Critical+Thinking+Starts+At+Home

This is my 6th year teaching Junior High School mathematics. Middle School seems to be a make or break period for many students. Most 8th grade students will graduate although a disproportionate amount graduate lacking the critical thinking skills necessary for higher order thinking. Even though and especially since it was mathematics, I decided to approach the subject where I would demand my students read and prep for the lesson for homework. I scaled down the written assignment from 30-45 minutes to 15-20 minutes. In lieu of the the additional minutes, students would be asked to write a paragraph on what they have read and write three questions to ask the class prior to the lesson. I choose 3 or 4 of the most pertinent questions to begin the lesson. Students who work and stick with this formula are more successful in my classroom. Since they are more prepared for the upcoming lesson, they are more likely to engage in critical analysis. http://www.maa.org/features/readbook.html

When assigning homework their must be a predetermined objective for assigning the homework which usually are skill practice, critical thinking, and problem solving. When the objective is critical thinking then there must also be proper assessment to determine if the objectives have been met. This website [|Homework Assignments]gives information on the assessement for each of the objectives including critical thinking. (Dave Telgheder)

Thank you for this Website Dave. This is a thorough guideline which can be used as an assessment tool or a template for a critcial thinking rubric. This will give my students more of an idea of what I am expecting for critical analysis skills. I will leave the list, Critical Thinking, for others to comment. (Brett Cohen)


 * Critical Thinking**

d. Specificity--The student clearly identifies who and what s/he is writing about. e. Support--The student gives reasons, facts, or examples to support his/her statement, or s/he explains the criteria or assumptions on which s/he bases his/her opinion. f. Complexity--The student's answer shows that s/he is aware that there are many ways of looking at the problem being discussed, and that s/he must consider these before a valid judgment can be reached. g. Originality--The student draws upon current knowledge and past experience to create or discover ideas that are new.

No one should pontificate a definition of critical thinking, nor should we expect to achieve unanimity. But I offer the following definition for consideration: **Critical thinking is the use of rational skills, worldviews, and values to get as close as possible to the truth.** Here, critical thinking is conceived as consisting of three essential dimensions: skills, worldview, and values.

Having read and thought about what you had written, I was compelled to find a site that would supplement and confirm the three essential dimensions you mentioned. Schools and educators do stress that critical thinking skills must be honed for students to have a successful education. Taken out of this realm a step or two further, we should include worldviews and values to get as close as possible to the truth. The few sentences below captured the spirit and essence of what my definition would entail. Sound critical reasoning is affirmative and in tune with impartial truth. It harmonizes with logical intuition, cultivates commonsense, uses unbiased logic, and avoids totalitarian thinking. People using sound critical reasoning can usually make improvements that help everyone involved to some degree. http://plusroot.com/dbook/07Critical.html

Critical thinking, in my opinion, is the ability to respond effectively to different scenarios. Students traditionally have problems with application of knowledge- they are more comfortable with simple recall of facts. On a weekly basis on Blackboard, bths.blackboard.com, I have included critical thinking questions from Brain food, http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/, in my class announcements. One of my favorite is lateral thinking skills, http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/p/latreal1.shtml. At times I have included these questions as a bonus in quizzes. Critical thinking skills are important for preparing students for the real world. Louis Morgan

Critical thinking Consider these two quotations: "It is strange that we expect students to learn, yet seldom teach them anything about learning." Donald Norman, 1980,

“We should be teaching students how to think. Instead, we are teaching them what to think.” Clement and Lochhead, 1980, Cognitive Process Instruction.

A person who thinks critically can ask the appropriate questions, gather relevant information efficiently and creatively sort through this information, and come up with a reliable and trustworthy conclusion. Critical thinking enables an individual to be a responsible citizen who contributes to society. We as teachers must continue our struggle to help develop better thinking skills and pre pare students to succeed with their education and the world. Written by Jane Lofton