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Critical Thinking In Education - Descargar como PDF o ver en línea de forma gratuita

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What critical thinking is and how it's taught

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What critical thinking is and how it's taught

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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We all agree that critical thinking is important, but there is a lack of consensus about what critical thinking is and how to approach the teaching of it. In this post, we get critical about critical thinking and look at the biases that can affect your thoughts without you even realising!

Some believe that critical thinking skills can be generalised and applied to different contexts and subjects, and can be taught in a generic way. For example, understanding the links between ideas can be applied to any area of knowledge. Others believe that critical thinking skills can only be taught in the context of a specific subject. For example, the skills used with an opinion article (analysing the arguments, evaluating the evidence, identifying facts etc.) are different from those used with a scientific article, where the skills mentioned may not be as relevant as the application of the scientific method - establishing facts after making an observation, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting an experiment and analysing the results etc. There are also those who believe some skills are general while others are specific.

Breaking it down

So, before we can think of how education can help students to develop this skillset, we need to define what we believe critical thinking is and how to best teach it. The general principles are related to the ability of receiving, collecting and analysing information effectively. That is:

identifying links between ideas,

analysing and evaluating arguments,

identifying patterns and relationships,

separating what's necessary from what's irrelevant in a discussion,

identifying gaps in reasoning,

and using these skills to form an argument, solve a problem, or reach a conclusion.

Critical thinking in schools

In schools, critical thinking is mostly treated as a general skill that can be taught in a generic way. The academic load sure makes adding the teaching of critical thinking a challenge, let alone teaching the specific skills for each subject and area of knowledge. However, there is evidence that it's very difficult for students to transfer the skills that they apply in one context to another. This supports the idea that there are different critical thinking skills for different areas of knowledge.

Daniel Willingham, professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, published a paper in 2019 called 'How to teach Critical Thinking', which he wrote for the Department of Education in Australia. He believes that critical thinking is domain-specific - a specific skill related to a specific area of knowledge. He says that different areas of knowledge have different definitions of what it means to know something, and they apply analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in different ways.

So, does that mean that we can't teach it as a general skill? Well, according to cognitive scientist Tim Van Gelder, that's not necessarily true. He wrote an article called 'Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons From Cognitive Science'. Here, he talked about 6 lessons that summarised all the insights he had while studying critical thinking.

Without going into the specifics of the first 5 lessons, he explains that becoming an expert in critical thinking is hard and improving these skills takes time. Additionally, we need to have at least some theoretical knowledge about something to be able to think critically about it.

Van Gelder also said that students improve their critical thinking skills faster when they learn how to present their arguments in maps. Create a visually simple way to see the connections of ideas, reasons, assumptions and objections. This is effective because it helps learners to understand how arguments are constructed.

Critical thinking must be learned

Personally, I believe thinking critically is not natural. We can't assume people know how to get information, understand it, question it, and use it effectively. It's something that can be learned with life experiences and examples from the world around us. And we need to have discipline to incorporate it in our lives. I also believe that we need to have knowledge about something before we can think critically about it.

As for teaching this honed skill, it's important to teach students about common sense, open-mindedness, skepticism, reasoning, logic, generalisation, correlation, causality - anything that can help them to develop critical thinking skills. Students must reflect on how their opinions are formed. They should know how they connect and combine assumptions, objections, and facts to form arguments. And finally, I firmly believe that we can't really think critically unless we are aware of our biases. They can alter our perception of reality, our judgment, and our capacity to make impartial observations.

In part 2 of this blog, we will explore the different types of biases. What biases should you look out for? How can you avoid them? And what does this mean when applied to critical thinking? Be sure to check it out!
Check out the Cambridge Life Competencies booklet, which focuses on this one particular skill in detail. Read about this competency, download lesson plans and watch a short video on it, in Cambridge researcher Jasmin Silver's critical thinking blog post.

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What critical thinking is and how it's taught | Cambridge English

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We all agree that critical thinking is important, but there is a lack of consensus about what critical thinking is and how to approach the teaching of it. In this post, we get critical about critical thinking and look at the biases that can affect your thoughts without you even realising!

