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5 Critical Thinking Activities That Get Students Up and Moving
More movement means better learning.
It’s easy to resort to having kids be seated during most of the school day. But learning can (and should) be an active process. Incorporating movement into your instruction has incredible benefits—from deepening student understanding to improving concentration to enhancing performance. Check out these critical thinking activities, adapted from Critical Thinking in the Classroom , a book with over 100 practical tools and strategies for teaching critical thinking in K-12 classrooms.
Four Corners
In this activity, students move to a corner of the classroom based on their responses to a question with four answer choices. Once they’ve moved, they can break into smaller groups to explain their choices. Call on students to share to the entire group. If students are persuaded to a different answer, they can switch corners and further discuss.
Question ideas:
- Which president was most influential: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, or Abraham Lincoln?
- Is Holden Caulfield a hero: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree?
Gallery Walk
This strategy encourages students to move around the classroom in groups to respond to questions, documents, images, or situations posted on chart paper. Each group gets a different colored marker to record their responses and a set amount of time at each station. When groups move, they can add their own ideas and/or respond to what prior groups have written.
Gallery ideas:
- Political cartoons
Stations are a great way to chunk instruction and present information to the class without a “sit and get.” Group desks around the room or create centers, each with a different concept and task. There should be enough stations for three to five students to work for a set time before rotating.
Station ideas:
- Types of rocks
- Story elements
- Literary genres
Silent Sticky-Note Storm
In this brainstorming activity, students gather in groups of three to five. Each group has a piece of chart paper with a question at the top and a stack of sticky notes. Working in silence, students record as many ideas or answers as possible, one answer per sticky note. When time is up, they post the sticky notes on the paper and then silently categorize them.
- How can you exercise your First Amendment rights?
- What are all the ways you can divide a square into eighths?
Mingle, Pair, Share
Take your Think, Pair, Share to the next level. Instead of having students turn and talk, invite them to stand and interact. Play music while they’re moving around the classroom. When the music stops, each student finds a partner. Pose a question and invite students to silently think about their answer. Then, partners take turns sharing their thoughts.
- How do organisms modify their environments?
- What is the theme of Romeo and Juliet ?
Looking for more critical thinking activities and ideas?
Critical Thinking in the Classroom is a practitioner’s guide that shares the why and the how for building critical thinking skills in K-12 classrooms. It includes over 100 practical tools and strategies that you can try in your classroom tomorrow!
Get Your Copy of Critical Thinking in the Classroom
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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.
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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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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.
Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking
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(This is the first post in a three-part series.)
The new question-of-the-week is:
What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?
This three-part series will explore what critical thinking is, if it can be specifically taught and, if so, how can teachers do so in their classrooms.
Today’s guests are 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.
You might also be interested in The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom .
Current Events
Dara Laws Savage is an English teacher at the Early College High School at Delaware State University, where she serves as a teacher and instructional coach and lead mentor. Dara has been teaching for 25 years (career preparation, English, photography, yearbook, newspaper, and graphic design) and has presented nationally on project-based learning and technology integration:
There is so much going on right now and there is an overload of information for us to process. Did you ever stop to think how our students are processing current events? They see news feeds, hear news reports, and scan photos and posts, but are they truly thinking about what they are hearing and seeing?
I tell my students that my job is not to give them answers but to teach them how to think about what they read and hear. So what is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom? There are just as many definitions of critical thinking as there are people trying to define it. However, the Critical Think Consortium focuses on the tools to create a thinking-based classroom rather than a definition: “Shape the climate to support thinking, create opportunities for thinking, build capacity to think, provide guidance to inform thinking.” Using these four criteria and pairing them with current events, teachers easily create learning spaces that thrive on thinking and keep students engaged.
One successful technique I use is the FIRE Write. Students are given a quote, a paragraph, an excerpt, or a photo from the headlines. Students are asked to F ocus and respond to the selection for three minutes. Next, students are asked to I dentify a phrase or section of the photo and write for two minutes. Third, students are asked to R eframe their response around a specific word, phrase, or section within their previous selection. Finally, students E xchange their thoughts with a classmate. Within the exchange, students also talk about how the selection connects to what we are covering in class.
There was a controversial Pepsi ad in 2017 involving Kylie Jenner and a protest with a police presence. The imagery in the photo was strikingly similar to a photo that went viral with a young lady standing opposite a police line. Using that image from a current event engaged my students and gave them the opportunity to critically think about events of the time.
Here are the two photos and a student response:
F - Focus on both photos and respond for three minutes
In the first picture, you see a strong and courageous black female, bravely standing in front of two officers in protest. She is risking her life to do so. Iesha Evans is simply proving to the world she does NOT mean less because she is black … and yet officers are there to stop her. She did not step down. In the picture below, you see Kendall Jenner handing a police officer a Pepsi. Maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal, except this was Pepsi’s weak, pathetic, and outrageous excuse of a commercial that belittles the whole movement of people fighting for their lives.
I - Identify a word or phrase, underline it, then write about it for two minutes
A white, privileged female in place of a fighting black woman was asking for trouble. A struggle we are continuously fighting every day, and they make a mockery of it. “I know what will work! Here Mr. Police Officer! Drink some Pepsi!” As if. Pepsi made a fool of themselves, and now their already dwindling fan base continues to ever shrink smaller.
R - Reframe your thoughts by choosing a different word, then write about that for one minute
You don’t know privilege until it’s gone. You don’t know privilege while it’s there—but you can and will be made accountable and aware. Don’t use it for evil. You are not stupid. Use it to do something. Kendall could’ve NOT done the commercial. Kendall could’ve released another commercial standing behind a black woman. Anything!
Exchange - Remember to discuss how this connects to our school song project and our previous discussions?
This connects two ways - 1) We want to convey a strong message. Be powerful. Show who we are. And Pepsi definitely tried. … Which leads to the second connection. 2) Not mess up and offend anyone, as had the one alma mater had been linked to black minstrels. We want to be amazing, but we have to be smart and careful and make sure we include everyone who goes to our school and everyone who may go to our school.
As a final step, students read and annotate the full article and compare it to their initial response.
Using current events and critical-thinking strategies like FIRE writing helps create a learning space where thinking is the goal rather than a score on a multiple-choice assessment. Critical-thinking skills can cross over to any of students’ other courses and into life outside the classroom. After all, we as teachers want to help the whole student be successful, and critical thinking is an important part of navigating life after they leave our classrooms.
‘Before-Explore-Explain’
Patrick Brown is the executive director of STEM and CTE for the Fort Zumwalt school district in Missouri and an experienced educator and author :
Planning for critical thinking focuses on teaching the most crucial science concepts, practices, and logical-thinking skills as well as the best use of instructional time. One way to ensure that lessons maintain a focus on critical thinking is to focus on the instructional sequence used to teach.
Explore-before-explain teaching is all about promoting critical thinking for learners to better prepare students for the reality of their world. What having an explore-before-explain mindset means is that in our planning, we prioritize giving students firsthand experiences with data, allow students to construct evidence-based claims that focus on conceptual understanding, and challenge students to discuss and think about the why behind phenomena.
Just think of the critical thinking that has to occur for students to construct a scientific claim. 1) They need the opportunity to collect data, analyze it, and determine how to make sense of what the data may mean. 2) With data in hand, students can begin thinking about the validity and reliability of their experience and information collected. 3) They can consider what differences, if any, they might have if they completed the investigation again. 4) They can scrutinize outlying data points for they may be an artifact of a true difference that merits further exploration of a misstep in the procedure, measuring device, or measurement. All of these intellectual activities help them form more robust understanding and are evidence of their critical thinking.
In explore-before-explain teaching, all of these hard critical-thinking tasks come before teacher explanations of content. Whether we use discovery experiences, problem-based learning, and or inquiry-based activities, strategies that are geared toward helping students construct understanding promote critical thinking because students learn content by doing the practices valued in the field to generate knowledge.
An Issue of Equity
Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is the chief learning officer at The Possible Project, an out-of-school program that collaborates with youth to build entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and provides pathways to careers and long-term economic prosperity. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years as a middle and high school teacher, school coach, college professor, regional director of N.Y.C. Outward Bound Schools, and director of external research with EL Education:
Although critical thinking often defies straightforward definition, most in the education field agree it consists of several components: reasoning, problem-solving, and decisionmaking, plus analysis and evaluation of information, such that multiple sides of an issue can be explored. It also includes dispositions and “the willingness to apply critical-thinking principles, rather than fall back on existing unexamined beliefs, or simply believe what you’re told by authority figures.”
Despite variation in definitions, critical thinking is nonetheless promoted as an essential outcome of students’ learning—we want to see students and adults demonstrate it across all fields, professions, and in their personal lives. Yet there is simultaneously a rationing of opportunities in schools for students of color, students from under-resourced communities, and other historically marginalized groups to deeply learn and practice critical thinking.
