Thinking in the classroom

• Allows for necessary inquiry that makes learning exciting
• Provides a method to go beyond memorization to promote understanding.
• Allows students to visualize thoughts, concepts, theories, models & possibilities.
• Promotes curriculum standards, trans-disciplinary ideas & real world connections.
• Encourages a classroom culture of collaboration that promotes deeper thinking.
• Builds skills of problem solving, making implications, & determining consequences.
• Facilitates goal setting, promotion of process, and perseverance to achieve.
• Teaches self reflection and critique, and the ability to listen to others’ thoughts.
• Encourages point of view  while developing persuasive skills.
• Guides interpretation while developing a skill to infer and draw conclusions.

I am excited by the spark that critical thinking ignites to support real and authentic learning in the classroom. I often wonder how much time students spend in the process of critical thinking in the classroom. I ask you to reflect on your typical school day. Are your students spending time in area of surface learning , or are they plunging into the engaging culture of deeper (real) learning?  At the same time … how are you assessing your students? So many times as educators, we are bound by the standards, and we forget the importance of promoting that critical thinking process that makes our standards come alive with understanding. A culture of critical thinking is not automatic, though with intentional planning  it can become a reality. Like the other 21st century skills, it must be built and continuously facilitated. Let’s take a look at how, we as educators, can do this.

Ten Ways to Facilitate Student Critical Thinking in the Classroom and School

• Design Critical Thinking Activities.  (This might include mind mapping, making thinking visible, Socratic discussions, meta-cognitive mind stretches, Build an inquiry wall with students and talk about the process of thinking”
• Provide time for students to collaborate.  (Collaboration can be the button that starts critical thinking. It provides group thinking that builds on the standards. Have students work together while solving multi-step and higher order thinking problems. Sometimes this might mean slow down to increase the learning.)
• Provide students with a Critical Thinking rubric.  (Have them look at the rubric before a critical thinking activity, and once again when they are finished)
• Make assessment of Critical Thinking an ongoing effort.  (While the teacher can assess, have students assess themselves. Self assessment can be powerful)
• Concentrate on specific indicators in a rubric.  (There are various indicators such as; provides inquiry, answers questions, builds an argument etc. Concentrate on just one indicator while doing a lesson. There can even be an exit ticket reflection)
• Integrate the idea of Critical Thinking in any lesson.  ( Do not teach this skill in isolation. How does is work with a lesson, stem activity, project built, etc. What does Critical Thinking look like in the online or blended environment? Think of online discussions.)
• Post a Critical Thinking Poster in the room.  (This poster could be a copy of a rubric or even a list of “I Can Statements”. Point it out before a critical thinking activity.
• Make Critical Thinking part of your formative  and summative assessment.   (Move around the room, talk to groups and students, stop the whole group to make adjustments.)
• Point out Critical Thinking found in the content standards.  (Be aware that content standards often have words like; infer, debate, conclude, solve, prioritize, compare and contrast, hypothesize, and research. Critical Thinking has always been part of the standards. Show your students Bloom’s Taxonomy and post in the room. Where are they in their learning?
• Plan for a school wide emphasis.  (A culture that builds Critical Thinking is usually bigger then one classroom. Develop school-wide vocabulary, posters, and initiatives.)

I keep talking about the idea of surface learning and deeper learning. This can best be seen in  Bloom’s Taxonomy. Often we start with Remembering.  This might be essential in providing students the map to the further areas of Bloom’s. Of course, we then find the idea of Understanding. This is where I believe critical thinking begins. Sometimes we need to critically think in order to understand. In fact, you might be this doing right now. I believe that too much time might be spent in Remembering, which is why students get a false idea of what learning really is. As we look at the rest of Bloom’s ( Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create) we can see the deeper learning take place. and even steps toward the transfer and internalization of the learning. Some educators even tip Bloom’s upside down, stating that the Creating at the top will build an understanding. This must be done with careful facilitation and intentional scaffold to make sure there is some surface learning. After-all, Critical Thinking will need this to build on.

I have been mentioning rubrics and assessment tools through out this post. To me, these are essential in building that culture of critical thinking in the classroom. I want to provide you with some great resources that will give your some powerful tools to assess the skill of Critical Thinking.  Keep in mind that students can also self assess and journal using prompts from a Critical Thinking Rubric.

Seven Resources to Help with Assessment and Facilitation of Critical Thinking

• Habits of Mind  – I think this is an awesome place to help teachers facilitate and assess critical thinking and more. Check out the  free resources page  which even has some wonderful posters. One of my favorites is the rubrics found on this  research page . Decide on spending some time because there are a lot of great resources.
• PBLWorks  – The number one place for PBL in the world is at PBLWorks. You may know it as the BUCK Institute or BIE. I am fortunate to be part of their National Faculty which is probably why I rank it as number one. I encourage you to visit their site for everything PBL.  This link brings you to the resource area where you will discover some amazing  rubrics to facilitate Critical Thinking. You will find rubrics for grade bands K-2, 3-5, and 6-12. This really is a great place to start. You will need to sign up to be a member of PBLWorks. This is a wonderful idea, after-all it is free!
• Microsoft Innovative Learning  – This   website  contains some powerful rubrics for assessing the 21st Century skills. The link will bring you to a PDF file with Critical Thinking rubrics you can use tomorrow for any grade level. Check out this  two page document  defining the 4 C’s and a  movie  giving you even more of an explanation.
• New Tech School  – This amazing PBL group of schools provide some wonderful Learning Rubrics in their free area.  Here you will find an interesting collection of rubrics that assesses student learning in multiple areas. These are sure to get you off and started.
• Foundation for Critical Thinking  –  Check out this  amazing page  to help give you descriptors.
• Project Zero  – While it is not necessarily assessment based, you will find some powerful  routines for making thinking visible . As you conduct these types of activities you will find yourself doing some wonderful formative assessment of critical thinking.
• Education Week  – Take a look at this resource that provides some great reasoning and some interesting links that provide a glimpse of critical thinking in the classroom.

Critical Thinking “I Can Statements”

As you can see, I believe that Critical Thinking is key to PBL, STEM, and Deeper Learning. It improves Communication and Collaboration, while promoting Creativity.  I believe every student should have these following “I Can Statements” as part of their learning experience. Feel free to copy and use in your classroom. Perhaps this is a great starting place as you promote collaborative and powerful learning culture!

• I can not only answer questions, but can also think of new questions to ask 
• I can take time to see what I am thinking to promote even better understanding 
• I can attempt to see other peoples’ thinking while explaining my own 
• I can look at a problem and determine needed steps to find a solution 
• I can use proper collaboration skills to work with others productively to build solutions 
• I can set a goal, design a plan, and persevere to accomplish the goal. 
• I can map out strategies and processes that shows the action involved in a task. 
• I can define and show my understanding of a concept, model, theory, or process. 
• I can take time to reflect and productively critique my work and the work of others 
• I can understand, observe, draw inferences, hypothesize and see implications.

cross-posted at  21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at  21centuryedtech.wordpress.com .

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Critical thinking is a crucial skill for all areas of life. Adriana González Nava and Paulo Mendoza Rivera explain how to promote it in course design

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From our extensive experience as instructional designers, we recognise the importance of teaming up with teachers and educational staff to promote critical thinking among students, so they become able to apply it inside and outside the classroom.

Why is it important to apply critical-thinking strategies in our classes? Since students are exposed to news, social networks and a great deal of other information and media, we believe that it’s important to apply critical-thinking strategies to promote the following skills:

• Solve relevant and complex problems : finding new, effective and better solutions in different fields
• Make reasoned decisions : expressing ideas in a more powerful way
• Establish intellectual environments : applying higher levels of thought to real-world situations
• Collaborate with others : valuing and respecting the ideas of others
• Think critically and creatively : being well informed, focusing on details and considering multiple perspectives; thinking outside the box
• Communicate clearly and accurately : using evidence and reasoning to support thinking; conveying ideas
• Question information found on the internet : selecting information that is truthful, useful, relevant, important, objective and extracted from official and validated media.

Working hand in hand with teachers has allowed us to incorporate different strategies that promote critical thinking in class activities. We hope the following will be a useful guide for your future teaching.

1. Enquiry-based learning (IBL)

This is one of the most common strategies in the design of classes that promote active student participation. It is about learning by researching and connecting research with teaching. As instructional designers, we try to recommend activities focused on the development and strengthening of research skills and would urge you to consider the following components in the design of activities:

• orientation : introduce a new topic or concept for the students to explore and analyse
• conceptualisation : encourage students to develop questions about the topic and generate predictions and hypotheses
• research : this is the most robust stage; students must take the initiative (with the teacher’s support) to answer the questions raised and present evidence to support the hypothesis
• conclusion : with the information and data collected, students develop conclusions and responses to their initial statements
• discussion : all students learn from each other and share results, promoting debate and reflection.

To document their notes, observations, photos and comments, students can make use of applications such as Science Journal and Google Docs.

2. Project-oriented learning (POL)

Planning, developing and implementing activities that have application in the real world encourages students to analyse different projects. Students “learn by doing” through activities such as information searches, data analysis, and preparation of proposals, advances and prototypes.

At the end of the project, students can present the results after their critical analysis, along with the delivery of products, conclusions and presentations. To share the results of their critical analysis, students should use collaborative documents and interaction spaces such as Google Docs, Padlet, Flipgrid or Planner.

3. Phenomenon-based learning (PhenoBL)

Phenomenon-based learning is a relatively new, cross-curricular approach that involves teaching by focusing on a real-world problem, be it social, cultural, political, scientific, geographical, etc.

In this strategy, the teacher initially provides the phenomenon to be investigated – climate change is a classic example – and some guiding questions, which should cover different aspects of the same phenomenon. The aim is that the student not only reaches a single answer – they also analyse the phenomenon from various angles and use multiple disciplines.