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Critical Thinking Activities for ESL Students

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Critical Thinking Activities for ESL Students

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This type of thinking, though, isn't very complex. Recall and memorization only require surface level thinking. If you are teaching ESL to children, teaching critical thinking is particularly important because it will serve them in their futures no matter what language they are speaking. Teaching critical thinking, though, isn't always easy. The following are some ways to integrate critical thinking exercises into your ESL lessons while still meeting the language goals you set for your students.

Try These 8 Critical Thinking Activities with Your ESL Students

1. Ask Questions

Sometimes an easy answer isn't much of an answer at all. Getting your students to think about how they came to the answer that they did will challenge them to think critically, and it gets them using more language and using it in practical ways. For example, in an activity for using the simple future, you might ask your students what they will be doing in five years. One student might answer that he is going to be a movie star. You can ask questions like the following to get your student to think more critically: What makes you think that? What evidence do you see in your life now that will make that true in the future? By asking these questions, you challenge your student to think about his thinking. At the same time, you provide an opportunity for him to use English to express his ideas.

2. Open Ended Questions

In classes like grammar, one answer to a question is usually the right one. But giving these types of answers often doesn't require anything more than memorization and recall. When you can (and it might not be during a grammar lesson) ask questions that don't have a "right" answer and challenge your students to think on a deeper level. For example, if you were doing a vocabulary unit on food, you might ask a recall question about what a waiter says when taking someone's order. ( What will you have?) An open ended question that will challenge your students to think more deeply might look like the following. If you were a server in a restaurant and worked the night shift, how would your life be different? How would you balance school and work? Encourage this type of thinking and expression and your students will benefit in more ways than one.

3. Give a Minute

Part of your role in getting your students to think critically is giving them the time and the encouragement to do so. When you ask a question, giving your students a few minutes to think before they have to answer can mean the difference between a short easy answer and one that comes from serious thought. Doing this is easy. Simply count to sixty after asking a question to give your students a chance to think before they answer. You can also teach your students phrases like, " Can I have a minute to think...Give me just a minute " when they would like time to process their ideas. When they use these phrases, it tells you that they are actively trying to answer your question and gives them the space they need to put their ideas and words together before speaking. In addition, using this technique with native speakers will help those not familiar with ESL students know that your students are not unable to answer their questions but that they need a bit of time before they do.

4. Encourage More

For students of English as a second language, giving a quick answer is often appealing. A quick answer does the job and shows you can use language appropriately. However, a quick answer doesn't necessarily encourage critical thinking. Using phrases to get your students to say (and think) more will help them use deeper thinking. You can say thinks like the following: Tell me more about that. What else do you think? Why is that good/bad/scary/difficult/or not? What part is most interesting to you? Why? Asking these questions challenges your students to say more.

5. Provide Scaffolds

When learning something new or tackling a new problem, all people sometimes need support. You can support your ESL students as they are learning new skills by giving them tools to help them. Giving examples, breaking tasks into smaller more manageable steps, giving hints or clues, and providing reminders can all help your students by giving them temporary supports in a new and challenging task. As your students become more adept at that task, remove these supports and encourage their successes, big and small. In the meantime, be patient and give them the assistance they need to reach success.

6. Encourage Argument

Encouraging argument doesn't mean letting your students go for one another's throats. Critical thinking means being able to make an argument for your beliefs or opinions. You can encourage your students to express logical and reasonable supports for their opinions during discussions and for writing assignments. Doing so will help them think analytically which is part of thinking critically. Have students give reasons or examples that support their ideas, and they will learn to support their arguments naturally.

7. Make Predictions

Making predictions is a tool that is quite useful in the ESL classroom. You can ask your students to take a guess at what comes next in reading assignments (fiction, essays, informational articles) as well as video segments you play in class ( movies, television shows, recorded dialogues). When they make these predictions, they not only have to think critically, they will be using the language skills they are learning. The next time your students are reading a passage or listening to a segment, hit pause and ask them what they think will come next.

