critical thinking techniques in the classroom

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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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.

• Research Article

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!

ExploreLearning delivers critical thinking opportunities in math and science that are serious fun! Take a closer look!

Incite curiosity and invite interactions in STEM for students 3-12.

Help students 3-5 build deep conceptual fractions understanding.

Give students 2-5 the foundation they need to succeed at math.

Prepare K-2 students for success in STEM with Science4Us.

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Developing critical thinking skills in the classroom

April 29, 2021

Critical thinking skills in the classroom: A teacher's guide to developing higher-order thinking and student reasoning.

Main, P (2021, April 29). Developing critical thinking skills in the classroom. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/what-is-critical-thinking

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is important in every aspect of our lives. It helps us make decisions, solve problems , and learn new information. But how do we develop these skills in school?

In order to become a well-rounded person who has developed critical thinking skills, students must first understand the importance of developing these skills. This means teaching students how to analyze data, evaluate arguments, and draw conclusions from evidence.

This article will help teachers teach critical thinking skills in the class room. We'll look at how to teach critical thinking skills using examples from history, science, math, literature, and art.

Critical thinking has been defined and re-defined by many teachers over the years and it's one of those essential abilities we want our students to develop. However, looking at the breakdown of the term as the two words that comprise it provides a simple, yet accurate definition.

The Critical Thinking process involves the use of the mind to incorporate prior experience and basic knowledge about a subject matter in order to reach conclusions. Critical thinking has a few definitions. In this article we are focused on what critical thinking looks like in the classroom.

We are interested in how we can make more logical and accurate thinking a classroom habit that every school can adopt. To examine the topic of critical thinking we have to look beyond the purely philosophical perspective and explore the latest cognitive science . For example, we now know the importance that knowledge plays in developing critical thinking, you can't have one without the other. Expert thinking is a domain specific skill and the subject disciplines act as a catalyst for enhancing this life long skill. We also know the importance of retrieval practice in developing higher order thinking.

Low stakes quizzing is not just rote learning, it plays an important part in freeing up our working memory to do more of the creative work. If we no longer have to strain to remember the facts and figures, our mental capacities can be put to work in more creative ways . Within the article we will also put forward some ideas about how to promote critical and creative thinking across your school.

Logical reasoning is one of the three main components of critical thinking. This component requires students to think critically about a problem and then apply logic to solve it. Students must understand the difference between logical and illogical arguments and recognize when someone is using logical fallacies.

Why critical thinking is important

Critical thinking is a process that is often viewed as a more intense version of just plain old thinking. In education, critical thinking is a disciplined process that has stuck around for a while now – but how is this coveted skill really different from just plain old thinking? Frankly, sometimes, it's not. The two terms can be used interchangeably, and often are.

Consider a teacher who is urging a student “think harder” or “think differently”. What the teacher is actually saying is: “think critically in order to reach a more complex solution”. We are not always conscious of the multitude of cognitive actions at our disposal, the Universal Thinking Framework addresses this issue by providing child-friendly explanations of the various ways in which we can think.

These can be chained together to create a logical inquiry that any student can follow. The idea being that over time, children begin to develop critical thinking dispositions that cause reflective thinking and advance the mental process. Increasing our repertoire of cognitive actions improves a students decision making process as they are simply more aware of the directions their learning could move in.

We have divided the various types of thinking using these key questions:

• How do I get started?
• How should I organise my ideas?
• How do I know this?
• How can I communicate my understanding?
• What can I do with my new knowledge and understanding?

All of the sections provide teachers with a systematic approach to encourage reflective thinking . The questions that are posed to the learner are designed to break down a complex process into basic skills. These thinking skills, over time can be mastered and understood. Having the different types of thinking available to both educators and students means that logical thinking can be achieved more readily and can eventually become an attitude of mind. The mental actions are accompanied by critical thinking questions . Teachers can use critical thinking questions to promote rational thinking. 

Reflective thinking is employed when a solution is needed, or in school when there is a connection that needs to be drawn between two or more concepts. Therefore, critical thinking is, in essence, the thought processes that result from disapproval of the solutions and connections that already exist, or a lack thereof.

Mental skills or learning behaviours?

School leaders love to see and hear teachers incorporating the idea of crosscutting concepts into their daily instruction. That is, concepts and skills can be used and developed in more than one subject matter, and therefore more than one class. I don't think I have ever had an administrator who has not asked me how I plan to collaborate with my colleagues in order to make instruction more meaningful and applicable to my students' lives.

Upon further consideration of this popular interview question, there should really only ever be one acceptable response to such a question – “I will make it a priority to routinely engage my students in the practice of critical thinking so that they can grow that skill and use it in other classes as well as outside of the school” … or something along those lines.

It remains true that practice leads to confidence and increased ability. Therefore, as students learn what the process of thinking critically feels like for them, they will be able to replicate that feeling by replicating their actions in other classes. When critical thinking is used as a part of the daily routine, it becomes less scary to use that skill when faced with a problem, regardless of the subject matter .

Critical thinking is, therefore, a crosscutting concept to be planned for and incorporated into a teacher's daily lesson plans as well as the scope and sequence of a course. If you want a practical way of integrating critical thinking into your lessons, our mental modelling approach using the building block method might be a good place to start. The playful approach encourages children to organise their ideas and in doing so, engage in critical reasoning.

Principles of critical thinking

Despite its value in all subjects , one uncertainty that educators run into is the idea of what Daniel T. Willingham (2019) calls transfer. That is, whether or not the ability to think critically in one subject or in relation to one problem will automatically lead to similar abilities in other subjects or problems. As Willingham (2019) explains, the research on this idea is not necessarily all in agreement. Consequently, educators are faced with a task that seems to be in flux and altogether unanswered. While frustrating, this is not necessarily a new ask for educators.

Some scholars claim that the ability to think critically in one subject will naturally transfer to all other subjects , which is why it is so inherently valuable as a skill. Others argue that this is not the case, and that is why it is crucial to intentionally teach students how to think critically in all situations and across all subjects. With this quality still largely disagreed upon, it is difficult to know how best to proceed when attempting to teach and develop critical thinking skills.

Do students ever possess a true foundation of critical thinking skills and abilities, or do they regress back to a point of utter confusion with the introduction to each new problem? How can educators make these skills stick for their students ? What do students need to understand in order to be able approach problems from a critical thinking perspective regardless of the discipline or subject matter? How can we train students to recycle prior experience and previous solutions when faced with new problems?

Assessing students analytical thinking

Critical thinking is a high-level goal that educators everywhere strive toward for their students. Many “teacher moves” exist solely to work toward this purpose. However, repeatedly asking higher-order thinking questions in class and on tests, is merely the method that best demonstrates that the skill of thinking critically has already been developed. That is to say that just asking these types of questions as often as possible is not a sufficient method for the true development of this skill.

When we ask higher-order thinking questions in class or on assessments , we are ultimately trying to analyze whether or not students have that ability; or to what level they have mastered that ability. However, it stands to reason that the only way to develop this skill cannot be to simply ask more of these types of questions more often, since this is just the method of measurement. So, the question now becomes - what are the steps that lead up to a student being able to successfully encounter and respond to these higher-order thinking questions that show their ability to think critically? The answer is actually quite simple– continue to teach and prioritize critical thinking skills in every possible situation, regardless of how many times it has been reviewed.

What about critical thinking dispositions ? It has been argued that this ability is not a distinct cognitive skill but a set of critical thinking dispositions or habits of mind. Ron Ritchart talks through the argument here.

If your school is interested in implementing more critical thinking in your classrooms, you might want to start by sharing some key ideas with your staff. Our professional development approach gives staff access to the principles that underpinned critical thinking. We can help educators measure the impact of the interventions in the classroom.

How can we develop reasoning skills?

Notice that in the answer above, the onus is placed on the educator rather than the student. There is not necessarily a numbered universal list of steps to take when given a critical thinking problem that we can give to students as a road map and post as an anchor chart in the classroom. Quite the opposite, educators are charged with the vague task of teaching students how to access prior knowledge and experience and apply it in a way that will benefit them.

Ultimately, if students can manipulate their understanding and experience into a process and application that works for the task or question at hand, they are able to think critically . However, the ability to think critically in one situation does not predict with any real degree of certainty the same ability in a novel situation, especially one that seems more challenging to a student.

One characteristic that tends to make students believe that one situation is more difficult than another is subject matter. Students are not able to generalize solutions that they have already thought through because the subject matter is so different. Willingham (2019) refers to this as the surface structure of a problem and gives the example of an inability to derive the solution for a medical problem even though it is essentially the same as the solution to military/tactical problem that the group had just worked through.

However, since the surface structure of these problems seems so different, participants were not able to transfer the reasoning behind the solution to the tactical problem to the medical problem.Teachers see this difficulty with students all the time across subjects, which means that the real task for teachers to tackle is teaching students how to recognize the deep structure of a problem.

According to Willingham (2019), strong critical thinkers claim that they are able to recognize the deep structure of problems presented to them in their field of expertise, but not necessarily in other fields. This is both comforting and disconcerting for teachers. It is comforting because it shows that it is normal for it to be a challenge for students to be able to transfer critical thinking skills from one problem to another. However, it is disconcerting because it seems nearly impossible for teachers to be able to overcome this barrier if experts still encounter this barrier regularly.

All things considered, the seemingly realistic approach to the task of developing critical thinking skills in students through consistent practice seems to have a few clearly actionable approaches that are also memorable due to the alliteration they produce: collaboration , comparison and content knowledge. This form of knowledge is certainly important in everyday life. 

Collaborative problem solving skills

Collaboration is the act of working with another person or other people in order to achieve a common goal or solve a common problem. In as many ways as possible, teachers should incorporate collaboration into their lessons. Initially, it may seem as though this practice takes away from the development of independent critical thinking since weaker thinkers can lean on stronger thinkers or just more dominant personalities. However, since subject-matter experts are easily able to identify the deep structure of problems within their area of expertise, it stands to reason that pairing experts together who excel in different areas and presenting them with a complex problem will yield the best results.

