Critical Thinking Webquest

IntroductionThis webquest is designed to develop your knowledge of critical thinking

and how it develops. During the quest you will

• Explore the components of Critical Thinking and why they are important

• Gain an understanding of Bloom's Taxonomy; the different thinking levels• Develop your own checklist of powerful questions to help move your

child’s thinking to the next level.

The quest will take around 1 hour to complete.

To successfully complete this webquest you should complete the tasks outlined in the quest. But first a look at the aim of this quest. 

Learning Outcomes

Through this webquest you will:

• examine the core components of critical thinking, including Bloom's taxonomy of thinking

• Explore tools which can help support the development of critical thinking

• Use your knowledge of critical thinking to develop a series of questions which can be used to help move thinking to the next level

Task 1: Defining Critical Thinking

1. How would you define “critical thinking"? Use www.criticalthinking.net especially the pages “What is critical thinking?” and “for parents” to help fill in the blanks in the following paragraph.

“ Thinking critically means asking ............... , instead of accepting ‘at face value’ what you read or hear, criticalthinkers look for ........ and for ......... before believing something to be true.”

Task 2: The 21st Century Thinker

Engages in

problem

solving

Makes real world applicationsImage adapted from www.mentoringminds.com

Read this blog post which provides a good insight into the skills a 21st Century Thinker requires and the reasons they have become so important.

Open minded

Analyses, reasons and evaluates

Reflects on learning

Collaborates with others

Thinks

creatively and

critically

Communicates

clearly and

accurately

Makes real world application

Task 3: The core components of critical thinking

What are the core components of critical thinking?

Familiarise yourself with each of the components included in the critical thinking circle. (Tip – click each element in turn to reveal further information about this aspect)

Task 3: Bloom’s Taxonomy

“ Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. “ Henry Ford

Benjamin Bloom developed a model (taxonomy) to classify the various levels of thinking complexity.

Use the following links to develop your knowledge of Bloom’s taxonomy:

This video provides a general outline of all 6 levels

This site provides an example of Bloom being applied

Creating

Evaluating

Analysing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

Task 4: Using Bloom’s taxonomy to help develop critical thinking

The final task in this web quest is to develop a series of prompt questions you can use to help move your child’s thinking to the next “deeper” level.

A template to help you record these is available here.

The following links may provide further sources of help:Bloom Questions14 brilliant blooms taxonomy posters for teachers25 questions based around Bloom's taxonomy