How to improve critical thinking in the classroom.
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Posted By: Dr. Katina Walton on July 09, 2012 Have you ever heard an educator say “This student lacks critical thinking skills” Has this question left you with the burning question of what is critical thinking? Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them( definition taken from criticalthinking.org). In a perfect world all education would lead to a world full of critical thinkers. Teaching students to become critical thinkers is not as hard as we would like to believe it is. If you are just getting started in the task of teaching students to think critically, here are a few tips to some very concrete ways you can begin to edge your students toward critical thinking in the classroom and beyond. 1. Questions, questions, questions. In using questions you want to create an environment where intellectual curiosity is fostered and questions are encouraged. 2. Start with a prompt and help them unpack it. Introduce a provocative question to build an argument around and help your students break it down. Point out any ambiguous or subjective terms and have students clarify and define them. Once the terms are clearly defined, then students are better able to seek and find evidence that is relevant to their argument. 3. Provide tools for entering the conversation. See link for conversation connectors. http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-... 4. Model your expectations. When you have a desired behavior expectation, the best way to teach it is to model it. Students gain a better understanding of seeing the correct behavior in action. 5. Encourage constructive (but respectful) controversy. Lively discussions always involve different point of views. To encourage those points to be shared, the instructor can play “devil’s advocate.” You can give students controversial topics and let them duke it out, but make sure to first demonstrate for them respectful ways of disagreeing and that the disagreement must be objective. It is kind of like finding a flaw in the evidence. 6. Choose content students will invest in. Be sure to choose topics that are relevant and significant to students to get them talking and engaged. 7. Set up Socratic discussions. This is a method of inquiry in which participants ask one another questions that the logic with the goal of gaining greater understanding or clarity. 8. Assess their reasoning through different methods. To check and see if your students are learning to think critically, you need a window into their thought process. Challenge them to communicate back to you. Essays, discussions and speeches give students the chance to demonstrate their skill and allow you to assess their reasoning in a number of ways. 9. Let students evaluate each other. Give some of the responsibility to the students by setting up the room in a “fishbowl” configuration, with an inner circle and an outer circle. Students in the inner circle are the active participants while those in the outer are their peer evaluators. 10. For some teachers, it is hard to let go of the reins and let students do the teaching. When you remove yourself from the equation, it forces the kids to step up. When students are given the responsibility to be thinkers in the class and drive the content, they may take it in unexpected directions that are more relevant to them. Therefore, making the information stick. If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Dr. Katina Walton
Instructional Specialist , Mobile County Public Schools University of the South class of 2014 Member Since April 2011 |
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