For example, many of our most underserved students often spend class time filling out worksheets, promoting high compliance but low engagement, inquiry, critical thinking, or creation of new ideas. At a time in our world when college and careers are critical for participation in society and the global, knowledge-based economy, far too many students struggle within classrooms and schools that reinforce low-expectations and inequity.
If educators aim to prepare all students for an ever-evolving marketplace and develop skills that will be valued no matter what tomorrow’s jobs are, then we must move critical thinking to the forefront of classroom experiences. And educators must design learning to cultivate it.
So, what does that really look like?
Unpack and define critical thinking
To understand critical thinking, educators need to first unpack and define its components. What exactly are we looking for when we speak about reasoning or exploring multiple perspectives on an issue? How does problem-solving show up in English, math, science, art, or other disciplines—and how is it assessed? At Two Rivers, an EL Education school, the faculty identified five constructs of critical thinking, defined each, and created rubrics to generate a shared picture of quality for teachers and students. The rubrics were then adapted across grade levels to indicate students’ learning progressions.
At Avenues World School, critical thinking is one of the Avenues World Elements and is an enduring outcome embedded in students’ early experiences through 12th grade. For instance, a kindergarten student may be expected to “identify cause and effect in familiar contexts,” while an 8th grader should demonstrate the ability to “seek out sufficient evidence before accepting a claim as true,” “identify bias in claims and evidence,” and “reconsider strongly held points of view in light of new evidence.”
When faculty and students embrace a common vision of what critical thinking looks and sounds like and how it is assessed, educators can then explicitly design learning experiences that call for students to employ critical-thinking skills. This kind of work must occur across all schools and programs, especially those serving large numbers of students of color. As Linda Darling-Hammond asserts , “Schools that serve large numbers of students of color are least likely to offer the kind of curriculum needed to ... help students attain the [critical-thinking] skills needed in a knowledge work economy. ”
So, what can it look like to create those kinds of learning experiences?
Designing experiences for critical thinking
After defining a shared understanding of “what” critical thinking is and “how” it shows up across multiple disciplines and grade levels, it is essential to create learning experiences that impel students to cultivate, practice, and apply these skills. There are several levers that offer pathways for teachers to promote critical thinking in lessons:
1.Choose Compelling Topics: Keep it relevant
A key Common Core State Standard asks for students to “write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.” That might not sound exciting or culturally relevant. But a learning experience designed for a 12th grade humanities class engaged learners in a compelling topic— policing in America —to analyze and evaluate multiple texts (including primary sources) and share the reasoning for their perspectives through discussion and writing. Students grappled with ideas and their beliefs and employed deep critical-thinking skills to develop arguments for their claims. Embedding critical-thinking skills in curriculum that students care about and connect with can ignite powerful learning experiences.
2. Make Local Connections: Keep it real
At The Possible Project , an out-of-school-time program designed to promote entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, students in a recent summer online program (modified from in-person due to COVID-19) explored the impact of COVID-19 on their communities and local BIPOC-owned businesses. They learned interviewing skills through a partnership with Everyday Boston , conducted virtual interviews with entrepreneurs, evaluated information from their interviews and local data, and examined their previously held beliefs. They created blog posts and videos to reflect on their learning and consider how their mindsets had changed as a result of the experience. In this way, we can design powerful community-based learning and invite students into productive struggle with multiple perspectives.
3. Create Authentic Projects: Keep it rigorous
At Big Picture Learning schools, students engage in internship-based learning experiences as a central part of their schooling. Their school-based adviser and internship-based mentor support them in developing real-world projects that promote deeper learning and critical-thinking skills. Such authentic experiences teach “young people to be thinkers, to be curious, to get from curiosity to creation … and it helps students design a learning experience that answers their questions, [providing an] opportunity to communicate it to a larger audience—a major indicator of postsecondary success.” Even in a remote environment, we can design projects that ask more of students than rote memorization and that spark critical thinking.
Our call to action is this: As educators, we need to make opportunities for critical thinking available not only to the affluent or those fortunate enough to be placed in advanced courses. The tools are available, let’s use them. Let’s interrogate our current curriculum and design learning experiences that engage all students in real, relevant, and rigorous experiences that require critical thinking and prepare them for promising postsecondary pathways.
Critical Thinking & Student Engagement
Dr. PJ Caposey is an award-winning educator, keynote speaker, consultant, and author of seven books who currently serves as the superintendent of schools for the award-winning Meridian CUSD 223 in northwest Illinois. You can find PJ on most social-media platforms as MCUSDSupe:
When I start my keynote on student engagement, I invite two people up on stage and give them each five paper balls to shoot at a garbage can also conveniently placed on stage. Contestant One shoots their shot, and the audience gives approval. Four out of 5 is a heckuva score. Then just before Contestant Two shoots, I blindfold them and start moving the garbage can back and forth. I usually try to ensure that they can at least make one of their shots. Nobody is successful in this unfair environment.
I thank them and send them back to their seats and then explain that this little activity was akin to student engagement. While we all know we want student engagement, we are shooting at different targets. More importantly, for teachers, it is near impossible for them to hit a target that is moving and that they cannot see.
Within the world of education and particularly as educational leaders, we have failed to simplify what student engagement looks like, and it is impossible to define or articulate what student engagement looks like if we cannot clearly articulate what critical thinking is and looks like in a classroom. Because, simply, without critical thought, there is no engagement.
The good news here is that critical thought has been defined and placed into taxonomies for decades already. This is not something new and not something that needs to be redefined. I am a Bloom’s person, but there is nothing wrong with DOK or some of the other taxonomies, either. To be precise, I am a huge fan of Daggett’s Rigor and Relevance Framework. I have used that as a core element of my practice for years, and it has shaped who I am as an instructional leader.
So, in order to explain critical thought, a teacher or a leader must familiarize themselves with these tried and true taxonomies. Easy, right? Yes, sort of. The issue is not understanding what critical thought is; it is the ability to integrate it into the classrooms. In order to do so, there are a four key steps every educator must take.
- Integrating critical thought/rigor into a lesson does not happen by chance, it happens by design. Planning for critical thought and engagement is much different from planning for a traditional lesson. In order to plan for kids to think critically, you have to provide a base of knowledge and excellent prompts to allow them to explore their own thinking in order to analyze, evaluate, or synthesize information.
- SIDE NOTE – Bloom’s verbs are a great way to start when writing objectives, but true planning will take you deeper than this.
QUESTIONING
- If the questions and prompts given in a classroom have correct answers or if the teacher ends up answering their own questions, the lesson will lack critical thought and rigor.
- Script five questions forcing higher-order thought prior to every lesson. Experienced teachers may not feel they need this, but it helps to create an effective habit.
- If lessons are rigorous and assessments are not, students will do well on their assessments, and that may not be an accurate representation of the knowledge and skills they have mastered. If lessons are easy and assessments are rigorous, the exact opposite will happen. When deciding to increase critical thought, it must happen in all three phases of the game: planning, instruction, and assessment.
TALK TIME / CONTROL
- To increase rigor, the teacher must DO LESS. This feels counterintuitive but is accurate. Rigorous lessons involving tons of critical thought must allow for students to work on their own, collaborate with peers, and connect their ideas. This cannot happen in a silent room except for the teacher talking. In order to increase rigor, decrease talk time and become comfortable with less control. Asking questions and giving prompts that lead to no true correct answer also means less control. This is a tough ask for some teachers. Explained differently, if you assign one assignment and get 30 very similar products, you have most likely assigned a low-rigor recipe. If you assign one assignment and get multiple varied products, then the students have had a chance to think deeply, and you have successfully integrated critical thought into your classroom.
Thanks to Dara, Patrick, Meg, and PJ 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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20 Critical Thinking Activities for Elementary Classrooms
April 1, 2023 // by Seda Unlucay
With the barrage of mainstream news, advertising, and social media content out there, it’s vital for students to think independently and learn to differentiate between fact and fiction.
This series of critical thinking activities, STEM-based design challenges, engaging Math puzzles, and problem-solving tasks will support students in thinking rationally and understanding the logical connection between concepts.
1. Teach Students How to Obtain Verifiable News
There’s probably no 21st-century skill more important than differentiating between real and fake sources of news. This editable PowerPoint bundle covers traditional media, social networks, and various target audiences and teaches students how to find verifiable facts.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
2. Watch and Discuss a Critical Reasoning Video
This kid-friendly video teaches students to break arguments down into claims, evidence, and reasoning. Armed with this lifelong learning tool, they will be able to make more informed decisions when consuming all types of information.
Learn More: Brain Pop
3. Complete a Critical Design Challenge
This science and designed-based classroom activity challenges students to find ways to prevent a falling egg from breaking. Pairing it with the classic Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme is sure to inspire many creative ideas.
Learn More: Education
4. Critical Community Engagement Activity
This community engagement activity requires analytical skills to determine what items can be recycled in the classroom and in their neighborhood. By creating recycling bins from reusable cardboard boxes, students have an opportunity to contribute to the environmental well-being of their community while practicing social responsibility.
