Critical Thinking: Thoughts and Techniques for Teaching

1. Critical Thinking: Thoughts and Techniques for Teaching David Sylvester and Rita Brown

2. Critical thinking is the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible. (Paul in Craven & Hirnle (2000) p.139)

3. Critical thinking is a lot like jazz. We may not be able to define it, but we can recognize it when we hear it. • John Netland in Critial Thinking at Calvin College, 2007

4. What does it look like? • “The Delphi Report” November 1990 • Two dimensional definition • Cognitive Skills • Affective Disposition

5. CT According to the Delphi Report

6. Definition • Cognitive skills required (Core CT skills) • Interpretation • Analysis • Evaluation • Inference • Explanation • Self-regulation

7. Dispositional Dimension • Approaches to life and living in general: • Inquisitive in a wide range of issues • Wish to remain well informed • Trust in the processes of reasoned inquiry • Honesty in facing one’s own biases

8. Dispositional Dimension • Approaches to specific issues, questions or problems: • Clarity in stating question or concern • Orderliness in working with complexity • Diligence in seeking relevant information • Care in focusing attention on the concern at hand

9. Cultivating the dispositions • Model behaviors that demonstrate the desired dispositions • Insist on student behavior that reflects the dispositions sought • Engage students in repeated activities that require use of these dispositions

10. Cultivating the dispositions • Reinforce behaviors that demonstrate the appropriate dispositions • Encourage students to challenge you

11. Another Viewpoint Calvin College

12. Calvin College • Critical Thinking Task Force 2007 • Found Delphi definition to be too narrow • Felt passionate engagement was an essential piece • Focused on cultural discernment and influence of worldviews as a mode of CT. • Found that no definition of CT incorporated all its subtleties

13. Calvin College • Developed a rubric to evaluate students’ stages of critical thinking in place of developing another definition

14. Rubric Contents 5 CT skills 6 dimensions associated with CT

18. Bloom’s Taxonomy

19. Bloom’s (1956) • Found that 95% of questions students answered only required recall. • Identified 6 levels of intellectual behavior (cognitive domain)

20. Bloom’s Taxonomy • New • Remembering • Understanding • Applying • Analyzing • Evaluating • Creating • Old • Knowledge • Comprehension • Application • Analysis • Synthesis • Evaluation

21. Knowledge • Level 1 – Recall Remembering previously learned material, recalling facts, terms, basic concepts from stated text Name, List, Recognize, Choose, Label, Relate, Tell, Recall, Match, Define

22. Comprehension • Level 2 – Understand Demonstrating understanding of the stated meaning of facts and ideas Compare, Describe, Outline, Organize, Classify, Explain, Rephrase, Show, Relate, Identify

23. Application • Level 3 – Put to Use Solving problems by applying acquired knowledge, facts, and techniques in a different situation Apply, Construct, Model, Use, Practice, Dramatize, Restructure, Simulate, Translate, Experiment

24. Analysis • Level 4 – Break down Examining and breaking down information into parts Analyze, Diagram, Classify, Contrast, Sequence, Simplify, Summarize, Relate to, Categorize, Differentiate

25. Synthesis • Level 5 – Put together Compiling information in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern Compose, Design, Develop, Propose, Adapt, Elaborate, Formulate, Originate, Solve, Invent

26. Evaluation • Level 6 – Judge Presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about information based on criteria Judge, Rank, Rate, Evaluate, Recommend, Defend, Justify, Prioritize, Support, Prove

27. Teaching CT

28. How do we teach Critical Thinking? • How important should covering the content be as compared to teaching or cultivating Critical Thinking?

29. Don’t just cover the content,use the content • Use content to develop their self-awareness of their learning • Model how to learn – model your own thinking processes • Show your drafts of work, notes on your own reading • Talk aloud as you problem solve

30. Don’t just cover the content,use the content • Make content relevant • Show its apparent intrigue • Show its power to answer questions

31. Don’t just cover the content,use the content • Students apply the content • Writing-to-learning activities • Cooperative learning • Case studies • Other real-world applications/projects • Students learn from each other • Climate of learning – interaction with autonomy and responsibility

32. A Teacher-dominated classroom equates to shallow learning • Teacher establishes parameters and assigns students to: • Decide on policies about class participation • Organize content • Give examples • Summarize discussions • Solve problems • Draw diagrams, charts, graphs • Chose assignments

33. Why do students resist? • Attempting to turn passive learners into autonomous learners is challenging • Why do they resist? • More work for them • More threatening for them – their decisions might be wrong

34. Why do students resist? • May be too much for some – not capable of such self-confidence or intellectual maturity • Loss of certainty as the student moves to higher stages of self-directedness and intellectual development • Many lack basic skills needed for college and are often busy with work/children.

35. Our usual response to resistance: tougher rules, less student-control • This causes students to be dependent and passive • The more structure we give the more students want • The more responsibility we assume the less they accept • Don’t abandon rules – use them carefully

36. Use consequences of action or inaction instead of punishment • Don’t summarize chapters for students who haven’t read them • Don’t give negative attendance points for tardies • Give a quiz at the beginning of the period instead

37. Use consequences of action or inaction instead of punishment • Give frequent exams – put unread material on the test (for the unprepared students) • Be consistent with your policies and how you follow through

38. Use consequences of action or inaction instead of punishment • Encourage students to think of themselves as learners • Explain the purposes of an assignment and what troubles some may have with it • Help with time management • Guide in the management of group projects

39. Use consequences of action or inaction instead of punishment • Involve students in a discussion of creating climate that promotes learning • “In the best class I ever had, the teacher…” • “In the best class I ever had, students…” • “I learn best when…” • “I feel most confident as a learner when…” • Revisit the discussion later in the semester and get feedback

40. Strategies for improving students’ critical thinking • Questioning strategies • Ask for clarification, evidence, reasoning • More than recall • Ask questions with more than one correct answer

41. Strategies for improving students’ critical thinking • Have students use oral and written language often and informally • Have students write answers to questions, before speaking up in class • Use small-group tasks • Teach students reading and note-taking strategies

42. Strategies for improving students’ critical thinking • Design tasks that require thinking about content as a primary goal • Use active-learning strategies that require students to process information, not just recall it

43. Strategies for improving students’ critical thinking • Teach explicitly how to do the thinking needed for the tasks • Practice is not enough • Model the thinking processes required • Give feedback

44. Strategies for improving students’ critical thinking • Create a classroom atmosphere that promotes risk-taking and speculative thinking • Arrange physical space to promote student-student interaction • Avoid competition • Foster interaction among students

45. References • Facione, P.A. (1990). The delphi report: Executive summary. California Academic Press • Facione, P.A. (1998). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. California Academic Press • Critical Thinking at Calvin College (2007) http://www.calvin.edu/admin/provost/assessment/criticalthinking/cttf-report.pdf

46. Resources • Foundation for Critical Thinking • http://www.criticalthinking.org/ • Critical thinking: What is it and why it counts 2010 Update (permission to copy unlimited) • http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/what&why2007.pdf • Holistic Critical Thinking Rubric • http://www.insightassessment.com/hctsr.html