Post 19: How To Teach Students Critical Thinking Skills

How to teach students good critical thinking skills

 

 

September 15, 2014

Critical thinking involves students not believing everything they read and for students to be able to detect fact from fiction. Wade (1995) maintains that critical thinking is “'the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons’” (p. 24).  The National Center for Excellence in Critical Thinking defines “critical thinking” as follows:

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying,analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.  In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013, para. 3). 

Being able to analyze, synthesize and evaluate information gathered from observation, doing research on a paper, experience, is one of the fundamental concepts of critical thinking.

Because there are so many ‘less than credible’, ‘less than scholarly’ sites on the net, students need to differentiate fact from fiction. In order for students to find credible sources, we need to teach students critical thinking skills.  In order to help students develop critical thinking skills, the first step is to teach students how to find credible sources on the net. 

     If you are an online teacher, ask students challenging forum questions.  Use this Bloom's Taxonomy Question Stem worksheet.  Ask students that involve synthesizing, analyzing and have students ask themselves 'what if' questions.  How could this topic apply to my life? What if I were that character? What would I do in his/her place?  The Bloom Taxonomy's Question Stem .  The more you challenge your students to think,  the more they will learn those valuable critical  skills!