Learn More: Kaboom
5. Develop Logical Skills with a Then and Now Activity
We may no longer use candles for reading or quill pens for writing, but can your students identify the objects that have replaced them? This activity engages their writing, drawing, and logical skills while giving them a chance to reflect on all the changes in our modern world.
Learn More: Education
6. Play a Critical Thinking Game
This active learning activity requires students to use their critical thinking skills to make comparisons and create meaningful analogies. The fun animal safari theme is sure to inspire many funny and creative ideas!
7. Develop Social-Emotional Problem-Solving Skills
Through this lesson, students will understand that while conflicts are a normal part of life, it’s vital to have problem-solving skills to resolve them. This is also an excellent opportunity for developing their social awareness and relationship skills.
Learn More: ED Foundations
8. Desert Island Survival Game
This classic game is sure to inspire student engagement, as they use their critical thinking skills to survive being stranded on a desert island. Students have to watch out for ideological assumptions and question ideas in order to determine the appropriate items to bring.
9. Play a Problem-Solving Treasure Hunt Game
This exciting game for kids requires them to use key math skills to break a series of codes. With ample time, designated progress monitors, and sharp critical thinking skills, students are sure to find the hidden treasure.
Learn More: Twinkl
10. Use Writing to Increase Critical Empathy
This activity builds writing fluency while giving students a chance to show appreciation for each other. As they reflect emphatically on their classmates’ contributions and character, their base level of kindness and sense of ethical responsibility is bound to increase.
Learn More: Edutopia
11. Learn How to Make Logical Inferences
This activity for kids teaches the critical academic skill of making inferences from a series of texts. Students will surely enjoy playing the role of detective in order to draw their own logical conclusions.
Learn More: Study
12. Think Critically About Cultural Assumptions
This engaging activity for students challenges them to think critically about why people from a variety of cultures decorate their bodies. It helps them to break through cultural assumptions while comparing and contrasting the different forms of hand and body painting around the world.
Learn More: Harmony
13. Big Paper Silent Reflection Activity
After posing some open-ended questions, students silently write their responses with colored markers on large chart paper. After each group has circulated around the room, students can share their critical reflections and learn from the various perspectives of their classmates.
Learn More: Slideshare
14. Watch a TED Video About the Socratic Method
Socrates is one of the forefathers of critical thinking, who focused on making his students thinking visible by questioning their logic and reasoning. The accompanying quiz and discussion questions are an excellent way to reinforce student learning.
Learn More: Ted Ed
15. Brainstorm Ways to Help a Homeless Person
This lesson in civic responsibility teaches students about the causes of homelessness and guides them to find ways to help the homeless in their communities. It develops key problem-solving skills while building critical empathy.
Learn More: National Homeless.org
16. Guess the Object Game
This video features a series of twenty zoomed-in mystery objects. Students will love using their critical thinking skills to guess each one!
Learn More: Andy – The ESL Guy
17. Solve Some Challenging Math Brain Teasers
This abundant series of brain teasers is the perfect choice if you’re looking to test your children’s memory and problem-solving skills. Encourage them to use their knowledge of numbers to complete these tricky math problems that are not only designed to challenge your little brainiacs but are also compiled in an easy-to-use format.
Learn More: Mental Up
18. Complete a STEM Elevator Challenge
In this design and engineering-based lesson, students have to build a functional elevator that can carry an object to the top of a structure. It’s a terrific way to encourage cooperative learning while sharpening their problem-solving skills.
Learn More: Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers
19. Create the Perfect Farm
There’s no better way to develop critical thinking skills than by solving real-world problems. This video encourages students to think about ways to feed a growing global population in an environmentally sustainable way.
20. Solve Logic Grid Puzzles
These logic grid puzzles will motivate students to use logical reasoning skills and the process of elimination to solve a series of clues. But be warned, they are highly addictive and difficult to put down once you get started!
Learn More: Puzzle Baron’s Logic Puzzles
50 Super-Fun Critical Thinking Strategies to Use in Your Classroom
by AuthorAmy
Teaching students to be critical thinkers is perhaps the most important goal in education. All teachers, regardless of subject area, contribute to the process of teaching students to think for themselves. However, it’s not always an easy skill to teach. Students need guidance and practice with critical thinking strategies at every level.
One problem with teaching critical thinking is that many different definitions of this skill exist. The Foundation for Critical Thinking offers four different definitions of the concept. Essentially, critical thinking is the ability to evaluate information and decide what we think about that information, a cumulative portfolio of skills our students need to be successful problem solvers in an ever-changing world.
Here is a list of 50 classroom strategies for teachers to use to foster critical thinking among students of all ages.
1. Don’t give them the answers
Learning is supposed to be hard, and while it may be tempting to jump in and direct students to the right answer, it’s better to let them work through a problem on their own. A good teacher is a guide, not an answer key. The goal is to help students work at their “challenge” level, as opposed to their “frustration” level.
2. Controversial issue barometer
In this activity, a line is drawn down the center of the classroom. The middle represents the neutral ground, and the ends of the line represent extremes of an issue. The teacher selects an issue and students space themselves along the line according to their opinions. Being able to articulate opinions and participate in civil discourse are important aspects of critical thinking.
3. Play devil’s advocate
During a robust classroom discussion, an effective teacher challenges students by acting as devil’s advocate, no matter their personal opinion. “I don’t care WHAT you think, I just care THAT you think” is my classroom mantra. Critical thinking strategies that ask students to analyze both sides of an issue help create understanding and empathy.
4. Gallery walk
In a gallery walk, the teacher hangs images around the classroom related to the unit at hand (photographs, political cartoons, paintings). Students peruse the artwork much like they are in a museum, writing down their thoughts about each piece.
5. Review something
A movie, TV show , a book, a restaurant, a pep assembly, today’s lesson – anything can be reviewed. Writing a review involves the complex skill of summary without spoilers and asks students to share their opinion and back it up with evidence.
6. Draw analogies
Pick two unrelated things and ask students how those things are alike (for example, how is a museum like a snowstorm). The goal here is to encourage creativity and look for similarities.
7. Think of 25 uses for an everyday thing
Pick an everyday object (I use my camera tripod) and set a timer for five minutes. Challenge students to come up with 25 things they can use the object for within that time frame. The obvious answers will be exhausted quickly, so ridiculous answers such as “coatrack” and “stool” are encouraged.
8. Incorporate riddles
Students love riddles. You could pose a question at the beginning of the week and allow students to ask questions about it all week.
9. Crosswords and sudoku puzzles
The games section of the newspaper provides great brainteasers for students who finish their work early and need some extra brain stimulation.
10. Fine tune questioning techniques
A vibrant classroom discussion is made even better by a teacher who asks excellent, provocative questions. Questions should move beyond those with concrete answers to a place where students must examine why they think the way they do.
11. Socratic seminar
The Socratic seminar is perhaps the ultimate critical thinking activity. Students are given a universal question, such as “Do you believe it is acceptable to break the law if you believe the law is wrong?” They are given time to prepare and answer, and then, seated in a circle, students are directed to discuss the topic. Whereas the goal of a debate is to win, the goal of a Socratic discussion is for the group to reach greater understanding.
12. Inquiry based learning
In inquiry-based learning, students develop questions they want answers to, which drives the curriculum toward issues they care about. An engaged learner is an essential step in critical thinking.
13. Problem-based learning
In problem-based learning, students are given a problem and asked to develop research-based solutions. The problem can be a school problem (the lunchroom is overcrowded) or a global problem (sea levels are rising).
14. Challenge all assumptions
The teacher must model this before students learn to apply this skill on their own. In this strategy, a teacher helps a student understand where his or her ingrained beliefs come from. Perhaps a student tells you they believe that stereotypes exist because they are true. An effective teacher can ask “Why do you think that?” and keep exploring the issue as students delve into the root of their beliefs. Question everything.
15. Emphasize data over beliefs
Data does not always support our beliefs, so our first priority must be to seek out data before drawing conclusions.
16. Teach confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the human tendency to seek out information that confirms what we already believe, rather than letting the data inform our conclusions. Understanding that this phenomenon exists can help students avoid it.
17. Visualization
Help students make a plan before tackling a task.
18. Mind mapping
Mind mapping is a visual way to organize information. Students start with a central concept and create a web with subtopics that radiate outward.
19. Develop empathy
Empathy is often cited as an aspect of critical thinking. To do so, encourage students to think from a different point of view. They might write a “con” essay when they believe the “pro,” or write a letter from someone else’s perspective.
20. Summarization
Summarizing means taking all the information given and presenting it in a shortened fashion.
21. Encapsulation
Encapsulation is a skill different from summarization. To encapsulate a topic, students must learn about it and then distill it down to its most relevant points, which means students are forming judgements about what is most and least important.
22. Weigh cause and effect
The process of examining cause and effect helps students develop critical thinking skills by thinking through the natural consequences of a given choice.
23. Problems in a jar
Perfect for a bell-ringer, a teacher can stuff a mason jar with dilemmas that their students might face, such as, “Your best friend is refusing to talk to you today. What do you do?” Then, discuss possible answers. This works well for ethical dilemmas, too.