Motivation and guidance of students is important in PhenoBL, so the teacher should always be present and provide constant feedback during the activity.

Move towards self-aware learning

As educational workers our mission is to give students the necessary tools to live and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Integrating critical thinking into our classes helps expand the limits of traditional education and encourage the migration to self-aware learning and interdisciplinarity.

Students must be able to think and make decisions by themselves, as well as discern the situations and information they will  face in their day-to-day lives. Teaching students to think critically will always be helpful in building their own cognition and preparing them for the future.

It is certainly a challenge, but with these and many more recommendations, you should be well on the way to developing great activities that encourage the crucial art of critical thinking in your classes.

Adriana González Nava and Paulo Mendoza Rivera are instructional designers in the architecture and pedagogical design department at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the Campus newsletter .

For more resources on this topic, go to our  Teaching critical thinking collection. 

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Critical pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that invites educators to encourage students to critique structures of power and oppression. It is rooted in critical theory , which involves becoming aware of and questioning the societal status quo. In critical pedagogy, a teacher uses his or her own enlightenment to encourage students to question and challenge inequalities that exist in families, schools, and societies.

This educational philosophy is considered progressive and even radical by some because of the way it critiques structures that are often taken for granted. If this is an approach that sounds like it is right for you and your students, keep reading. The following five steps can help you concretely implement critical pedagogy into your classroom.

• Challenge yourself. If you are not thinking critically and challenging social structures, you cannot expect your students to do it! Educate yourself using materials that question the common social narrative. For example, if you are a history teacher, immerse yourself in scholars who note the character flaws or problematic structures that allowed many well-known historical figures to be successful. Or, perhaps, read about why their “successes” were not really all that successful when considered in a different light. Critical theory is all about challenging the dominant social structures and the narratives that society has made most familiar. The more you learn, the better equipped you will be to help enlighten your students. Here are some good resources to get you started.
• Change the classroom dynamic. Critical pedagogy is all about challenging power structures, but one of the most common power dynamics in a student’s life is that of the teacher-student relationship. Challenge that! One concrete way to do this is by changing your classroom layout . Rather than having students sit in rows facing you, set up the desks so that they are facing each other in a semicircle or circle. This allows for better conversation in the classroom. You can also try sitting while leading discussions instead of standing. This posture puts you in the same position as the students and levels the student-teacher power dynamic. It is also a good idea, in general, to move from a lecture-based class where an all-wise teacher generously gives knowledge to humble students to a discussion-based class that allows students to think critically and draw their own conclusions.
• Present alternative views. In step 1, you, the teacher had to encounter views that were contrary to the dominant narrative. Now, present these views to your class alongside the traditional ones. Have them discuss both and encourage them to draw their own conclusions. If a student presents a viewpoint, encourage him or her to dig further. Asking questions like “why do you believe that?” or “why is that a good thing” will encourage students to challenge their own beliefs, break free of damaging social narratives, and think independently.
• Change your assessments. Traditional assessment structures, like traditional power structures, can be confining. You don’t have to use them ! Make sure that your assessments are not about finding the right answer, but are instead about critical thinking skills. Make sure students are not just doing what they think they need to do to get a particular grade. You can do this by encouraging students to discuss and write and by focusing on the ideas presented above presentation style.
• Encourage activism. There is a somewhat cyclic nature to critical pedagogy. After educating yourself, you encourage students to think critically, and they, in turn, take their newfound enlightenment into their families and communities.  You can do this by telling your students about opportunities in their community where they can combat oppression, like marches, demonstrations, and organizations. You can help students to start clubs that focus on bringing a voice to the marginalized. You can even encourage students to talk about patterns of power and oppression with their family and peers.

Concluding thoughts

Obviously, implementing critical pedagogy will look different in different subjects, and what works for one class may not work for another. For example, a history teacher may challenge an event that is traditionally seen as progressive, while a literature teacher may question a common cultural stereotype found in a book. A science teacher, on the other hand, may encourage students to look at the impact of scientific discoveries on marginalized groups. Often, this will involve finding common bonds between subjects as the critical approach is not confined to only one area of education and culture.

How have you implemented critical pedagogy in your classroom? What strategies have you found effective? Let us know by commenting below!

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Strategies to Increase Critical Thinking Skills in students

Matthew Joseph October 2, 2019 Blog , Engage Better , Lesson Plan Better , Personalize Student Learning Better

In This Post:

• The importance of helping students increase critical thinking skills.
• Ways to promote the essential skills needed to analyze and evaluate.
• Strategies to incorporate critical thinking into your instruction.

We ask our teachers to be “future-ready” or say that we are teaching “for jobs that don’t exist yet.” These are powerful statements. At the same time, they give teachers the impression that we have to drastically change what we are doing .

So how do we plan education for an unknown job market or unknown needs?

My answer: We can’t predict the jobs, but whatever they are, students will need to think critically to do them. So, our job is to teach our students HOW to think, not WHAT to think.

Helping Students Become Critical Thinkers

My answer is rooted in the call to empower our students to be critical thinkers. I believe that to be critical thinkers, educators need to provide students with the strategies they need. And we need to ask more than just surface-level questions.

Questions to students must motivate them to dig up background knowledge. They should inspire them to make connections to real-world scenarios. These make the learning more memorable and meaningful.

Critical thinking is a general term. I believe this term means that students effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate content or skills. In this process, they (the students) will discover and present convincing reasons in support of their answers or thinking.

You can look up critical thinking and get many definitions like this one from Wikipedia: “ Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that people have offered as true. ”

Essential Skills for Critical Thinking

In my current role as director of curriculum and instruction, I work to promote the use of 21st-century tools and, more importantly, thinking skills. Some essential skills that are the basis for critical thinking are:

• Communication and Information skills
• Thinking and Problem-Solving skills
• Interpersonal and Self- Directional skills
• Collaboration skills

These four bullets are skills students are going to need in any field and in all levels of education. Hence my answer to the question. We need to teach our students to think critically and for themselves.

One of the goals of education is to prepare students to learn through discovery . Providing opportunities to practice being critical thinkers will assist students in analyzing others’ thinking and examining the logic of others.

Understanding others is an essential skill in collaboration and in everyday life. Critical thinking will allow students to do more than just memorize knowledge.

Ask Questions

So how do we do this? One recommendation is for educators to work in-depth questioning strategies into a lesson launch.

Ask thoughtful questions to allow for answers with sound reasoning. Then, word conversations and communication to shape students’ thinking. Quick answers often result in very few words and no eye contact, which are skills we don’t want to promote.

When you are asking students questions and they provide a solution, try some of these to promote further thinking:

• Could you elaborate further on that point?
• Will you express that point in another way?
• Can you give me an illustration?
• Would you give me an example?
• Will you you provide more details?
• Could you be more specific?
• Do we need to consider another point of view?
• Is there another way to look at this question?

Utilizing critical thinking skills could be seen as a change in the paradigm of teaching and learning. Engagement in education will enhance the collaboration among teachers and students. It will also provide a way for students to succeed even if the school system had to start over.

[scroll down to keep reading]

Promoting critical thinking into all aspects of instruction.

Engagement, application, and collaboration are skills that withstand the test of time. I also promote the integration of critical thinking into every aspect of instruction.

In my experience, I’ve found a few ways to make this happen.

Begin lessons/units with a probing question: It shouldn’t be a question you can answer with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ These questions should inspire discovery learning and problem-solving.

Encourage Creativity: I have seen teachers prepare projects before they give it to their students many times. For example, designing snowmen or other “creative” projects. By doing the design work or by cutting all the circles out beforehand, it removes creativity options.

It may help the classroom run more smoothly if every child’s material is already cut out, but then every student’s project looks the same. Students don’t have to think on their own or problem solve.

Not having everything “glue ready” in advance is a good thing. Instead, give students all the supplies needed to create a snowman, and let them do it on their own.

Giving independence will allow students to become critical thinkers because they will have to create their own product with the supplies you give them. This might be an elementary example, but it’s one we can relate to any grade level or project.

Try not to jump to help too fast – let the students work through a productive struggle .

Build in opportunities for students to find connections in learning.  Encouraging students to make connections to a real-life situation and identify patterns is a great way to practice their critical thinking skills. The use of real-world scenarios will increase rigor, relevance, and critical thinking.

A few other techniques to encourage critical thinking are:

• Use analogies
• Promote interaction among students
• Ask open-ended questions
• Allow reflection time
• Use real-life problems
• Allow for thinking practice

Critical thinking prepares students to think for themselves for the rest of their lives. I also believe critical thinkers are less likely to go along with the crowd because they think for themselves.

About Matthew X. Joseph, Ed.D.

Dr. Matthew X. Joseph has been a school and district leader in many capacities in public education over his 25 years in the field. Experiences such as the Director of Digital Learning and Innovation in Milford Public Schools (MA), elementary school principal in Natick, MA and Attleboro, MA, classroom teacher, and district professional development specialist have provided Matt incredible insights on how to best support teaching and learning. This experience has led to nationally publishing articles and opportunities to speak at multiple state and national events. He is the author of Power of Us: Creating Collaborative Schools and co-author of Modern Mentoring , Reimagining Teacher Mentorship (Due out, fall 2019). His master’s degree is in special education and his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Boston College.

Visit Matthew’s Blog

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How To Use Critical Thinking in Your Classroom

There are tons of topics and concepts that school has to introduce to young people, but the ability of   critical thinking is easily the most vital among them. Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines it as “careful thinking directed to a goal”.

Critical thinking abilities include discerning wrong info and unreliable sources, connecting various facts, remaining rational and finding what is wrong with the reasoning of others. All of these are incredibly valuable, no matter which teaching strategies you’re employing.