8. Take Two Sides

Thinking about both sides of an argument will challenge your students to think beyond their own opinions and beliefs. A simple way to do this is to take a controversial statement and challenge your students to list some reasons in support of the statement as well as some reasons against it. Take the thinking a step further and teach your students how to make a refutation, either spoken or in writing, a skill that is often useful in the academic world.

In some ways, critical thinking may seem out of place in the language classroom.

After all, so much of language learning is rote memorization. But critical thinking can and does fit in the language classroom. Getting your students think more gets them saying more, and saying more is using language creatively and communicatively. Try one or more of these techniques with your students and see how well they can express their thoughts with the language they are learning.
How do you encourage your students to think critically?

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This type of thinking, though, isn't very complex. Recall and memorization only require surface level thinking. If you are teaching ESL to children, teaching critical thinking is particularly important because it will serve them in their futures no matter what language they are speaking. Teaching critical thinking, though, isn't always easy.

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Critical thinking does not always have to involve long, detailed projects! Incorporate these short activities in your existing curriculum to help your students challenge their assumptions, expand their mindset, and experience a class they'll never forget.

Activities

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Critical thinking does not always have to involve long, detailed projects! Incorporate these short activities in your existing curriculum to help your students challenge their assumptions, expand their mindset, and experience a class they'll never forget.

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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In this article, Ana Tatsumi, our ELT consultant from Brazil, discusses the importance of critical thinking, considerations for teachers and students, and shares some classroom activity ideas.

Consider the game "This or that": you will be given questions, and for each of them you must state your preference. They are: a) a rich breakfast dish with eggs, bacon, pancakes and maple syrup or a healthy green smoothie; b) watching a movie at home or going out with friends on Saturday night; c) buying a new car (yours is fine, by the way) or going on a luxurious 2-week vacation anywhere; d) a very demanding, high-paying job or a 9-to-5 more stable position.

Making decisions is something we go through since childhood - from choosing which games to play or books to read to deciding on the best time to buy a house, we all must face issues, analyze and make decisions. The problem, however, is how to do that - and for us, teachers, how to teach it.

Critical thinking is not a fad. In fact, there is nothing new about it. Why then is it one of the so-called 21 st century skills? "To prepare students for this ever-changing and unpredictable world we live in" would be the standard answer, but let's think further: why is critical thinking important?

Before we answer that question, let's start with what critical thinking is. Take for instance the definition below by Tara DeLecce:
"Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments that are logical and well-thought out. It is a way of thinking in which you don't simply accept all arguments and conclusions you are exposed to but rather have an attitude involving questioning such arguments and conclusions. It requires wanting to see what evidence is involved to support a particular argument or conclusion."
Why critical thinking is important

If we take this definition and we try to break down the idea of preparing students for the world we live in, it is fair to say that critical thinking is important in several ways. For one, it helps students observe an object (fact, person, data) from different points of view, like an artist making sketches of a model from different angles, observing every detail, discovering new things at each new angle. That makes them get out of their comfort zone and challenge their preconceptions about the object (or even misconceptions, depending on what they have previously learned about it), and create new, better-informed ones.

Critical thinking also has an impact on students' interpersonal skills. By thinking critically and seeing things from different angles, students become more open-minded and empathetic, better communicators, more inclined to collaborate with their peers and receive and discuss their ideas. Thinking more about students as individuals, it is possible to say that critical thinking helps them develop their creative side by allowing their thinking process to run more freely, and explore more possibilities. It will make them better decision-makers, and with practice, also help them save time to make those decisions.

How students can apply critical thinking

Quick research may show you different ways to do it, but there are elements in common:

1. Identify the question, that is, what you would like to know;

2. Do research on it. It is important that students use reliable sources of information;

3. Apply the information found in your research to the initial question;

4. Analyze it, and do more research if necessary;

5. Draw conclusions, make decisions, prioritize them;

6.Take action and create steps to make your decisions applicable to the initial question.

