Four ways to explicitly teach critical thinking

Teach about brain function

Students should learn how the brain works.

• How do we think?
• How does memory work?
• What causes emotions?
• Why do we dream?
• How do we learn?
• How/Why do mental disorders occur?
• What happens when part of the brain is damaged?

Teach Metacognition

Encourage students to be conscious of their own thinking during problem solving.

• Have discussions about what is going on in their heads
• Compare different approaches
• Identify what is known, what needs to be known, how to produce that knowledge
• Think aloud
• Teach students how to learn, how to study for a test, how to ask effective questions
• Help students discover their learning style, and teach them how to tackle learning that is outside of their preferred style

Share Great Thinkers

 Expose students to role models who solve problems well, particularly those who have left a mark on society.

• Noteworthy scientists, artists and historians: Einstein, Van Gogh, Mozart, Da Vinci, Gandhi, Newton, Currie, Pasteur, Franklin, Edison.
• Those upon whom they depend: mechanics for their efficient and precise ways of repairing cars, parents for their ability to deal with irrationality by withholding impulsivity, entrepeneurs for their creative ability to offer innovative products and services and teachers, for their ability to plan, monitor and evaluate
• Apply critical thinking to everyday life: How would a critical thinker go to the supermarket? What about an ineffective thinker? How would a critical thinker read a newspaper? Choose a dentist? Buy a car? Do homework? Vote?

Study the thinking of varying disciplines

Study and compare the thinking methods of artists, scientists, scholars. Examine the differential processes of investigation, inquiry and creativity.

•  How does what scientists do differ from what artists do?
• What are the processes by which scientific truths are discovered and proven?
• What are the processes of inquiry used by anthropologists as they live with and study a culture?
• What goes on in a maestro's mind when they conduct an orchestra?
• How was Mozart able to 'hear' a total musical composition before writing it down?
• What is the process by which poets create?
• Why can't scientific inquiry be used to solve social problems?

Further Reading: Arthur L Costa, California State University, Sacramento

Creating School and Classroom Conditions for Critical Thinking

Having discussed what critical thinking actually is, below are some strategies for fostering creative thought in students.

To create an environment that fosters Critical Thinking, teachers should:

1. Pose problems, raise questions, intervene with not-easily-solved paradoxes, dichotomies, controversies, dilemmas, discrepancies. Challenge students' intellect, tease their imagination
2. Organise the classroom for cooperative interaction and collaborative problem solving
3. Structure the school environment for thinking - value it, make time for it, secure materials to support it. Ensure curriculum, reports, rules, discipline, values and mottoes promote and are consistent with thoughtful action.
4. Encourage the whole community to model the behaviours of critical thinking, throughout the students' environment.
5. Respond to students and each others' ideas, so as to maintain a climate of trust and risk-taking. Make learning experimental, creative and positive. Listen, probe. Remain non-judgmental. Use rich data sources.
6. Ensure content and instructional strategies are developmentally appropriate. Begin new learning with real material and objects, regardless of age group.

Reference: Costa (2003) Communities for Developing Inquiring Minds.

Filter the Filth? How about teaching the ethics?

The Age's Letter to the editor (Filter the Filth, 27th June 2011) called for schools and the education department to "do all within their power to prevent further students from being corrupted" via the school provided netbooks. Background: In 2009 it was decided that every student in years 9-12 would have a laptop provided for free (government funded). The success of this implementation (or lack thereof) is beyond the scope of this post, however it would appear that some students have been accessing inappropriate content outside of school hours using the netbooks. Surprise surprise. The individual in the article above was outraged that filtering software was not installed on the laptop.

Do parents honestly still expect content filtering to absolve them of any responsibility regarding their childrens' online actions? I work in a school that uses the state-provided internet access, which is heavily filtered. I am sure noone would be surprised to learn that 'inappropriate' content has been accessed within the school from time to time. If I felt so inclined, I could probably access similar content very easily within a matter of seconds. These so-called "filters" are very easy to circumvent.

Surely we would have wider ranging success if, as schools and as families, we help our children to understand the ethics of their online actions, and the short and long term effects of the digital footprint they are creating every day. I believe some schools are already doing an excellent job of this. Of course nobody expects parents to be able to "watch a child 24 hours a day", but having filtering software installed is not going to be the 'big brother' that some expect it to be.

What Exactly IS Critical Thinking?

We're always talking about critical thinking. We all want our students to be able to think critically. But how many of us have actually stopped to think about what 'Critical Thinking' actually means?

It has been stated that 'without a definition of critical thinking or thinking, educators would be unable to to determine when critical thinking has been measured or taught successfully'*.  It's pretty hard to measure and assess something if we don't have a thorough understanding of what it means. The problem is, that it is a difficult concept to define. Psychologists, philosophers and educators have been arguing about it for nearly a century, and each of those groups thinks they own the idea.

If we were to consider each of their approaches, we would see that there is a great deal of overlap. Philosophers call it 'critical thinking', psychologists call it 'thinking skills' and educators tend to call it 'higher order thinking' - but I believe that everyone is talking about the same ideals.

Critical thinking:

• Is an active process
• Involves decision making
• Is personal
• Involves skeptical reflection and evaluation
• Leads us to form a belief about what to do or what to believe
• Involves decision making and justification
• Integrates new information with the extension of existing knowledge
• Leads us to make connections between concepts and see the uniqueness of certain ideas
• Allows us to solve problems for which there is no ready-made procedure or solution

Above all, critical thinking is about learning to reason.

So when we say our students are thinking critically, are they really? How can we promote this critical (and I would argue creative) thinking in our classrooms?

Reference: Fasko, D. Critical Thinking And Reasoning: Current Research, Theory and Practice (2003)

* Follman, 1987