Of course, in any given group of students, there may not be identifiable “experts”, however, the idea is that the different perspectives and experiences that students bring with them will intuitively lead them to a problem from different angles . This type of natural exposure to different approaches serves to model for students how it is possible to think differently about a similar problem. With continued modelling and wider exposure, students will gradually learn to intentionally incorporate different ways of thinking and to continue to seek out differing perspectives when searching for a solution to a problem.

Logical thinking and careful thinking are often cited as being ways of thinking critically. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test and Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal both claim to be able to measure critical reasoning and critical thinking ability. 

Comparisons and critical thinking

While telling students what the deep structure of a problem is might seem fairly simple, the fact is that telling does not equate to teaching, nor does it always result in learning, especially when a skill is involved . Therefore, one way to begin to lead students to be able to identify and extract the deep structure of a problem is to have them compare.

When asked to compare two (or more) problems with contrasting surface structures, students are forced to look harder for the similarities. While this may be met with resistance and frustration at first, when coupled with the practice of modelling these types of comparisons, students will begin to understand that there are similarities to be found after all, and how those comparisons can help lead to a practical and applicable solution.

Academic Arguments

Identification, construction , and evaluation of arguments are crucial parts of critical thinking.

People often use the term "argument" to refer to a quarrel between people in everyday life. To a logician or critical thinker, an argument is not a statement, it is a collection of statements , with one being the conclusion and the rest being premise or assumption.

The way students attain in subjects is by reading the views of the academic writing of others. The way students achieve in a formal exam setting is by writing the academic argument of their own. So without academic argument writing we cannot learn, or teach, or persuade. One way of promoting argumentation is by teaching students to create argument maps . This practical approach of developing an analysis of arguments means that students can visualise the main points in an easy-to-understand format. 

Domain Knowledge and critical thinking

Sometimes, educators tend to avoid questions and practice activities that can be labelled as “ basic recall ” because they are said to be low in rigour. However, when attempting to develop critical thinking skills , it should be noted that domain knowledge expertise is achieved through extensive knowledge of the foundational aspects and facts of a topic. Willingham (2019) explains that effective critical thinking about a problem often comes from a place of confidence in the subject matter, which is born from extensive knowledge about it.

Being able to see alternative viewpoints, argument with evidence (and spot bad arguments) and avoid faulty reasoning can become habits of mind that are nurtured throughout a students career. Additionally, sometimes a complex solution is merely the sum of many smaller and more routine solutions. There is value in teaching and focusing on content in school , as it breeds experts. When paired with the challenge of critical thinking in order to solve real-world problems, new interest can also be bred for a subject that students may previously have seen little use for.

Five tips for improving critical thinking in your classroom

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

1. Teach Students How to Think Critically

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

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

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

2. Encourage Critical Thinking

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

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

3. Use Real World Examples

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

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

4. Provide Feedback

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

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

#5. Model Good Critical Thinking Skills

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

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

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

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

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

Willingham, D. T. (2019). How to Teach Critical Thinking. Education: FutureFrontiers.

http://www.danielwillingham.com/uploads/5/0/0/7/5007325/willingham_2019_nsw_critical_thinking2.pdf

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Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom: Strategies and Activities

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

1. Ask Thought-Provoking Questions

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

2. Provide Real-World Examples

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

3. Foster Collaboration and Debate

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

4. Encourage Reflection and Metacognition

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

5. Incorporate Problem-Based Learning

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

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

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How to Promote Critical Thinking in the Classroom

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

Empower Your Students with Critical Thinking Skills

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

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

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

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

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

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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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A Critical Thinking Framework for Elementary Students

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

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

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

The Critical Thinking Framework

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

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

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

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

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

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

Countering Two Critiques

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

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

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

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

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

Promoting and Assessing Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a high priority outcome of higher education – critical thinking skills are crucial for independent thinking and problem solving in both our students’ professional and personal lives. But, what does it mean to be a critical thinker and how do we promote and assess it in our students? Critical thinking can be defined as being able to examine an issue by breaking it down, and evaluating it in a conscious manner, while providing arguments/evidence to support the evaluation. Below are some suggestions for promoting and assessing critical thinking in our students.

Thinking through inquiry

Asking questions and using the answers to understand the world around us is what drives critical thinking. In inquiry-based instruction, the teacher asks students leading questions to draw from them information, inferences, and predictions about a topic. Below are some example generic question stems that can serve as prompts to aid in generating critical thinking questions. Consider providing prompts such as these to students to facilitate their ability to also ask these questions of themselves and others. If we want students to generate good questions on their own, we need to teach them how to do so by providing them with the structure and guidance of example questions, whether in written form, or by our use of questions in the classroom.

Generic question stems

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of …?
• What is the difference between … and …?
• Explain why/how …?
• What would happen if …?
• What is the nature of …?
• Why is … happening?
• What is a new example of …?
• How could … be used to …?
• What are the implications of …?
• What is … analogous to?
• What do we already know about …?
• How does … affect …?
• How does … tie in with what we have learned before?
• What does … mean?
• Why is … important?
• How are … and … similar/different?
• How does … apply to everyday life?
• What is a counterarguement for …?
• What is the best …and why?
• What is a solution to the problem of …?
• Compare … and … with regard to …?
• What do you think causes …? Why?
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement? What evidence is there to support your answer?
• What is another way to look at …?

Critical thinking through writing

Another essential ingredient in critical thinking instruction is the use of writing. Writing converts students from passive to active learners and requires them to identify issues and formulate hypotheses and arguments. The act of writing requires students to focus and clarify their thoughts before putting them down on paper, hence taking them through the critical thinking process. Writing requires that students make important critical choices and ask themselves (Gocsik, 2002):

• What information is most important?
• What might be left out?
• What is it that I think about this subject?
• How did I arrive at what I think?
• What are my assumptions? Are they valid?
• How can I work with facts, observations, and so on, in order to convince others of what I think?
• What do I not yet understand?

Consider providing the above questions to students so that they can evaluate their own writing as well. Some suggestions for critical thinking writing activities include:

• Give students raw data and ask them to write an argument or analysis based on the data.
• Have students explore and write about unfamiliar points of view or “what if” situations.
• Think of a controversy in your field, and have the students write a dialogue between characters with different points of view.
• Select important articles in your field and ask the students to write summaries or abstracts of them. Alternately, you could ask students to write an abstract of your lecture.
• Develop a scenario that place students in realistic situations relevant to your discipline, where they must reach a decision to resolve a conflict.

See the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) teaching tip “ Low-Stakes Writing Assignments ” for critical thinking writing assignments.

Critical thinking through group collaboration

Opportunities for group collaboration could include discussions, case studies, task-related group work, peer review, or debates. Group collaboration is effective for promoting critical thought because:

• An effective team has the potential to produce better results than any individual,
• Students are exposed to different perspectives while clarifying their own ideas,
• Collaborating on a project or studying with a group for an exam generally stimulates interest and increases the understanding and knowledge of the topic.

See the CTE teaching tip “ Group Work in the Classroom: Types of Small Groups ” for suggestions for forming small groups in your classroom.

Assessing critical thinking skills

You can also use the students’ responses from the activities that promote critical thinking to assess whether they are, indeed, reaching your critical thinking goals. It is important to establish clear criteria for evaluating critical thinking. Even though many of us may be able to identify critical thinking when we see it, explicitly stated criteria help both students and teachers know the goal toward which they are working. An effective criterion measures which skills are present, to what extent, and which skills require further development. The following are characteristics of work that may demonstrate effective critical thinking:

• Accurately and thoroughly interprets evidence, statements, graphics, questions, literary elements, etc.
• Asks relevant questions.
• Analyses and evaluates key information, and alternative points of view clearly and precisely.
• Fair-mindedly examines beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weighs them against facts.
• Draws insightful, reasonable conclusions.
• Justifies inferences and opinions.
• Thoughtfully addresses and evaluates major alternative points of view.
• Thoroughly explains assumptions and reasons.

It is also important to note that assessment is a tool that can be used throughout a course, not just at the end. It is more useful to assess students throughout a course, so you can see if criteria require further clarification and students can test out their understanding of your criteria and receive feedback. Also consider distributing your criteria with your assignments so that students receive guidance about your expectations. This will help them to reflect on their own work and improve the quality of their thinking and writing.

See the CTE teaching tip sheets “ Rubrics ” and “ Responding to Writing Assignments: Managing the Paper Load ” for more information on rubrics.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the  CTE Support  page to find the most relevant staff member to contact. 

• Gocsik, K. (2002). Teaching Critical Thinking Skills. UTS Newsletter, 11(2):1-4
• Facione, P.A. and Facione, N.C. (1994). Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press. www.calpress.com/rubric.html (retrieved September 2003)
• King, A. (1995). Inquiring minds really do want to know: using questioning to teach critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1): 13-17
• Wade, C. and Tavris, C. (1987). Psychology (1st ed.) New York: Harper. IN: Wade, C. (1995). Using Writing to Develop and Assess Critical Thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1): 24-28.

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How to Promote Critical Thinking in the Classroom

By elearning inside, february 05, 2024.

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

Fostering a Growth Mindset

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

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

Questioning Techniques

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

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

Real-World Problem Solving

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

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

Creating a Physical Environment that Supports Critical Thinking

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

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

Encouraging Divergent Thinking

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

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

Analyzing Multiple Perspectives

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

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

Scaffolding Critical Thinking

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

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

Metacognition and Self-Reflection

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

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

Interdisciplinary Learning

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

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

Feedback and Assessment

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

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

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

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

If you liked this article, check out Higher Education: Using AI to Meet Student Needs . 

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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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Strategies to Increase Critical Thinking Skills in students

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

In This Post:

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

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

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

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

Helping Students Become Critical Thinkers

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

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

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

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

Essential Skills for Critical Thinking

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

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

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

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

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

Ask Questions

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

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

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

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

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

[scroll down to keep reading]

Promoting critical thinking into all aspects of instruction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few other techniques to encourage critical thinking are:

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

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

About Matthew X. Joseph, Ed.D.

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

Visit Matthew’s Blog

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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Teaching students 21st-century skills in the classroom

As a 21st-century teacher, you’ve probably heard of 21st-century skills that are essential in the classroom: the broad range of competencies that students need to navigate our changing world. P21’s Framework for 21st Century Learning places the 4 Cs — critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication — alongside literacy and life skills as essential qualities for 21st-century learners to master.

