Critical thinking
Pranil Dabadi
WhatisCriticalThinking.pptxWhat is Critical Thinking?
After viewing this presentation, the student will be able to:
Define “Thinking” and “Critical Thinking”
Distinguish between “Thinking” and “Critical Thinking”
Know Benefits related to Critical Thinking
Understand the teacher’s Role in developing Critical Thinking skills
Identify the 6 levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy
List some characteristics of each level
What is thinking?
A mental process that occurs when someone is faced with a stimulus or question and evidenced by someone’s actions or response
Thinking is the ability to:
To conceive something
To have certain things as the subject of one’s thought
To consider a possible action
To employ one’s mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation
Analyze and organize information
Source: dictionary.com
What is Critical Thinking?
Carrying out personal reflection on a specific question or dilemma
Questioning why one believes something
Being forced to evaluate and analyze one’s viewpoint
Considering opposing viewpoints
Taking information about a subject, processing it and then coming up with a new conclusion or unique perspective on the topic
What are some benefits of critical thinking?
Skilled reading, writing, speaking, and listening
Skilled decision-making and problem-solving
Skilled analysis and evaluation of one’s emotions and values
Skilled civic and personal choices
Learn to make Intelligent choices in human relationships
Kokkidou (2013) documented increases in creativity, performance, and literacy
How do teachers facilitate the critical thinking process?
Provide activities that utilize deep questioning
Provide opportunities for critical thinking to occur: writing essays and utilizing questions that adhere to Bloom’s Taxonomy higher order thinking
Help students learn appropriate procedures for finding and utilizing credible information
Have students evaluate data and sources (McCollister & Sayler, 2010)
Have students track patterns in information forcing them to look at the information as a process instead of simply information to be memorized. This helps them develop skills of recognition and prediction.
How do teachers facilitate the critical thinking process? Continued…
Act as a facilitator to allow for discussion encouraging a freer thought process (role in critical thinking is different than instructor’s traditional role)
Teach students that goal is not finding the right answer, necessarily, but rather to evaluate the topic. This often results in more questions (Halx & Reybold, 2005; Arend, 2009)
Encourage a peer review process
Help students learn appropriate responses to conflicting evaluations and opinions (Henderson-Hurley & Hurley, 2013)
What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Created under the leadership of Dr. Benjamin Bloom to promote higher forms of thinking
Describes the performance expected in Higher-Education
Classification of different learning objectives that educators establish for students
Way of organizing levels of expertise
Used to show levels from lower-order thinking to higher-order thinking skills
Taxonomy that portrays progression from basic to advanced cognitive skills required by life and employers
Helps students visualize the skills that they should be developing in course work