Critical thinking is a priceless skill not only when studying, but also during everyday life activities. Especially in today’s world where news with suspicious sources flood us from almost every direction imaginable.

Follow a Plan

Whatever subject you’re teaching, be it sociology or programming, encouraging your pupils to critically think should be one of your key priorities. Many teaching strategies were invented, to help gain this valuable skill, but the one I particularly like comes from the model created by Duran, Limbach, and Waugh in 2006. It describes what steps to take in order to successfully develop critical thinking skills in your students.

Start by Naming Your Objectives

First you’ll have to ask yourself about your goals. Envision how your students should develop. You can try sitting down for a bit and imagining the desired outcomes. Next start building a list of wanted behaviours. It will probably include things like recognizing fake information, asking questions to understand things better, expressing one’s views, justifying choices and so on.

It’s recommended to focus on abilities related to Higher Order Thinking: synthesis, evaluation, argumentation and so on.

Build Questions and Use Them Effectively

This step focuses on creating and asking questions, and puts what you have previously prepared into practice.

Questions are your best friends when planning how to improve critical thinking skills of your students, but they have to be used wisely. Remember: questions are not pointed sticks, but tools. Instead of building them to check if people are listening, construct questions so that they remember even more. Questions are also great as they make your students interact more both with you and with each other.

The best questions are of course the open ended ones, as they stimulate the most discussion. These are especially valuable when teaching to think critically, as they prove that there is always more than one answer, promote creativity and reflection. Use the yes/no questions only as a necessity, or when the topic really demands them. Same when asking for small details. It’s usually better when your students can connect the facts and make own conclusions, instead of memorizing and recalling hundreds of dates, names and lengthy definitions. They’ll often forget these within few weeks or, in the best case, months.

The way you ask your questions is also important. Make sure they’re engaging, don’t sound like orders, but more like encouragement and are prepared in advance.

There’s Never Enough Practice

Critical thinking has a lot to do with the concept of active learning, where the student becomes the center of the learning process instead of the teacher. By employing as much active learning as you can in your teaching strategies, you ensure that instead of making your pupils memorize data, you actually make them develop a variety of useful skill sets.

Active learning exercises, that work wonderfully for improving critical thinking ability, include “Think, pair, share”, where you divide your class into duos (preferably ones who don’t know each other too well). Next you ask them to figure out answers, discuss them with each other and finally share with the entire class.

“Pro-Con Grids” also work well. Simply present your students with a problem (or an open ended question) and ask to prepare answers for both possible stances. This not only encourages brainstorming and trying new ideas, but makes them reconsider the mindsets they don’t usually have.

Technology Based Learning is another technique belonging to the active learning category. It means employing technologies like educational robots or smartphone applications in your lesson plan. This way students may find additional stimulation and motivation to discuss your suggested topics. They will also approach them from new, unexpected angles.

Assess Yourself…

Final steps of teaching critical thinking involves rating how everyone did – both you, and your class. Start with yourself. Did your students improve thanks to your methods? How were they reacting to them? Do they use newly gained skills effectively?

This data can be collected through 1 on 1 interviews or more anonymous methods like polls. Ask them what they enjoyed the most and the least, which types of activities would they like to see more of, or even what would they do if they were in your role. Remember to make adjustments to courses and lessons that follow.

…and Assess Your Students

Finally it’s time to let everyone know how they did. Considering, how much time you’ve put into teaching them how to think critically, it would be wrong to provide one sided feedback in the form of numerical scores.

Focus on pointing their strong and weak sides. This may take some time, but personalizing each feedback report is without doubt the best practice. Don’t forget to point out what critical thinking skills they managed to gain. This will not only feel satisfying but also encourage these behaviours in the future

Discover more tools to develop Critical Thinking with RobotLAB!

Check our  products page and start your robotics lessons with RobotLAB and our learning Platform   EngageK12!  

This article is original from Photon: https://photonrobot.com/how-to-use-critical-thinking-in-your-classroom/  

• Sep 20, 2019 8:00:00 AM
• Posted by Natalia Galvis
• Topics: EdTech , STEM , 21st Century Classroom , teachers , Edchat , Critical thinking

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Teaching Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking

Janelle cox.

• September 9, 2014

Critical thinking is an essential skill that all students will use in almost every aspect of their lives. From solving problems to making informed decisions, thinking critically is a valuable skill that will help students navigate the world’s complexities. In a post-COVID teaching environment , incorporating teaching strategies that help students think rationally and independently is an excellent way to strengthen students’ abilities and prepare them for any new challenges in the future.

There are several techniques to engage students and help strengthen these skills. Here are some teaching strategies that prove to be effective.

Encourage Students to Question Everything

We are now living in a world where AI ( artificial intelligence ) is slowly making its way into the classrooms. With these innovations, it’s imperative today, more than ever, for students to question everything and understand how to verify information when making an informed decision. AI has the potential to spread misinformation or be biased. Teach students to be careful of what is and is not a reliable source . Discuss credibility and bias and have students look for examples of both trusted content and misinformation. By using different forms of media for this exercise, students will need to use their critical thinking skills to determine the validity of the information.

Activate Student Curiosity

You can activate a student’s curiosity by using the inquiry-based learning model. This approach involves posing questions or problems for students to discover the answers on their own. In this method, students develop questions they want to know the answers to, and their teacher serves as their guide providing support as needed along the way. This approach nurtures curiosity and self-directed learning by encouraging students to think critically and independently. Recent  research  from 2019 supports the assertion that the use of this model significantly enhances students’ critical thinking abilities.

Incorporate Project-Based Learning

Immerse students in real-world problem scenarios by having them partake in project-based learning. Engaging in hands-on projects where students need to collaborate, communicate, analyze information, and find solutions to their challenges is a great way to develop their critical thinking skills. Throughout the project, students must engage in higher-order thinking while gathering their information and making decisions throughout various stages.

This approach pushes students to think critically while they connect to a real-world issue, and it helps them understand the relevance this issue has in their lives. Throughout the project, students will hone their critical thinking skills because PBL is a process that requires reflection and continuous improvement.

Offer Diverse Perspectives

Consider offering students a variety of viewpoints. Sometimes classrooms are filled with students who share similar perspectives on their beliefs and cultural norms. When this happens, it hinders learners from alternative viewpoints or experiences. Exposing students to diverse perspectives will help to broaden their horizons and challenge them to think beyond their perspectives. In addition, being exposed to different viewpoints encourages students to be more open-minded so they are more equipped to develop problem-solving strategies and analytical skills. It also helps them to cultivate empathy which is critical for critical thinking because it helps them appreciate others more and be concerned for them.

To support diverse viewpoints in the classroom, use various primary sources such as documentaries and articles from people who have experienced current events firsthand. Or invite in a few guest speakers who can offer varying perspectives on the same topic. Bring diverse perspectives into the classroom through guest speakers or by watching documentaries from varying experts.

Assign Tasks on Critical Writing

Assign writing tasks that encourage students to organize and articulate their thoughts and defend their position. By doing so, you are offering students the opportunity to demonstrate their critical thinking skills as well as effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas. Whether it’s through a research paper or an essay, students will need to support their claims and show evidence to prove their point of view. Critical writing also requires students to analyze information, scrutinize different perspectives, and question the reliability of sources, all of which contribute to the development of their critical thinking skills.

Promote Collaboration

Collaborative learning is a powerful tool that promotes critical thinking among students. Whether it’s through group discussions, classroom debates , or group projects, peer interaction will help students develop the ability to think critically. For example, a classroom debate will challenge students to articulate their thoughts, defend their viewpoints, and consider opposing viewpoints.

It will also challenge students to have a deep understanding of the subject matter as well as sharpen their communication skills. Any group setting where students can work together and be exposed to the thought processes of their classmates will help them understand that their way of thinking is not the only way. Through peer interaction, students will develop the ability to think critically.

Critical thinking requires consistency and commitment. This means that to make the above teaching strategies effective, they must be used consistently throughout the year. Encourage students to question everything and verify all information and resources. Activate student curiosity by using the inquiry-based learning model. Incorporate a real-world project that students can work on throughout the entire semester or school year. Assign critical writing tasks that require students to analyze information and prove their point of view. Finally, foster peer interaction where students work with their classmates to sharpen their communication skills and gain a deeper understanding of other perspectives.

The ultimate goal is for students to become independent thinkers who are capable of analyzing and solving their own problems. By modeling and developing student’s critical thinking skills in the classroom we are setting the stage for our student’s growth and success in the future.

• #CriticalThinking , #TeachingStrategies

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11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

52 Critical Thinking Flashcards for Problem Solving

Critical thinking activities encourage individuals to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to develop informed opinions and make reasoned decisions. Engaging in such exercises cultivates intellectual agility, fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues and honing problem-solving skills for navigating an increasingly intricate world. Through critical thinking, individuals empower themselves to challenge assumptions, uncover biases, and constructively contribute to discourse, thereby enriching both personal growth and societal progress.

Critical thinking serves as the cornerstone of effective problem-solving, enabling individuals to dissect challenges, explore diverse perspectives, and devise innovative solutions grounded in logic and evidence. For engaging problem solving activities, read our article problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a 21st-century skill that enables a person to think rationally and logically in order to reach a plausible conclusion. A critical thinker assesses facts and figures and data objectively and determines what to believe and what not to believe. Critical thinking skills empower a person to decipher complex problems and make impartial and better decisions based on effective information.

More Articles from Educationise

• 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom
• How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples
• 9 Must-Have AI Tools for Teachers to Create Interactive Learning Materials
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Critical thinking skills cultivate habits of mind such as strategic thinking, skepticism, discerning fallacy from the facts, asking good questions and probing deep into the issues to find the truth.

Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

Acquiring critical thinking skills was never as valuable as it is today because of the prevalence of the modern knowledge economy. Today, information and technology are the driving forces behind the global economy. To keep pace with ever-changing technology and new inventions, one has to be flexible enough to embrace changes swiftly.

Read our article: How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples

Today critical thinking skills are one of the most sought-after skills by the companies. In fact, critical thinking skills are paramount not only for active learning and academic achievement but also for the professional career of the students. The lack of critical thinking skills catalyzes memorization of the topics without a deeper insight, egocentrism, closed-mindedness, reduced student interest in the classroom and not being able to make timely and better decisions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking Skills in Education

Certain strategies are more eloquent than others in teaching students how to think critically. Encouraging critical thinking in the class is indispensable for the learning and growth of the students. In this way, we can raise a generation of innovators and thinkers rather than followers. Some of the benefits offered by thinking critically in the classroom are given below:

• It allows a student to decipher problems and think through the situations in a disciplined and systematic manner
• Through a critical thinking ability, a student can comprehend the logical correlation between distinct ideas
• The student is able to rethink and re-justify his beliefs and ideas based on facts and figures
• Critical thinking skills make the students curious about things around them
• A student who is a critical thinker is creative and always strives to come up with out of the box solutions to intricate problems
• Critical thinking skills assist in the enhanced student learning experience in the classroom and prepares the students for lifelong learning and success
• The critical thinking process is the foundation of new discoveries and inventions in the world of science and technology
• The ability to think critically allows the students to think intellectually and enhances their presentation skills, hence they can convey their ideas and thoughts in a logical and convincing manner
• Critical thinking skills make students a terrific communicator because they have logical reasons behind their ideas

Critical Thinking Lessons and Activities

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

We have compiled a list of 11 activities that will facilitate you to promote critical thinking abilities in the students. We have also covered problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest in our another article. Click here to read it.

1. Worst Case Scenario

Divide students into teams and introduce each team with a hypothetical challenging scenario. Allocate minimum resources and time to each team and ask them to reach a viable conclusion using those resources. The scenarios can include situations like stranded on an island or stuck in a forest. Students will come up with creative solutions to come out from the imaginary problematic situation they are encountering. Besides encouraging students to think critically, this activity will enhance teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills of the students.

Read our article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

2. If You Build It

It is a very flexible game that allows students to think creatively. To start this activity, divide students into groups. Give each group a limited amount of resources such as pipe cleaners, blocks, and marshmallows etc. Every group is supposed to use these resources and construct a certain item such as building, tower or a bridge in a limited time. You can use a variety of materials in the classroom to challenge the students. This activity is helpful in promoting teamwork and creative skills among the students.

It is also one of the classics which can be used in the classroom to encourage critical thinking. Print pictures of objects, animals or concepts and start by telling a unique story about the printed picture. The next student is supposed to continue the story and pass the picture to the other student and so on.

4. Keeping it Real

In this activity, you can ask students to identify a real-world problem in their schools, community or city. After the problem is recognized, students should work in teams to come up with the best possible outcome of that problem.

5. Save the Egg

Make groups of three or four in the class. Ask them to drop an egg from a certain height and think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking. Students can come up with diverse ideas to conserve the egg like a soft-landing material or any other device. Remember that this activity can get chaotic, so select the area in the school that can be cleaned easily afterward and where there are no chances of damaging the school property.

6. Start a Debate

In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. Encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the topic. Conclude the debate with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity through brainstorming.

7. Create and Invent

This project-based learning activity is best for teaching in the engineering class. Divide students into groups. Present a problem to the students and ask them to build a model or simulate a product using computer animations or graphics that will solve the problem. After students are done with building models, each group is supposed to explain their proposed product to the rest of the class. The primary objective of this activity is to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills among the students.

8. Select from Alternatives

This activity can be used in computer science, engineering or any of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes. Introduce a variety of alternatives such as different formulas for solving the same problem, different computer codes, product designs or distinct explanations of the same topic.

Form groups in the class and ask them to select the best alternative. Each group will then explain its chosen alternative to the rest of the class with reasonable justification of its preference. During the process, the rest of the class can participate by asking questions from the group. This activity is very helpful in nurturing logical thinking and analytical skills among the students.

9. Reading and Critiquing

Present an article from a journal related to any topic that you are teaching. Ask the students to read the article critically and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the article. Students can write about what they think about the article, any misleading statement or biases of the author and critique it by using their own judgments.

In this way, students can challenge the fallacies and rationality of judgments in the article. Hence, they can use their own thinking to come up with novel ideas pertaining to the topic.

10. Think Pair Share

In this activity, students will come up with their own questions. Make pairs or groups in the class and ask the students to discuss the questions together. The activity will be useful if the teacher gives students a topic on which the question should be based.

For example, if the teacher is teaching biology, the questions of the students can be based on reverse osmosis, human heart, respiratory system and so on. This activity drives student engagement and supports higher-order thinking skills among students.

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

Silence is a great way to slow down thinking and promote deep reflection on any subject. Present a driving question to the students and divide them into groups. The students will discuss the question with their teammates and brainstorm their ideas on a big paper. After reflection and discussion, students can write their findings in silence. This is a great learning activity for students who are introverts and love to ruminate silently rather than thinking aloud.

Read our next article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

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Practical Classroom Implementations for Critical Pedagogy

“A certain level of comfort eliminates the spark that pushes one to seek social change – among both students and teachers. But a critical education must take place among both the oppressed and the oppressor if we hope to achieve a more compassionate and just society.” (Katz, 2014, p. 1)

Once one knows about Critical Pedagogy (with respect to Critical Thinking, as was covered in the previous blog ), what does one do with that knowledge? Can we implement strategies that embrace Critical Pedagogy while teaching the content we need to cover? Are there ways to build criticality in our students while maintaining our requirements for classroom rigor?

To implement the foundational aspects of Critical Pedagogy in the classroom requires some art, a lot of creativity, and a bit of luck. It also helps to discuss possible classroom implementations with someone who is practiced in Critical Pedagogy methodologies. To describe possible implementations is the goal of this blog. Each paragraph will start with a reminder of the major components of Critical Pedagogy as well as what they mean and then I’ll brainstorm pedagogical implementation ideas. The most important piece of the blog will probably be the references (a sampling of those I’ve found helpful) that help you learn more about possible implementation.

Student agency involves giving,  i.e. ceding our authority, to students so they have choices in their own learning. How do we apply it in the classroom? We can employ active learning,  i.e. the “flipped” classroom (1-8). We can allow the class to vote on outcomes when we don’t really care what the outcome is, thereby empowering students to make their own decisions. We can implement peer-led techniques (9-15). And/or we can require or encourage students to reflect on their own learning in blogs, on notecards, or in some other way (16-24). Lastly, we can use ungrading to give students a voice in their own grades (25-29).

Social justice is the idea that we should treat all human beings with respect, dignity, and equity (30-31). Some of the ways we apply social justice in our classroom include reflecting on our own pedagogy and our own values to understand better who we are and what we value as teachers. We could implement critical pedagogy techniques such as choosing students from underserved groups as the first sets of leaders within groupwork (32-33). We could use OER (Open Educational Resources) and reduce the cost of the materials we require in the classroom as much as possible (34-37). We could recognize that students are humans first- we must consider the entire student and their livid experience when they walk into our classroom each day (38-43).

Power and privilege involve our evolving and reflective understanding of what position we truly inhabit in the classroom. We can acknowledge it in the classroom by decentering power (authority) in the classroom and acknowledging our own (and our students’) privilege and issues such as colonialization, systemic racism, white privilege or misogyny (44-46). Using open resources and checking in with others different than us to make sure we are not offensive and model the behavior we want to see in our students (47).

Classroom implementations that empower our usage of Critical Pedagogy can be varied and can encompass something completely different than any of the methodologies outlined above. But using our creativity to build criticality in our students by modeling the idea that every student matters in our classroom, pedagogy is fundamental to our role as teachers. And hopefully this blog gives us a place to start our own critical reflection.

Article References

Katz, L. (2014). Teachers’ reflections on critical pedagogy in the classroom. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Systems, 10(2). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2c6968hc

Student Agency References

Active Learning

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251–19257. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821936116

Felder, R. M. (1996). Active-inductive-cooperative learning: An instructional model for chemistry? Journal of Chemical Education, 73(9), 832. Retrieved from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed073p832

Fink, L. D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. University of Oklahoma, 27. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/sph/files/2011/06/selfdirected1.pdf

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111

Mohamed, A.-R. (2008). Effects of Active Learning Variants on Student Performance and Learning Perceptions. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, 2(2). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19314744&AN=35765283&h=wxYoJSiG6agKLoFjYF4mbpU%2FKf96DN0SpgZ6Xzcd%2FhSGZD%2F950vVnDuUC3H%2Bp530Zj%2Bgyk5WT9QmA4PYQk%2B7Pg%3D%3D&crl=c

National Research Council (U.S.), Singer, S. R., Nielsen, N., & Schweingruber, H. A. (Eds.). (2012). Discipline-based education research: Understanding and improving learning in undergraduate science and engineering. Washington, D.C: The National Academies Press.