As transferable “soft” skills, they can be integrated across subject curricula. Despite the name, they’re not specific to more modern subjects like ICT. In fact, educators have been training students in some of these skills for hundreds of years !

Let’s take a look at the most commonly designated 21st-century skills in the classroom, and how you can integrate them into your teaching practice.

What are the 4 Cs? 21st-century learning skills in the classroom

1. critical thinking.

Critical thinking describes the ability to analyze, synthesize, and come to rational conclusions about information that comes our way. Experts have emphasized the need for more critical thinking training in schools.

To nurture students’ critical thinking skills, ask open-ended questions and encourage students to work their way towards their own conclusions. Ask students to question their assumptions , and be open to challenges from students when they question yours!

Class discussions are a great way of honing students’ critical thinking capabilities. Debating important issues — where students might disagree and have strong opinions — and encouraging them to back up their positions with arguments and evidence will turn them into stronger thinkers. There are countless such debate ideas in Kialo Edu’s Topic Template Library !

2. Creativity

Creativity describes the ability to produce diverse and unique ideas. It’s not just important in expressive subjects such as art or creative writing — creative thinkers are able to problem solve and advance innovative solutions.

Help students hone their creative thinking by giving them space to experiment with novel ideas and approaches. A project-based learning approach allows students flexibility in executing assignments, which prompts them to make creative decisions within a meaningful context. When students have more choices, they feel stronger ownership over their learning process.

3. Communication

Students need to be able to express their ideas clearly, efficiently, and with the appropriate audience in mind. Teachers should give students opportunities to communicate across different media and in different environments.

Guide students to become confident speakers and considerate listeners. Class presentations are an effective way of building students’ public speaking abilities. Have students practice their presentations in groups, and provide each other with encouragement and constructive feedback. You can promote peer-to-peer communication during whole class presentations by designating groups of question-askers for each presenter.

Similarly, having classroom discussions can help students to feel comfortable expressing themselves while training them to communicate effectively. Always set up ground rules for discussion, and work to promote a culture of civil discourse in the classroom.

To integrate technology, why not try using Kialo Edu to have online, written discussions? These give students more time to clarify their thoughts and can take some of the heat out of classroom debates on sensitive or controversial topics .

4. Collaboration

Collaboration describes the ability to work collectively with others towards a shared goal. It includes the interpersonal skills necessary to work harmoniously with others or mitigate problems when they arise. Being able to accept and deliver meaningful feedback, and compromise on your own vision, are all key aspects of collaboration.

Group activities with explicit goals, defined responsibilities, and a clear structure can help to foster meaningful collaboration . Consider asking the class to work together to generate their own assessment rubric for a given assignment – it could be for an essay, presentation, or project. Have students consider the problem, brainstorm in groups, present to the class, and deliberate until they agree on the final rubric: That’s all of the 4 Cs in one activity!

The benefits of 21st-century literacy skills for students

Under the framework of 21st-century skills in the classroom, literacy encompasses not just reading and writing, but information literacy , media literacy, and technology literacy. Students should be capable users of modern technology, able to reap its benefits, and also aware of potential dangers around internet security or online misinformation.

To become responsible digital citizens, help your students to identify reliable and unreliable sources of information online. Develop a code of conduct for digital interactions in your class, so that students can build healthy online habits that will see them through to later life.

The benefits of 21st-century life skills for students

Like the 4 Cs, educators have been instilling life skills in their students since long before the invention of the internet! A 21st-century framework focuses on the explicit teaching of the social-emotional competencies needed to navigate group dynamics and personal challenges. These include flexibility, initiative, productivity, leadership, and social skills.

Try to cultivate students’ self-awareness of their own social-emotional needs by creating periods of reflection through journaling or check-in activities. Encourage a growth mindset by emphasizing the process of learning, presenting challenges as opportunities to think deeper about a problem rather than failures.

Sometimes the language of 21st-century skills seems all-encompassing — it’s a pretty exhaustive list! Luckily, educators include many of these across their lessons already. The difference in a 21st-century approach is that it entails an explicit awareness and incorporation of these into a teacher’s practice.

How has your experience been teaching 21st-century skills to your students? Let us know at [email protected] , or reach out to us on social media!

Looking for more inspiration on how to teach critical thinking in your classroom? We’ve got lots of other resources!

Want to try Kialo Edu with your class?

Sign up for free and use Kialo Edu to have thoughtful classroom discussions and train students’ argumentation and critical thinking skills.

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Supplement to Critical Thinking

Educational methods.

Experiments have shown that educational interventions can improve critical thinking abilities and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests. Glaser (1941) developed teaching materials suitable for senior primary school, high school and college students. To test their effectiveness, he developed with his sponsor Goodwin Watson the Watson-Glaser Tests of Critical Thinking, whose descendants are in widespread global use under the name “Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994). He found that senior secondary school students receiving 10 weeks of instruction using these materials improved their scores on these tests more than other such students receiving the standard English curriculum during the 10 weeks, to a degree that was statistically significant (i.e., probably not due to chance). More recently, Abrami et al. (2015) summarized in a meta-analysis the best available evidence on the effectiveness of various strategies for teaching students to think critically. The meta-analysis used as a measure of effectiveness a modified version of a statistical measure known as “Cohen’s d”: the ratio of a difference in mean score to the statistical deviation (SD) of the scores in a reference group. A difference of 0.2 SD is a small effect, a difference of 0.5 SD is a moderate effect, and a difference of 0.8 is a large effect (Cohen 1988: 25–27). Abrami et al. (2015) found a weighted mean effect size of 0.30 among 341 effect sizes, with effect sizes ranging from −1 to +2. This methodologically careful meta-analysis provides strong statistical evidence that explicit instruction for critical thinking can improve critical thinking abilities and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests.

Although contemporary meta-analysis provides a more justified verdict on claims of causal effectiveness than other methods of investigation, it does not give the reader an intuitive grasp of what difference a particular intervention makes to the lives of those who receive it. To get an appreciation of this difference, it helps to read the testimony of the teachers and students in the Laboratory School of Chicago where Dewey’s ideas obtained concreteness. The history of the school, written by two of its former teachers in collaboration with Dewey, makes the following claim for the effects of its approach:

As a result of this guarding and direction of their freedom, the children retained the power of initiative naturally present in young children through their inquisitive interests. This spirit of inquiry was given plenty of opportunity and developed with most of the children into the habit of trying a thing out for themselves. Thus, they gradually became familiar with, and to varying degrees skilled in, the use of the experimental method to solve problems in all areas of their experience. (Mayhew & Edwards 1936: 402–403)

A science teacher in the school wrote:

I think the children did get the scientific attitude of mind. They found out things for themselves. They worked out the simplest problems that may have involved a most commonplace and everyday fact in the manner that a really scientific investigator goes to work. (Mayhew & Edwards 1936: 403)

An alumna of the school summed up the character of its former students as follows:

It is difficult for me to be restrained about the character building results of the Dewey School. As the years have passed and as I have watched the lives of many Dewey School children, I have always been astonished at the ease which fits them into all sorts and conditions of emergencies. They do not vacillate and flounder under unstable emotions; they go ahead and work out the problem in hand, guided by their positively formed working habits. Discouragement to them is non-existent, almost ad absurdum. For that very fact, accomplishment in daily living is inevitable. Whoever has been given the working pattern of tackling problems has a courage born of self-confidence and achieves. (Mayhew & Edwards 1936: 406–407)

In the absence of control groups, of standardized tests, and of statistical methods of controlling for confounding variables, such testimonies are weak evidence of the effectiveness of educational interventions in developing the abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker—in Dewey’s conception, a scientific attitude. But they give a vivid impression of what might be accomplished in an educational system that takes the development of critical thinking as a goal.

Dewey established the Laboratory School explicitly as an experiment to test his theory of knowledge, which

emphasized the part in the development of thought of problems which originated in active situations and also the necessity of testing thought by action if thought was to pass over into knowledge. (Dewey 1936: 464)

Hence the curriculum of the school started from situations familiar to children from their home life (such as preparing food and making clothing) and posed problems that the children were to solve by doing things and noting the consequences. This curriculum was adjusted in the light of its observed results in the classroom.

The school’s continued experimentation with the subject matter of the elementary curriculum proved that classroom results were best when activities were in accord with the child’s changing interests, his growing consciousness of the relation of means and ends, and his increasing willingness to perfect means and to postpone satisfactions in order to arrive at better ends…. The important question for those guiding this process of growth, and of promoting the alignment and cooperation of interest and effort, is this. What specific subject-matter or mode of skill has such a vital connection with the child’s interest, existing powers, and capabilities as will extend the one [the interest–DH] and stimulate, exercise, and carry forward the others [the powers and capabilities–DH] in a progressive course of action? (Mayhew & Edwards 1936: 420–421)

In an appendix to the history of the Laboratory School, Dewey (1936: 468–469) acknowledges that the school did not solve the problem of finding things in the child’s present experience out of which would grow more elaborate, technical and organized knowledge. Passmore (1980: 91) notes one difficulty of starting from children’s out-of-school experiences: they differ a lot from one child to another. More fundamentally, the everyday out-of-school experiences of a child provide few links to the systematic knowledge of nature and of human history that humanity has developed and that schools should pass on to the next generation. If children are to acquire such knowledge through investigation of problems, teachers must first provide information as a basis for formulating problems that interest them (Passmore 1980: 93–94).

