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Edited Reading Texts Critically Pp.13 - 29

This document discusses critical thinking skills and how to teach them. It notes that critical thinking is an important 21st century skill. It explores why critical thinking is difficult and how teachers can cultivate these skills in students through questioning, structuring classrooms, modeling behaviors, and using tools and strategies. The document also discusses how to assess whether students have developed problem solving, creativity and critical thinking through formative feedback, authentic performance assessments, and rubrics. Overall, it emphasizes that critical thinking is a skill that can be explicitly taught to students.

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Kristel Ebrada
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58 views50 pages

Edited Reading Texts Critically Pp.13 - 29

This document discusses critical thinking skills and how to teach them. It notes that critical thinking is an important 21st century skill. It explores why critical thinking is difficult and how teachers can cultivate these skills in students through questioning, structuring classrooms, modeling behaviors, and using tools and strategies. The document also discusses how to assess whether students have developed problem solving, creativity and critical thinking through formative feedback, authentic performance assessments, and rubrics. Overall, it emphasizes that critical thinking is a skill that can be explicitly taught to students.

Uploaded by

Kristel Ebrada
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Critical Thinking Skills

Part of the 21st Century Skills


Framework
Generational Differences
• When you think of someone who is
“creative”, who comes to mind?
• When you think of someone who is a
“problem solver or critical thinker”, who
comes to mind?
Big Ideas
Part one

Why do we have to teach this stuff?


What makes problem solve/think
critically/be creative so difficult?
How do you cultivate these skills?

Part two
What does teaching critical thinking look
like? Tools, Strategies
How do teachers teach problem solving
skills? Tools, Strategies

Part three
How do you know if you have students
have problem solving skills, creativity and
critical thinking skills? Assessment.
Why do have to teach this
stuff?
Memorization vs. Thinking

Industrial Age and the Information Age

Multiplication tables and mass media

Global citizenship

Achievement (we are so screwed video)


Dewey on Schools….

As early as 1916, Dewey


pointed out that, all which the
school can and need do for
pupils, so far as their minds are
concerned….. is to develop
their ability to think

~ (Dewey, 1916 as cited in Fisher,2003)


A Vision for the 21 Century st

Schools will nurture skills of creative problem-solving in the


face of novel situations, and students will learn to exercise
courage in making decisions and assuming responsibility for
them.

Students will learn to process and manipulate information.


They will be trained to think critically and to reflect on what
they have learned, as well as to transfer and apply
knowledge from one discipline to another and to daily Life.

~ Nagendralingan Ratnavadivel
(Malaysian Educational Research Association)
Problem Solving and
Decision Making
“What students should know and be able to
do to learn effectively and live productively
in an increasingly digital world ...”
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage
projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate
digital tools and resources.

Students identify and define authentic problems and significant questions


for investigation. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or
complete a project. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or
make informed decisions. Use multiple processes and diverse
perspectives to explore alternative solutions.
ISTE: NETS-S: www.iste.org/nets
What makes critical
thinking and
creativity difficult?

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/21409
Roadblocks
•Misperceptions
•Self perception “I am not
creative/smart”
•Definition of creativity/problem solving
is obscure
•Background knowledge
•Poverty
•Cultural barriers
•Value of education
•Cultivation is weak – lots of tools, but
seems difficult to use…
•It’s HARD! - not a click away!
How do you cultivate
creativity and
problem solving
skills in students?
Creating Classroom Culture
• Practice, practice, practice
– preparation
• Safety
– Respectful, community, clear
expectations/guidelines,
• Open minded
• It takes SHIFT
– Its like my diet!
Teacher behaviors that enable
THINKING!
• Questioning
• Structuring the classroom
• Responding to students
• Modeling behaviors
Questioning
– To challenge students’ intellect.
– To help students collect and recollect
information, process that information
into meaningful relationships, and apply
those relationships in different/novel
situations.
– Can focus students on their own
emotions, motivations, and
metacognitive processes
(add Seinfeld video)
Powerful Questions
• Invitational/Plural
– “What characteristics do you have in common with the main
character?”
– “What hunches do you have to explain the solution?”
• Engage specific cognitive operations at various
levels of complexity
– Completing, identifying, listing, reciting, naming, selecting
– Three story Intellect Model
• Address external or internal content that is
relevant to the learner
– External = found around the learner….playground, classroom,
home
– Internal = in the learners mind…emotion…metacognition
Prompting Critical Thinking
Questions and questioning
– How do you know that it is true..?
– What is the main assumption..?
– What is the evidence in support of that…?
– How credible is the source…?
– Are there other possible explanations….
– Are there similarities and differences
between X and Y…?
Avoid…
• Verification questions
• Closed questions
• Rhetorical questions with the
answer included
• Defensive questions
• Agreement questions
The Three Story Intellect

There are one-story


intellects, two-story
intellects and three-story
intellects with skylights.