Oliver-Hoyo, M. T., Allen, D., Hunt, W. F., Hutson, J., & Pitts, A. (2004). Effects of an active learning environment: Teaching innovations at a research I institution. Journal of Chemical Education, 81(3), 441. Retrieved from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed081p441

Wieman, C. E. (2014). Large-scale comparison of science teaching methods sends clear message. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8319–8320. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407304111

Peer-Led Techniques

Hockings, S. C., DeAngelis, K. J., & Frey, R. F. (2008). Peer-led team learning in general chemistry: Implementation and evaluation. Journal of Chemical Education, 85(7), 990. Retrieved from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed085p990

Lewis, S. E. (2011). Retention and Reform: An Evaluation of Peer-Led Team Learning. Journal of Chemical Education, 88(6), 703–707. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed100689m

Lewis, S. E., & Lewis, J. E. (2008). Seeking effectiveness and equity in a large college chemistry course: An HLM investigation of Peer-Led Guided Inquiry. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(7), 794–811. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20254

Miller, K., Lasry, N., Lukoff, B., Schell, J., & Mazur, E. (2014). Conceptual question response times in Peer Instruction classrooms. Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020113

Obenland, C. A., Munson, A. H., & Hutchinson, J. S. (2012). Silent Students’ Participation in a Large Active Learning Science Classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(2). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=0047231X&AN=82689670&h=Nk3gmm%2BHF5O4OX1FnPkjxNa%2FuPQLungrAcbgaro3dvabqGruIVsNn9A%2FzZOwzWnZX96KbKdCpGruRdcKw2Dqag%3D%3D&crl=c

Smith, M. K., Wood, W. B., Adams, W. K., Wieman, C., Knight, J. K., Guild, N., & Su, T. T. (2009). Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions. Science, 323(5910), 122–124. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165919

Syh-Jong, J. (2007). A study of students’ construction of science knowledge: Talk and writing in a collaborative group. Educational Research, 49(1), 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880701200781

Reflective Learning

Boyd, E. M., & Fales, A. W. (1983). Reflective Learning: Key to Learning From Experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 23(2), 99–117.

de Andrés Martínez, C. (2012). Developing metacognition at a distance: Sharing students’ learning strategies on a reflective blog. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 25(2), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2011.636056

Holotescu, C., Grosseck, G., & Danciu, E. (2014). Educational Digital Stories in 140 Characters: Towards a Typology of Micro-blog Storytelling in Academic Courses. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 4301–4305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.936

Petko, D., Egger, N., & Graber, M. (2014). Supporting learning with weblogs in science education: A comparison of blogging and hand-written reflective writing with and without prompts. Themes in Science and Technology Education, 7(1), 3–17.

Siemens, G. (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.

Sim, J. W. S., & Hew, K. F. (2010). The use of weblogs in higher education settings: A review of empirical research. Educational Research Review, 5(2), 151–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2010.01.001

Valkanova, Y., & Watts, M. (2007). Digital story telling in a science classroom: Reflective self‐learning (RSL) in action. Early Child Development and Care, 177(6–7), 793–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430701437252

Winters, F. I., Greene, J. A., & Costich, C. M. (2008). Self-Regulation of Learning within Computer-based Learning Environments: A Critical Analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 20(4), 429–444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-008-9080-9

Xie, Y., Ke, F., & Sharma, P. (2008). The effect of peer feedback for blogging on college students’ reflective learning processes. The Internet and Higher Education, 11(1), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2007.11.001

Blum, S. (2017, November 14th). Ungrading. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/11/14/significant-learning-benefits-getting-rid-grades-essay#.WgsSlyEa6Tl.link

Kohn, A. (2011, November). The Case against Grades [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/

Schinske, J., & Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently). CBE—Life Sciences Education 13(2), 159–166. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054

Sorensen-Unruh, C. (2019, February 10th). Ungrading: A Series [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://clarissasorensenunruh.com/2019/02/10/ungrading-a-series-part-1/

Stommel, J. (2018, March 11th). How to Ungrade [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/

Social Justice References

United Nations. (n.d.). Human Rights. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights/index.html

White, S. V. (2018, December 2nd). Lessons in Social Justice… [Blog post]. Identity, Education, and Power. Retrieved from https://medium.com/identity-education-and-power/lessons-in-social-justice-9add44ece4ed

Gannon, K. (2017, October 20th). The Progressive Stack and Standing for Inclusive Teaching [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/hunger-college-food-insecurity.html

Tanner, K.D. (2013). Structure matters: twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE life sciences education, 12(3), 322–331. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3762997/

Open Resources

Open Education Commons. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.oercommons.org/

Educause. (n.d.). Open Education Resources (OER). Retrieved from https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/open-educational-resources-oer

DeRosa, R. & Jhangiani, R. Open pedagogy. In E. Mays (Ed.), A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students (pp. 7-20). Montreal, Canada: Rebus Community. Retrieved from http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/

DeRosa, R. (2017, January 22nd). Extreme Makeover: Pedagogy Edition [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://robinderosa.net/higher-ed/extreme-makeover-pedagogy-edition/

Students are Humans First

Goldrick-Rab, Sara. (2016). Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream . Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.

Goldrick-Rab, S. [TEDx Talks]. (2019, July 1st). College is Creating Poverty [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSqW43aTuRM

Goldrick-Rab, S. (2018, January 14th). It’s hard to study if you’re hungry. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/hunger-college-food-insecurity.html

Goldrick-Rab, S., Baker-Smith, C., Coca, V., Looker, E., & Williams, T. (2019, April). College and University Basic Needs Insecurity: A National #RealCollege Survey Report [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HOPE_realcollege_National_report_digital.pdf

Stommel, J. (2019). Building an Inclusive Campus Climate [SlideShare slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/jessestommel/building-an-inclusive-campus

Stommel, J. (2015, December 16th). Dear Student [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.jessestommel.com/dear-student/

Power and Privilege References

Bali, Maha. (n.d.). Critical Pedagogy [Blog post category]. Retrieved from https://blog.mahabali.me/category/pedagogy/critical-pedagogy/

Moon, A., Stanford, C., Cole, R., Towns, M. (2017). Decentering: A Characteristic of Effective Student–Student Discourse in Inquiry-Oriented Physical Chemistry Classrooms. J. Chem. Educ., 94(7), 829-836. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00856

Tow, D. (2017, October 11th). Why I don’t have classroom rules. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-i-dont-have-classroom-rules

Spelic, Sherri. (2016, September 2nd). The Digital Pedagogy Lab 2016 Institute: An Aftermath in the Future Tense [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/digital-pedagogy-lab-2016-institute-aftermath-future-tense/

Extra Resources for Critical Pedagogy

Cangialosi, K. (2018, June 26th). But you can’t do that in a STEM Course! Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved from https://hybridpedagogy.org/do-in-a-stem-course/

Friere, P. (1970/2018). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (50th Anniversary Edition). New York City, NY: Continuum.

Giroux, Henry A. (1988). Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning . South Hadley, MA: Bergin Garvey.

hooks, bell. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom .  New York City, NY: Routledge.

Stommel, J. & Micheal Morris, S. (2018). An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy. Hybrid Pedagogy, Inc

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Meeting the curricular requirements in critical pedagogy.

Thank you for the great post; I found it very informative and educational!

I have a quick question: You mention "...ceding our authority, to students so they have choices in their own learning."  How do you make sure the school curricular requirements are met?  Is this something you keep your eye on so that the students cover the required content material?

Student power amidst set curriculum

If I understand your question correctly, Byungmoon, you are wondering how to let students have power in the midst of set curriculum. And here's my question(s) - the curriculum is set, but is the way you cover it set? Is every way you assess it set?

There are lots of ways to give students agency over their own learning, including something as simple as letting them choose what is covered first or letting them choose how to cover a certain section or letting them generate the questions they'd like to answer on their assessment. Ceding authority doesn't mean giving up all of the power in the classroom. It means giving students more than they have now.

Does that make sense?

Community of learners model of teaching

Thank you for the reply, yes, it does make sense!

I have recently come across a model of teaching put forward by B. Rogoff known as the "community of learners" model ( http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.467.1369&rep=rep1&type=pdf ).  In this approach, the participation of and corporation between the students are maximally encouraged.  It posits that learning is achieved in the process of ]"transformation by participation".  It claims it resides neither the "adult-run" (purely transmissive) nor "children-run" (purely acquisition) paradigm but in the realm where adults and children learn together which adults (including the teacher) playing a role, not as an authority of knowledge but as someone to guide towards knowledge.

I am really curious about what your thoughts on this type of teaching/learning.

Implementing the skills of critical thinking in the classroom

• 19 February 2019
• 5 minute read

By Chia Suan Chong for EtonX

In a previous post, I looked at what critical thinking is and what skills it entails.  

The nature of education has undoubtedly evolved over the past decades. We have gradually moved away from a knowledge-transmission model and we now understand the need for experiential learning and the importance of cultivating soft skills that will stand our students in good stead when they enter the workforce.

Like most soft skills, critical thinking skills need lots of practice to develop. Showing students how to analyse arguments or how to reason is not enough. They have to be given tasks where they can put their skills into use and put in situations where they can see the consequences of their decisions.

In order to maximise limited classroom time, tasks done in pairs or groups can provide a platform for students to discuss the issues, defend their positions and see how their opinions compare to others, therefore allowing them to reflect on their own thought processes. Developmental psychologist Vygotsky, in his 1978 theory on the Zone of Proximal Development , described the benefits of collaboration, suggesting that working together with a capable partner can help the student to achieve their potential in progressing to the next level.

Here are some things we can do to provide more opportunities for our students to develop these skills. Where possible, implementing these frameworks and activities in pairs and groups could dramatically enhance their development process.

Trigger their curiosity and motivate them to research and explore

It is said that people who have a hungry mind are more likely to be more inquisitive and open to new experiences . A technique like Inquiry-based Learning promotes a conducive framework for cultivating that curiosity as it encourages students to ask questions, to collaboratively construct an understanding of an issue, and to exercise their freedom in choosing the topics they are interested in exploring. In negotiating a topic with their group members, considering the opinions of the group and exploring an issue in depth, students can see their critical thinking skills at work and are able to appreciate the value of these skills. The focus here is on the process and not just the end product of their research.