24. Transform one thing into another
Give students an object, like a pencil or a mug. Define its everyday use (to write or to drink from). Then, tell the students to transform the object into something with an entirely separate use. Now what is it used for?
25. Which one doesn’t belong?
Group items together and ask students to find the one that doesn’t belong. In first grade, this might be a grouping of vowels and a consonant; in high school, it might be heavy metals and a noble gas.
26. Compare/contrast
Compare and contrast are important critical thinking strategies. Students can create a Venn diagram to show similarities or differences, or they could write a good old-fashioned compare/contrast essay about the characters of Romeo and Juliet .
27. Pick a word, find a related word
This is another fun bell-ringer activity. The teacher starts with any word, and students go around the room and say another word related to that one. The obvious words go quickly, meaning the longer the game goes on, the more out-of-the-box the thinking gets.
28. Ranking of sources
Give students a research topic and tell them to find three sources (books, YouTube videos, websites). Then ask them, what resource is best – and why.
29. Hypothesize
The very act of hypothesizing is critical thinking in action. Students are using what they know to find an answer to something they don’t know.
30. Guess what will happen next
This works for scientific reactions, novels, current events, and more. Simply spell out what we know so far and ask students “and then what?”
31. Practice inference
Inference is the art of making an educated guess based on evidence presented and is an important component of critical thinking.
32. Connect text to self
Ask students to draw connections between what they are reading about to something happening in their world. For example, if their class is studying global warming, researching how global warming might impact their hometown will help make their studies relevant.
33. Levels of questioning
There are several levels of questions (as few as three and as many as six, depending on who you ask). These include factual questions, which have a right or wrong answer (most math problems are factual questions). There are also inferential questions, which ask students to make inferences based on both opinion and textual evidence. Additionally, there are universal questions, which are “big picture” questions where there are no right or wrong answers.
Students should practice answering all levels of questions and writing their own questions, too.
34. Demand precise language
An expansive vocabulary allows a student to express themselves more exactly, and precision is a major tool in the critical thinking toolkit.
35. Identify bias and hidden agendas
Helping students to critically examine biases in sources will help them evaluate the trustworthiness of their sources.
36. Identify unanswered questions
After a unit of study is conducted, lead students through a discussion of what questions remain unanswered. In this way, students can work to develop a lifelong learner mentality.
37. Relate a topic in one subject area to other disciplines
Have students take something they are studying in your class and relate it to other disciplines. For example, if you are studying the Civil War in social studies, perhaps they could look up historical fiction novels set during the Civil War era or research medical advancements from the time period for science.
38. Have a question conversation
Start with a general question and students must answer your question with a question of their own. Keep the conversation going.
39. Display a picture for 30 seconds, then take it down
Have students list everything they can remember. This helps students train their memories and increases their ability to notice details.
40. Brainstorm, free-write
Brainstorming and freewriting are critical thinking strategies to get ideas on paper. In brainstorming, anything goes, no matter how off-the-wall. These are great tools to get ideas flowing that can then be used to inform research.
41. Step outside your comfort zone
Direct students to learn about a topic they have no interest in or find particularly challenging. In this case, their perseverance is being developed as they do something that is difficult for them.
42. The answer is, the question might be
This is another bell-ringer game that’s great for engaging those brains. You give students the answer and they come up with what the question might be.
43. Cooperative learning
Group work is a critical thinking staple because it teaches students that there is no one right way to approach a problem and that other opinions are equally valid.
44. What? So what? Now what?
After concluding a unit of study, these three question frames can be used to help students contextualize their learning.
45. Reflection
Ask students to reflect on their work – specifically, how they can improve moving forward.
46. Classify and categorize
These are higher level Bloom’s tasks for a reason. Categorizing requires students to think about like traits and rank them in order of importance.
47. Role play
Roleplay allows students to practice creative thinking strategies. Here, students assume a role and act accordingly.
48. Set goals
Have students set concrete, measurable goals in your class so they understand why what they do matters.
No matter your subject area, encourage students to read voraciously. Through reading they will be exposed to new ideas, new perspectives, and their worlds will grow.
50. Cultivate curiosity
A curious mind is an engaged mind. Students should be encouraged to perform inquiry simply for the sake that it is a joy to learn about something we care about.
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Critical thinking for teachers and students
What Do We Mean by the Term ‘Critical Thinking?’
Firstly, there is no single, commonly agreed definition of the term ‘critical thinking’.
However, most commonly as teachers, we use it to refer to what are known as the higher-order thinking skills.
These higher-order thinking skills are skills that require us to think in a deeper, more complex manner.
If you are familiar with Bloom’s taxonomy, think of the upper levels of the hierarchy – analyze, evaluate, create. We could also add infer to this list of critical thinking skills.
Put simply, critical thinking requires the student to engage in an objective analysis of a topic and evaluate the available information in order to form a judgment.
Critical thinking demands a systematic approach to evaluating new information. It encourages us to question and reflect on our own knowledge and how we arrive at the opinions we have and make the decisions we make.
THERE ARE NO FORMAL CRITICAL THINKING STANDARDS, BUT THESE ATTRIBUTES OUTLINED BY MONASH UNIVERSITY CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF WHAT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SHOULD ASPIRE TO IN THE CLASSROOM.
Why Is Critical Thinking Important?
Our students need to be able to think critically to make rational decisions on what to believe or what course of action to take.
An inability to think critically can leave students vulnerable to muddied thinking and the possibility of believing in unsound ideas.
Critical thinking helps students to filter the wheat from the chaff, intellectually speaking.
Developing strong critical thinking skills helps students to eliminate dubious data to leave only the strongest, most reliable information.
At its core, critical thinking is about having good reasons for our beliefs. It helps us to navigate through bias (our own and that of others) to avoid manipulation or becoming enslaved by our feelings. These are essential skills in an age of overwhelming information.
Helping our students to develop their critical thinking skills not only inoculates them against embracing flawed ideas, but these skills are also some of the most in-demand by employers and this looks set to continue to be so well into the future.
This is due to the ever-increasing pace of technological change. It is impossible to accurately predict the specific requirements of many future jobs. One thing is for sure though, so-called soft skills such as critical thinking will ensure students will be able to adapt to whatever shapes the workplace of the future will take.
Teaching Critical Thinking
There are any number of ways to introduce critical thinking into the classroom, either as discrete activities or interwoven into lessons with other stated objectives. However, it is helpful to students to take the time to teach a variety of strategies to help them think critically about the ideas they encounter which will help them form their own opinions.
An opinion based on critical thinking does not rely on gut feeling, but rather on rational reasoning which often requires some form of initial research.
Let’s start by taking a look at some ways you can encourage critical thinking in your classroom, especially in the research process.
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT GUIDE TO TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
A complete guide to teaching Critical Thinking
This 180 page e-book is an excellent resource for teachers looking to implement critical thinking in the classroom.
It is packed full of great content whether you are just starting out, or looking to go further.
It makes relevant connections to technology, STEM, and critical and creative thinking.
Teaching Strategies: A Step-by-Step Approach to Critical Thinking
The following process is a useful template for teaching students. When embarking on their research, this template provides a step-by-step process that they can use to structure their investigations.
1. Format the Question
In the age of the Internet, access to information is no longer the major hurdle facing the inquisitive student investigator. If anything, the real problem now is knowing how to appropriately sift through the almost inexhaustible amount of information out there.
The key to this filtration process is the formulation of the research question. How the question is composed and formatted will inform exactly what information the student is looking for and what information can be discarded.
The type of question formatted here will depend on the purpose of the research. For example, is the question intended to establish knowledge? Then, it may well be a straightforward What type question, for example, What are the consequences of a diet high in processed sugars?
If the question is geared more towards the use of that information or knowledge, then the question may be more of a Why type question, for example, Why do some commentators claim that a diet high in processed sugars is the greatest threat facing public health?
One extremely useful tool to assist in formatting questions that make demands on student critical thinking abilities is to employ Bloom’s taxonomy.
2. Gather the Information
Once the question has been clearly defined, then the process of gathering the information begins. Students should frequently refer back to their research questions to ensure they are maintaining their focus.
As they gather information concerning their question, reference to their initial question will help them to determine the relevance of the information in front of them. They can then weigh up whether or not the information helps move them further toward answering their initial research question.
3. Apply the Information
The ability to think critically about information is of no use unless the understanding gained can be applied in the real world.
The most practical application of this skill is seen when it is used to inform decision-making. When faced with making a decision, encourage students to reflect on the concepts at work in regard to the choice they face.
They must look at what assumptions exist and explore whether their interpretation of the issue is a logically sound one. To do this effectively, they will also need to consider the effects of that decision.
4. Consider the Implications
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
As the old proverb suggests, our well-intended decisions can sometimes lead to unforeseen negative consequences. When considering paths of action, we need to encourage our students to reflect deeply on all possible outcomes of those actions: short, medium, and long-term.
