#3: Encouraging Critical Thinking
Improving critical thinking skills relies on learning activities that require students to analyze, evaluate, and apply knowledge to real-world problems.
Welcome to the summer 2024 “Top 10 Essential Practices” series for new faculty! Catch up with the series introduction here and #10: Understand Your Learners, #9: Clear Learning Objectives, #8: Using Active Learning, #7: Providing Timely and Constructive Feedback, #6: Promoting Belonging, #5: Staying Organized and Managing Time Effectively, and #4: Utilizing Technology Wisely
It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that we talk about the importance of critical thinking on a daily basis. We are mostly likely each confident that promoting critical thinking fosters deeper understanding, helps students develop analytical skills, and encourages independent thinking.
But what really is critical thinking? Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham’s “commonsensical view” offers three tenets of critical thinking.
Critical Thinking is Novel
This tenet emphasizes that critical thinking involves generating new ideas or solutions rather than relying solely on past experiences or memorized information. It requires you to analyze situations in fresh ways, consider different perspectives, and develop unique conclusions. This approach fosters innovation and creativity, allowing you to tackle problems that may not have clear precedents or established answers.
Critical Thinking is Self-Directed
This aspect highlights the importance of autonomy in the thinking process. Self-directed critical thinking means taking initiative in your learning and decision-making, rather than passively following instructions or accepting information at face value. It involves questioning assumptions, seeking out additional information, and actively engaging with content to form your own understanding and conclusions. This self-directed approach empowers you to become a more independent and reflective thinker.
Critical Thinking is Effective
This tenet underlines the importance of following established conventions and methodologies that enhance the quality of your thinking. Effective critical thinking involves using logical reasoning, evidence-based analysis, and systematic approaches to problem-solving. By adhering to these conventions, you increase the likelihood of reaching valid and useful conclusions. This aspect of critical thinking ensures that your analyses are grounded in sound reasoning and can be communicated clearly to others.
What can critical thinking in our classroom look like?
While there are many ways to integrate more critical thinking into your course activities, I’ve selected a few common approaches that are easily adaptable acrosss discliplines.
The Case Study Approach
A case study is a real-life, in-depth, multi-faceted examination of an issue or phenomenon in its particular context. If you wanted to use a case study approach to, for example, analyze a real-world corporate scandal in your business ethics course, you might ask students to propose innovative solutions that consider ethical implications and stakeholder perspectives. You could encourage them to think creatively about alternative governance models that emphasize transparency and accountability, moving beyond traditional frameworks.
Faculty Actions:
Provide a framework for analyzing ethical dilemmas.
Encourage students to explore various stakeholder perspectives.
Guiding Questions:
What alternative solutions can you propose that have not been discussed?
How do the interests of different stakeholders affect your proposed solution?
What ethical principles should guide your decision-making in this scenario?
The Research Debate
If you require students to complete secondary source research, you probably want them to know how to approach reading these sources in a systematic and structured way, and to be aware of how to analyze study methods and potential author bias. To get students thinking critically about what they are reading, you could ask them to independently research various studies and then evaluate methodologies and biases. You might prompt them with questions about the assumptions in their arguments and how the research’s methodology influences conclusions.
Faculty Actions:
Facilitate access to diverse research sources.
Encourage students to critically assess the validity of their sources.
Guiding Questions:
What assumptions are you making in your argument?
How does the methodology of the studies you reviewed affect the conclusions drawn?
Can you identify any biases in the research? How do they impact the overall understanding of the issue?
The Interdisciplinary Project
Integrating knowledge from other courses and from outside experiences is one way to get students thinking in new ways about your subject. Thinking cross- or inter-disciplinarily is valuable practice for students’ future careers. An example of an interdisciplinary project might ask students to solve a problem faced by students at your institution by investigating the problem and proposing solutions to the impacted community. This sort of problem-solving project may require students to conduct interviews and gather observational data, consider potential personal, institutional, and structural causes, and brainstorm and evaluate solutions from a budgetary and practical implementation perspective. You might ask guiding questions about the challenges they foresee in implementing their strategies and how they can measure the effectiveness of their proposals.
Faculty Actions:
Encourage collaboration across disciplines.
Provide opportunities for students to present their ideas and receive feedback.
Guiding Questions:
How can insights from different disciplines enhance your project?
What challenges do you foresee in implementing your proposed strategies?
How can you measure the effectiveness of your proposed solutions in the community?
One small step in encouraging critical thinking…
If you need time to think about incorporating one of the above learning activities and want a simple way to incorporate more critical thinking, one method I have found effective is adding a bonus question to a quiz, exam, or reflection activity, allowing learners to showcase their understanding of concepts not covered on other questions. Here's an example of what that could look like:
Bonus Question: Reflect on the topics covered since the last exam [quiz/reflection]. In the space below, list up to three concepts that were not included on this exam and briefly explain their significance (2-3 sentences each).
This straightforward technique benefits both students and instructors. For students, it offers a small reward for demonstrating comprehension of class concepts not directly tested. For instructors, it serves as a valuable tool to identify which concepts students perceive as most significant.
Improving critical thinking skills relies on learning activities that require students to analyze, evaluate, and apply knowledge to real-world problems. Providing opportunities for problem-solving, such as in the examples above, can help students gather information and formulate reasoned arguments. Finally, promoting a growth mindset emphasizes the continuous development of critical thinking skills and encourages students to seek diverse perspectives and engage in reflective practice in their personal and professional lives.
How do you incorporate more critical thinking in your classroom activities? Please share in the comments!
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