More than a century has passed since Dewey’s experiment. In the interim, researchers have refined the methodology of experimenting with human subjects, in educational research and elsewhere. They have also developed the methodology of meta-analysis for combining the results of various experiments to form a comprehensive picture of what has been discovered. Abrami et al. (2015) report the results of such a meta-analysis of all the experimental and quasi-experimental studies published or archived before 2010 that used as outcome variables standardized measures of critical thinking abilities or dispositions of the sort enumerated in Facione 1990a and described in sections 8 and 9 of the main entry. By an experimental study, they mean one in which participants are divided randomly into two groups, one of which receives the educational intervention designed to improve critical thinking and the other of which serves as a control; they found few such experiments, because of the difficulty of achieving randomization in the classrooms where the studies were conducted. By a quasi-experiment, they mean a study with an intervention group that receives an educational intervention designed to improve critical thinking and a control group, but without random allocation to the two groups. Initially, they included also what they called “pre-experiments”, with single-group pretest-posttest designs, but decided at the analysis stage not to include these studies. By a standardized measure, they mean a test with norms derived from previous administration of the test, as set out in the test’s manual, such as the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985; 2005), the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992) and the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (Facione & Facione 1992; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). They included all such studies in which the educational intervention lasted at least three hours and the participants were at least six years old.

In these studies they found 341 effect sizes. They rated each educational intervention according to the degree to which it involved dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. They found that each of these factors increased the effectiveness of the educational intervention, and that they were most effective when combined. They explained the three factors as follows.

Dialogue : In critical dialogue, which historically goes back to Socrates, individuals discuss a problem together. The dialogue can be oral or written, and cooperative or adversarial. It can take the form of asking questions, discussion, or debate. Some curricula designed to promote critical thinking establish “communities of inquiry” among the students. Such communities were a prominent feature of Dewey’s Laboratory School, incorporated as a means of promoting the primary moral objective of fostering a spirit of social cooperation among the children.

An important aspect of this conditioning process by means of the school’s daily practices was to aid each child in forming a habit of thinking before doing in all of his various enterprises. The daily classroom procedure began with a face-to-face discussion of the work of the day and its relation to that of the previous period. The new problem was then faced, analyzed, and possible plans and resources for its solution suggested by members of the group. The children soon grew to like this method. It gave both individual and group a sense of power to be intelligent, to know what they wanted to do before they did it, and to realize the reasons why one plan was preferred to another. It also enlisted their best effort to prove the validity of their judgment by testing the plan in action. Each member of the group thus acquired a habit of observing, criticizing, and integrating values in thought, in order that they should guide the action that would integrate them in fact. The value of thus previsioning consequences of action before they became fixed as fact was emphasized in the school’s philosophy. The social implication is evident. The conscious direction of his actions toward considered social ends became an unfailing index of the child’s progress toward maturity. (Mayhew & Edwards 1936: 423–424)

Communities of inquiry are also a feature of the Montessori method described by Thayer-Bacon (2000) and of the Philosophy for Children program developed by Matthew Lipman (Splitter 1987). Lipman (2003) examines theoretically what is involved in creating communities of inquiry. Hitchcock (2021) argues that the most obvious way for schools to develop critical thinking is to foster development of communities of inquiry.

Anchored instruction : In anchored instruction, whose advocacy goes back to Rousseau (1762) and Dewey (1910), there is an effort to present students with problems that make sense to them, engage them, and stimulate them to inquire. Simulations, role-playing and presentation of ethical or medical dilemmas are methods of anchoring.

Mentoring : Mentoring is a one-on-one relationship in which someone with more relevant expertise (the mentor) interacts with someone with less (the mentee). The mentor acts as a model and as a critic correcting errors by the mentee. Examples of mentoring are an advisor talking to a student, a physician modeling a procedure for a medical student, and an employee correcting an intern. Abrami et al. (2015) identified three kinds of mentoring in the studies that they analyzed: one-on-one teacher-student interaction, peer-led dyads, and internships.

Abrami et al. (2015) also compared educational interventions with respect to whether they were part of subject-matter instruction. For this purpose, they used a distinction among four types of intervention articulated by Ennis (1989). A general approach tries to teach critical thinking separately from subject-matter instruction. An infusion approach combines deep subject-matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically with explicit reference to critical thinking principles. An immersion approach provides deep subject-matter instruction with encouragement to think critically, but without explicit reference to critical thinking principles. A mixed approach combines the general approach with either the infusion or the immersion approach; students combine a separate thread or course aimed at teaching general critical thinking principles with deep subject-matter instruction in which they are encouraged to think critically about the subject-matter. Although the average effect size in the studies using a mixed intervention (+0.38) was greater than the average effect sizes in the studies using general (+0.26), infusion (+0.29) and immersion (+0.23) interventions, the difference was not statistically significant; in other words, it might have been due to chance.

Cleghorn (2021), Makaiau (2021), and Hiner (2021) make specific suggestions for fostering critical thinking respectively in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education. Vincent-Lancrin et al. (2019) report the results of a project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to develop with teachers and schools in 11 countries resources for fostering creativity and critical thinking in elementary and secondary schools.

Ennis (2013, 2018) has made a detailed proposal for a mixed approach to teaching critical thinking across the curriculum of undergraduate education. Attempts at implementing such an approach have faced difficulties. Weinstein (2013: 209–213) describes the attempt at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey, from 1987 through the 1990s. He reports that the university’s requirement to include critical thinking in all general education courses led to the use of the concept in identifying topics and tasks in course syllabi, but without a unifying theoretical basis. The committee that approved courses as satisfying a general education requirement ignored the relation of curricular outcomes to critical thinking, and focused instead on work requirements with a prima facie relation to reflective thought: term papers, projects, group work, and dialogue. Sheffield (2018) reports similar difficulties encountered in his position from 2012 to 2015 as the inaugural Eugene H. Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York. A cross-disciplinary faculty advisory group was not ready to accept RIT’s approved definition of critical thinking, but never reached a consensus on an alternative. Payette and Ross (2016), on the other hand, report widespread acceptance of the Paul-Elder framework, which involves elements of thought, intellectual standards, and intellectual virtues (Paul & Elder 2006). Sheffield (2018) reports that many colleges and universities in the United States have received funding for so-called “Quality Enhancement Plans” (QEPs) devoted to critical thinking, many of them written by Paul and Elder or developed in consultation with them. He faults the plans for having a typical time frame of five years, which he argues is probably too short for meaningful results, since lasting institutional change is often extremely slow.

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A Crash Course in Critical Thinking

What you need to know—and read—about one of the essential skills needed today..

Posted April 8, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• In research for "A More Beautiful Question," I did a deep dive into the current crisis in critical thinking.
• Many people may think of themselves as critical thinkers, but they actually are not.
• Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you are thinking critically.

Conspiracy theories. Inability to distinguish facts from falsehoods. Widespread confusion about who and what to believe.

These are some of the hallmarks of the current crisis in critical thinking—which just might be the issue of our times. Because if people aren’t willing or able to think critically as they choose potential leaders, they’re apt to choose bad ones. And if they can’t judge whether the information they’re receiving is sound, they may follow faulty advice while ignoring recommendations that are science-based and solid (and perhaps life-saving).

Moreover, as a society, if we can’t think critically about the many serious challenges we face, it becomes more difficult to agree on what those challenges are—much less solve them.

On a personal level, critical thinking can enable you to make better everyday decisions. It can help you make sense of an increasingly complex and confusing world.

In the new expanded edition of my book A More Beautiful Question ( AMBQ ), I took a deep dive into critical thinking. Here are a few key things I learned.

First off, before you can get better at critical thinking, you should understand what it is. It’s not just about being a skeptic. When thinking critically, we are thoughtfully reasoning, evaluating, and making decisions based on evidence and logic. And—perhaps most important—while doing this, a critical thinker always strives to be open-minded and fair-minded . That’s not easy: It demands that you constantly question your assumptions and biases and that you always remain open to considering opposing views.

In today’s polarized environment, many people think of themselves as critical thinkers simply because they ask skeptical questions—often directed at, say, certain government policies or ideas espoused by those on the “other side” of the political divide. The problem is, they may not be asking these questions with an open mind or a willingness to fairly consider opposing views.

When people do this, they’re engaging in “weak-sense critical thinking”—a term popularized by the late Richard Paul, a co-founder of The Foundation for Critical Thinking . “Weak-sense critical thinking” means applying the tools and practices of critical thinking—questioning, investigating, evaluating—but with the sole purpose of confirming one’s own bias or serving an agenda.

In AMBQ , I lay out a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you’re thinking critically. Here are some of the questions to consider:

• Why do I believe what I believe?
• Are my views based on evidence?
• Have I fairly and thoughtfully considered differing viewpoints?
• Am I truly open to changing my mind?

Of course, becoming a better critical thinker is not as simple as just asking yourself a few questions. Critical thinking is a habit of mind that must be developed and strengthened over time. In effect, you must train yourself to think in a manner that is more effortful, aware, grounded, and balanced.

For those interested in giving themselves a crash course in critical thinking—something I did myself, as I was working on my book—I thought it might be helpful to share a list of some of the books that have shaped my own thinking on this subject. As a self-interested author, I naturally would suggest that you start with the new 10th-anniversary edition of A More Beautiful Question , but beyond that, here are the top eight critical-thinking books I’d recommend.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark , by Carl Sagan

This book simply must top the list, because the late scientist and author Carl Sagan continues to be such a bright shining light in the critical thinking universe. Chapter 12 includes the details on Sagan’s famous “baloney detection kit,” a collection of lessons and tips on how to deal with bogus arguments and logical fallacies.

Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results , by Shane Parrish

The creator of the Farnham Street website and host of the “Knowledge Project” podcast explains how to contend with biases and unconscious reactions so you can make better everyday decisions. It contains insights from many of the brilliant thinkers Shane has studied.

Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World , by David Robert Grimes

A brilliant, comprehensive 2021 book on critical thinking that, to my mind, hasn’t received nearly enough attention . The scientist Grimes dissects bad thinking, shows why it persists, and offers the tools to defeat it.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know , by Adam Grant

Intellectual humility—being willing to admit that you might be wrong—is what this book is primarily about. But Adam, the renowned Wharton psychology professor and bestselling author, takes the reader on a mind-opening journey with colorful stories and characters.

Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking , by David Pakman

The popular YouTuber and podcast host Pakman—normally known for talking politics —has written a terrific primer on critical thinking for children. The illustrated book presents critical thinking as a “superpower” that enables kids to unlock mysteries and dig for truth. (I also recommend Pakman’s second kids’ book called Think Like a Scientist .)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters , by Steven Pinker

The Harvard psychology professor Pinker tackles conspiracy theories head-on but also explores concepts involving risk/reward, probability and randomness, and correlation/causation. And if that strikes you as daunting, be assured that Pinker makes it lively and accessible.