All fact collectors, who have


no aim beyond their facts
are one-story men.

Two-story men compare,


reason, generalize, using the
labors of the fact collectors
as well as their own.

Three story men idealize,


imagine, predict……their
best illumination comes
from above, through the
skylight.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes


Gathering/recalling
Making Sense of
Data
Analyzing/Evaluating
Developing Thinking Questions
• Skinny vs. Fat
– Simple yes/no vs. elaborate response
– You can “fatten up” skinny - “explain” or “defend”
• High Consensus vs. Low Consensus
– High = most would agree; low no right or wrong
• Review vs. True
– Regurgitate learned info vs. open investigation (we
may not know the perfect answer) bound by personal
experiences
Low
Consensus FAT

Relevant
to
Plural Learner

Invitational

TRUE
Teacher Behaviors that Enable
Thinking
• Questioning
• Structuring the classroom
• Responding to students
• Modeling behaviors
Structuring the Classroom
– Remember…you create the culture
– Arranging for small group and
large-group interactions
– Manage the resources of time,
energy, space and materials to
facilitate thinking
– Legitimizing thinking as a valid goal
for students
SPACE- responding to students

• Silence
• Providing Data
• Accepting without Judgment
• Clarifying
• Empathizing
Modeling Behaviors
Practice what you preach
–Listening
–Problem solving
–Behavior/Reactions
–Value differences
–Enthusiasm for thinking
We need to move towards a
knowledge generating society.
The ability to think critically &
creatively and to reason logically
constitute the template for building
a society that will be able to not
just adopt or adapt borrowed
knowledge but that which will be
able to create & market its own
knowledge.

(Ratnavadivel, 2001)
• If you’re on a dead horse, get
off

• Even dead fish go with the flow


What does teaching
critical thinking actually
look like?
Introduce Thinking Skills
– Students don’t come by this naturally
– It is a SKILL that can be developed
– They need to be taught explicitly
– There are loads of tools that help them
learn how to develop these skills
• Start with lower level skills (Bloom’s)and
scaffold up
– Classifying is a good start point
– Work up to Evaluation and Analysis
Introducing Thinking Skills
• Preview thinking skill
• Explain and model skill steps
• Enable student review of steps
• Have students use skill
• Reflect and share
• Conclude lesson
Movie clip????
P-R-E-P

• Preview
• Rehearse
• Execute
• Ponder
Characteristics of
Critical Thinkers
• CT’ers look at self honestly/aware of prejudices
• CT’ers know their attitudes/values influence
• CT’ers are fair/respectful
• CT’ers are willing to change thinking
• CT’ers are not easily manipulated
• CT’ers are question askers
• CT’ers are independent thinkers
• CT’ers look for connections
• CT’ers based decisions on evidence
How do we TEACH
problem solving and
critical thinking
anyway?
5 Ways To Help Kids Think
1. Provide a thoughtful classroom
environment
2. Make the invisible – visible
3. Scaffold and cue (use tools)
4. Provide continuing direct instruction
5. Integrate thinking instruction with
content …move it around
Discussion/Argument
• Very effective tool
• Ideas are respected but must be supported

http://truthmapping.com/about.php
Review
– Students don’t come by this
naturally
– SKILLS can be developed
– Focus on one thinking skill at a time
– They need to be taught explicitly
– There are loads of tools that help
them learn how to develop these
skills
How do you KNOW if they get it?

There are some issues in


assessing creativity and problem
solving….
•Process and product assessment
•Formative feedback
•Paradigm shift or augmentation in
the way most assessment occurs
inside and outside the classroom.
Formal Assessment

• Drill and Practice


• Rehearsal
• Authentic Performance
Authentic Performance
(Product!)

• Encore teachers get this!


• Skills assessed individually =
“Champions of Trivial Pursuit”
• Skills assessed in conjunction =
knowledge based
• Foundational knowledge is
necessary
Assessing the Project
• Triangulation
• Checklist
• Rubrics
• Portfolios
• Performances

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