Offer practice in analysing arguments

Whether it’s a class debate, a discussion about a persuasive TED talk or an analysis of an opinionated blogpost, these activities get students questioning and prompt them to go beyond the surface to think more deeply about the way arguments are constructed.

A tool like Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats can ensure that students embrace ways of thinking that they are not used to. Here, students are offered different roles to take on (as symbolised by the different coloured hats) in a group discussion/negotiation.

The student with the white hat focuses on only the facts of the matter, while the student with the red hat is only concerned with expressing the emotions, the intuitions and the feelings regarding the issue. The red hat is the positive thinker, the black hat the devil’s advocate, the green hat the creative thinker and the blue hat the manager or chair of the whole process. By rotating the hats that the students wear, they are able to discover the advantage of different ways of thinking and learn about striking a balance between different perspectives and attitudes.

Offer practice in spotting fallacies and faulty evidence

Arguments like “ You should take Miss Clark’s class because it’s really easy. I know three people who took Miss Clark’s class and they all passed! ” might be commonplace but are logically flawed.Understanding fallacies in logic and being on the lookout for these fallacies and faulty evidence, will allow  students to become more savvy when presented with an argument . They are less likely to buy into generalisations and sweeping statements.

Expose students to information manipulation

The way data is presented, the way photos are doctored, the way statistics are taken out of context, and the way language is used can all affect the way information is perceived.By getting students to examine ad campaigns, fake news and websites, we are not only improving their digital literacy, we are also sensitising them and raising their awareness of the stealthy strategies employed to sway their opinions and influence their judgments.

Encourage reflection

A large part of critical thinking is the ability to reflect on things that have happened and our reactions to them. It is therefore crucial that we offer our students time and space to reflect, and the guidance to understand themselves.The Critical Incident Technique used by many intercultural trainers (e.g. in Chong, 2018) is a useful tool that involves presenting students with a mini case study where a conflict exists. Students are put in groups to discuss the critical incident and how they might go about dealing with the given situation. Sometimes through discussion, students are able to discover alternative perspectives and solutions to the case at hand, and occasionally, the use of critical incidents might also trigger memories of similar situations that the students have encountered, encouraging them to share and reflect on their experience.

Critical thinking skills are essential to the way we deal with the information around us. As teachers, we certainly can and should facilitate the development of these skills. After all, in the age of the internet, intelligence is no longer about the knowledge you accumulate, but how you evaluate this knowledge and what you do with it.

Bibliography

Chong, C.S. (2018) Successful International Communication , Brighton: Pavilion Publishing

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978)  Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Article tagged:

• critical thinking
• soft skills

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How to Teach and Develop Critical Thinking of Your Students in the Classroom

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Teaching critical thinking skills to students is like planting the seeds of inquiry to help them develop analytical minds. It is essential to foster these skills amidst the overwhelming amount of information available today. Picture a classroom where students are not just absorbing facts but actively engaging in constructing their own knowledge of the world.

By incorporating activities like role-playing, Socratic questioning, and analyzing visual media, students can start to untangle the complexities of critical thinking. To further guide them on this journey of intellectual exploration, educators can provide support and encouragement in applying these skills to real-life situations and problems.

It is through this hands-on approach that students can truly enhance their critical thinking abilities and become independent thinkers.

Examples of critical thinking activities in the classroom

In my classroom, I like to engage students in activities that promote critical thinking. Role-playing helps students think in new ways, while using Socratic questioning encourages them to analyze more deeply.

By examining visual advertisements, debating current events, and participating in mind mapping exercises, students can develop their critical thinking skills effectively.

These activities not only foster creativity but also enhance students’ abilities to think critically and solve problems.

Role-Play Scenarios

Engaging students in role-play scenarios is a great way to help them think critically. Role-play simulations let students explore different perspectives and situations, pushing them to analyze and solve problems in a dynamic setting.

Here are four ways role-play scenarios can enhance critical thinking skills:

• Real-World Application : By applying what they learn in class to real-life situations, students can see how theory connects to practice.
• Decision Making : Role-play encourages students to make choices based on the information at hand, which helps develop their analytical thinking skills.
• Collaboration : Working together in role-play scenarios fosters teamwork and improves communication skills as students navigate challenges as a group.
• Creativity : Role-play pushes students to think creatively by exploring different solutions and outcomes, sparking their imagination.

Socratic Questioning Techniques

Implementing Socratic Questioning Techniques in the classroom is a practical and effective approach to fostering critical thinking skills in elementary and high school students. By incorporating inquiry-based learning methods, students are prompted to delve deeply into topics through thought-provoking inquiries. This technique stimulates critical analysis as students learn to assess information, explore various viewpoints, and express their ideas clearly.

Through the use of Socratic questioning, students enhance their problem-solving abilities by participating in conversations that challenge assumptions and promote logical reasoning. These interactive sessions not only enhance critical thinking but also aid in cognitive development by facilitating a profound comprehension of intricate concepts.

Analyzing Visual Advertisements

Studying visual advertisements in class is a great way to help elementary and high school students develop critical thinking skills. When students analyze ads, they learn to question, evaluate, and understand the messages in images.

By breaking down ads, students go beyond the surface to consider who the ads are targeting, what persuasive techniques are used, and any biases present. This process encourages students to think critically about how media influences society and helps them become savvy consumers of information.

Debating Current Events

Discussing current events in class helps elementary and high school students improve their critical thinking skills by analyzing, questioning, and evaluating real-world issues. Engaging in these discussions enables students to exercise critical thinking through debates.

By exploring different viewpoints on a subject, students can enhance their comprehension and broaden their perspectives. Through debates, students grasp the significance of evaluating arguments and substantiating their points with evidence and logic.

Teachers play a vital role in guiding students to form well-informed opinions by considering diverse perspectives and assessing the soundness of arguments presented. These classroom debates not only enhance critical thinking but also encourage active involvement with the world around them.

Mind Mapping Exercises

In my elementary and high school classroom, I often use mind mapping exercises to enhance critical thinking skills in students.

These exercises involve brainstorming strategies to encourage free idea generation, visual mapping techniques using colors and images to help organize information, interactive group activities to promote collaboration, critical analysis tasks to evaluate information and form opinions, and problem-solving challenges that require analytical thinking and collaborative solutions.

Evaluating Online Sources

When I teach my students about critical thinking, I also emphasize the need to assess online sources for accuracy and credibility. We talk about checking if the author is knowledgeable in the subject and if the information is backed by reliable sources.

Fact-checking becomes an engaging activity where students verify details from multiple sources to ensure they’re correct. It’s crucial to be aware of any personal, political, or commercial biases that might affect the information presented.

Researching online then becomes like a treasure hunt as we sift through different sources to find trustworthy information. We wrap up our lesson by highlighting the significance of relying on information that’s credible and dependable.

Creating Decision Matrices

When you create decision matrices in the classroom, you help students analyze options systematically, which boosts their critical thinking skills through hands-on practice. To conduct effective decision matrix activities, consider the following key aspects:

• Decision-Making Strategies : Encourage students to lay out clear steps for decision-making within the matrix. This helps them structure their thought process and approach the problem methodically.
• Critical Analysis : Prompt students to assess the significance and relevance of each criterion in the decision-making process. By evaluating these factors, students can make more informed and thoughtful decisions.
• Problem-Solving Techniques : Teach students how to accurately identify and define the problem before filling in the matrix. This foundational step ensures that the criteria and options align with the actual issue at hand.
• Logical Reasoning : Guide students in employing logical connections between criteria and options to make well-founded decisions. By emphasizing logical reasoning, students learn to make decisions based on sound judgment and analysis.

Solving Real-Life Problems

Incorporating real-life problem-solving scenarios into elementary and high school classrooms helps students develop critical thinking skills and apply their learning practically. By presenting case studies that require problem-solving, critical analysis, and decision-making, students can use their knowledge in real-world situations.

These activities encourage students to think critically, assess evidence, consider different viewpoints, and make informed choices. This approach deepens their understanding of the subject matter and its relevance to the world.

Engaging students in real-life problem-solving not only enhances their critical thinking abilities but also equips them to tackle challenges and make sound decisions in their future pursuits.

Reflective Journal Writing

Reflective journal writing is a valuable tool for helping elementary and high school students develop critical thinking skills. By engaging in reflective writing, students can analyze their thoughts, participate actively in class discussions, and deepen their understanding of various topics. Here are some ways in which reflective journal writing can enhance critical thinking skills:

• Writing Prompts : Giving students specific prompts helps them delve deeply into different subjects and encourages critical thinking.
• Thoughtful Analysis : By prompting students to analyze their own thoughts and ideas, reflective journal writing fosters a more profound comprehension of the material.
• Classroom Discussions : Using journal entries as a springboard for classroom conversations allows students to share and debate ideas, honing their critical thinking abilities.
• Self-Awareness Exercises : Reflective journal writing aids students in developing self-awareness and gaining insight into their own cognitive processes, which is crucial for critical thinking development.

Peer Feedback Sessions

Peer feedback sessions are a valuable tool for promoting critical thinking skills among elementary and high school students. By engaging in peer critique, students can provide constructive feedback to their classmates, fostering a culture of respect and growth.

Group analysis enables students to collaboratively evaluate each other’s work, encouraging diverse perspectives and stimulating critical discussions. Through collaborative assessment, students learn to work together to assess projects or assignments, promoting teamwork and development of analytical skills.

Additionally, team reflection allows students to reflect on their own work as well as their peers’, enhancing their ability to think critically about different viewpoints. Partner evaluation further encourages students to explore alternative approaches and strengthen their reasoning abilities through thoughtful assessment of their peers’ work.

