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Strategies for Teaching Critical Thinking
“Critical thinking is not to be devoured in a single sitting nor yet at two or three workshops. It is a powerful concept to be savored and reflected upon. It is an idea to live and grow with. It focuses upon that part of our minds that enables us to think things through, to learn from experience, to acquire and retain knowledge.” ~ Paul Hurd, State of Critical Thinking Today
Research indicates that having a standard definition of critical thinking can enhance its teaching. (Choy/Cheah 2009) According to Hurd (2004), “Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking with a view to improving it. Critical thinkers seek to improve thinking, in three interrelated phases. They analyze thinking. They assess thinking. And they up-grade thinking (as a result).”
“Critical thinking is the ability to conceptualise, analyse, synthesize, evaluate information and challenge assumptions.” ~ Jo Freitag, Gifted Resources
In light of the importance of teaching critical thinking, we turned out attention to discussing whether or not teachers are being prepared at the undergraduate level or subsequently during professional development opportunities to do so. Most were in agreement that not only are teachers not prepared, but their time is preoccupied with test prep. Also, they lack incentive to promote thinking which doesn’t support support standardized testing and is difficult to assess. Only one teacher at this chat reported working in a district that actively supports and expects the teaching of critical thinking.
What strategies work best for teaching critical thinking? Educators need to act as facilitators of discussions that may not result in ‘right’ answers. One strategy involves writing essays based on prompts that adhere to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking. (Smith/Szymanski 2013). Another is to have students create a wiki about subject they’re studying or analyze existing wikis; enhance tech skills. (Snodgrass 2011) Other strategies offered included teaching students questioning techniques, problem-based learning, identify the ‘big’ ideas, and stepping back to listening to student-voice. For more ideas, see links below.
Assessing critical thinking skills can be difficult, but it can be done. Assessment of critical thinking instruction can include course evaluation; analyze students’ understanding of critical thinking Teachers can assess whether students can reason between conflicting viewpoints. Educators should continually provide valuable feedback to students before considering assessment. One school mentioned during chat experimented with newspaper blackout poems, and analyzed each article for bias to practice critical thinking here.
“Critical thinkers know how to ask the RIGHT questions.” ~ Stacy Hughes, a Texas teacher
What are some intellectual traits of a critical thinker? Critical thinkers have ability to realize personal limitations; recognize personal bias; willing to work through complexities. They are willing to change when faced with evidence contrary to their own beliefs.
“Whether enrolled in preschool, elementary, middle, or high school, the integration of critical thinking skills into the daily content and lessons is essential for achieving …(Tomlinson, 2003). This infusion, along with also taking into account student interest, readiness, and learning styles, provides the foundation and walls for raising the ceiling of students’ scholastic growth and intellectual stimulation.” ~ McCollister and Sayler in Lift the Ceiling
The benefits of learning how to think critically can extend throughout a student’s life. During their school years, in-depth focus on enhancing critical thinking increases rigor & standardized test scores (Van- Tassel Baska, et al. 2009). By tracking patterns in information – seeing info as a process; students develop skills of recognition and prediction. Students who can think deeply, make relevant connections and reasoned decisions; value and respect ideas of others. They can think independently; consider multiple perspectives; go beyond surface learning. A transcript of this chat may be found at Storify.
Global #gtchat Powered by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented is a weekly chat on Twitter. Join us Tuesdays at 8E/7C/6M/5P in the U.S. and Wednesdays at Noon (12.00) NZST/10.00 AEST/1.00 UK to discuss current topics in the gifted community and meet experts in the field. Transcripts of our weekly chats can be found at Storify. Our Facebook Page provides information on the chat and news & information regarding the gifted community. Also, checkout our Pinterest Page and Playlist on YouTube.