Unintended consequences are outcomes that are unforeseen and can often undo much of the good of the original decision.
There are many fascinating examples of this phenomenon that are easily found online and can be interesting to share with the students.
One such example was uncovered by the economist Sam Peltzman. He found that when mandatory seat-belt legislation was passed in some of the US states the number of fatalities of drivers did go down as a result. However, he also found that this was offset by an increase in fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists as drivers felt safer wearing seat belts and many drove faster as a result.
5. Explore Other Points of View
This is the final testing ground of an opinion that has been forged in the fires of critical thinking. Though students will have been exposed to competing ideas earlier in the research stage, they should now take the time to measure their matured opinions against these other points of view.
Exploring alternative viewpoints helps us to evaluate our own choices and avoid stagnating in our own biases and innate preferences. Doing this helps us to make the most informed decisions possible.
Now that we’ve had a look at a step-by-step approach to critical thinking, let’s take a look at some creative ways to help students exercise those critical thinking muscles in the classroom. Getting critical doesn’t have to be boring!
Critical Thinking Games and Activities
The Barometer: Find Out Where You Stand
When considering where we stand on issues, it’s important to realise that things don’t always have to be a zero-sum game. Things don’t have to be all or nothing. Students need to learn that opinions can be nuanced and that often there exists a spectrum of opinions on any given issue.
In this activity, give the students a controversial issue to consider. Assign the extremes on the issue to opposite ends of the classroom and instruct students to arrange themselves along a continuum based on how strongly they feel about the issue.
They’ll likely need to engage in some free-flowing conversation to figure this out and setting a time limit will help ensure this discussion doesn’t go on endlessly.
Draw an Analogy: Making Lateral Links
This game encourages students to think creatively and indirectly about an idea or a subject and it can be used in practically any context. It encourages students to make comparisons between seemingly unconnected things by analyzing both for any underlying concepts that may link them together somehow – no matter how tenuously!
Start by asking your students a creative question based on the topic or idea you are exploring together in the classroom. The format of these questions should closely follow a similar pattern to the following examples:
● How is raising a child like building a house?
● Why is an egg like a hunk of marble?
● How is a bookshelf like a lunchbox?
The more inventive the elements in each question are, the more challenging it will be for the students to make links between the two of them.
This game can generate some interesting responses and is easy to differentiate for students of all ages. Younger students may enjoy a simpler question format such as ‘ Smell is to nose as sight is to… ’ where the links between the elements are much more obvious.
For older students, remember too that when devising the questions the links between the different elements do not have to be obvious. Indeed, as far as you’re concerned they do not even have to exist. That’s for the students to explore and create.
Build Critical Thinking Skills with Brain Teasers
Brain teasers are great fun and an enjoyable way to fill a few minutes of class time, but they also provide great exercise for students’ critical thinking abilities. Though they are often based on unlikely premises, the skills acquired in solving them can have real-world applications.
Let’s take an example to see how this works. Ask your students the following teaser – you might want to set a time limit and have them write their answers down to put some added pressure on:
A rooster sits on a barn and is facing west. The wind is blowing eastward at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. The rooster lays an egg. Which cardinal direction does the egg roll?
The answer is, of course, that there is no egg. Roosters are male and therefore can’t lay eggs.
One of the reasons why so many will get this simple teaser wrong is that despite knowing that a rooster is a male chicken, they overlook it due to the casualness with which it’s thrown into the teaser.
The other reason is the misdirection caused by the quite meticulous detail provided. Students are likely to pay too much attention to the details such as the speed of the wind, its direction, and the direction of the rooster is facing.
All these irrelevant details distract the students from the fact that the only information required to solve this teaser is provided by the 2nd word of the riddle.
There are numerous brain teasers freely available on the Internet. Weaving them into your lessons gives students opportunities to sharpen their critical thinking skills by sorting relevant from irrelevant details and encouraging students to analyze closely the relevant details provided.
Build the Habit and Become a Critical Thinker
In this article, we have taken a look at some concrete ways to practice critical thinking skills in the classroom. However, becoming a critical thinker is much more about developing consistent critical thinking habits in our approach to ideas and opinions.
To help your students develop these habits, be sure to encourage intellectual curiosity in the classroom. Ask students to examine their own assumptions and evaluate these in light of opposing opinions and available evidence.
Create opportunities in your lessons to explore advertisements and even political statements together. Fight the urge to impart your own beliefs and biases in favor of allowing students to determine the credibility of the sources themselves. Encourage them to draw their own conclusions.
Consistently insist that your students provide evidence to support their conclusions when they express opinions in classroom discussions.
In time, the habit of critical thinking will inform how your students approach any new information that they come across. This will leave them better able to think clearly and systematically and better able to express themselves coherently too.
Create opportunities in your lessons to explore advertisements and even political statements together. Fight the urge to impart your own beliefs and biases in favor of allowing students to determine the credibility of the sources themselves. Encourage them to draw their conclusions.
Fostering Future Thinkers: 10 Dynamic Strategies for Cultivating Critical Thinking in the Classroom
- Socratic Questioning: Encourage students to engage in thoughtful discussions by employing Socratic questioning. This method involves asking open-ended questions that prompt deeper exploration of concepts, helping students develop analytical and reasoning skills.
- Real-World Problem-Solving: Integrate real-world problems into the curriculum, allowing students to apply critical thinking skills to authentic situations. This hands-on approach fosters practical problem-solving abilities and encourages creativity.
- Debate and Discussion: Organize debates and class discussions to expose students to diverse perspectives. This not only enhances their critical thinking but also teaches them how to construct persuasive arguments and consider alternative viewpoints.
- Case Studies: Utilize case studies from various fields to present complex scenarios. This challenges students to analyze information, identify key issues, and propose effective solutions, fostering critical thinking within specific contexts.
- Critical Reading and Writing: Emphasize critical reading and writing skills. Encourage students to analyze texts, identify main arguments, evaluate evidence, and express their thoughts coherently in writing. This enhances both analytical and communication skills.
- Concept Mapping: Introduce concept mapping as a visual tool to help students organize thoughts and relationships between ideas. This technique enhances their ability to see the bigger picture and understand the interconnectedness of concepts.
- Problem-Based Learning (PBL): Implement problem-based learning approaches, where students work collaboratively to solve complex problems. This method promotes critical thinking, teamwork, and the application of knowledge to real-world situations.
- Cognitive Dissonance Activities: Engage students in activities that provoke cognitive dissonance, challenging their existing beliefs or assumptions. This discomfort encourages critical examination and reflection, leading to intellectual growth.
- Metacognition Development: Foster metacognition by prompting students to reflect on their thinking processes. Encourage them to analyze how they approach problems, make decisions, and solve challenges, promoting self-awareness and self-correction.
- Role-Playing Scenarios: Create role-playing scenarios that require students to step into different perspectives or roles. This immersive approach encourages empathy, perspective-taking, and the ability to analyze situations from multiple viewpoints, enhancing overall critical thinking skills.
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Critical Thinking: A Guide For The Classroom And Beyond
“Clear, critical thinking should be at the heart of every discipline in school and a cultivated habit outside it too.” – Sir Ken Robinson
One of the great responsibilities for educators is to prepare students for the future in a complex and ever-changing world. As society and employment opportunities evolve, there is a greater need to develop 21st-century skills , such as critical thinking .
As an experienced educator, I understand the need to adapt to new challenges and equip students with the tools they need to navigate life beyond the classroom. This has become especially important during these uncertain times of the global pandemic.
The pandemic has placed further pressure on educators to adapt to new ways of working which also requires some critical thinking of their own.
This article will guide you through the fundamentals of Critical Thinking and provide tried and tested methods to use in your classroom and everyday life.
Critical Thinking Quick Guide:
- What is Critical Thinking?
Analytical Thinking vs Critical Thinking
Developing thinking skills, critical thinking in the classroom, critical thinking activities, critical thinking practice, barriers to critical thinking, food for thought, what is critical thinking.
“Critical thinking can be defined in a number of different ways consistent with each other, we should not put a lot of weight on any one definition. Definitions are at best scaffolding for the mind. With this qualification in mind, here is a bit of scaffolding: critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better . ” – Richard Paul, author of Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World.
There is often a misconception that critical thinking is a negative process to disprove something. It would be more constructive to consider it as a means of putting an idea into perspective and seeing the bigger picture.
Critical thinking provides an opportunity to analyze and reflect on ideas. It also enables you to suspend past assumptions and self-doubt.
Analytical Thinking is a linear process which allows you to break down and review complex information. This type of thinking uses reasoning and logic to analyze the information presented, identify patterns and trends, and present facts and evidence.
Critical Thinking includes an element of analytical thinking but goes much further. It’s a more holistic process that results in a judgement of the validity of information using other sources. Critical thinking requires a detailed evaluation of the information. You should check for accuracy, any bias or assumptions, assess the conclusions and whether the evidence supports the conclusion.