It might not always be possible to follow all steps in the language classroom, depending on the activity. That should not mean we should not teach critical thinking, even (and especially) to young students. Rather, we should encourage it. It can be as simple as asking "Why?" when someone makes a statement in class, or "How do you know?", or "Where did you see that?". The goal is not to discredit the student, but rather to have them start thinking about it, from different angles, in new ways.

Example activities

In case you feel your students do not have the language necessary to express themselves in English, you may want to have them use their thinking skills by exploring the space they are in. Total Physical Response (TPR) activities are also helpful, for they associate language and movement, and students start "producing language" by responding with their bodies.

For activities that are about the language, you can have students categorize words (good for vocabulary learning), make comparisons, memorize or sequence (facts in a story, names), think of cause and effect, and so on. Not only do these activities activate their thinking skills, but they are also very practical - you can fit them in any moment of the lesson.

If you have more time, you can go through all the steps above as the process for something bigger - a project, for instance. Projects also promote creativity and collaboration in class, for students will have to put their minds together and negotiate meaning, solve problems, and create something that will be the end product of the project. Another possibility is to flip the class - have students do research before class, and bring their findings to be applied to a topic proposed and have an informed discussion about it.

Considerations for teachers

These suggestions may be used with students at different ages, but we also must remember our role as teachers, and the things we should do to reach the end goal, which is to make them think. In that regard, there are some things we should consider:

Start early: it's important to tailor the activity for the children's age, but it is possible to have them use their brains as early as possible;

Do not answer their questions right away: teachers want to help students by giving them the answers so they can move on with the task, but if the main goal is to make them think, you may want to give them time to find the answers on their own. Alternatively, have them work in pairs or groups and try to find the answers together. That is not just an opportunity to foster collaboration, but you may be surprised at how creative your students get;

Ask and encourage open-ended questions: you will foster critical thinking by asking questions and having students think of the answers, but you will also be the model they will copy. Whenever the occasion calls, allow them to ask questions to you and their classmates. That will help you motivate inquisitive students, who may in turn become open-minded adults;

Help students develop their own ideas: we should not expect them to develop critical thinking skills overnight, without any support. Help them with their tasks by providing scaffolding - techniques/strategies to help them move progressively towards their goals (you can help them in their research, organize their thoughts, or put ideas in perspective), so they can not only complete the task, but also have a sense of achievement, which is a great motivator to keep working;

Encourage students to think in new ways: creativity is the capacity to think in new ways, and to see associations and relationships that others may not have seen before. By encouraging students to do that, they will naturally become better thinkers and more creative people;

Encourage understanding and respect: one of the consequences of exercising critical thinking is the development of intellectual empathy, which is the capacity to put oneself in someone else's place and understand their thoughts and feelings. By doing so, students are more likely to become fair-minded, ethical thinkers. In that context, the notion of respect may be developed more naturally, but it should always be fostered, as in any teaching environment;

It is not just about science and facts: critical thinking will not only make students intellectual empaths, but it will also help them become aware of their own knowledge and the need to address different ideas constantly - and through research and reasoning, they shall accomplish their tasks with integrity. So why not apply their skills to discuss issues from other subjects, such as Math, Literature, History, Sociology, or even moral issues, for example?

For more on critical thinking, read How you can encourage critical thinking in the era of 'fake news'.
Reference

Tara DeLecce. 2018. What is Critical Thinking? - Definition, Skills & Meaning. [ONLINE] Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-critical-thinking-definition-skills-meaning.html. [Accessed 6 April 2018].

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Teaching Critical Thinking In The Language Classroom | WoBL

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In this article, Ana Tatsumi, our ELT consultant from Brazil, discusses the importance of critical thinking, considerations for teachers and students, and shares some classroom activity ideas. Consider the game "This or that": you will be given questions, and for each of them you must state your preference.