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion , by David McRaney

David is a science writer who hosts the popular podcast “You Are Not So Smart” (and his ideas are featured in A More Beautiful Question ). His well-written book looks at ways you can actually get through to people who see the world very differently than you (hint: bludgeoning them with facts definitely won’t work).

A Healthy Democracy's Best Hope: Building the Critical Thinking Habit , by M Neil Browne and Chelsea Kulhanek

Neil Browne, author of the seminal Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, has been a pioneer in presenting critical thinking as a question-based approach to making sense of the world around us. His newest book, co-authored with Chelsea Kulhanek, breaks down critical thinking into “11 explosive questions”—including the “priors question” (which challenges us to question assumptions), the “evidence question” (focusing on how to evaluate and weigh evidence), and the “humility question” (which reminds us that a critical thinker must be humble enough to consider the possibility of being wrong).

Warren Berger is a longtime journalist and author of A More Beautiful Question .

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Honing Critical Thinking Skills in the Classrooms

2024, The Star

Asking open-ended questions fosters classroom discussions that include a range of viewpoints.

Related Papers

Stacy E Walker

Linda Murawski

Husniah Sahamid

Abstract The ability to cite reasons, to justify claims and give support to arguments is seen as primary characteristics of a critical thinker. This paper discusses how the ‘Elements of Reasoning’ is employed with Socratic Questioning to develop critical thinking in the language classroom. The principles that guide the questioning are laid out clearly, just as is the response which must be backed by valid reasons, examples, and illustrations, pushing students beyond mere recall and into abstract thinking. It is based on the notion that through questioning, the process that occurs in the student’s mind creates thinking and learning.

Hour Vannak

Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and evaluate information because critical thinkers raise vital questions and problems, formulate them clearly, gather and assess relevant information, use abstract ideas, think open-mindedly, and communicate effectively with others. Critical thinking is a very important skill required by everyone in every setting. It helps them deal with all types of problems more effectively ranging from those inside to those outside the classroom.

Jackie Alan Giuliano Ph.D.

Susan Wolcott

Teachers strive to help students like Forrest, Ida, and Eric develop stronger thinking skills, and we’ll return to their conversation later in this paper. Better thinking and practical problem solving skills are promised in higher education mission statements, course syllabi, and lists of desired student learning outcomes. There are many ways to talk about thinking skills. Terms such as critical thinking, scientific methods, professional or clinical judgment, problem-based inquiry, decision making, information literacy, strategic planning, and life-long learning represent thinking processes. For almost every profession, scholars and practitioners have put forth models for thinking through problems and offered suggestions for making better professional judgments. Discussions of thinking skills can be found in the education literature, too, including the famous work of Dewey (1933/1963) and Bloom et al. (1956). Unfortunately, while teachers are aware of many of the skills they would l...

The Nairobi Journal of Literature

susan wandera

Belgin Özaydınlı

Problem Statement: The economic and social changes in the 21st century have wide-ranging consequences for education systems. To acquire necessary competencies, what learners need most is to learn to learn by reflecting critically on their learning aims. To provide this kind of learning experience, teacher education curricula should be revised to promote critical thinking (CT). Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to investigate current teacher education curricula based on pre- development of CT skills (CTS). In order to fulfill that aim, courses in the curricula, teaching methods, evaluation and assessment methods, and the roles played by teachers were analyzed. Methods: In this study, a qualitative research design was used. 44 participants were selected using a purposive sampling method from the senior classes of different departments in the Faculty of Education. Three main questions including the three components of curricula (content,

The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas

Barbara Thayer-Bacon

Authors: We need to draw teachers&#39; attention to an opportunity for learning that is being missed in most classrooms. Teachers can help students develop their critical thinking skills by allowing them to talk more in class. Yet, we aren&#39;t taking advantage of the wonderful ...

Shanaz Cassum , Shehla khan

The literature reveals that educators find it challenging to foster critical thinking (CT) in their students if they have not learned how to use CT in their educational system or training. This paper reports findings from a national research project that was undertaken to enhance the educators’ ability to promote CT in their teaching practices. Using a randomized control trial design with a pre and post-test, 91 educators from 14 of the 17 schools of nursing in Pakistan consented to enroll in the study and 72 completed the study. The intervention included 40 hours of learning experience during two workshops that focused on CT. Data were collected, pre - and post-intervention, via observations and audiotaping of the participants teaching sessions for 60-90 minutes. The data obtained was assessed for the educators’ level of questioning, teaching strategies, and facilitation skills. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Compared with the pre intervention data...

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Colleges say AI can be used positively in the classroom

Local colleges say using generative AI like ChatGPT in the classroom — with limitations — can teach students skills like critical thinking and judgement.

University policies obtained by the Dayton Daily News generally prohibit students from saying that the work of a generative AI is theirs. Students who use these technologies must cite their sources. Students who are caught can be punished in the same way as if they were caught plagiarizing or cheating on an exam.

Individual professors have been encouraged to use language in the syllabus about the use of AI, but administration of the local colleges and universities have said it’s up to individual professors if they’d like to use AI in the classroom.

In one example, Edison State Community College asked professors to use one of three policies in a syllabus this past semester. One policy banned AI, one encouraged the use of AI but required that it be cited when used, and one allowed some use of AI but said all final work must be the student’s own.

Christina Amato, dean of Sinclair Community College’s eLearning Division, said one conversation coming out of AI in the classroom is “soft skills,” like critical thinking and problem solving. AI can generate an answer, but it takes a human to determine what the correct one is.

“It is a little ironic and interesting to me that AI is advancing those conversations around soft skills such as audience context, the human element of solving problems and critical thinking,” Amato said.

Amato said she found most students are using AI appropriately, especially when teachers have talked to students about appropriate use.

“What we’re finding is that AI usage (in) classrooms and instances in which we would find it appropriate are providing some generally teachable moments for students more than kind of a gotcha and you get an F for plagiarism,” she said.

Amato said it is more about the ability to generate conversation with students on appropriate use of AI, because in some cases, the student didn’t understand the boundaries and limitations of what was appropriate.

These technologies have offered new teaching methods for professors, too.

Wright State University allows some use of AI in classrooms, but requires it be cited when used. It also cannot be used “to substantially complete any assignment or exam,” according to the policy.

Tanvi Banerjee, a professor in Wright State’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, teaches a graduate-level class called machine learning. In that class, she has a “semi-permissive” policy on AI — her students can use AI tools to compare outcomes to what they would write on their own from scratch.

She said she sees AI as a “smarter Google.”

“It has capabilities that can be tuned to make it behave better than Google, but at the end of the day, it’s still a tool,” Banerjee said. “It’s not built in a way that it can be used right away.”

Sinclair Community College communications department chair David Bodary, who teaches public speaking, has shown his classes how to use AI to arrange a speech or brainstorm topics.

“What I’m trying to get them to understand is that they have an ethical responsibility for the accuracy of the information, the integrity of the information and for their process,” Bodary said.

He said he’s still trying to make students understand they must think critically about the speech. While the AI tool could show a student how to open a speech, for example, the student needs to decide the best way to present their topic.

The University of Dayton has also been looking into the ways AI can be used and misused.

“We are considering not only how we prepare our students to engage in a world using AI for their careers, but we also are looking at the complex issues regarding data governance, personal privacy and security,” UD officials said in a statement.

About the Author

Eileen McClory is the education reporter for the Dayton Daily News. She grew up in the Dayton area and returned to cover her hometown.

• Open access
• Published: 03 April 2024

Application of flipped classroom teaching method based on ADDIE concept in clinical teaching for neurology residents

• Juan Zhang 1 ,
• Hong Chen 2 ,
• Xie Wang 2 ,
• Xiaofeng Huang 1 &
• Daojun Xie 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  366 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

209 Accesses

Metrics details

As an important medical personnel training system in China, standardized residency training plays an important role in enriching residents’ clinical experience, improving their ability to communicate with patients and their clinical expertise. The difficulty of teaching neurology lies in the fact that there are many types of diseases, complicated conditions, and strong specialisation, which puts higher requirements on residents’ independent learning ability, the cultivation of critical thinking, and the learning effect. Based on the concept of ADDIE (Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation-Evaluation), this study combines the theory and clinical practice of flipped classroom teaching method to evaluate the teaching effect, so as to provide a basis and reference for the implementation of flipped classroom in the future of neurology residency training teaching.

The participants of the study were 90 neurology residents in standardised training in our hospital in the classes of 2019 and 2020. A total of 90 residents were divided into a control group and an observation group of 45 cases each using the random number table method. The control group used traditional teaching methods, including problem based learning (PBL), case-based learning (CBL), and lecture-based learning (LBL). The observation group adopted the flipped classroom teaching method based on the ADDIE teaching concept. A unified assessment of the learning outcomes of the residents was conducted before they left the department in the fourth week, including the assessment of theoretical and skill knowledge, the assessment of independent learning ability, the assessment of critical thinking ability, and the assessment of clinical practice ability. Finally, the overall quality of teaching was assessed.

The theoretical and clinical skills assessment scores achieved by the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group, and the results were statistically significant ( P  < 0.001). The scores of independent learning ability and critical thinking ability of the observation group were better than those of the control group, showing statistically significant differences ( P  < 0.001). The observation group was better than the control group in all indicators in terms of Mini-Cex score ( P  < 0.05). In addition, the observation group had better teaching quality compared to the control group ( P  < 0.001).

Based on the concept of ADDIE combined with flipped classroom teaching method can effectively improve the teaching effect of standardized training of neurology residents, and had a positive effect on the improvement of residents’ autonomous learning ability, critical thinking ability, theoretical knowledge and clinical comprehensive ability.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

As an important medical education system, the standardized residency training system is of great significance in China’s clinical medical training system [ 1 – 2 ]. In order to continuously improve the clinical medical talent training system and build a talent training system with clinical medical characteristics, China began to implement the resident standardized training system in 2014. Under the standardized clinical teaching plan, residents can achieve the requirements and objectives of multidisciplinary training required by the primary professional title through rotational learning and clinical teaching evaluation among various departments [ 3 ]. The implementation of the system not only greatly improves the professional ability of clinical medical staff, but also effectively saves medical resources and costs. However, neurology diseases are relatively abstruse and complex, with many critical diseases and strong professionalism, which requires physicians to have better autonomous learning ability, richer knowledge reserve and clinical emergency problem-solving ability.

