Helping Students Become Critical Thinkers

My answer is rooted in the call to empower our students to be

critical thinkers. I believe that to be critical thinkers, educators

need to provide students with the strategies they need. And

we need to ask more than just surface-level questions.

Questions to students must motivate them to dig up

background knowledge. They should inspire them to make

connections to real-world scenarios. These make the learning

more memorable and meaningful.

Critical thinking is a general term. I believe this term means

that students effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate content

or skills. In this process, they (the students) will discover and

present convincing reasons in support of their answers or

thinking.

You can look up critical thinking and get many definitions like

this one from Wikipedia:

“Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing or

evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions

that people have offered as true.”

Essential Skills for Critical Thinking

In my current role as director of curriculum and instruction, I

work to promote the use of 21st-century tools and, more

importantly, thinking skills. Some essential skills that are the

basis for critical thinking are:

• Communication and Information skills

• Thinking and Problem-Solving skills

• Interpersonal and Self- Directional skills

• Collaboration skills

These four bullets are skills students are going to need in any

 field and in all levels of education. Hence my answer to the

question. We need to teach our students to think critically and

for themselves.

One of the goals of education is to prepare students to learn

through discovery. Providing opportunities to practice being critical

 thinkers will assist students in analyzing others’ thinking and

examining the logic of others.

Understanding others is an essential skill in collaboration and

in everyday life. Critical thinking will allow students to do more

than just memorize knowledge.

Ask Questions

So how do we do this? One recommendation is for educators

to work in-depth questioning strategies into a lesson launch.

Ask thoughtful questions to allow for answers with sound

reasoning. Then, word conversations and communication to

shape students’ thinking. Quick answers often result in very

few words and no eye contact, which are skills we don’t want

to promote.

When you are asking students questions and they provide

 a solution, try some of these to promote further thinking:

• Could you elaborate further on that point?

• Will you express that point in another way?

• Can you give me an illustration?

• Would you give me an example?

• Will you you provide more details?

• Could you be more specific?

• Do we need to consider another point of view?

• Is there another way to look at this question?

Utilizing critical thinking skills could be seen as a change in the

 paradigm of teaching and learning. Engagement in education

will enhance the collaboration among teachers and students.

It will also provide a way for students to succeed even if the

school system had to start over.