Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

Teaching Critical Thinking Skills : Teaching Critical Thinking Skills Alumni Webinar September 14, 2011 Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) International Leaders and Education Program (ILEP)

Objectives : Objectives At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to: Identify the thinking levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy Recognize student activities which demonstrate different levels of thinking Utilize strategies to engage students in different levels of thinking

Critical Thinking : 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.” –National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 1987

Bloom’s Taxonomy : Bloom’s Taxonomy In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and a group of educational psychologists recognized 3 domains of educational activities: Cognitive (knowledge) Affective (attitude) Psychomotor (skills) During the 1990’s, the cognitive domain of Bloom’s categories was revisited by Lorin Anderson. He revised the levels of thinking, primarily changing nouns to action verbs.

Cognitive Domain : Cognitive Domain Overbaugh, R.C. & Schultz, L. Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved on September 1, 2011 from http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm Original Revised

Student Activities : Student Activities

Student Activities : Student Activities

Your students! : Your students! At what levels of Bloom’s taxonomy do you think your students are the most comfortable and familiar? Does it change in difference situations?

Activities and Strategies : Activities and Strategies All the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are important. Students develop skills on one level before developing skills on the next level Students must have skills “understanding” information, before they can develop skills “applying” information For this webinar, we will focus on developing the skills of analyzing, understanding, and creating.

Analyzing : Analyzing Breaking material or concepts into parts, determining how the parts interrelate to one another or to an overall structure of purpose.

Analyzing: Activities for the Classroom : Analyzing: Activities for the Classroom

Evaluating : Evaluating Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.

Evaluating: Activities for the Classroom : Evaluating: Activities for the Classroom

Creating : Creating Putting the elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or producing

Creating: Activities for the Classroom : Creating: Activities for the Classroom

Teaching Strategies : Teaching Strategies Speak less- give students time to think “Give a man a fish,…” Teach students how to learn for themselves, not just giving them the information Question your students: Socratic Method Ask students to write and speak a lot (production skills) Tactical and Structural Recommendations. The Critical Thinking Community. Retrieved on September 1, 2011 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/resources/k12/TRK12-tactical-structural-recommendations.cfm

Encourage Active Learning : Encourage Active Learning Have students summarize what others have said Have students share ideas with a partner Have partner summarize ideas for class Give examples Make connections between concepts Have students compare their points of view with each other, the author, you (the teacher) Tactics that Encourage Active Learning. The Critical Thinking Community. Retrieved on September 1, 2011 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/resources/k12/TRK12-tactics-encourage-learning.cfm

Your Classroom! : Your Classroom! Are there any strategies you use in your classroom to encourage critical thinking with your students that were not mentioned here? Please post your experiences incorporating critical thinking into your lessons on Groupsite!

Thank you! : Thank you! Thank you for participating! These slides and a resource guide will be posted on Groupsite. Please share your classroom experiences!