Both of these skill sets should be developed to allow greater depth of thinking.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
When developing an academic curriculum, educators often refer to Bloom’s taxonomy – a model used to classify learning objectives. Within this model, thinking skills are categorized into lower and higher order thinking skills:
Lower order thinking skills – knowledge, comprehension and application Higher order thinking skills – analysis, synthesis and evaluation
The higher order thinking skills that students need for critical thinking can be assessed using a number of criteria:
- Use of information
- Questioning abilities
- Aptitude for communication and collaboration
- Ability to keep an open mind
- Ability to draw conclusions
- Self-awareness
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, it is a good starting point for identifying learning outcomes and developing specific skills.
There are many tools that students can use to support their learning, such as interactive resources, social media and discussion groups to share thoughts and opinions. Connecting to others and the world around us can also help us to develop a greater understanding of ourselves.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
“ How do you know that? ”
These two simple questions formed the basis of many interactions with students in my classroom, regardless of age or subject matter. When a student gave an answer to a question, I would ask one of these questions to encourage them to elaborate on their response. My students knew that I didn’t just want an answer but for them to demonstrate how they had arrived at the answer; I was interested in their critical thinking skills. Students would then consider if there were other ways to arrive at the same conclusion or whether there were alternative answers. They were also encouraged to ask their own questions to probe deeper into their thinking.
This simple resource can help students reflect and question their own thinking and ultimately develop their independent thinking skills for future learning.
Whilst this is just one anecdotal example to enhance critical thinking, there are many effective activities that you can use in the classroom with your students.
Continuum Line: Give students a key statement and a continuum line with ‘Always’ at one end and ‘Never’ at the other end. Students should determine where they would place themselves on the line and provide reasoning for their decisions. This task generates discussion and debate around the key statement. Some students may decide to change their position of the line throughout the course of the debate but persuasion is not the aim here. The purpose of the task is to elicit a range of viewpoints around the statement to support critical thinking.
Silent Debate: Set a number of written statements on large pieces of paper around the classroom. Students are then asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement. They should add their reasoning and also be encouraged to add to the ideas of others. This alternative to the traditional oral debate encourages everyone to contribute at the same time and promotes collaboration. It can be particularly effective for quieter class members.
Fact or Opinion?: Ask students to identify the facts and opinions within authentic articles or editorials. Encourage them to analyze the language and explain how they can distinguish the evidence from their beliefs.
All of these activities can be easily adapted from the classroom to online platforms such as Trello or Zoom breakouts rooms.
Check out this Critical Thinking Workbook for more examples.
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact; everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” – Marcus Aurelius.
In critical thinking, it is important not to willfully accept the all information presented. Question assumptions and ideas to determine whether or not you are seeing the bigger picture. ‘Fake News’ is a prime example of this.
Try these tips to hone your skills:
- Identify inconsistencies, errors, and omissions
- Find and understand links between ideas
- Develop systematic ways of solving problems
- Recognize problems before building any arguments
- Foster your curiosity – is there something else that hasn’t been explored?
A Closed Mind Everyone has opinions and their own perspective on some issues. If your bias is so strong that you are unwilling to consider any other perspectives, this leads to closed-mindedness. Your bias may be based on research outcomes that you consider unlikely to change. But critical thinkers know that even the basis of some knowledge can change over time. Check your assumptions to apply critical thinking.
Misunderstanding The Truth Or Facts We may occasionally accept beliefs presumed to be true but have little evidence to justify them. To demonstrate critical thinking, it’s crucial to distinguish facts from beliefs and to dig deeper by evaluating the "facts" and how much evidence there is to validate them.
Trusting Your Instincts When you trust your gut instincts, this is largely based on sensing or feeling. Using intuitive judgment is actually the last thing you should do if you want to demonstrate critical thinking, as you are less likely to question your assumptions or bias.
Lack Of Knowledge This barrier could be two-fold. Firstly, you may lack the knowledge and understanding of the higher-order skills required for critical thinking. Secondly, you may lack knowledge of the topic you need to evaluate. Recognizing this lack of understanding and carrying out research to close the knowledge gap will help to reduce the barrier.
Lack Of Effort Recognizing that critical thinking is not necessarily over-thinking is significant to removing this barrier. Even if you have developed the necessary skills, it is important to have the willingness to engage in the process of critical thinking.
Overcoming these barriers will help you to:
- Reinforce your problem-solving skills
- Boost your creativity
- Encourage curiosity
- Foster independence
- Develop your range of skills
- Provide you with a skill for life
Have you been evaluating the information presented in this guide?
Did you find yourself challenging or agreeing with points that have been raised?
Have you considered alternative ideas or new ways of thinking?
Are you think differently after reading this article?
If the answer is YES , you are already on the path to Critical Thinking!
Join us for more discussions at Aristotle’s Café .
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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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April 1, 2022
Building Stronger Critical Thinking Skills With Mysteries
Who doesn’t love mysteries? They spark our curiosity, leave us eager to learn the answers, and make us feel proud when we figure out a piece of the puzzle. Mysteries are especially popular with kids; there’s a reason why there are so many book series and pieces of media about kids and teenagers who solve mysteries without help from adults.
The good news is that mysteries can also be an excellent educational tool. When boiled down to the essentials, mysteries pose a question, and sleuths find an answer. This is the same principle used in math, science, and even reading comprehension. When educators incorporate the mystery genre into their teaching, they can boost students’ critical thinking skills in a way that is fun and engaging.
Classroom Activities for Critical Thinking With Mysteries
So, how do you incorporate mysteries into your classroom? One of the most popular ways is through classroom games. Set up mysteries for students to solve, pair up investigative teams, or explore practices like evidence collection and interpretation. You can also incorporate programs or lesson plans themed around mysteries. Some ideas that you can work into your classroom include:
- Fingered Felons. Create a mystery to solve in your own classroom. Hide a “stolen object,” and then have students determine how to find clues that would lead them to the culprit. You can help them make their own fingerprints with the use of tape, paper, and a No. 2 pencil. Then bring the stolen object back, and encourage them to match the fingerprints found on it to the samples collected; they will do this by analyzing unique fingerprint patterns and shapes. Use the Touch N Go website to show kids the different fingerprint patterns. This is a great game for Grades 3 to 8.
- Mysteries in the Bag. Bring in a bag of random items. Together, with the rest of the class, come up with a story that includes every item in that bag. From there, formulate a mystery that asks, “Who, what, when, where, and why?” It’s a backwards way of forming a mystery, but it will help boost students’ creativity and critical thinking.
- History’s Mysteries. History’s Mysteries was a program on the History Channel that covered some of the mysteries and strange occurrences throughout history, including the Salem witch trials, alchemy, the Bible, and famous court cases. Have your middle or high school class research and propose mysteries of the past that History’s Mysteries could use as a theme if the show were still on the air.
- Secret Agent Stan. Secret Agent Stan is an old gumshoe who now works for a national crime solving organization and is having a difficult time adjusting. Recently, he lost his ID number. Using his log from past cases, students from Grades 3-8 can help figure out Stan’s new ID before he gets in trouble with his supervisor.
- Whodunnit? This is an excellent lesson plan to get elementary students invested in mysteries. It begins with language arts: read a mystery with your class, and discuss the different elements of the mystery: the crime, the clues, the suspects, the sleuths, and the reveals. From there, assign students to write their own mysteries. Once that’s finished, students can incorporate forensic science by making pieces of evidence like lip prints and shoe tracks.
- Murder Mystery. Engage your students at any age by allowing them to solve a murder mystery. Write out an introduction to the scene of the crime, and come up with clues. Give each student one clue, which they will then share with the class in order to collaborate in solving the mystery. You can break them up into groups and reorder the groups until each student has heard every clue. However, the students will be the ones to lead this game, working together to interpret the clues and solve the mystery.
Why Critical Thinking Matters
It’s probable that only a small percentage of your students — if any — will grow up to become detectives who solve their own mysteries. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t benefit from these mystery activities in the classroom. Critical thinking is an invaluable skill that can equip students for just about any career path, as well as help them navigate through daily life. It can be taught on some level in almost any grade and has innumerable benefits. Just a few of those benefits include:
- Deeper learning. Critical thinking encourages reflective reasoning and stronger analytical skills. Simply put, it helps students get more out of the classroom material. They’re better able to understand, and reading comprehension is likely to rise with higher critical thinking.
- Internally motivated problem solvers. As your students’ critical thinking grows, they will begin to see the world around them as a puzzle in some ways. They will constantly be on the lookout for creative solutions to problems. These problem-solving and nuanced evaluation skills will serve them in almost every aspect of their lives, as will the self-discipline that comes with this type of motivation.
- Academic achievement. When students strengthen their critical thinking skills, what they’re doing at the most basic level is developing their core reasoning. This is essential to their understanding of the material the teacher presents in class. Students with strengthened critical thinking tend to perform better in academic settings.
- Increased creativity. Critical thinking is thinking deeply, considering elements of a problem that might not be immediately obvious or may seem a little out of the box. Creativity functions in much the same way. So, it’s no wonder that critical thinking boosts creativity, whether for a future career or just for a hobby.