The ADDIE model consists of five components: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation [ 4 ]. The ADDIE teaching theory, as a new type of teaching theory, focuses on the needs and goals of the students. It allows the teacher to be the decision maker for learning [ 5 ], to set and develop the necessary learning steps and to implement them effectively by analysing the main learning objectives of the students and taking into account the students’ own realities. Learning effectiveness is checked through appropriate clinical teaching practice sessions to assess whether the learning requirements have been met, and it helps students to enhance their understanding of the learning content. It not only improves the educator’s ability to teach, but most importantly, the effectiveness of the students’ learning is also improved. Gagne instructional design method is mainly composed of nine learning events, such as training attention, informing learner of objectives, stimulating recall of prior learning, presenting stimulus, and providing learning guidance [ 6 ]. Compared with Gagne teaching design method, ADDIE model teaching method has the advantages of simple steps and easy implementation, and is often used in medical education design. Lucia et al. [ 7 ] used ADDIE model to develop the basic life support course in the process of adult cardiac arrest related surgery. Under the guidance of this theory, it not only realized the technical innovation in cardiopulmonary resuscitation education and systematization, but also had important positive significance for medical education. Maya et al. [ 8 ] developed and implemented the covid-19 elective course for pediatric residents by using the idea of ADDIE teaching. As an effective teaching method, this course provides necessary disaster response and flexible education for pediatric residents. Therefore, the teaching concept plays an important role in medical education.

Flipped classroom [ 9 ] was first popularised in the United States, where people advocated homework to replace the classroom learning format, and has gradually been applied to the medical education business in recent years [ 10 ]. It is different from traditional teaching. As an emerging mode of teaching, it advocates a student-centred approach, whereby the teacher prepares teaching videos or materials through an online platform and sends the materials to the students in a uniform manner before the students arrange their own study plan and time [ 11 – 12 ]. Therefore, this model is not limited by time and place, and students can learn according to their own situation and their own speed. When encountering difficult points, students can also watch the video repeatedly, interact and discuss with other students, or organise the questions and feedback them to the teacher for one-by-one answers.

Therefore, the flipped classroom teaching method based on AddIE teaching concept can formulate and implement the corresponding learning and training plan in combination with the clinical teaching needs of standardized training of neurology residents and the actual situation at this stage, encourage students to independently arrange learning time, and give the initiative of learning to students, so as to overcome the disadvantages of tight classroom time, heavy tasks, and students’ inability to study and think deeply in traditional medical teaching, which has a positive effect on the cultivation of students’ autonomous learning ability, the formation of critical thinking ability, and the improvement of professional knowledge and clinical comprehensive ability. Mini-CEX (Mini clinical exercise assessment) is considered to be an effective method for evaluating the clinical ability and teaching function of residents [ 13 ]. In this study, the theoretical and technical knowledge, autonomous learning ability and critical thinking ability were evaluated and scored, and the clinical comprehensive ability of residents was evaluated by mini CEX method, so as to provide a comprehensive and objective evaluation for clinical teaching results. This study is an exploration of medical clinical education mode, in order to provide reference for clinical teaching mode of standardized training of residents.

Materials and methods

Study design.

A prospective controlled experimental design of research was used in this study.

Participants

The participants of the study were 90 residents of the classes of 2019 and 2020 participating in the standardized residency training in the Department of Neurology of our hospital. Random number table method was used to divide 90 residents into control group and observation group with 45 residents in each group. There were 21 males and 24 females in the control group, aged 23–28 (25.40 ± 2.78) years. The observation group consisted of 23 males and 22 females, aged 22–27 (24.37 ± 2.59) years. All subjects signed an informed consent form. By comparing the general data of the residents in both groups, the results suggested no statistical significance ( p  > 0.05).

Training methods

Both groups of residents underwent a one-month standardized residency training in the Department of Neurology. During the training period, the instructors trained the residents according to the standardized residency training syllabus, which mainly included theoretical learning and skills operation. The two groups of teachers were.

randomly assigned and the quality of teaching was monitored by the department head.

Control group

The group adopted traditional teaching methods, including problem-based learning (PBL), case-based learning (CBL) and lecture based learning (LBL). PBL refers to a problem-oriented teaching method in which students seek solutions around problems [ 14 ]. CBL refers to the case-based teaching method, that is, to design cases according to teaching objectives, take teachers as the leading role, and let students think, analyze and discuss [ 15 ]. LBL refers to the traditional teaching method [ 16 ]. In the first week of enrollment, teachers will conduct unified enrollment assessment, enrollment education and popularization of basic knowledge of Neurology. The second week is mainly based on the traditional LBL teaching method, mainly for common diseases in the Department of Neurology, including ward round, bedside physical examination, auxiliary examination analysis, and putting forward the diagnosis basis and treatment plan. In the third week, CBL teaching method is mainly used to consolidate the knowledge learned through case study. In the fourth week, PBL teaching method is mainly used to promote problem learning and knowledge understanding by asking and answering questions. The learning outcomes were evaluated before leaving the department four weeks later. The detailed process was shown in Fig.  1 .

Flow chart of resident training process for two groups

Observation group

This group adopted the flipped classroom teaching method based on the ADDIE teaching concept. The training content of the first week was the same as that of the control group. From the second to the fourth week, the flipped classroom teaching method based on the ADDIE teaching concept was adopted, with a total of 38 class hours. By analysing the content of the syllabus and the actual situation of the subjects, we designed and developed a characteristic and targeted teaching programme and implemented it, and conducted a unified assessment of the learning outcomes before the residents left the department in the fourth week. The concrete programme is shown in Table  1 .

Step 1: composition of the teaching team

The members of the teaching team included a department head, 10 neurology lead teachers, and two non-neurology ADDIE specialists. The department chair is responsible for overseeing the overall quality of teaching, and the instructors are responsible for the teaching and learning of all students and the assessment of their outcomes. The ADDIE experts integrate the ADDIE concepts into the clinical learning curriculum plan of the standardised residency training according to the specific arrangement and actual situation of the curriculum.

Step 2: setting of teaching objectives

The teaching objectives of standardised training for neurology residents mainly include the following aspects: (1) To understand and master common neurological diseases and their diagnosis and treatment processes, such as migraine, tension headache, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, peripheral facial palsy, Parkinson’s disease, posterior circulation ischemia, cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, epilepsy, etc.; (2) To understand and master systematic physical examination of the neurological system methods; (3) Proficiency in performing skillful operations related to neurological diseases, including lumbar puncture, etc.; (4) Familiarity with the management process of common neurological emergencies, including acute-phase cerebral infarction, acute-phase cerebral haemorrhage, and epileptic status persistent, etc.; and (5) Improvement of the resident’s ability of communicating with the team, collaborating with the team, communicating with the patients and the ability of dealing with the emergency problems on a temporary basis.

Step 3: concrete teaching plan

With the unanimous agreement and unremitting efforts of the teaching team, the curriculum and methodology for the standardised training of residents in the flipped classroom based on the ADDIE teaching concept was finalised. The teaching plan will be carried out in 5 steps, as shown in Table  1 .

Step 4: implementation of flipped classroom teaching method based on ADDIE teaching philosophy

Project analysis.

The final teaching task of this training mainly includes two aspects: (1) To complete all the teaching objectives set above; (2) To improve the residents’ comprehensive clinical ability in the process. Before the start of the training through the questionnaire form of the resident’s knowledge base of neurological specialities for the initial assessment, which helps to understand the current learning situation of the students, in order to facilitate the tailored teaching. At the same time, the main teaching tasks and teaching objectives were combined to analyse the specific form and content of the project, so as to develop a more practical and targeted programme.

Project design

The specific content of the project mainly includes: (1) Admission assessment: after admission to the department, all residents will conduct a unified admission mission and popularise the basic knowledge of neurology; (2) Flipped classroom teaching method: before the class, the leading teacher will analyse and sort out the common neurology diseases and their diagnosis and treatment processes according to the disease types based on the requirements of the syllabus, make a good teaching plan, and study a disease type at a time. Teachers will send teaching resources including PPT, video, cases, literature, etc. to the social platform. At the same time, they put forward the content and requirements to be mastered, and put forward 3–5 questions for students to think about in accordance with the focus of the teaching. Students can arrange their own study time, group themselves and have group discussions to try to solve the problems, and they can also ask questions to the teaching staff through the social platform at any time. Students can choose to go to the library or check the relevant literature on the Internet to expand their knowledge. In this session, knowledge transfer is completed; (3) Bedside practice teaching: the teacher communicates with the patient in advance, so that the students can conduct bedside questioning of medical history, physical examination, auxiliary examination and analysis. The diagnosis and diagnostic basis are proposed, and the teacher observes and assists the whole process.

Project development

After the teacher has finished the theoretical learning and practical teaching, he/she will ask targeted questions, pointing out what the students have done well and what needs to be improved in the process of questioning and treating the patients. At the same time, specific learning tasks are assigned for different students. Students are encouraged to report to the teacher about the patient’s condition and treatment plan, and propose their own treatment ideas. They are also allowed to ask the teacher any questions or problems that they cannot solve during the consultation. This teaching method is of great significance for students to master the theoretical knowledge of diseases and cultivate their clinical thinking.

Project implementation

Through the teaching team’s development of a specific and detailed teaching programme, methods such as entrance examination, flipped classroom teaching method, bedside practical teaching, and special case discussion were adopted. When encountering problems, students take the initiative to consult the literature and information or solve the problems independently through group discussion. If the problem cannot be solved, the students will seek help from the teachers, in order to practice students’ independent learning, teamwork and clinical diagnosis and treatment thinking ability.

Programme assessment

Students are assessed on their theoretical and professional skills knowledge at the end of the programme training. Students’ independent learning ability, critical thinking ability, clinical practice ability are assessed using relevant assessment methods, and finally the overall teaching quality is assessed, after which the teacher comments and summarises the results of the assessment.