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Much of what we do in the language classroom is focused on fluency and accuracy. Most teachers aim for students to use vocabulary and grammar accurately, and be able to read and listen with enough understanding to answer comprehension questions. However, language learning is different from other academic subjects, many of which are based around retention of knowledge.

Learning a second language involves a lot more than simply remembering the right words to use. The more that students activate their critical thinking brains, and employ Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), the more they will develop flexibility, confidence and the ability to self-evaluate in the work that they do, making them better language users in any situation where they have to use the language they learn.

Critical thinking includes a range of HOTS which can be useful to language learning, enabling students to develop learning strategies which can help them to work independently and develop in their own ways beyond the classroom and the set curriculum that you teach. Fostering a critical / analytical environment takes students further than simply supplying correct answers to pass tests, or repeating memorised chunks of language which may not apply to their real lives. Here are some simple ways of facilitating critical thinking in your classroom:

Why does the writer use the word '_______' in this sentence?

Why do you think the writer starts the article in this way?

Do you agree with the writer when she says '________'? Why?

Do you think the writer feels positive / negative / happy / sad / worried... by the topic? Why?

What does the word/sentence '__________' make you think of?

Some of these questions are quite high-level in terms of the language needed to respond, but questions about simple tone or feeling, or emotional response questions, can be used with lower-level learners to help them reflect on their reaction (and the author's feeling) about the writing. This takes the student out of the traditional understanding / comprehending / answering factual questions from the text that may restrict their thinking as they read.

Get students deducing meaning from context

More critical/analytical approaches to vocabulary can help students to develop independent strategies for dealing with new words without constant support. The skill of deducing meaning based on language clues is an invaluable skill for anyone using a second language, and a skills which can be developed in the classroom. All that is needed are some ways of spotting the clues in a new word, sentence or paragraph, which can reveal different aspects of meaning:

At word level, a lot of meaning can be deduced from prefixes, suffixes and stems. By getting students to identify the stem meaning of a word, then applying prefixes and suffixes, they will be surprised at how they can decode new meanings more easily, as in:

Undeniable = prefix: un- + stem: -deny- + suffix: -able

If a student knows the word 'deny', they can build the meaning of

un- (not) + -deny- (refuse) + -able (be able to)

In sentence examples, clues to meaning (contextual clues) can be designed and added in to help students deduce new meanings, as in:

Janine was happy, but Bob was miserable

The key clue here comes from the contrast marker 'but' - if students know the meaning of happy, and they know that 'but' is followed by a contrasting idea, then they can deduce that 'miserable' means 'unhappy', even if they have never seen the word before.

Presenting vocabulary in a sentence context like this takes students beyond the level of single word meanings, and gets them using other information around a new word to think critically and engage with meaning in different ways. By teaching your students the skill of deducing meaning, you can save a lot of time teaching new words one by one, and get them working with different examples on their own, or working with a partner.

Another way of developing higher-order skills is by focusing students on the processes that they follow when they learn. A great way of doing this is to get them working on projects rather than individual language tasks. Projects are different toothed types of activity because they involve collaboration and allocation of work between different members of a group to get the job done. The process of planning, delegating and taking responsibility for different aspects of a project can involve some high-level critical thinking and reflection (if it is planned into the project by the teacher).

Projects usually result in more complex outcomes than single activities, so require more different skills than just language use. The discussion, role-setting, preparation and creative processes all require different types of interaction and communication, all of which are more authentic than general language-focused pair-work.

1. inform students of the goal of the project - what product are they working towards?

2. Students break the project into parts and assign roles to each group member (in first language with lower-level groups)

3. Students produce a plan for creation of the project, step by step to get everything done in good order and within the time limit (again, in first language if necessary)

4. Students each work on their role for the project, keeping in communication with each other at each step

5. Group members check each others' work for accuracy of language, quality and how well it fits the project brief from 1)

6. In larger classes, further critical thinking can be developed by having each group present their work to another group for feedback - what do the other group(s) think of their work? Each group writes action points to improve their product and goes back to make any changes they think are necessary.

7. Each group presents their project to the class, either in a show-and-tell style, or by moving from project to project to view each others' work.

