How to Teach CT? Robert H. Ennis, rhennis@illinois.edu The actual teaching of critical thinking is a function of many situation-specific factors: teacher style, teacher interest, teacher knowledge and understanding, class size, cultural and community backgrounds and expectations, student expectations and backgrounds, colleagues’ expectations, recent local events, the amount of time available to teachers after they have done all the other things they have to do, and teacher grasp of critical thinking, to name some major factors. Underlying Strategies (The three underlying strategies are “Reflection, Reasons, Alternatives” (RRA): 1. 2. 3. Fundamental Strategies 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Tactics 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Mid-level Strategies 21. SEBKUS: When doing appraisals and planning investigations and other actions, make full use of and try to expand your Sensitivity, Experience, Background Knowledge, and Understanding of the Situation.
The Path to CT Few of us are effective critical thinkers—who has time? The good news, says Stever Robbins, is that this skill can be learned. by Stever Robbins Can you write a refresher on critical thinking? We business leaders so like to believe that we can think well, but we don't. What's logic got to do with it? Purely emotional decision making is bad news. Critical thinking starts with logic. We also sloppily reverse cause and effect. There are many excellent books on logic. The trap of assuming You can think critically without knowing where the facts stop and your own neurotic assumptions begin. When we don't know something, we assume. Finding and busting "conventional wisdom" can be the key to an empire. Assumptions can also cripple us. Some assumptions run so deep they're hard to question. Next time you're grappling with a problem, spend time brainstorming your assumptions. The truth will set you free (statistics notwithstanding) Have you ever noticed how terrified we are of the truth? Help!
Computational Thinking Sign in / Register Cart Live Chat Translate ▼ Search Learn Computational thinking for all Advances in computing have expanded our capacity to solve problems at a scale never before imagined, using strategies that have not been available to us before. CT resources The Computational Thinking Toolkit includes: Operational Definition of Computational Thinking Computational thinking: digital age skills for everyone Our partners HOME | ABOUT ISTE | ADVOCACY | CONTACT US | MEDIA | HELP | SITE MAP | LEGAL NOTICE | PRIVACY POLICY | MEMBER LOGIN © 2012 ISTE, All Rights Reserved.
Ten Positive Examples of Critical Thinking / CT Resources / Home - Insight Assessment We all encounter opportunities in our daily lives to engage problems and decisions using strong critical thinking. Everyone needs to think ahead, to plan and to problem solve. Here are ten positive examples of critical thinking: *Facione, P. & Gittens C. Think Critically, Pearson Education Insight Assessment www.insightassessment.com Measuring Thinking Worldwide
Conditional Logic and Children From 180 primary children of varied backgrounds half were selected for instruction in conditional logic by means of an audio-tutorial method. At the termination of 15 weekly lessons the experimental students did no better than the control students on our individually-administered conditional logic test ("Smith-Sturgeon Conditional Reasoning Test"), but there was wide variation among age demonstrated mastery of basic principles of conditional logic. Thus, although out methods were not effective in the teaching of conditional logic to young children, many have somehow learned it anyway. In the control group significant relationships between conditional logic ability and verbal intelligence (.6) and socioeconomic status (.4) were found. No significant relationship between conditional logic ability and sex was discernable. Descriptors: Children, Cognitive Processes, Critical Thinking, Intelligence, Logic, Readiness, Sex Differences, Socioeconomic Status, Students, Teaching Methods
A CT Model To Analyze Thinking We Must Identify and Question its Elemental Structures Standard: Clarityunderstandable, the meaning can be grasped Could you elaborate further? Could you give me an example? Standard: Accuracyfree from errors or distortions, true How could we check on that? Standard: Precisionexact to the necessary level of detail Could you be more specific? Standard: Relevancerelating to the matter at hand How does that relate to the problem? Standard: Depthcontaining complexities and multiple interrelationships What factors make this a difficult problem? Standard: Breadthencompassing multiple viewpoints Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Standard: Logicthe parts make sense together, no contradictions Does all this make sense together? Standard: Significancefocusing on the important, not trivial Is this the most important problem to consider? Standard: FairnessJustifiable, not self-serving or one-sided Do I have any vested interest in this issue? Think About... Gather...
Critical Thinking and Pedagogy: What is Critical Thinking? What is Critical Thinking? ‘Critical thinking’ is a descriptive phrase used widely both within Singapore and, increasingly, in discussions of education throughout the world. Many educators at the tertiary level would feel that helping students to develop and strengthen the capacity to think critically is an important objective of their pedagogy, and yet would differ about the precise characterization of what they try to inculcate. Most would agree, however, that critical thinking attempts to prevent the unquestioning adoption of ideas without careful consideration. They would also agree that its goal is critical evaluation, paying attention to both the positive and the negative aspects of what is being evaluated. To clarify the concept of critical thinking further, it might be useful to consider examples of activities that crucially call for the exercise of critical thinking: What are the kinds of critical thinking abilities that are valuable for educated individuals?
A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking Socrates set the agenda for the tradition of critical thinking, namely, to reflectively question common beliefs and explanations, carefully distinguishing those beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those which — however appealing they may be to our native egocentrism, however much they serve our vested interests, however comfortable or comforting they may be — lack adequate evidence or rational foundation to warrant our belief. Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato (who recorded Socrates’ thought), Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics, all of whom emphasized that things are often very different from what they appear to be and that only the trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface (delusive appearances) to the way they really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life). Francis Bacon, in England, was explicitly concerned with the way we misuse our minds in seeking knowledge. John Dewey agreed.
All About Asking Better Questions Asking questions is such a basic tool of teaching, yet how many of us have ever been taught to ask good questions? As I started researching for this post, I realized how little I actually knew about asking questions. I asked hundreds of questions a day but had zero training. Here’s the plan: So, we’ll actually start in perhaps a strange place, which is to open with the idea of asking fewer questions as teachers and allowing more room for students to be the questioners. Mrs. Let me take you back to 1997, when my sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Why would a teacher have such a hard time getting her advanced 10th graders to ask a darn question? Well, as one of those students, I can tell you that I had been trained to answer questions, not ask them. I pledged to ask two questions and doubt I lived up to my bargain. Who Asks Whom? So, as we dig into questioning, let’s start with wondering who asks the questions in your classroom and who gets asked. Students Asking Students Homework: Ask Questions