These peer feedback sessions not only enhance students’ critical thinking skills but also promote a supportive and collaborative learning environment.

Collaborative Problem-Solving

Introducing collaborative problem-solving activities in the classroom is a powerful way to enhance students’ critical thinking skills through hands-on participation and teamwork. Here are some effective strategies to implement:

• Group brainstorming : Encourage students to share their ideas and build upon each other’s thoughts to collectively solve problems. This fosters creativity and encourages active participation from all group members.
• Team problem-solving : Assign tasks that require students to collaborate and leverage each other’s strengths to find innovative solutions. This approach promotes cooperation and communication among team members.
• Cooperative learning : Create a supportive environment where students work together, rely on one another, and strive towards common objectives. This not only enhances critical thinking but also cultivates important social skills.
• Collective decision-making : Engage students in discussions where they consider various perspectives before reaching a consensus as a group. This helps students learn to appreciate different viewpoints and make informed decisions collaboratively.

Practical ways to teach and develop critical thinking of your students in the classroom

Critical thinking is the ability to question, analyze perspectives, and solve problems.

To help students develop this skill, it’s essential to encourage questioning and open-mindedness.

By engaging students in problem-solving activities, they can practice and apply critical thinking in practical ways.

This approach nurtures their ability to think critically and enhances their problem-solving skills, preparing them for success in academics and beyond.

Define Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a crucial skill for students as it involves analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting information effectively. It’s essential for cognitive growth and preparing students for future challenges. To teach and enhance critical thinking skills in elementary and high school students, educators should focus on the following aspects:

• Critical Thinking Strategies : Teachers should introduce various methods to help students think critically, such as problem-solving techniques and logical reasoning.
• Classroom Applications : It’s important to demonstrate how critical thinking can be applied across different subjects, showing students the practical relevance of this skill in real-world scenarios.
• Student Engagement : Creating an interactive and collaborative learning environment encourages active participation and discussion, fostering critical thinking skills through peer interactions.
• Analytical Skills Development : Emphasizing the development of students’ abilities to assess information critically equips them with the tools needed to make informed decisions and solve complex problems.

Encourage Questioning Skills

Encouraging students to ask questions is essential for developing their critical thinking skills. By fostering a classroom environment that values curiosity and inquiry, educators can help students think deeply and reflect on various topics.

Using inquiry-based learning methods can prompt students to ask meaningful questions, explore different viewpoints, and participate in analytical discussions. Teaching effective questioning strategies can ignite students’ curiosity and enhance their understanding of the subjects they’re studying.

Foster Open-Mindedness

In the classroom, fostering open-mindedness in students is crucial for developing their critical thinking skills. When educators promote open-mindedness, they help students embrace diverse perspectives, improve their analytical abilities, and encourage inquiry-based learning.

Here are four practical strategies to cultivate open-mindedness in students:

• Promote Respect : Encourage students to respect different viewpoints to create a safe environment for discussion and learning.
• Encourage Exploration : Inspire students to explore new ideas and perspectives, fostering a sense of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.
• Challenge Assumptions : Teach students to question their own beliefs and assumptions, promoting self-reflection and personal growth.
• Provide Exposure : Introduce students to a variety of sources and materials to broaden their understanding of different viewpoints and experiences.

Analyze Multiple Perspectives

Incorporating multiple perspectives into classroom discussions challenges students to think critically and gain a broader understanding of complex issues. When students compare different viewpoints, they can see various angles on a topic, while contrasting perspectives help them identify significant differences.

Analyzing arguments enables students to break down the reasoning behind each perspective, empowering them to effectively critique opinions. Through evaluating beliefs, students can assess the strengths and weaknesses of different viewpoints, leading to a deeper comprehension of the subject matter.

Encouraging students to participate in these activities not only enhances their critical thinking skills but also promotes empathy and understanding towards others’ opinions, fostering a more inclusive and thoughtful learning environment.

Practice Problem-Solving Activities

When teaching critical thinking to elementary and high school students, it’s essential to engage them in practical problem-solving activities to enhance their analytical skills effectively. Incorporating these activities in the classroom can be done through various approaches:

• Encourage students to think creatively and work together by organizing brainstorming exercises and problem-solving challenges.
• Foster reasoning skills and logical thinking in a fun way by introducing critical thinking games and analytical puzzles.
• Provide real-world scenarios for analysis and solution by implementing inquiry-based learning and decision-making simulations.
• Push students to explore diverse solutions and assess their effectiveness through creative problem-solving tasks and logical reasoning activities.

Engage in Debates

Engaging students in debates is a powerful way to enhance their critical thinking skills in elementary and high school. By analyzing arguments, students learn to evaluate different perspectives and develop a deeper understanding of complex issues.

Exploring opposing viewpoints helps them cultivate empathy and broaden their perspective. Research skills are sharpened during debate preparation as students gather evidence to support their arguments. They naturally start questioning ideas and evidence presented, strengthening their ability to think critically.

When students are exposed to conflicting viewpoints, they’re challenged to articulate and defend their positions thoughtfully. Participation in debates not only improves critical thinking but also nurtures essential communication and analytical skills crucial for academic and personal development.

Stimulate Creativity and Curiosity

In elementary and high school classrooms, sparking creativity and curiosity plays a vital role in developing students’ critical thinking abilities. To accomplish this, I implement various effective strategies:

• Brainstorming Sessions: I encourage students to freely generate ideas, fostering their creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Creative Challenges: By presenting students with unique and open-ended tasks, I challenge their creativity and encourage them to think innovatively.
• Inquiry-Based Learning: Engaging students in hands-on investigations and research projects stimulates their curiosity and prompts them to ask insightful questions.
• Discovery Activities: Providing opportunities for students to explore new topics and interests expands their knowledge and nurtures a passion for learning.

Evaluate Sources and Information

In the classroom, igniting creativity and curiosity lays the groundwork for teaching students how to assess sources and information critically. I stress the importance of checking the credibility of sources by prompting students to consider the author’s expertise and any potential biases.

Evaluating information involves teaching students to question the accuracy and reliability of the content they come across. Through engaging activities, students are encouraged to delve deeper into the material, spotting logical fallacies and inconsistencies to enhance their critical thinking skills.

Fact-checking becomes a habit as students learn to verify information before accepting it as true. By engaging in research validation exercises, students develop the ability to differentiate between trustworthy sources and unreliable ones, cultivating a habit of seeking out reliable information.

Develop Decision-Making Skills

Incorporating real-life scenarios and role-playing activities effectively helps students develop decision-making skills, boosting their critical thinking abilities in elementary and high school settings. Students engage in various activities such as:

• Case studies : Students analyze real or hypothetical situations to make decisions based on available information.
• Group projects : Collaborative projects encourage peer discussion to reach a consensus or make collective decisions.
• Ethical dilemmas : Students confront moral challenges, prompting them to consider ethical principles in decision-making.
• Critical analysis : Students evaluate diverse perspectives and information to make well-informed decisions.
• Problem-solving simulations : Students tackle scenarios that require critical thinking to find effective solutions.

These activities not only enhance decision-making skills but also foster a deeper understanding of complex issues and promote teamwork among students.

Utilize Real-World Scenarios

Incorporating real-world scenarios into elementary and high school classrooms is crucial for enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. By presenting practical challenges that mirror everyday dilemmas, students are encouraged to think critically, analyze situations, and hone their problem-solving abilities.

These real-life scenarios prompt students to assess information, consider various viewpoints, and make well-grounded decisions. Through engaging in problem-solving tasks based on authentic situations, students not only enhance their critical thinking skills but also prepare themselves for applying these skills beyond the classroom.

Encourage Collaborative Discussions

Engaging students in collaborative discussions is a vital way to enhance critical thinking skills in elementary and high school classrooms. Through group activities like brainstorming and critical analysis, students can explore diverse perspectives and sharpen their analytical abilities.

Peer-led debates and problem-solving tasks help students develop the skills to think critically, assess evidence, and communicate effectively. Working together on collaborative projects encourages deep thinking as students tackle complex problems and explore a variety of ideas.

Interactive discussions challenge students to express their thoughts clearly and engage thoughtfully with their peers, promoting analytical thinking. Team-based challenges, paired with reflective questions, push students to critically analyze information and make well-informed decisions.

Enhance Logical Reasoning Abilities

Improving students’ logical reasoning skills in the classroom involves helping them analyze patterns, make connections, and draw well-founded conclusions based on evidence. To foster this development, I incorporate a range of activities designed to challenge their critical thinking abilities.

One way I enhance logical reasoning is by presenting students with real-life ethical dilemmas that require them to think critically and consider different perspectives. These challenges encourage them to weigh options, evaluate consequences, and make informed decisions.

In addition, I incorporate logical reasoning games like Sudoku puzzles to engage students in problem-solving tasks that require them to apply deductive reasoning and strategic thinking. These games help sharpen their analytical skills and enhance their ability to recognize patterns and make logical deductions.

Furthermore, I include analytical thinking tasks such as dissecting arguments to help students evaluate the validity of statements and identify logical fallacies. By analyzing the structure of arguments and evidence presented, students learn to construct sound reasoning and draw well-supported conclusions.

Moreover, I introduce problem-solving puzzles inspired by escape room scenarios to immerse students in interactive challenges that demand teamwork, creative thinking, and logical problem-solving. These activities encourage students to think critically, collaborate effectively, and apply logical reasoning to overcome obstacles.

Lastly, I incorporate creative thinking exercises like brainstorming innovative ideas to inspire students to think outside the box and explore creative solutions to complex problems. By encouraging divergent thinking and fostering creativity, students develop a well-rounded approach to logical reasoning that incorporates innovative thinking.

