Promoting Critical Thinking Through Instruction & Assessment

Critical thinking (CT) is an important attribute in intellectual development, knowledge

acquisition, and knowledge utilization in students of all ages. Teachers are expected to nurture
students’ critical thinking skills through suitable instructional strategies integrated within their
practices.
One significant strategy for developing CT is questioning which is embedded in quality
instruction and strategic thinking. Questions are used to teach as well as to assess student
understanding, and thus questioning plays a critical role in the overall success of a classroom.
Questions are among the most powerful teaching tools, and when teachers increase their
understanding of questioning techniques, the quality of instruction can be significantly
improved. Generally, Constructive-Response Items (CRI) promote higher level of thinking and
do not have one correct answer but encourage students to engage in critical thinking and
reflection.

What is Critical Thinking?

CT is a multidimensional concept that should be viewed as a tool, set of skills, process or
outcome. It is generally considered a subset of the reflective process that helps individuals
make sound judgments because it involves thorough assessment and scrutiny of information
before arriving at conclusions. Critical thinking helps the individual to reason their
understanding and choices.

What is higher order thinking and critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking is a higher order thinking skill. Higher order thinking skills go beyond basic
observation of facts and memorization. It encourages our students to be evaluative, creative,
and innovative. Critical thinking means that we develop clear criteria to distinguish fact from
fiction; synthesize and evaluate information; and clearly communicate, solve problems, and
discover truths.

Why is ‘critical thinking’ important in teaching?

Critical thinking is a lifelong learning skill which sets the foundation of a stable system of
education. Bloom asserts that critical thinking is a cognitive process, but Dee Fink goes beyond
the mere cognitive to include the social and human (feeling/caring) components to the process
of CT. A teacher’s role rapidly changes with the inclusion of CT in instruction and assessment.
It becomes a planned process of engaging students in metacognition – thinking about what they
are thinking. Reasoning their choices, defining premises, rationalizing their thoughts, and
going beyond textbooks, handouts or class notes. The use of such strategies for teaching and
assessment acts as a symbolic gesture that makes the students understand the core concepts of
the course and steers them into a mode of studying that does not involve cramming.

Designing for Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills is the key skill we hope to inculcate in our students. As educators, we
can integrate such practice in our classrooms in a way that explicitly demonstrates to students
the skills that are transferable into their everyday life. And this can perhaps be done with the
help of the most popular frameworks that facilitate critical thinking:
1. Socratic Questioning,
2. Bloom’s Taxonomy,
Though there are others frameworks that promote critical thinking, this brief will focus on the
above two frameworks of questioning - Socratic and Bloom’s.
 1.Socratic Questioning

Often considered the foundation of critical thinking, Socratic teaching is the oldest teaching
technique that develops critical thinking skills. Students are not just exposed to but also taught
the art of Socratic questioning, cultivating a healthy sense of curiosity and openness. An
instructor using the Socratic approach is not looking for a specific correct answer but is, in fact,
inspiring students to reflect on their thinking. Socrates respected the experiences,
understandings, and knowledge that individuals had gained through life experiences and
believed that, through questioning, previously attained knowledge could be used to develop
thinking supported by rationales and logic

Here are six types of Socratic Questions that both teachers can learn to use in classroom
activities as in the table below:

Type of Socratic Question Some Examples

• What did you mean by…?

Clarification Questions to • Can you give me an example?
clarify • Could you explain a bit more?
• Could you put this another way?
• What do you think is the main issue?
• Could you expand upon that point further?

Assumption Questions to • Why do you assume that…?

challenge assumptions • What could we assume instead?
• Do I understand you correctly?
• Is that always the case?
• Why do we include and exclude?
• Why would someone make this assumption?

Reason & Evidence • What do you think causes this to happen?

Questions to probe • How do you know this? Why do you say that? Why do you think
this is true? Could you explain your reason to us? By what
reasoning did you come to that conclusion? What led you to that
belief?
• Is there reason to doubt that evidence?
• What other information do we need?

• What’s another way to look at this?

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of…?
Viewpoint Questions to • Who benefits from this? Who would be affected? What would be
discover other their views?
viewpoints/perspectives • Why is this the best?
• How would other groups of people respond to this question?
Why?
• How could you answer the objection that ______would make?
• What might someone who believed _____ think?
• What is an alternative?
 • How are ____ and ____’s ideas alike? Different?