Observation indicators

Theory and skill knowledge assessment.

This assessment includes two parts: theory and skill operation. The theoretical assessment mainly consists of the basic knowledge of neurology and the diagnosis and treatment process and medication of common neurology diseases. Skill operation involves lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, abdominal puncture, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and other necessary items. The theory and skill operation parts were each worth 50 points, totalling 100 points. Unified assessment and grading will be conducted by the teachers.

Self-directed learning ability assessment scale

After the fourth week of training, the self-learning ability assessment form [ 17 ] was used to assess residents’ self-learning ability. The main contents include self motivation belief and objective behavior. Self motivation belief also includes self motivation (5 items) and learning belief (3 items). Objective behavior mainly includes four aspects: making learning goals and plans (4 items), self-monitoring and adjustment (7 items), obtaining and processing information (4 items) and communication and cooperation ability (7 items). The Likert scale [ 18 ] is used for a 5-level response system, which includes 5 levels of “completely non compliant”, “basically non compliant”, “average”, “basically compliant”, and “completely compliant”. The corresponding scores are 1 point, 2 point, 3 point, 4 point, and 5 point, with a total score of 150 points. The level of the score is positively correlated with the strength of autonomous learning ability. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.929, the split half reliability was 0.892, and the content validity index was 0.970, indicating that the scale has good internal consistency, reliability and validity.

Critical thinking skills assessment scale

The Critical Thinking Skills Assessment Scale [ 19 ], which consists of seven dimensions, namely, truth-seeking, open-mindedness, analytical ability, and systematisation, with 10 items for each dimension, was used for the assessment at the end of the fourth week of training. A 6-point scale was used, ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”, with scores ranging from 1 to 6, and the opposite for negative responses. The total score of the scale is 70–420, where ≤ 210 indicates negative performance, 211–279 indicates neutral performance, 280–349 indicates positive performance, and ≥ 350 indicates strong critical thinking skills. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.90, the content validity index was 0.89, and the reliability was 0.90, indicating that the internal consistency, reliability and validity were good.

Clinical practice competence assessment

Clinical practice competence was assessed at the end of the fourth week of training using the mini-CEX scale [ 20 ], which included the following seven aspects: medical interview, physical examination, humanistic care, clinical diagnosis, communication skills, organisational effectiveness, and overall performance. Each aspect is rated from 1 to 9: 1 to 3 as “unqualified”; 4 to 6 as “qualified”; and 7 to 9 as “excellent”. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.780, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.842, indicating that the internal consistency and reliability of the scale were relatively high.

Teaching quality assessment

Teaching quality assessment was conducted at the end of the fourth week of assessment, using the teaching quality assessment scale [ 21 ]. The specific content includes five aspects: teaching attitude, teaching method, teaching content, teaching characteristics, and teaching effect. The Likert 5-point scale was used, and the rating was positively correlated with the quality of teaching. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.85 and the reliability was 0.83, which showed good reliability and validity.

Data analysis

SPSS 23.0 statistical software was used to analyse the data. Measurement information was expressed as mean ± standard deviation ( \( \bar x \pm \,S \) ), and t-test was used for comparison between groups. Comparison of the unordered data between the two groups was performed using the χ2 test, or Fisher’s exact method. p -value < 0.05 was considered a statistically significant difference.

The scores and statistical analysis results of theory, skill assessment, self-learning ability assessment, critical thinking ability assessment of the two groups of students were shown in Table  2 . The results of mini CEX assessment and statistical analysis were shown in Table  3 . The results of teaching quality assessment and statistical analysis were shown in Table  4 .

The standardised training of residents is an important medical personnel training system in China. It is a key link in the training of high-quality residents, which requires clinicians to have not only solid clinical expertise, but also noble medical character to better serve patients in outpatient and inpatient medical work. In recent years, due to the continuous development of China’s economic level, people’s demand for health is also increasing. Neurological system diseases are diverse, and certain diseases such as acute cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, central nervous system infections, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, Guillain-Barré, etc., have an acute onset and a rapid change in condition, which requires neurology residents to accurately identify and manage certain neurological emergencies and serious illnesses at an early stage. It puts forward higher requirements on the basic quality of neurology residents and brings more challenges to the clinical teaching of standardised neurology residency training. Therefore, the traditional teaching methods can no longer meet the current teaching requirements put forward under the new situation and new policies. Only by continuously improving and innovating the clinical teaching methods and improving the quality of teaching can the professional quality construction and training quality of residents be improved [ 22 ].

This study found that through four weeks’ teaching assessment, the theoretical and clinical skills assessment scores of the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group, and the results were statistically significant ( P  < 0.001). Meanwhile, the scores of autonomous learning ability and critical thinking ability of the observation group were also better than those of the control group, with statistically significant differences ( P  < 0.001). In terms of Mini-Cex assessment, the observation group had better scores than the control group both in medical interview and physical examination ( P  < 0.01) and in humanistic care, clinical diagnosis, communication skills, organisational effectiveness, and overall performance ( P  < 0.05). In addition, the observation group also had higher scores compared to the control group regarding the quality of teaching in this study ( P  < 0.001). Previous studies have shown that the ADDIE concept can be applied to the design of clinical ethics education programmes and can be an effective tool for healthcare education, providing an established structure for the development of educational programmes [ 23 ]. Saeidnia [ 24 ] et al. used the ADDIE model to develop and design an educational application for COVID-19 self-prevention, self-care educational application to help people learn self-care skills at home during isolation, which can be used as an effective tool against COVID-19 to some extent. For the sake of reducing postoperative complications of breast cancer, Aydin [ 25 ] and others designed and developed a mobile application to support self-care of patients after breast cancer surgery with the support of the ADDIE model concept, which can provide professional medical guidance and advice for postoperative patients and is widely used in both education and clinical settings. Therefore, the ADDIE model concept has not only achieved better outcomes in the design of medical education, but also played a positive role in all aspects of disease prevention guidance and postoperative care.

As a flexible, targeted and effective new teaching method, flipped classroom method has been studied by many scholars in the field of basic medicine and clinical education. Pual [ 26 ] et al. found that the flipped classroom method was more effective for teaching clinical skills by comparing the two methods of course implementation, flipped teaching and online teaching. Du [ 27 ] and others found that a fully online flipped classroom approach increased classroom participation and adequate student-faculty interaction in distance education, and improved overall medical student exam pass rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, with better teaching and learning outcomes. Sierra [ 28 ] and others found that the flipped classroom method achieved better teaching and learning outcomes in a cardiology residency training programme, with higher acceptance among participants and teachers, and improved physicians’ assessment scores compared to traditional and virtual model teaching methods. Meanwhile, the Mini-CEX method was used in this study to assess the overall clinical competence of residents. This method, as a formative assessment, can not only provide a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of physicians’ comprehensive clinical competence, but also effectively promote physicians’ learning and growth [ 29 – 30 ]. Objective structured clinical examination(OSCE), as a method of evaluating students’ clinical comprehensive ability, understanding and application by simulating clinical scenarios, is widely used in the pre internship training of Undergraduates’ professional clinical practice skills [ 31 ]. Compared with OSCE, Mini-CEX is not limited by site and time, and it is time-consuming, simple and comprehensive. It can more systematically and comprehensively evaluate students’ clinical comprehensive ability [ 32 – 33 ]. Therefore, Mini-CEX is selected as the main clinical evaluation method in this study. Khalafi [ 34 ] et al. found that the use of Mini-CEX as a formative assessment method had a significant impact on the improvement of clinical skills of nursing anaesthesia students. Shafqat [ 35 ] et al. assessed the validity and feasibility of Mini-CEX by adopting it as a direct observation to assess its effectiveness and feasibility in an undergraduate medical curriculum. The study found that the altered method was effective in measuring student competence, improving clinical and diagnostic skills of medical students, and enhancing teacher-student interaction.

This study found that using ADDIE concept combined with flipped classroom teaching method, residents’ autonomous learning ability, critical thinking ability, theoretical knowledge and clinical comprehensive ability were improved. Analyze the potential causes: ADDIE, as a comprehensive medical teaching design concept, mainly includes five dimensions: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. First, it systematically analyzes the specific clinical teaching needs and combines them with the current actual situation of students. On this basis, it flexibly sets the teaching plan, especially with the flipped classroom method, and pays attention to student-centered, This is quite different from the teacher centered concept in traditional teaching methods. This method encourages students to use their spare time to study independently through the text and video materials distributed by the teacher platform to meet the personalized needs of each student. At the same time, students actively explore the problems raised and encountered by teachers, which not only stimulate students’ interest in learning, but also greatly improve students’ autonomous learning and independent thinking ability. Furthermore, students’ collaborative discussion of problems and teachers’ in-depth explanation promoted the formation of students’ critical thinking, improved students’ learning effect and classroom efficiency, and improved students’ clinical comprehensive ability.

Limitations and recommendations

Although this study achieved some clinical teaching value, we still have many shortcomings. First, the limited number of residency trainers resulted in an insufficient sample size for this study, which may have an impact on the results. Second, due to the limitations of the residency training syllabus and policy, the training in this study was conducted for only one month, in fact, the training of speciality knowledge and talent development often need more sufficient time. Third, the study only used the Mini-CEX to assess the residents’ comprehensive clinical competence, and the scale selection in this area is relatively homogeneous, which may have an impact on the real assessment results. Therefore, in the future, we will expand the sample size, giving more reasonable and sufficient time for teaching training and knowledge digestion and assimilation, by using multiple scales to conduct in-depth assessment in various aspects, with a view to obtaining more reliable and persuasive results, which will provide reference for the teaching of specialised clinical medicine.

Based on the ADDIE concept combined with flipped classroom teaching method, this study conducted research in the residency training and found that compared with the traditional teaching method, the new teaching concept combined with flipped classroom teaching method can effectively improve the autonomous learning ability, critical thinking ability, theoretical knowledge and clinical comprehensive ability of neurology residents, and had better teaching quality. In clinical medical education, we should actively conform to modern teaching ideas. On the basis of traditional teaching, we should actively integrate new ideas and methods, give full play to the advantages of different teaching methods, so as to continuously improve the teaching efficiency and quality.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the faculty members of the Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for their support of the clinical teaching programme for standardized residency training.