Integrate Technology Tools

Integrating technology tools in the classroom is a practical way to enhance critical thinking skills in elementary and high school students. By using digital resources, students can strengthen their analytical thinking.

Online platforms offer interactive activities that challenge students to develop problem-solving abilities. Virtual tools create a dynamic learning environment where students can engage with diverse educational materials, fostering cognitive growth.

Through the use of technology applications, students are prompted to think critically while tackling tasks and solving problems, thereby enhancing their reasoning skills. Embracing technology integration enriches the learning journey and equips students with vital skills for navigating an increasingly digital landscape.

Promote Active Listening Skills

Fostering active listening skills is crucial for developing critical thinking abilities in elementary and high school students. When students actively participate in discussions, they practice listening attentively, a skill essential for critical analysis.

Engaging in meaningful conversations and asking open-ended questions can help students enhance their critical thinking capabilities. In a classroom environment that encourages interactive discussions, students can share their perspectives and gain insights from their peers.

Encouraging thoughtful responses to inquiries and prompts further refines their critical thinking skills. Through active listening, students not only improve their communication abilities but also learn to consider different viewpoints, which enhances their problem-solving and decision-making approaches.

Emphasize Importance of Evidence

Understanding the value of evidence plays a crucial role in nurturing critical thinking skills among elementary and high school students. To effectively convey the significance of evidence, I emphasize the following key points:

• Examining Evidence : I encourage students to critically evaluate sources to determine their reliability and relevance to the topic at hand.
• Questioning and Analyzing : By teaching students how to question and analyze information effectively, they learn to distinguish between credible and questionable sources.
• Drawing Inferences : Guiding students in logical deduction helps them draw sound conclusions based on the evidence presented, fostering their ability to make informed decisions.
• Logical Thinking : By fostering rational thinking skills, students develop the capacity to think logically, assess information objectively, and arrive at well-founded conclusions. This enables them to navigate complex issues with clarity and coherence.

Teach Reflection Techniques

Reflective thinking is a powerful tool to enhance students’ critical thinking skills in the classroom. By incorporating techniques like keeping a reflective journal, using Socratic questioning, and creating mind maps, educators can help students deepen their understanding and problem-solving abilities.

For instance, students can write in a journal about a challenging problem they solved, explain their reasoning through Socratic questioning, or visually map out their thought processes for better organization and clarity. These techniques foster a culture of critical thinking, encouraging self-awareness, growth, and confidence in approaching academic challenges.

Provide Constructive Feedback

In the elementary and high school classroom, it’s crucial to provide constructive feedback to help students enhance their critical thinking skills. Here are some effective ways to do so:

• Peer Feedback : Encourage students to give constructive feedback to their classmates on assignments and class discussions. This peer critique helps students learn from each other and improve their critical thinking abilities.
• In-Class Guidance : During classroom activities, offer specific and actionable feedback to steer students in the right direction when it comes to critical thinking. This real-time feedback can help them understand and apply critical thinking concepts effectively.
• Self-Evaluation : Involve students in self-assessment activities where they reflect on their critical thinking processes. By evaluating their own work, students can identify areas for improvement and develop a deeper understanding of critical thinking strategies.
• Balanced Feedback : When providing feedback, focus on both areas that need improvement and strengths to motivate students. By acknowledging their strengths and offering constructive criticism, students are encouraged to work on enhancing their critical thinking skills effectively.

Teaching critical thinking skills to students is essential for their development. By incorporating interactive activities and encouraging meaningful discussions, educators can nurture this crucial ability.

Stay tuned for more valuable tips and effective strategies to foster critical thinking in the classroom.

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Five tips for improving critical thinking in your classroom

Critical thinking abilities are essential skills for students to develop. Here are five tips for improving critical thinking skills in your classroom:

1. Teach Students How to Think Critically

Teaching students how to think critically involves helping them understand the difference between facts and opinions. Facts are true statements that can be proven using evidence. Opinions are beliefs based on personal experiences, feelings, values, and preferences.

Students often confuse facts with opinions. For example, “I am going to the store to buy milk.” This statement contains no opinion. It is simply stating a fact. On the other hand, “Milk tastes good.” This statement expresses an opinion.

When teaching students how to think critically, focus on helping them distinguish between facts and opinions. Helping students learn how to think critically will improve their ability to analyze information and solve problems.

2. Encourage Critical Thinking

Encouraging students to think critically means encouraging them to question everything. If you ask students questions such as “Why did you write that?,” “What makes you say that?,” or “How would you prove that?,” you encourage them to think critically.

Asking questions helps students become better thinkers. Questions allow students to explore issues and come up with answers themselves. Asking questions encourages students to think deeply and analytically.

3. Use Real World Examples

Real world examples are helpful for teaching students how to think. Using real world examples allows students to apply concepts to situations outside of school.

For example, if you teach students how to identify logical fallacies, you can show them how to recognize these errors in arguments. Showing students how to identify logical fallacy gives them practice identifying common mistakes made by others.

4. Provide Feedback

Providing feedback is another effective method for teaching students how to improve their critical thinking skills. Giving students positive and constructive criticism improves their performance.

Giving students negative feedback does not improve their performance. Negative feedback may discourage students from trying again. Positive feedback motivates students to continue working toward success.

5. Model Good Critical Thinking Skills

Modelling good critical thinking skills is one of the most effective methods for teaching students how to become better thinkers. Teaching students how to think critically requires modeling good critical thinking skills.

Good critical thinking skills include asking open-ended questions, analyzing data, evaluating sources, and recognizing logical fallacies.

By showing students how to think critically and model good critical thinking skills, you can help them develop into successful learners.

In a world where artificial intelligence is on the rise and continuously developing, a humanized value such as critical thinking is increasingly important. Reliance on technology makes life simpler in many ways, but simultaneously makes the possession of certain skills and abilities more attractive to potential employers and more beneficial for individuals who possess them.

Critical thinking allows for creativity when problem-solving and promotes independence and confidence. Should technology ever fail, those who are able to think critically in a variety of situations will be the ones who are valued the most.

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I am creative and resilient, endeavours to achieve my goal and have been in learning process.

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Should Good Readers Be Taught Reading Strategies?

What are suprasegmentals, inferential thinking to make conclusions, what are vowels and diphthongs, what are diacritics, what is childhood dysarthria, interpreting what teachers say about your child, what is childhood apraxia of speech (cas), getting involved: how to build a good relationship with your child’s teacher, what is phonological impairment, how to implement critical pedagogy into your classroom.

Critical pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that invites educators to encourage students to critique structures of power and oppression. It is rooted in critical theory , which involves becoming aware of and questioning the societal status quo. In critical pedagogy, a teacher uses his or her own enlightenment to encourage students to question and challenge inequalities that exist in families, schools, and societies.

This educational philosophy is considered progressive and even radical by some because of the way it critiques structures that are often taken for granted. If this is an approach that sounds like it is right for you and your students, keep reading. The following five steps can help you concretely implement critical pedagogy into your classroom.

• Challenge yourself. If you are not thinking critically and challenging social structures, you cannot expect your students to do it! Educate yourself using materials that question the common social narrative. For example, if you are a history teacher, immerse yourself in scholars who note the character flaws or problematic structures that allowed many well-known historical figures to be successful. Or, perhaps, read about why their “successes” were not really all that successful when considered in a different light. Critical theory is all about challenging the dominant social structures and the narratives that society has made most familiar. The more you learn, the better equipped you will be to help enlighten your students. Here are some good resources to get you started.
• Change the classroom dynamic. Critical pedagogy is all about challenging power structures, but one of the most common power dynamics in a student’s life is that of the teacher-student relationship. Challenge that! One concrete way to do this is by changing your classroom layout . Rather than having students sit in rows facing you, set up the desks so that they are facing each other in a semicircle or circle. This allows for better conversation in the classroom. You can also try sitting while leading discussions instead of standing. This posture puts you in the same position as the students and levels the student-teacher power dynamic. It is also a good idea, in general, to move from a lecture-based class where an all-wise teacher generously gives knowledge to humble students to a discussion-based class that allows students to think critically and draw their own conclusions.
• Present alternative views. In step 1, you, the teacher had to encounter views that were contrary to the dominant narrative. Now, present these views to your class alongside the traditional ones. Have them discuss both and encourage them to draw their own conclusions. If a student presents a viewpoint, encourage him or her to dig further. Asking questions like “why do you believe that?” or “why is that a good thing” will encourage students to challenge their own beliefs, break free of damaging social narratives, and think independently.
• Change your assessments. Traditional assessment structures, like traditional power structures, can be confining. You don’t have to use them ! Make sure that your assessments are not about finding the right answer, but are instead about critical thinking skills. Make sure students are not just doing what they think they need to do to get a particular grade. You can do this by encouraging students to discuss and write and by focusing on the ideas presented above presentation style.
• Encourage activism. There is a somewhat cyclic nature to critical pedagogy. After educating yourself, you encourage students to think critically, and they, in turn, take their newfound enlightenment into their families and communities.  You can do this by telling your students about opportunities in their community where they can combat oppression, like marches, demonstrations, and organizations. You can help students to start clubs that focus on bringing a voice to the marginalized. You can even encourage students to talk about patterns of power and oppression with their family and peers.

Concluding thoughts

Obviously, implementing critical pedagogy will look different in different subjects, and what works for one class may not work for another. For example, a history teacher may challenge an event that is traditionally seen as progressive, while a literature teacher may question a common cultural stereotype found in a book. A science teacher, on the other hand, may encourage students to look at the impact of scientific discoveries on marginalized groups. Often, this will involve finding common bonds between subjects as the critical approach is not confined to only one area of education and culture.

How have you implemented critical pedagogy in your classroom? What strategies have you found effective? Let us know by commenting below!

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