Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Students
 The issue of developing critical thinking skills in students was primarily derived from the work of Benjamin Bloom who identified six levels of cognitive functioning, with each subsequent level indicating higher cognitive ability (Bloom, 1956). Knowledge focuses on remembering and reciting information. Comprehension focuses on interpreting and comparison of previously learned information. Application focuses on applying acquired knowledge, techniques, and rules in such a way as to foster solutions to a problem. Analysis involves the use of critical thinking skills to break down information into parts and understanding how each part relates to the whole. An example would be categorization. Synthesis involves the use of critical thinking skills to form a new and original integration of the whole. This is evidenced by students finding alternative solutions to a given problem. Evaluation is focused on using critical thinking skills to present and defend conclusions by making judgments, testing the legitimacy of the conclusion, and supporting with fact-based evidence. Critical thinking is said to take place during the Analysis to Evaluation range of Bloom’s taxonomy.
To provide the greatest benefit to students, teachers should provide many opportunities for students to engage in the upper levels of Blooms taxonomy, in the range where critical thinking takes place. While most teachers agree that the development of critical thinking skills is an important part of the learning process (Albrecht & Sack, 2000), few have a clear conception of what exactly it is, or how it should be taught, or methods of its assessment. The following diagram (Figure 1) is a 5-step Framework that can be easily implemented in any classroom to develop critical thinking skills in students.
What Students Should Know
The first step is for the teacher to define the learning objectives that describe the knowledge that students will have gained when the lesson is complete. This also serves to keep instruction on track during those occasions when the discussion veers off course. To foster critical thinking skills, these teaching objectives, as well as activities and assessments, should be aligned with Bloom’s taxonomy given the grade level of the class.More....
Student Participation Through Questioning
Questioning is an important component of the teaching and learning process, permitting teachers to establish what students already know and facilitating acquisition of new concepts and ideas. Questions can be used to actively engage students in the learning process by describing processes, contemplating solutions, or defending a judgment (i.e. to engage in critical thinking.) Clasen (1990) has stated that teacher questions have the greatest impact in fostering critical thinking skills in students. He further indicated that the level of thinking engaged in by a student directly mirrors the level of questioning posed by the teacher.More....
Practice What You Assess
In the past decade there has been a major shift in education toward fostering and active learning environment in classrooms. Teachers that have employed this approach generally find that it raises student motivation, especially when the coursework is perceived as relevant by students. Bonwell and Eison have described active learning as involving activities which lead them to think about what they are doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991). According to Fink, students retain greater amounts of knowledge when they are able to acquire that knowledge though active rather than passive channels (Fink, 2003). To make learning more active, teachers need to consider strategies for incorporating experiential learning and interactive dialog.More....
Review, Refine, and Adjust
Teachers should continually seek to refine their lesson plans to ensure that their instructional strategies are moving toward the development of critical thinking in their students. To accomplish this, teachers should monitor class activities on a consistent basis. To keep track of student progress, teachers can keep a teaching diary that identifies those students who actively participated in each lesson activity, and an assessment of their success in terms of student engagement. Reflective comments can be useful when revising or updating instructional strategies. An important outcome of this journal is to take note of those students who are not active participants. This group includes those students who are shy, over-talkative or continuously challenge the teacher.More....
Provide Feedback and Assessment of Learning
Feedback, like assessment, compares standards and expectations with actual student performance to evaluate the quality of work. However, the purpose of feedback differs from that of assessment in that the purpose of feedback is to highlight those areas of performance which satisfied standards and expectations, rather than to grade the performance. It is important that teachers clarify standards and expectations before students engage in the lesson. By doing so, students will learn how to assess their own performance in the future. The feedback process provides an opportunity for teachers and students to engage in meaningful dialogue about what differentiates successful performance from unsuccessful as they together review expectations and standards (Fink, 2003) More.... |
