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.