CRITICAL THINKING Objectives Participants will be able to

CRITICAL THINKING

Objectives • Participants will be able to: Understand Recognize Critical & Creative Thinking as a Skill Use instructional strategies that support and promote student thinking at high levels Engage students in intellectual discussion Raise students’ levels of metacognition Choose assessments that allow students to demonstrate Critical & Creative Thinking

The thinker, Auguste Rodin 1902

THINKING CRITICALTHINKING CREATIVE THINKING

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. much of our thinking is, biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or prejudiced.

• The quality of life depends precisely on the quality of thinking. • Excellence in thought, must be systematically cultivated

Why Concern Ourselves With Thinking?

Because whenever we are dealing with human life, we are almost always dealing with thinking.

Thinking is the way that the mind makes sense of the world.

There is no way to understand anything except through thinking.

Everything we know, believe, want, fear and hope for, our thinking tells us.

Thinking is the core of the curriculum

Sir Ken Robinson … “there is a consistent mission to transform the culture of education and organizations with a richer conception of human creativity and intelligence. ”

Critical Thinking: What is It? Why is it Important? How Does it Improve Teaching and Learning? What are the strategies of critical thinking How to teach ? How to assess critical thinking abilities ?

What is critical thinking ? • “Critical, ” is derived from the Greek word krisis, which means “to separate. ” • Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally.

What is critical thinking ? • "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.

What is critical thinking ? • it is based on universal intellectual values • clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. ” Michael Scriven and Richard Paul (1987)

Critical Thinking Is a Self-Directed Process By Which We Take Deliberate Steps To Think at the Highest Level of Quality.

Importance of critical thinking • It is a domain of general thinking skill. • Essential for the new knowledge economy. • Enhances language and presentation skills. . • Promotes creativity. • It is crucial for self-reflection.

The Critical Thinking Mind is The Educated Mind [[

Activity Write • 1) a statement about fever /abdominal pain/ headache • 2) elaborate (In other words…) • 3) exemplify and/or illustrate Write the most important thing you know about critical thinking, 1) Critical thinking is …. . ( Single ) 2) In other words… 3) For example …

Think for Yourself • To begin to think about your thinking, make a list of any problems you believe currently exist with your thinking. Try to be as explicit as possible. The more problems you identify the better. For each problem you identify, complete the following statements: • 1. One problem with my thinking is… • 2. This is a problem because… • 3. If I adequately addressed this problem, the quality of my life would improve in the following ways…

CRITICAL and CREATIVE Thinking • Critical and creative thinking are interrelated processes essential for problem solving. • Creative thinking involves constructing something original. • Critical thinking involves logic and reasoning skills. • As we solve problems, we navigate between both thinking patterns across all disciplines 25 and grade levels.

• CRITICAL & CREATIVE thinking • can and should be applied to • ANY subject, content or problem.

Critical Thinking Pathway Identifies and extracts pertinent information and data from all sources Distinguish accurate relevant information Know when to seek additional information and seek it Make decisions about participant risks Discard irrelevant information Develop intervention plan

Skills of Critical Thinking

Levels of Critical thinking

LEVELS OF CRITICAL THINKING COMMITMENT COMPLEX BASIC COMPONENTS SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE BASE EXPERIENCE COMPETENCIES ATTITUDES STANDARDS

S T R A T E GI E S

S T R A T E GI E S

STRATEGIES Questioning Plus , Minus, Interesting Analogies Point of view Visualization Mind mapping Decisions and Outcome Fluency, Originality, Flexibility and elaboration Encapsulation

What are the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of your reading? Green Yellow Blue Plus Minus Interesting 34

Fluency • Thinking of and listing many ideas Flexibility • Thinking from different perspectives Originality • Coming up with unique ideas Elaboration • Building upon an existing idea – adding details 35

Without a combination of critical thinking, problem-solving, effective teamwork, and creativity, learning remains stagnant, more useful for passing a test than solving a real world challenge.

Teaching Strategies that Promote Critical Thinking • Ask students to summarize in writing and orally what the teacher or another student has said • Ask students to elaborate on what has been said either by giving examples and using their own words • Ask students to make connections between related concepts » Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder

Teaching Strategies that Promote Critical Thinking • Ask students to state the most important concept of the class thus far • Ask students to state the most confusing point of the class thus far (Angelo and Cross, 1993) • Ask students to discuss on any point with a partner for 30 seconds, and then ask them to participate in a class discussion or a debate

Teaching Strategies that Promote Critical Thinking • Ask for role play on real-life situations such as counseling /breaking bad news • Ask students to write and/or present persuasive evidence based arguments • Get students to debate (Halstead and Tomson, 2006)

Teaching Strategies that Promote Critical Thinking • Create problem-solving exercises and get students to work collaboratively • Give students essays to write that ask them to interpret, synthesize, analyze, and evaluate material (Halstead and Tomson, 2006)

Teaching Strategies that Promote Critical Thinking Ji. TT Just-in-Time Teaching • The instructor gathers the responses prior to the class lecture/discussion period “Just-in-time” to use them to clarify any misconceptions about course content and then guides students through follow-up in-class activities

Ji. TT Just-in-Time Teaching • Ji. TT enhances student involvement because students come to class having recently completed their assignment; therefore, they come ready to participate. • Students typically also feel empowered since they know that will happen in class depends in part on what they and their classmates have responded.

Developing Discussion Questions to Promote Critical Thinking • Higher-level thinking questions – Open-ended questions aimed at provoking divergent thinking – Go beyond knowledge-level recall – Should promote evaluation and synthesis of facts and concepts – Should start or end with words or phrases such as “explain, ” “compare, ” “why” – (Walker, S. E. Active Learning Promotes Critical Thinking)

Developing Discussion Questions to Promote Critical Thinking • Socratic questioning – Focuses on clarification – Probes or explores the meaning, justification, or logical strength of a claim or position • How is X similar or different from Y? • Debate format gets students to see multiple sides of an issue – (Walker, S. E. Active Learning Promotes Critical Thinking)

STANDARDS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Clarity Accuracy Precision Relevance (Focus) Consistency Logical correctness Completeness (Depth) Fairness

BARRIERS 1. Egocentrism 2. Sociocentrism 3. Unwarranted assumptions and stereotypes 4. Relativistic thinking 5. Wishful thinking

CHARACTERISTICS of a Critical Thinker • Passionate drive for clarity, precision, and accuracy • Careful, disciplined thinking • Sensitivity to the ways that critical thinking can be prejudiced by egocentrism, wishful thinking and other psychological barriers • Honesty and intellectual humbleness • Open-mindedness, intellectual courage, love of truth, intellectual perseverance

TO end… Learn the WHAT, WHY, and HOW of using critical and creative thinking strategies to raise the rigor for all students. Begin planning ways to support your staff with implementing critical and creative thinking strategies in their everyday instruction. 48

Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you can see farther. 49 Thomas Carlyle