Develop students' reflective skills

Self-reflection is one of the highest of the HOTS. Without stopping to evaluate any task that we have done, it is much more difficult to develop better ways of doing a good job in future. This applies to language learning as much as it does to any other kind of activity.

A simple way of bringing self-reflection into he classroom is to include a short stage at the end of each activity that you do, or at the end of each class, which focuses on how students performed. Some simple questions that can prompt self-reflection after a period of class activity are:

How do you feel after completing this activity?

Did you find it easy or difficult? Why?

What did you find most useful in that activity?

How did you complete the activity? What did you do first, then what did you do?

If you did it again, what would you do differently?

As we have seen, critical, analytical and higher-order work can be incorporated into the language classroom without too much disturbance of your planned work. A few small additions here and there, and some rethinking of tasks and activities, can raise the level of thinking that goes on, and help students to help themselves when they come to perform in English in situations outside the classroom. Start by including some small critical or reflective questions in your classes, and see how your students respond. You (and they) might be surprised at the results!

Tom Garside is Director of Language Point Teacher Education. Language Point delivers the internationally recognised RQF level 5 Trinity CertTESOL in a totally online mode of study, and the RQF level 6 Trinity College Certificate for Practising Teachers, a contextually-informed teacher development qualification with specific courses which focus on online language education or online methodology.

If you are interested to know more about these qualifications, or you want take your teaching to a new level with our teacher education courses, or see our course dates and fees for details.

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4 ways to increase critical thinking in the English language classroom

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Much of what we do in the language classroom is focused on fluency and accuracy. Most teachers aim for students to use vocabulary and grammar accurately, and be able to read and listen with enough understanding to answer comprehension questions. However, language learning is different from other academic subjects, many of which are based around retention of knowledge.

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How to use critical thinking in the classroom

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How to use critical thinking in the classroom

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How to use critical thinking in the classroom

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Academic writing teachers try to help learners understand and imitate the various rhetorical styles used in academic texts. Understanding academic writing involves careful and repeated reading, analysis, and evaluation of many texts. It then requires further analysis, synthesis, and creation to imitate the writing style. All of this work involves using critical thinking and language skills. One way to engage learners in this process and support the acquisition of advanced writing skills is to use students' existing critical thinking skills in an activity that analyzes the components of academic writing.

This Teacher's Corner offers a strategy to introduce learners to academic writing through the familiar task of outlining. Writers use outlining as a way to plan and organize their ideas at the beginning of the writing process. In this activity, learners use the outline in reverse as a way to break down and analyze the structure of an academic text. This process is called a reverse outline and is explained in detail here. Keep in mind that a reverse outline can be adapted to fit the needs of intermediate writers as well, as long as the reading is selected to meet learners' language level.

Advanced (university level)

During this activity, students will be able to complete the following tasks:

Read an academic text to identify the organization and structure of ideas.

Organize the information presented in an academic text into an outline template in order to recognize the structure and organization of an academic text.

Print enough copies of the reading for each student.

Print enough copies of the outline template for each student.

1. Start class with a warm-up discussion to elicit ideas about the structure of academic writing. Use these questions as a guide:

What are the important parts of an academic essay?

What do we call the first paragraph(s)? The main paragraphs? The final paragraph(s)?

What have you been told to include in the first paragraph(s) of an essay?

What is included in the main paragraphs?

What is included in the final paragraph(s)?

2. Hand out the outline template (Appendix A) to students. (The outline template can be adapted and adjusted to meet the needs of essay writing in your specific class. Feel free to add components to this outline or delete components that are unnecessary.) Ask learners to review the template for similarities between what they said in the discussion and what the template lists as components of academic writing.

Is there anything on the outline template that was not mentioned in the discussion? If so, what are the differences? Is there anything that students think the outline template needs to include that is not listed?

3. Explain that this outline is a model of the structure, but that every article differs slightly as to how each of the core parts is structured. For example, one essay might have 10 body paragraphs but another essay might only have 4.

