Critical Thinking Skills

and Academic Achievement

By: Jerri GaylesSOE 115 Psy of Teaching & Learning

Kendall College

In a statement clarified by Scriven, M. & Paul, R. (1987) 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. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.

From a Vygotskian perspective critical thinking skills are taught through speech interactions between teacher and student. Two assumptions central to Vygotskian theory are the role of inner speech in self-regulation and how teaching creates the zone of proximal development. Inner speech allows humans to consciously direct their thought processes. Critical thinking is a psychological system that involves the collaboration of several higher mental functions including memory, conceptual thought, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and even imagination. Written texts and peer tutors can be used to teach additional critical thinking skills, but alone they are not sufficient--the teacher-student interaction is the key.

The Piaget stages of development is a blueprint in cognitive development that describes the stages of normal intellectual development, from infancy through adulthood. This includes thought, judgment, and knowledge. These stages were named after psychologist and developmental biologist Jean Piaget, who recorded the intellectual development and abilities of infants, children, and teens.According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. This stage of Cognitive Development has a fragment of four distinct stages in children: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal. Jul 22, 2014

Critical thinking has been an important issue in education, and has become quite the buzzword around schools. The Common Core State Standards specifically emphasize a thinking curriculum and thereby requires teachers to elevate their students’ mental workflow beyond just memorization—which is a really good step forward. Critical thinking is a skill that young minds will undeniably need and exercise well beyond their school years. Experts agree that in keeping up with the ever-changing technological advances, students will need to obtain, understand, and analyze information on a much more efficient scale. It is our job as educators to equip our students with the strategies and skills they need to think critically in order to cope with these tech problems and obstacles they face elsewhere.

As I reflect on my research, I’ve come to the understanding that critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. In my findings, I’ve learned that critical thinking began to developed at birth and can expand as long as a person challenge normal reasoning. People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. Critical thinkers strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociogenic tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. Critical thinkers work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. This why it has been adopted as education’s Common Core Value because being able to teach a child learned information is one thing but to be able for that child to go out into the world and use that knowledge and become successful is highly rewarding not only to that child but that child’s future.

According to an overview of the text Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk, critical thinking is an important issue in education today. The movement to the information age has focused attention on good thinking as an important element of life success (Huitt, 1995; Thomas & Smoot, 1994). These changing conditions require new outcomes, such as critical thinking, to be included as a focus of schooling. Old standards of simply being able to score well on a standardized test of basic skills, though still appropriate, cannot be the sole means by which we judge the academic success or failure of our students. It is important for you to be able demonstrate to your instructor, your peers, and your academic community that you are not only able to learn information but to use it to create new research/ideas/hypothesis and so on to contribute a forever evolving world.

Critical thinking includes a number of different skills that help your child learn to make decisions. It is the ability to evaluate information to determine whether it is right or wrong. To think critically about an issue or a problem means to be open-minded and consider alternative ways of looking at solutions. As children grow into pre-adolescents and teenagers, their critical thinking skills will help them make judgments independently of parents.To be good at thinking, children must believe that thinking is fun and want to be good at it. Parents can make thinking fun throughout the academic year as well as during the summer and on vacations. Good thinkers practice thinking just like they practice basketball or soccer.

Conclusion• As I conclude my presentation I believe that being a critical

thinker is a very valuable skill to have. Throughout all the articles, texts, and videos that I have researched it has been confirmed that assessing and reflecting can build on ideas which allows you to gain more knowledge. I believe being a critical thinker is also a valuable part of human survival. Without being able to critically evaluate a situation it may be hard to solve problem, make decisions, or choices that can be very important or even life threating. This is why I believe critical thinking can promote a students achievement not only through school but through out life as well.

Defining Critical Thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

ERIC - A Vygotskian Perspective on Critical Thinking., 1989-Nov-29. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED314770

Teaching Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-promote-critical-thinking

Piaget Stages of Development. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development#1Educational Psychology Interactive: Critical thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/critthnk.html

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