About the author: Lisa Conrad is the Moderator of Global #gtchat Powered by TAGT and Social Media Manager of the Global #gtchat Community. She is a longtime advocate for gifted children and also blogs at Gifted Parenting Support. Lisa can be contacted at: gtchatmod@gmail.com
Links:
Teaching Gifted Kids to Explain Their Thinking
When Kids Have Structure for Thinking, Better Learning Emerges
Preparing Leaders for Deeper Learning
Assessing Deeper Learning: A Survey of Performance Assessment and Mastery-Tracking Tools (pdf)
6 Entry Points for Deeper Learning
10 Great Critical Thinking Activities That Engage Your Students
Tech That Spurs Critical Thinking l
Applied Disciplines: A Critical Thinking Model for Engineering
The State of Critical Thinking Today: The Need for a Substantive Concept of Critical Thinking (pdf)
Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life (Amazon)
The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking
6 Rules to Break for Better, Deeper-Learning Outcomes
How Do We Raise Critical Thinkers? (Infographic)
The Importance of Teaching Critical Thinking
Lift the Ceiling: Increase Rigor with Critical Thinking Skills (pdf)
Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools (pdf)
Intellectual Growth, School, and Thriving of the Gifted (pdf) in TEMPO Page 9
Infusing Teaching of Critical & Creative Thinking into Content Instruction for Elem Grades (Amazon)
Teaching Critical Thinking in Age of Digital Credulity
What It Means To Think Critically
Using a Question Building Chart to Provoke Student Thought
Sprite’s Site: Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking Testing and Assessment
Cybraryman’s Critical Thinking Page
Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners (Amazon)
Orientation Lecture Series: Learning to Learn Developing Critical Thinking Skills (pdf)
How to Foster Critical and Creative Thinking
Photo courtesy of Pixabay. CC0 Public Domain Graphic courtesy of Lisa Conrad.
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How to Foster Critical and Creative Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to recognize and challenge assumptions, and to understand context in a given situation. Creative thinking involves developing unique and useful ideas. This week at #gtchat, we discussed how to foster both critical and creative thinking.
Andrea of GiftedandTalented.com explained that “critical thinking is thinking with an emphasis on understanding and questioning rather than simply accepting standard procedures.” Critical thinkers can ask relevant questions and research alternatives. Critical thinking includes compare/contrast; sequencing; analysis and assessment of ideas. Mary St. George of New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education and Gifted Online said, “Critical thinking looks beyond what ideas are to whether they are relevant, accurate and wise.”
Our thoughts then turned to creative thinking. Audrey Fine, GT specialist and past-president of Alabama Association for Gifted Children, said, “Initially, brainstorming comes to mind, but just for a start.” Angie French, a GT specialist in Texas, told us, “Creative thinking is fun and exhilarating when it’s at its best!” and Mona Chicks added, “Creative thinking is putting together ideas that didn’t belong together before, but they do now.” Creative thinkers have the ability to question their own thinking; to engage in divergent fields of study. Creative thinking can often be characterized as ‘futuristic’ thinking.
What does a 21st century skills framework look like? This framework sees students as problem solvers. Corin Goodwin, Executive Director of Gifted Homeschoolers Forum, characterized it as “creative and entrepreneurial; able to follow one’s own path; find resources one needs. It is very networked in many ways.” In this century, we must promote critical and creative thinking to solve the global challenges we all face.
With all the emphasis on STEM & seeming dedication to achievement, why do gifted kids drop out of school? Too often gifted students grow weary of what they see as ‘playing the game’; grades become irrelevant to personal goals. “Not all kids relate to STEM. Nor are all built for achievement,” explained Lisa Lauffer of Artisan of Creative Miracles. Krissy Venosdale of Venspired said, “Achieving is unfulfilling. Especially when you achieve by jumping through hoops. Creating and exploring? That’s engaging!” Jo Freitag of Gifted Resources told us, “Often gifted kids style of thinking and learning is very different from classmates – it may appear to be daydreaming and off topic.”
Next, we explored the benefits of becoming mentally fit. Mental fitness introduces the purpose of thinking; the means to accomplishing goals. Andrea of GiftedandTalented.com said, “mental fitness is just like physical fitness in that a student is prepared to tackle whatever challenges they face.” A mentally fit mind is trained to focus and is an engaged mind.
