Post 171: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to Multicultural and Monolingual Students

Post 171: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to Multicultural and Monolingual Students

When you teach critical thinking skills, you have to teach students to tell fact from fiction. First rule of thumb when teaching critical thinking: Don't believe everything you see or hear or read. You have to be able to tell if the writer is exaggerating or stretching the truth or if the writer is writing from a narrow point of view.

Always have an open mind. Come to any article/topic from multiple perspectives.  Be aware of writer bias.

When you read any article ask yourself:

1. How recent is the article?

2. Is the article written from a male perspective? female perspective?

3. Who wrote or created the webstie? article?

4. Does the person who wrote the article have expert credentials?

5. Does the article contain stereotypes? racist language?

6. Whose voice are you hearing? Is it the voice of the multicultural community or the mainstream community?

7. What socioeconomic level is represented in the article? Does the article reflect only the white upper middle class values? or does it reflect multiple perspectives?