We’ve never taught critical thinking as well as our students needed. You may have, but given my own experiences with “critical thinking” as a student, I can say I barely spent time on it. Something to know about, rather than something to do. Life teaches you a rough form of critical thinking processes, you need it to survive the panic pundits, a rough approach that makes you skeptical of all.
I figured we could use something like the image below…
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| Source: ResearchGate posts |
Wait, I Had a Too Simple Idea
Ever had a problem explained to you at the surface level? Then, when you try to solve it, you realize, “Heck, this is more complicated than I thought?” That’s what teaching critical thinking is like. In my mind, it should be easy to teach a general set of questions or processes. You follow these processes in any situation, and voila, critical thinking results. Too bad I’m wrong. Again.
Daniel Willingham makes these points about teaching critical thinking (read his complete paper online or read a summary):
- Identify what is meant by critical thinking in each domain. Be specific. What tasks showing critical thinking should a high school graduate be able to do in mathematics, history, and other subjects?
- Identify the domain content that students must know. What knowledge is essential to the type of thinking you want your students to be able to do?
- Select the best sequence in which to learn the skills. The right preparation makes new learning easier.
- Decide which skills should be revisited across years. Plan on 3-5 years of practice, and it should be coordinated over the years.
Gee, Willingham’s 4-step approach isn’t easy or simple. It requires a concerted effort by lots of smart folks, and varies according to content area (or domain content). If we’re going to be engaged in critical thinking about history and social studies, it will require specific knowledge.
“Math, reading, writing” are more important than any other subject. Oops. That’s been the way school districts in my experience have approached teaching social studies and science, alternating it from one week to the next. Is it any surprise that we’re having problems with critical readings and thinking about politics (e.g. Jan 6 insurrection, contentious politics) and climate change?
It seems obvious to me.
How To Teach Critical Thinking
Some suggest that it might be as easy as (probably not) as a series of steps. Vera Schneider, author of Stepping Stones, suggests how in her Educators Publishing Service article, Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom: Problems and Solutions:
- Identify the simplest tasks as problem for students to solve.
- Engage in prediction prior to reading a text or doing something, have students write it down, then revisit afterwards to check prediction.
- Compare and contrast anything and everything.
- Categorize…sort sets of objects and be open to each students’ ideas. It is the process of thinking and self-questioning that is valuable.
- Encourage creativity, including having students make a plan to accomplish something, test it, and come up with a solution.
- Try to engage students in critical thinking in different content areas.
This last point may involve teaching, what Professor Mark Snyder refers to as, IDEALS: Six Steps to Effective Thinking and Problem Solving (Facione 2007):
- I – Identify the Issue or Problem: What is the real question we are facing?
- D – Define the Context: What are the facts that frame this issue or problem?
- E – Enumerate the Choices: What are plausible options (solutions)?
- A – Analyze Options: What is the best course of action?
- L – List Reasons Explicitly: Why is this the best course of action?
- S – Self-Correct: Look at it all again…What did we miss?
Social Media Problem-Solving
When you don’t have the tools to think in a critical manner, you fall back on what religious pundits and those you trust tell you. In the end, you find yourself believing only what those closest to you say is, “Ok,” a process supported by pro social media folks. After all, in our push to seat social media on the throne as the way to have peer to peer networks and trusted connections, we missed something.
As a college professor and former K-12 teacher, I am worried about the pandemic’s impact on an entire generation’s ability to navigate adulthood with a finely tuned capacity to discern fact from fantasy and science from conspiracy. In other words, I’m concerned about what will become of our children’s ability to think, particularly as teachers’ freedom to teach about real-world and contentious issues is increasingly threatened by circumstances beyond their control. Source: Dr. Christina Wyman, Afraid to Teach Critical Thinking via Salon.com
Teachers (not just English teachers who could rely on their literature studies to introduce tough topics) are trembling in their boots, unable to imagine a world where they can’t broach difficult subjects with their students, push them to think. I suspect that many teachers themselves have found themselves in the same situation as their students. They may need to step up their level of boldness. The “meek as a sheep” approach won’t cut it. More political activism. More in your face, ruthless critical thinking processes modeled, demolishing stupid thinking (e.g. substitute Trump, fanaticism, anti-vaxxing here).
Research suggests that explicit instruction in critical thinking may make kids smarter, more independent, and more creative. The most effective way to foster critical thinking skills is to teach those skills. Explicitly. The teaching approach with the strongest empirical support was explicit instruction–i.e., teaching kids specific ways to reason and solve problems.(Abrami et al 2008 as cited in Parenting Science).
Or, it may soon come down to settling arguments the way they were so long ago. A mandate with the support of the top leaders in government. Hard to imagine that now in the United States. Or, consider Portugal’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. “A call to arms.” A no-nonsense approach that is straight talking and emphasizes discipline:
Gouveia e Melo…has logged the most hours at sea of any serving Portuguese naval officer.He is unapologetic about couching the vaccine rollout as a battle and has worn combat fatigues ever since taking over the effort. He said he wanted to send a message that it was a call to arms.“This uniform…was symbolic for people to comprehend the need to roll up our sleeves and fight this virus,” he says. (source)
Ignorance has taken root. You’d think it would be easy to tear out, like a weed, but it’s growing in the heart of your family and neighbors.
I guess it comes down to the following quote from Clint Smith’s book:
“Question everything. Myself, everything you read, everything you hear. Fact-check, fact-check, fact-check. Don’t believe anything if it makes you comfortable.”
Sigh.
Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure
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