This study was funded by the National Natural Foundation of China under the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82274493) and Scientific Research Project of Higher Education Institutions in Anhui Province (Grant No. 2023AH050791).

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JZ wrote the manuscript. JZ and HC collected the data. HC, XW, XH obtained and analysed the data. DX revised the manuscript for intellectual content. JZ confirmed the authenticity of all original data. All authors had read and approved the final manuscript.

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Zhang, J., Chen, H., Wang, X. et al. Application of flipped classroom teaching method based on ADDIE concept in clinical teaching for neurology residents. BMC Med Educ 24 , 366 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05343-z

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7 Problem Solving Skills That Aren’t Just Buzzwords (+ Resume Example)

• Julia Mlcuchova , 
• Updated April 8, 2024 9 min read

Problem-solving skills are something everybody should include on their resume, yet only a few seem to understand what these skills actually are. If you've always felt that the term "problem-solving skills" is rather vague and wanted to know more, you've come to the right place.

In this article, we're going to explain what problem-solving skills really mean. We'll talk about what makes up good problem-solving skills and give you tips on how to get better at them. You'll also find out how to make your problem-solving abilities look more impressive to those who might want to hire you.

Sounds good, right? Curious to learn more? 

In this article we’ll show you:

• What are problem solving skills;
• Why are they important; 
• Specific problem solving skills examples;
• How to develop your problem solving skills;
• And, how to showcase them on your resume.

Table of Contents

Click on a section to skip

What are problem solving skills?

Why are problem solving skills important, the best 7 problem solving skills examples, how to develop problem solving skills, problem solving skills resume example, key takeaways: problem solving skills.

First of all, they're more than just a buzzword!

Problem-solving skills are a set of specific abilities that allow you to deal with unexpected situations in the workplace, whether it be job related or team related. 

It's a complex process that involves several “sub skills” or “sub steps,” namely:

• Recognizing and identifying the issue at hand.
• Breaking the problem down into smaller parts and analyzing how they relate to one another. 
• Creating potential solutions to the problem, evaluating them and picking the best one.  
• Applying the chosen solution and assessing its outcome. 
• Learning from the whole process to deal with future problems more effectively. 

As you can see, it's not just about solving problems that are right in front of us, but also about predicting potential issues and being prepared to deal with them before they arise.  

Despite what you may believe, problem-solving skills aren't just for managers . 

Think about it this way: Why do employers hire employees in the first place? To solve problems for them!

And, as we all know, problems don't discriminate. In other words, it doesn't matter whether you're just an intern, an entry-level professional, or a seasoned veteran, you'll constantly face some kind of challenges. And the only difference is in how complex they will get.

This is also reflected in the way employers assess suitability of potential job candidates. 

In fact, research shows that the ability to deal with unexpected complications is prioritized by an overwhelming 60% of employers across all industries, making it one of the most compelling skills on your resume.

So, regardless of your job description or your career level, you're always expected to find solutions for problems, either independently or as a part of a team. 

And that's precisely what makes problem-solving skills so invaluable and universal ! 

Wondering how good is your resume?

Find out with our AI Resume Checker! Just upload your resume and see what can be improved.

As we've said before, problem-solving isn't really just one single skill. 

Instead, your ability to handle workplace issues with composure depends on several different “sub-skills”. 

So, which specific skills make an employee desirable even for the most demanding of recruiters? 

In no particular order, you should focus on these 7 skills : 

• Analytical skills
• Research skills
• Critical thinking 
• Decision-making
• Collaboration
• Having a growth mindset

Let's have a look at each of them in greater detail!

#1 Analytical skills

Firstly, to truly understand complex problems, you need to break them down into more manageable parts . Then, you observe them closely and ask yourself: “ Which parts work and which don't,” How do these parts contribute to the problem as a whole,” and "What exactly needs to be fixed?” In other words, you gather data , you study it, and compare it - all to pinpoint the cause of the issue as closely as possible.

#2 Research skills

Another priceless tool is your research skills (sometimes relying on just one source of information isn't enough). Besides, to make a truly informed decision , you'll have to dig a little deeper. Being a good researcher means looking for potential solutions to a problem in a wider context. For example: going through team reports, customer feedback, quarterly sales or current market trends.  

#3 Critical thinking

Every employer wants to hire people who can think critically. Yet, the ability to evaluate situations objectively and from different perspectives , is actually pretty hard to come by. But as long as you stay open-minded, inquisitive, and with a healthy dose of skepticism, you'll be able to assess situations based on facts and evidence more successfully. Plus, critical thinking comes in especially handy when you need to examine your own actions and processes. 

 #4 Creativity

Instead of following the old established processes that don't work anymore, you should feel comfortable thinking outside the box. The thing is, problems have a nasty habit of popping up unexpectedly and rapidly. And sometimes, you have to get creative in order to solve them fast. Especially those that have no precedence. But this requires a blend of intuition, industry knowledge, and quick thinking - a truly rare combination. 

#5 Decision-making

The analysis, research, and brainstorming are done. Now, you need to look at the possible solutions, and make the final decision (informed, of course). And not only that, you also have to stand by it ! Because once the train gets moving, there's no room for second guessing. Also, keep in mind that you need to be prepared to take responsibility for all decisions you make. That's no small feat! 

#6 Collaboration

Not every problem you encounter can be solved by yourself alone. And this is especially true when it comes to complex projects. So, being able to actively listen to your colleagues, take their ideas into account, and being respectful of their opinions enables you to solve problems together. Because every individual can offer a unique perspective and skill set. Yes, democracy is hard, but at the end of the day, it's teamwork that makes the corporate world go round. 

#7 Having a growth mindset

Let's be honest, no one wants their work to be riddled with problems. But facing constant challenges and changes is inevitable. And that can be scary! However, when you're able to see these situations as opportunities to grow instead of issues that hold you back, your problem solving skills reach new heights. And the employers know that too!

Now that we've shown you the value problem-solving skills can add to your resume, let's ask the all-important question: “How can I learn them?”

Well…you can't. At least not in the traditional sense of the word. 

Let us explain: Since problem-solving skills fall under the umbrella of soft skills , they can't be taught through formal education, unlike computer skills for example. There's no university course that you can take and graduate as a professional problem solver. 

But, just like other interpersonal skills, they can be nurtured and refined over time through practice and experience. 

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all approach, but the following tips can offer you inspiration on how to improve your problem solving skills:

• Cultivate a growth mindset. Remember what we've said before? Your attitude towards obstacles is the first step to unlocking your problem-solving potential. 
• Gain further knowledge in your specialized field. Secondly, it's a good idea to delve a little deeper into your chosen profession. Because the more you read on a subject, the easier it becomes to spot certain patterns and relations.  
• Start with small steps. Don't attack the big questions straight away — you'll only set yourself up for failure. Instead, start with more straightforward tasks and work your way up to more complex problems. 
• Break problems down into more digestible pieces. Complex issues are made up of smaller problems. And those can be further divided into even smaller problems, and so on. Until you're left with only the basics. 
• Don't settle for a single solution. Instead, keep on exploring other possible answers.
• Accept failure as a part of the learning process. Finally, don't let your failures discourage you. After all, you're bound to misstep a couple of times before you find your footing. Just keep on practicing. 

How to improve problem solving skills with online courses

While it’s true that formal education won’t turn you into a master problem solver, you can still hone your skills with courses and certifications offered by online learning platforms :

• Analytical skills. You can sharpen your analytical skills with Data Analytics Basics for Everyone from IBM provided by edX (Free); or Decision Making and Analytical Thinking: Fortune 500 provided by Udemy (＄21,74).
• Creativity. And, to unlock your inner creative mind, you can try Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success from the Imperial College London provided by Coursera (Free).
• Critical thinking. Try Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization from Duke University provided by Coursera (Free); or Logical and Critical Thinking offered by The University of Auckland via FutureLearn.  
• Decision-making. Or, you can learn how to become more confident when it's time to make a decision with Decision-Making Strategies and Executive Decision-Making both offered by LinkedIn Learning (1 month free trial).
• Communication skills . Lastly, to improve your collaborative skills, check out Communicating for Influence and Impact online at University of Cambridge. 

The fact that everybody and their grandmothers put “ problem-solving skills ” on their CVs has turned the phrase into a cliche. 

But there's a way to incorporate these skills into your resume without sounding pretentious and empty. Below, we've prepared a mock-up resume that manages to do just that.

FYI, if you like this design, you can use the template to create your very own resume. Just click the red button and fill in your information (or let the AI do it for you).

Problem solving skills on resume example

This resume was written by our experienced resume writers specifically for this profession.

Why this example works?

• Firstly, the job description itself is neatly organized into bullet points .  
• Instead of simply listing soft skills in a skills section , you can incorporate them into the description of your work experience entry.  
• Also, the language here isn't vague . This resume puts each problem-solving skill into a real-life context by detailing specific situations and obstacles. 
• And, to highlight the impact of each skill on your previous job position, we recommend quantifying your results whenever possible. 
• Finally, starting each bullet point with an action verb (in bold) makes you look more dynamic and proactive.

To sum it all up, problem-solving skills continue gaining popularity among employers and employees alike. And for a good reason!

Because of them, you can overcome any obstacles that stand in the way of your professional life more efficiently and systematically. 

In essence, problem-solving skills refer to the ability to recognize a challenge, identify its root cause, think of possible solutions , and then implement the most effective one. 

Believing that these skills are all the same would be a serious misconception. In reality, this term encompasses a variety of different abilities , including:

In short, understanding, developing, and showcasing these skills, can greatly boost your chances at getting noticed by the hiring managers. So, don't hesitate and start working on your problem-solving skills right now!

Julia has recently joined Kickresume as a career writer. From helping people with their English to get admitted to the uni of their dreams to advising them on how to succeed in the job market. It would seem that her career is on a steadfast trajectory. Julia holds a degree in Anglophone studies from Metropolitan University in Prague, where she also resides. Apart from creative writing and languages, she takes a keen interest in literature and theatre.

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