- Future success. Critical thinking prepares students to think more deeply and more strategically in a way that will help them in their future career path. Beyond just work, critical thinking can also help them navigate relationships and life decisions they will have to make long after they leave school.
Mysteries can be a fun game, a puzzle for students to solve. The more they solve those puzzles, however, the stronger their critical thinking will become. And the stronger their critical thinking, the more prepared they’ll be to tackle real-life puzzles.
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Critical thinking: a practical group exercise for the classroom
by Open Minds Foundation | Critical Thinking Featured , Uncategorized
Tackling the challenge of classroom groupthink
One of the core challenges of working with young people is how to manage the problem of groupthink . As you might expect, groupthink occurs in a group of people and usually stems from a desire not to upset the balance of the group, or draw attention to your own thoughts or potentially outlier opinions. The result is a conclusion that is drawn and agreed by group consensus without critical reasoning or proper evaluation of the problem.
At best, groupthink can result in a homogenous, narrow-minded opinion; at worst, it can foster extreme and downright dangerous views that go unchallenged. Young people are particularly at risk from groupthink, because their thoughts and opinions are less engrained than their adult counterparts, and it is easy to adopt group consensus, bow to peer pressure , or just go along with their friends. In the positive, they are also however highly receptive to changing their views, and can be challenged in their thinking with positive consequences.
Demonstrating groupthink: a practical exercise to foster critical thinking
We were delighted to come across an excellent exercise for actively demonstrating groupthink to a group of young people. Exploring the topic of the Salem Witch Trials, before introducing the concept of groupthink the exercise is as follows:
- Step 1: Explain to the group that each person in the group will be given a ‘role’ of either a witch, villager, or witch hunter.
- Step 2: Ask the group to question their fellow students to identify witches. Ask them to form groups that do not include a witch, but may include either villagers or witch hunters. Advise them that the largest group in the room that forms without a witch will be the winner.
- Step 3: Privately provide roles to each student, but ONLY assign the role of villager or witch hunter. No witches.
- Step 4: Give the students a set period of time to identify witches, form groups and complete the challenge.
- Step 5: Ask the witches to reveal themselves. As no witches have been assigned, no one should step forward.
During step 4, teachers are likely to see demonstrable evidence of groupthink, in addition to a number of other coercive control issues, with some individuals dominating conversation, and suspicions and alliances arising. Students will experience the realities of groupthink and coercive control, making it easier for the teacher to evidence.
During step 5, the teacher is likely to be met with incredulity. Perhaps accusation that the game has been played wrong, or that certain individuals were definitely witches. At this stage, the teacher can introduce the concept of groupthink and coercive control, as well as critical thinking and questioning what they know. After all, were there really witches at the Salem witch trials, or was it just a case of people believing the bias they’d been told?
Use with caution: this should be delivered as a facilitated discussion led by a qualified teacher or professional. Students should be encouraged to embrace the roles they are given, but should be moderated and mediated if required.
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Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom and Beyond
Teaching Strategies
Becoming a critical thinker isn’t an unreachable goal. As Arthur Aufderheide, the Mummy Doctor, once said, “All knowledge is connected to all other knowledge. The fun is in making the connections.”
What does that have to do with critical thinking? Everything! Critical thinking is taking our natural curiosity and making meaningful connections. We solve problems daily, and critical thinking plays an essential role in the process. Observing, analyzing, and maybe even failing as we process solutions to life’s everyday puzzles is necessary. Critical thinking isn’t about acting on your beliefs. It extends to reasoning, communication, reflection, and action.
With roots dating back to the mid-late 20th century , the term "critical thinking" has evolved through the years. It takes discipline to critically think because it requires questioning, open-mindedness, and problem-solving skills . Developing critical thinking skills in students is vital to success in all content areas and extracurricular activities.
What does critical thinking look like in the classroom?
Critical thinking in the classroom looks like examining and brainstorming. It’s a fearlessness to analyze, test, and even reject ideas. It’s metacognition , which is simply thinking about thinking. Critical thinking happens when teachers ask thought-provoking questions and resist the urge to generate ideas for students.
What can teachers do to foster critical thinking?
- Ask questions without one specific answer to find.
- Allow students to explain their thinking with pictures, numbers, or words.
- Support the productive struggle .
- Brainstorm as a whole class so that students hear the thoughts of others.
- Compare and contrast! Get students to recognize and understand different sides to one issue.
- Make connections to prior knowledge.
- Encourage students to dig deeper by considering and analyzing alternatives to their first reactions and answers.
- Have students explain why they chose to do tasks in certain ways.
- Share helpful processes to try when things seem tricky. Invite students to give their tips.
- Provide opportunities for students to gather and evaluate information .
- Don’t stop when an assignment is over. Take valuable time for reflection.
Critical thinking beyond the classroom
Critical thinking is one skill that transfers from the classroom to the real world. It’s also necessary for success in academic and professional careers . Every single one of us has to ask purposeful questions and communicate our thoughts effectively. Critical thinking is more than that! It improves decision-making and objective reasoning. It allows us to move beyond emotional reactions to analysis, conclusions, and positive and negative consequences. True critical thinking also involves reflection to see the cause and effect of our decisions.
Critical thinking is one skill that transfers from the classroom to the real world.
Helping your students develop critical thinking skills benefits the whole child. A lot is going on in their worlds. Understanding how to think through decisions is a crucial skill. Set your students up for success with plenty of opportunities for critical thinking in your classroom!
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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.
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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.
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Writing to Learn: Critical Thinking Activities for any Classroom
What is writing to learn.
We all can think of times when we were stuck while we were writing a major project. A perspective we hadn't considered occurred to us, or an idea that we thought was clear cut didn't quite sound as convincing when we tried to put it into words. If we stuck with it, we often found that we could write our way out of the problem, and our thinking became clearer. Sometimes, even, our struggles with writing ended up radically changing the way we think. The challenge our writing posed helped us clarify difficult concepts, to see apparently stale ideas in new ways. This kind of writing is powerful, if sometimes a bit messy as we work to shape our thinking.
"Writing to Learn" is what Writing Across the Curriculum folks call writing's capacity to not just communicate thoughts and ideas, but to actually help structure our thinking. By giving students opportunities to work out their thinking in writing, they have a chance to struggle through difficult ideas and practice crucial habits of thought. Often, writing to learn activities are short, low stakes assignments or activities in class. The most basic activity might be asking your students to write for five minutes on a discussion question that you'll be starting class with. These kinds of activities can be a boon to those of us who have been frustrated by awkward silences when we ask a discussion question and when struggle to get a conversation going. If we ask students to write first, we know they have something to say; they've had a chance to develop their ideas without speaking off the cuff. Furthermore, we don't have to spend the time grading their responses, since their writing immediately applies to the work you are doing in class.
Since their writing is tied to the central topical and methodological issues you want your students to learn, time spent writing is not wasted. It's not something "extra" that you have to struggle to shoehorn into an already busy schedule.
Writing to Learn Activities: Effective and Efficient
Writing to learn activities can be used in three ways:
- As a way of helping students practice crucial habits of thought you'd like them to master. Think about the particular kinds of critical thinking you want your students to perform. Design a low stakes activity in class that allows them to work through that way of thinking. Group work can be particularly effective here. For example, a psychology instructor who wanted her students to understand the role that scholarly literature played in research. She had students write three summaries of psychological literature on a topic they were exploring in groups. Two summaries were on articles on the topic that were in conversation with each other in some way (one cited the other), and the third was on how the two articles together contributed to knowledge about their topic. On top of this, each group member had to pick two different articles, so the group together developed a certain amount of expertise on the topic.
- As a way of "scaffolding" larger assignments. If you divide up major projects into smaller, more manageable parts, you'll allow students the opportunity to approach the process of research and writing more effectively. You'll be able to guide students through their work, giving them resources and advise along the way. Students will be able to pace themselves, rather than procrastinating to the last minute. And, by highlighting crucial stages in the project, you'll be able to emphasize what components are most valuable to you in their work, so that students will know your expectations more clearly.
As a way of bringing students into dialogue. More informal interchange between students helps them to build on each other’s’ ideas, to collectively organize group projects, or to learn how to provide constructive feedback as they grapple with new genres.
- As a way of assessing student learning. Writing to learn activities can give you a chance to get immediate and rich feedback on what your students are learning. You might ask them to write down the point they thought was most interesting in class that day, or what concepts they are most struggling with. You don't have to wait until you grade their major assignments to find out what they are learning and how well they are learning it. In addition, asking students to reflect on their learning helps students to make more comprehensive connections between different course units or concepts that might have seemed as distinct and unrelated otherwise.
Writing to Learn Booklet
Several years ago, WAC consultants put together a collection of writing to learn activities that we use in workshops and share with colleagues. The activities included in the booklet can be adapted to any number of different purposes and contexts.
(.pdf file)
(.pdf file)
Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . San Francisco: JosseyBass Publishers, 2001.
