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Developing Critical Thinking in Students

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Reyhane Moradi
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14 views

Developing Critical Thinking in Students

Uploaded by

Reyhane Moradi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING IN STUDENTS

Educators can use various instructional methods to promote critical thinking and

problem solving.

This requires teachers to think beforehand about the type and nature of

questions, activities, assignments and exams they prepare so that they can be

geared towards the development of critical thinking among students.

The intellectual skills of critical thinking – analysis, synthesis, reflection, etc. –

must be learned by actually performing them.

When lecturing, the teacher organizes and presents essential information

without student input.

This practice eliminates the opportunity for students to decide for themselves

what information is important to know.

For example, instead of telling our students via lecture what the parts of a plant

are, they could be assigned to bring plant samples from outside and try to

identify the plant parts in groups first.

There are different strategies by which critical thinking can be developed in

students.

1. Questioning:

An assortment of questioning tactics exists to promote critical thinking. .


Depending on how a question is asked, the student may use various critical

thinking skills such as interpretation, analysis, and recognition of

assumptions to form a conclusion.

2. Classroom Discussion and Debates

Classroom discussion and debates also promote critical thinking. Various

techniques are available.

A negotiation model confronts students with credible but antagonistic

arguments.

Students could be assigned to defend their preferred answer.

Another strategy to promote students to seek both sides of an issue is pro and

con grids.

Regardless of the teaching methods used, students should be exposed to

analyzing the costs and benefits of issues and problems to help prepare them for

real-life decision making.

3. Written Assignments

In-class and out-of-class written assignments can also serve as powerful

vehicles to allow students to expand their thinking processes.

As a general rule, assignments for the purpose of promoting thought should

be short (not long term papers) and focus on the aspect of thinking.
4. Exams

Exam questions can be devised which promote critical thinking rather than rote

memorization.

.This is true for both essay question exams and multiple-choice exams.

Examinations should require students to write or, at least, think.

III. FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING AND LEARNING (ERR

FRAMEWORK)

During the last hundred years psychological and pedagogical research has been

investigating the nature of human learning. Several models have been

invented. One of the easiest and at the same time most effective is called

“framework

for thinking and learning”. This model describes learning in three

interconnected stages: evocation, realization of meaning and reflection

(therefore it has been called ERR framework). While following this model the

teacher is

able to prepare learning opportunities during which students will gain

knowledge as well as practice life-skills.

1. “Evocation stage” of learning process


In this first stage several important cognitive activities are accomplished. First,

the learners are actively engaged in recalling what they know about the topic.

This forces the learners to examine their own knowledge and begin thinking

about the topic they will soon be exploring in detail. The importance of this

initial engagement will become clearer as the remaining two stages are

described.

The second purpose of the evocation phase is to activate the learner. Learning

is an active rather than passive activity.

1. Evocation of the pre-concepts (= current concepts of the

topic) and anticipation of the content of the topic.

2. Realization of meaning (of information) – making connection between new

ideas and the previous ideas and concepts. New ideas usually come from an

external source selected by the teacher. It can be a lecture, text, experiment, etc.

3. Reflection – (individual) summarization of new concept. The learner should

be given the opportunity to summarize the new concept of the topic that he/she

has learnt.

SOCIO-PEDAGOGICAL CONSTRUCTIVISM

Socio-pedagogical constructivism is a theory of how human beings learn – how

they build their knowledge and especially how they build their understanding of
the world, both external and internal. According to socio-pedagogical

constructivism learning is a process of connecting “old” with “new” in our

minds in a meaningful way. Learning is not the memorizing of un-understood

facts. Rather, it is the building of cognitive structures where each fact, each

piece of knowledge, each experience has its own place and is interconnected

with the rest of the structure.

1–Learning is an active process 2–Each student is unique

3–Students’ background knowledge is a base for their learning

4–Learning is both social and individual

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