Implications and • What effect would that have?

Consequence Questions • Could that really happen or probably happen?
• What are you implying by that? If that happened, what else would
happen as a result? Why?
• What are some possible consequences of this?
• How does this tie in with what we already know?

Origin or source questions • Is this your idea or did you hear it from someplace else?
• Have you always felt this way?
• Has your opinion been influenced by something or someone?
• Where did you get that idea?
• What caused you to feel that way?

2. Bloom’s Taxonomy

Created in 1956 by educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom, this framework aims to
categorize educational goals and promote higher order thinking skills. (see Appendix A)
The six levels of cognitive learning makes Bloom’s Taxonomy and is now the one that is widely
used in classrooms around the world to promote critical thinking skills. In 2001, the taxonomy
was revised by Anderson and Krathwol as the diagram above shows

The table below shows how questions can be framed using the various levels of Bloom's
taxonomy of cognitive skills.

Level of Question Students are Asked to….. Example Questions

Knowing and remembering Read or listen to a piece of information What, where, who, when,
and repeat/recall the facts. where,
i.e.recall knowledge of
subject matter relevant to the Make a list of events or facts they have How many …?
discussion learnt.
List …

Describe …

Define …

Understanding summarise or translate what they’ve In your own words, …

read or listened to
i.e.demonstrate Explain how …
understanding by make connections between different
constructing meaning from facts they’ve accumulated. What did X mean when …?
information explain what the information they’ve
received. Give an example of …
Applying Solve a problem using what they’ve How would you use …?
learnt.
i.e.apply knowledge and What examples can you find to
understanding to a particular Apply what they’ve learnt to their own …?
task or problem. experience.
Interpret what they’ve read/listened to How would you solve ___ using
by turning it into a dramatic script and what you’ve learned?
acting it out
What would happen if …?

Analysing Read something online and find What are the parts or features of
evidence supporting its claims. …?
i.e.examine different
concepts and make Design a survey or an experiment to What are the competing
distinctions between them. investigate and get information. arguments within …?
Compare and contrast several cases or
scenarios. Why is X different to Y?

Compare and contrast …

What is the relationship

between A and B?

Evaluating Look at the results of a competition or What is most

award e.g. the Oscars, the top ten best important/effective?
i.e. make judgements about countries in the world to live in, the best
concepts or ideas. airports in the world, and students make Which method is best?
a list of criteria the award might have
been based on. Which is the strongest
argument?
Read/listen to an argument and
consider why what the speaker is saying
might not be true/valid.
Take part in a debate taking a side that
is contrary to their natural point of
view.

Creating Create a new product and design the How would you design a …?
marketing campaign.
I.e. develop new ideas from What alternatives are there to
what they know and Write a persuasive speech, arguing to …?
understand convince the audience of a point of
view. What changes would you
Creatively solve a problem e.g. the make?
rising costs of property, the lack of
iPads/tablets What would happen if …?

Suppose you could ___ what

would you do?
 How to ensure everyone comes to class
on time How would you evaluate …?

Can you formulate a theory for

…?

CT in Action

The next big question is that how teachers teach CT. Is it a generic concept? Or subject-
specific? Research asserts that the infusion of CT requires deep, thoughtful, and well-
understood subject matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically in
the subject. In the immersion approach, subject matter instruction is thought-provoking, and
students do get immersed in the subject. However, in contrast to the infusion approach, general
CT principles are not made explicit. The mixed approach consists of a combination of the
general approach with either the infusion or immersion approach. Under it, students are
involved in subject-specific CT instruction, but there is also a separate thread or course aimed
at teaching general principles of CT.

Authentic & Applied Instruction

Collaborative Instruction Reflective Instruction
Questioning

Dialogue-based Experiential Learning Applied Problem-Solving

Case studies

Simulations (may overlap with case

studies; include manipulations of the
content that is more formalized and,
often, computer-based

Playing games (similar to

simulations, but the content is more
abstract or problems are more
hypothetical)

Role-play

Source:
CLT Brief - FCCU
Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom
Guide for Academics - Open Book Exams
Review of Bloom’s Taxonomy- An Overview
Implementation and Critical Assessment of Flipped Classroom Experience
How to Write Better Tests