Emig, Janet. "Writing as a Mode of Learning." Landmark Essays on Writing Across the Curriculum . Eds. Charles Bazerman and David Russell. Anaheim: Hermagoras Press, 1994.
Flash, Pamela. "Teaching with Writing." University of Minnesota Writing Center . < http:// writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/inclass.htm >.
Murray, Donald. Write to Learn . New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1984.
The WAC Clearinghouse. < http://wac.colostate.edu/ >.
Young, Art. Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum . 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. WAC Clearinghouse Landmark Publications in Writing Studies: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/young_teaching/  ;
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17 Super Awesome Snowman At Night Activities
Top 10 worksheets to practice writing the alphabet, 19 lively latitude and longitude activities, 9 brilliant activities to practice balancing chemical equations, 28 great teen christmas books, 23 vibrant children’s books about mexico, 12 fascinating forensic science activities for kids, 19 of the best books for toddlers with autism, 20 activities for autism awareness month, 20 enjoyable preschool jumping activities to increase flexibility, 20 critical thinking activities for elementary classrooms.
Introduction:
In today’s fast-paced world, instilling critical thinking skills in young minds is more important than ever. By nurturing these skills, teachers are laying the foundation for a lifetime of learning, problem-solving, and creativity. Here are 20 critical thinking activities that can be easily incorporated into any elementary classroom setting.
1. Think-Pair-Share
This simple activity encourages students to think about a question or problem individually first and then discuss with a partner before sharing their thoughts with the entire class.
2. Brainstorming Sessions
Encourage students to throw out ideas and suggest solutions within a given time frame on a specific topic without judgment or criticism.
3. Fact vs. Opinion
Prompt students to analyze the statements in this activity and decide which ones are facts and which are opinions.
4. The “Why” Chain
Ask students to continuously inquire ‘Why?’ to any given event, encouraging them to think deeply about cause-and-effect relationships.
5. Comparing Perspectives
Given two or more characters from a story, have students compare and contrast their different perspectives on a particular issue.
6. Classification Activities
Challenge students to classify objects or ideas into specific categories based on their characteristics, fostering organizational thinking.
7. Similes and Metaphors
Encourage imaginative thinking by having students create similes and metaphors to describe various objects or situations.
8. Storytelling Circles
Students take turns adding onto a collective story that promotes creative thinking and collaboration skills.
9. Mind Mapping
Guide students through creating visual diagrams that highlight connections between ideas in an organized fashion.
10. Analogy Activities
Students use analogies to explore connections between seemingly unrelated concepts or ideas.
11. Socratic Seminars
The class engages in group discussions using the Socratic method where they answer open-ended questions and challenge each other’s viewpoints respectfully.
12. Create Your Own Country
In this creative activity, students develop the governance, geography, culture, and history of a fictional country.
13. Problem-Solving Challenges
Present students with real-life scenarios and ask them to brainstorm potential solutions as a group.
14. Peer Review Sessions
Students exchange their work and provide feedback on each other’s assignments, fostering critical assessment.
15. Inquiry-Based Science Experiments
Students participate in hands-on experiments that allow them to develop their own hypotheses and draw conclusions based on observations.
16. Optical Illusions
Examine various optical illusions and discuss as a class how our minds can be tricked into perceiving things differently.
17. What Would You Do?
Pose hypothetical situations to students requiring them to think about what they would do in those circumstances.
18. 4 Corners Debate
Assign the corners of your classroom as “Agree,” “Disagree,” “Strongly Agree,” or “Strongly Disagree.” Pose a statement and have students move to a corner based on their opinion, encouraging them to defend their stance.
19. Creating Advertisements
Guide students through the creation of advertisements for different products, promoting persuasive thinking and communication skills.
20. KWL Chart
Use KWL charts (What I Know; What I Want to Know; What I Learned) to encourage reflection on topics or concepts before, during, and after your lesson.
Conclusion:
The incorporation of these 20 critical thinking activities into your elementary classroom can pave the way for the development of vital skills in problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity, positioning children for future success in academics and life beyond school.
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Critical thinking definition
Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.
Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.
Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.
However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.
People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:
- Developing technical and problem-solving skills
- Engaging in more active listening
- Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
- Seeking out more diversity of thought
- Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.
Is critical thinking useful in writing?
Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:
- What information should be included?
- Which information resources should the author look to?
- What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
- What is the most effective way to show information?
- How should the report be organized?
- How should it be designed?
- What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?
Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?
Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.
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5 Critical Thinking Activities That Get Students Up and Moving More movement means better learning. two school friends using the smart board for their project By Kimmie Fink Feb 25, 2020 It's easy to resort to having kids be seated during most of the school day. But learning can (and should) be an active process.
8 Free Math Problem Solving Websites and Applications 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
What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom? This three-part series will explore what critical thinking is, if it can be specifically taught and, if so, how...
20 Critical Thinking Activities for Elementary Classrooms April 1, 2023 // by Seda Unlucay With the barrage of mainstream news, advertising, and social media content out there, it's vital for students to think independently and learn to differentiate between fact and fiction.
3. Play devil's advocate During a robust classroom discussion, an effective teacher challenges students by acting as devil's advocate, no matter their personal opinion. "I don't care WHAT you think, I just care THAT you think" is my classroom mantra.
LEARN MORE Teaching Strategies: A Step-by-Step Approach to Critical Thinking The following process is a useful template for teaching students. When embarking on their research, this template provides a step-by-step process that they can use to structure their investigations.
Ask Open-Ended Questions Moving beyond the repetition of facts, critical thinking requires students to take positions and explain their beliefs through research, evidence, and explanations of credibility.
1. If You Build it… This team-building game is flexible. First, divide students into teams and give them equal amounts of a certain material, like pipe cleaners, blocks, or even dried spaghetti and marshmallows. Then, give them something to construct. The challenge can be variable (think: Which team can build the tallest, structurally-sound castle?
Critical Thinking: A Guide For The Classroom And Beyond "Clear, critical thinking should be at the heart of every discipline in school and a cultivated habit outside it too." - Sir Ken Robinson One of the great responsibilities for educators is to prepare students for the future in a complex and ever-changing world.
Views 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching Critical Thinking by TeachThought Staff As an organization, critical thinking is at the core of what we do, from essays and lists to models and teacher training. For this post, we've gathered various critical thinking resources. As you'll notice, conversation is a fundamental part of critical thinking.
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.
FAQ Why is Fostering Critical Thinking Important? Critical thinking is a key skill that goes far beyond the four walls of a classroom. It equips students to better understand and interact with the world around them. Here are some reasons why fostering critical thinking is important:
Classroom Activities for Critical Thinking With Mysteries. So, how do you incorporate mysteries into your classroom? One of the most popular ways is through classroom games. Set up mysteries for students to solve, pair up investigative teams, or explore practices like evidence collection and interpretation. You can also incorporate programs or ...
Lee Crockett https://leecrockett.net How can learners own their learning with critical thinking activities they'll really love? We've got some ideas—here are some compelling critical thinking activities that you can do with your learners.
Exploring the topic of the Salem Witch Trials, before introducing the concept of groupthink the exercise is as follows: Step 1: Explain to the group that each person in the group will be given a 'role' of either a witch, villager, or witch hunter. Step 2: Ask the group to question their fellow students to identify witches.
Critical thinking isn't about acting on your beliefs. It extends to reasoning, communication, reflection, and action. With roots dating back to the mid-late 20th century, the term "critical thinking" has evolved through the years. It takes discipline to critically think because it requires questioning, open-mindedness, and problem-solving skills.
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 ...
What is critical thinking? It's the ability to: • solve problems • make products that are valued in a particular culture • be flexible, creative, and original • think about thinking • locate the appropriate route to a goal • capture and transmit knowledge • express views and feelings appropriately
Cornell Critical Thinking Tests Gr. 5-12+ Cranium Crackers Gr. 3-12+ Creative Problem Solving Gr. PreK-2 ; Critical Thinking Activities to Improve Writing Gr. 4-12+ Critical Thinking Coloring Gr. PreK-2 ; Critical Thinking Detective
Writing to learn activities can be used in three ways: As a way of helping students practice crucial habits of thought you'd like them to master. Think about the particular kinds of critical thinking you want your students to perform. Design a low stakes activity in class that allows them to work through that way of thinking.
1. Think-Pair-Share This simple activity encourages students to think about a question or problem individually first and then discuss with a partner before sharing their thoughts with the entire class. 2. Brainstorming Sessions
Critical thinking is a key skill needed for everyday life. It should be applied to all aspects of a learner's studies, no matter their age or ability. It's a way of adding perspective, questioning intent and understanding ways of improving. Take a minute to watch this short video. It will help you to understand what we mean by Critical ...
Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement. Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process ...
30 likes, 0 comments - dps_surajkund on February 16, 2024: "Our school embraces the idea that learning extends beyond traditional classroom settings. By inte..." DPS Surajkund on Instagram: "Our school embraces the idea that learning extends beyond traditional classroom settings.