4. Tell students they are now going to use the outline to read an academic article. They will complete an outline, using the template as a model, based on the information from the article they read.

5. Give everyone a copy of the article. Explain that before trying to complete the outline, they should read the article once and make notes. Reading once will help them process the article, ask questions, and get an overview of the structure of the article.

6. Have learners read, make notes, and complete their outlines. While they are working, circulate to answer any questions they have.

7. After learners have completed the outlines, bring the class back together as a group.

8. Place students in pairs by dividing the class in half and counting off each group (for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). The two students who are assigned 1 will work together, the students assigned 2 will work together, etc.

9. Once learners are in their pairs, ask them to read over their partners' outlines, paying attention to similarities and differences.

10. While they are reading, write these directions on the board.

11. Then give each pair a new outline template. Explain that students will work together to create a new outline, using the directions on the board.

12. When pairs have finished, bring the class back together to discuss what they learned from the outline activity.

What information on the outline did they expect to see? What information was unexpected in the article's structure? What else did they learn about how academic writing is structured?

One simple variation is to have students read the text at home and take notes before working on the outline in class. This variation allows students to read at their own pace so that when students come to class, they are all familiar with the text.

Another alternative to this assignment is to have students work in pairs from the beginning of the process. After everyone in the class reads the article, put students in pairs and have them work together to complete the outlines. This variation ensures that learners will vocalize, discuss, and negotiate what is included on the outline and what is not.

A possible extension to this activity is to revisit the reverse outline when students are writing their own essays. During the revision process students could complete a reverse outline of their own work or complete reverse outlines of their classmates' work. For example, if students have written a first draft of an essay, before they revise it or write a second draft, they could do a reverse outline of their first draft. By doing so, they could recognize areas in their writing to improve. Then, students could use their reverse outline for help in preparing and writing a second draft.
Outline Template
I. Introduction

II. Main Paragraphs (repeat for each paragraph)

III. Conclusion

Final thoughts

Implications and areas for future analysis

Suggestions for next steps

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Teacher's Corner: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

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Academic writing teachers try to help learners understand and imitate the various rhetorical styles used in academic texts. Understanding academic writing involves careful and repeated reading, analysis, and evaluation of many texts. It then requires further analysis, synthesis, and creation to imitate the writing style.

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Developing critical thinking: a guide for teachers

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Developing critical thinking: a guide for teachers

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While the idea of teaching critical thinking has been bandied around in education circles since at least the time of John Dewey, it has taken greater prominence in the education debates with the advent of the term "21st century skills" and discussions of deeper learning. There is increasing agreement among education reformers that critical thinking is an essential ingredient for long-term success for all of our students.

However, there are still those in the education establishment and in the media who argue that critical thinking isn't really a thing, or that these skills aren't well defined and, even if they could be defined, they can't be taught or assessed.

To those naysayers, I have to disagree. Critical thinking is a thing. We can define it; we can teach it; and we can assess it. In fact, as part of a multi-year Assessment for Learning Project, Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington, DC, has done just that.

Before I dive into what we have done, I want to acknowledge that some of the criticism has merit.

First, there are those that argue that critical thinking can only exist when students have a vast fund of knowledge. Meaning that a student cannot think critically if they don't have something substantive about which to think. I agree. Students do need a robust foundation of core content knowledge to effectively think critically. Schools still have a responsibility for building students' content knowledge.

However, I would argue that students don't need to wait to think critically until after they have mastered some arbitrary amount of knowledge. They can start building critical thinking skills when they walk in the door. All students come to school with experience and knowledge which they can immediately think critically about. In fact, some of the thinking that they learn to do helps augment and solidify the discipline-specific academic knowledge that they are learning.