Our final question was ‘How do we begin to create engagement for gifted students?’ Gifted students rarely need relentless repetitions; eliminate ‘kill and drill’. Curriculum design must consider its ‘meaningfulness’ to the student; be responsive to individual students. Just say ‘no’ to easy answers and require accuracy in outcomes; involve struggle and embrace learning from failure. And these suggestions from out participants:
- Respectfully complex work is inherently engaging for many gifted children. ~ Mary St. George
- Appropriate level of challenge, student choice around material and pace, and enrichment ~ GiftedandTalented.com
- Allow gifted kids to follow their passions and spend more time learning how to learning with their unique styles. ~ Barry Gelston
- Provide opportunities for them to use their interests as a base for learning. ~ Carol Bainbridge
- Make learning relevant with students learning what they need to know and then able to demonstrate it to an authentic audience. ~ Tony Rudd
A full transcript can be found at Storify.
Global #gtchat Powered by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented and sponsored by GiftedandTalented.com is a weekly chat on Twitter. Join us Fridays at 7E/6C/5M/4P in the U.S., Midnight in the UK and Saturdays 11 AM NZST/9 AM AEST to discuss current topics in the gifted community and meet experts in the field. Transcripts of our weekly chats can be found at Storify. Our Facebook Page provides information on the chat and news & information regarding the gifted community. Also, checkout our new Pinterest Page and Playlist on YouTube.
About the author: Lisa Conrad is the Moderator of Global #gtchat Powered by TAGT and Social Media Manager of the Global #gtchat Community. She is a longtime advocate for gifted children and also blogs at Gifted Parenting Support. Lisa can be contacted at: gtchatmod@gmail.com
Links:
Illinois Association for Gifted Children Journal 2015 (pdf) Joan Smutny, editor
Engaging & Challenging Curriculum: Supporting Advanced & Gifted Learners (Amazon)
Fostering Critical & Creative Thinking in the K12 Classroom: Overview (pdf)
AUS: Critical & Creative Thinking across the Curriculum
Nurturing Critical & Creative Thinking Skills (Slideshare)
Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom
Teaching Creative Thinking with Awareness & Discovery Questions
Helping Students Transition to Critical & Creative Thinking (pdf)
Making Thinking Visible: Building Understanding through Critical & Creative Thinking
Teaching Critical Thinking: An Evidence-based Guide
Learning to Learn Creative Thinking & Critical Thinking DCU – Ireland (pdf)
Cybraryman’s Critical Thinking Page
Sprites Site Doggy Classroom Dynamics Compares Critical vs Creative Thinking Styles
Why Technology Alone Won’t Fix Schools
Graphic courtesy of Lisa Conrad.
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Educating for Global Competence
Educating for Global Competence centered on how and why we need to educate our students to take on a greater presence on the global stage. More and more complex issues have arisen over time and there is a greater need for great minds to solve these problems ~ Clean drinking water, mass migration, climate instability and world peace are a few of the global issues facing us. All these require critical and higher-order thinking to solve. A complete transcript of this chat may be found here.
This week’s chat was scheduled at a different time to see if this would affect attendance. It did! Our next chat will be back to the regular schedule!
Links:
Global Risks, World Economic Forum
Cybraryman’s Multi-Cultural Page
Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk: The Danger of a Single Story
Flat Classroom Conference #flatclassroom
Global Classroom Twitter Chats 2nd Saturday of the month (3 chats)
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Content or Skills: What Constitutes 21st Century Learning for Gifted Students?
During this chat, we discussed what constitutes 21st century learning; content or skills. With access to the Internet putting content at the fingertips of students, it seemed that education may need to change direction. Ultimately, it was agreed that a balance needs to be found between teaching basic information and skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. A transcript may be found here.
Links:
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for 21st-Century Life and Careers (pdf)
Framework for 21st Century Learning
Understanding of 21st Century Skills and Outcomes
Is the Curriculum Rotten at Its Core?
UK ~ “Michael Gove’s New Curriculum: What the Experts Say”
Philippines ~ “Coherence & Knowledge in Basic Education”
New Assessments and Environments for Knowledge Building (pdf)
Center on Continuous Instructional Improvement
A Framework for Teachable Collaborative Problem Solving Skills (Draft Only – pdf)