The second criticism is that critical thinking skills are always highly contextual. In this argument, the critics make the point that the types of thinking that students do in history is categorically different from the types of thinking students do in science or math. Thus, the idea of teaching broadly defined, content-neutral critical thinking skills is impossible. I agree that there are domain-specific thinking skills that students should learn in each discipline. However, I also believe that there are several generalizable skills that elementary school students can learn that have broad applicability to their academic and social lives. That is what we have done at Two Rivers.
Defining Critical Thinking Skills
We began this work by first defining what we mean by critical thinking. After a review of the literature and looking at the practice at other schools, we identified five constructs that encompass a set of broadly applicable skills: schema development and activation; effective reasoning; creativity and innovation; problem solving; and decision making.

We then created rubrics to provide a concrete vision of what each of these constructs look like in practice. Working with the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE), we refined these rubrics to capture clear and discrete skills.

For example, we defined effective reasoning as the skill of creating an evidence-based claim: students need to construct a claim, identify relevant support, link their support to their claim, and identify possible questions or counter claims. Rubrics provide an explicit vision of the skill of effective reasoning for students and teachers. By breaking the rubrics down for different grade bands, we have been able not only to describe what reasoning is but also to delineate how the skills develop in students from preschool through 8th grade.

Before moving on, I want to freely acknowledge that in narrowly defining reasoning as the construction of evidence-based claims we have disregarded some elements of reasoning that students can and should learn. For example, the difference between constructing claims through deductive versus inductive means is not highlighted in our definition. However, by privileging a definition that has broad applicability across disciplines, we are able to gain traction in developing the roots of critical thinking. In this case, to formulate well-supported claims or arguments.
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills
The definitions of critical thinking constructs were only useful to us in as much as they translated into practical skills that teachers could teach and students could learn and use. Consequently, we have found that to teach a set of cognitive skills, we needed thinking routines that defined the regular application of these critical thinking and problem-solving skills across domains. Building on Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking work, we have named routines aligned with each of our constructs.

For example, with the construct of effective reasoning, we aligned the Claim-Support-Question thinking routine to our rubric. Teachers then were able to teach students that whenever they were making an argument, the norm in the class was to use the routine in constructing their claim and support. The flexibility of the routine has allowed us to apply it from preschool through 8th grade and across disciplines from science to economics and from math to literacy.

Kathryn Mancino, a 5th grade teacher at Two Rivers, has deliberately taught three of our thinking routines to students using the anchor charts above (click to view a larger size of each image). Her charts name the components of each routine and has a place for students to record when they've used it and what they have figured out about the routine. By using this structure with a chart that can be added to throughout the year, students see the routines as broadly applicable across disciplines and are able to refine their application over time.
Assessing Critical Thinking Skills
By defining specific constructs of critical thinking and building thinking routines that support their implementation in classrooms, we have operated under the assumption that students are developing skills that they will be able to transfer to other settings. However, we recognized both the importance and the challenge of gathering reliable data to confirm this.

With this in mind, we have developed a series of short performance tasks around novel discipline-neutral contexts in which students can apply the constructs of thinking. Through these tasks, we have been able to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their ability to transfer the types of thinking beyond the original classroom setting. Once again, we have worked with SCALE to define tasks where students easily access the content but where the cognitive lift requires them to demonstrate their thinking abilities.

These assessments demonstrate that it is possible to capture meaningful data on students' critical thinking abilities. They are not intended to be high stakes accountability measures. Instead, they are designed to give students, teachers, and school leaders discrete formative data on hard to measure skills.

While it is clearly difficult, and we have not solved all of the challenges to scaling assessments of critical thinking, we can define, teach, and assess these skills. In fact, knowing how important they are for the economy of the future and our democracy, it is essential that we do.

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Yes, We Can Define, Teach, and Assess Critical Thinking Skills (Opinion)

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While the idea of teaching critical thinking has been bandied around in education circles since at least the time of John Dewey, it has taken greater prominence in the education debates with the advent of the term "21st century skills" and discussions of deeper learning.

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Promoting and assessing critical thinking

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Promoting and assessing critical thinking

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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.

Support

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.

Resources

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.

This Creative Commons license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Promoting and Assessing Critical Thinking. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

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Promoting and Assessing Critical Thinking | Centre for Teaching Excellence

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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

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