Астана қаласыДарынды балаларға арналған

№ 81 Astana English school гимназиясы

Ағылшын тілі пәні мұғаліміДоминова Азима Астанәліқызы

Critical thinking for children and young people in the classroom

Critical thinking is traditionally associated with more advanced stages of education, in the later years of secondary school and in higher education. However, the foundations of critical thinking can be developed in working with young children from a very early stage in their schooling, to develop the necessary habits. This is the most easily managed by getting children to respond to first hand evidence. We have a great deal of evidence about ways of life in different parts of the world and at different periods of history, which we can use to motivate children’s curiosity and to develop their skills of critical thinking.

What is Critical thinking? “Critical thinking is the disciplined mental activity of evaluating arguments [information] or propositions and making judgments that can guide the development of beliefs and taking action.”

Ennis (1992) •Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. • Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.• It requires accurate standards of excellence and mindful command of their use.• It entails effective communication and problem solvingabilities and a commitment to overcome our native

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar

Critical thinking involves developing skills such as acquiring evidence through observation and listening, taking account of context, and applying relevant criteria for making judgments. Critical thinking skills involved might be described as:1. observation 3. inference2. analysis 4. interpretation

There are many opportunities for developing critical thinking skill when teaching different subjects. The critical thinking processes and skills that might be involved include:• Collecting and sorting evidence such as pictures and photos, and recording memories.• Evaluating these primary sources and posing relevant questions about them.• Comparing and discussing primary sources, making inferences and provisional generalizations.• Revising assumptions and hypotheses on the basis of wider experience.

At the later stage of reviewing their work, through further discussion with teachers, reviewing and revising their provisional conclusions, children can be helped to become more conscious of their own learning processes, including:• evaluation• explanation• meta-cognition

The following are the steps that children can be guided through and the skills they will use in undertaking classroom activities:

1. Process the information derived from visual or from oral evidence. This could equally be applied to information derived from reading primary source documents, data gathered from a survey or questionnaire, or information collected from several secondary sources, such as a selection of textbooks, encyclopedias or websites.2. Understand key points, assumptions or hypotheses that structure investigation of the evidence, or in later activities, underlie the arguments.3. Analyze how these key components, and the visual and oral evidence, ft together and relate to each other.4. Compare and explore the similarities and differences between individual images, or between different personal accounts and memories.5. Synthesize by bringing together different sources of information to construct an argument or set of ideas. Make connections between the different sources that shape and support your ideas.6. Evaluate the validity and reliability of evidence in relation to your investigation, and how the evidence supports or contradicts your assumptions and emerging ideas.7. Apply the understanding gained by presenting an interpretation in response to the questions that underlay the investigation.8. Justify ideas and interpretations in defending arguments about the conclusions reached and implications identified.

Using Critical thinking in the classroom The main idea - the development of thinking skills of students, such as the ability to make informed decisions, to work with information, to analyze and evaluate critically.

Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help you and your students create questions that develop high order thinking.Focus on the higher levels: Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation

Why Critical Thinking is Important

“The future now belongs to societies that organize themselves for learning... nations that want high incomes and full employment must develop policies that emphasize the acquisition of knowledge and [thinking] skills by everyone, not just a select few.”Ray Marshall & Marc Tucker, Thinking For A Living: Education And The Wealth of Nations,

Basic Books. New York. 1992.• Academic Performance

– understand the arguments and beliefs of others– Critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs– Develop and defend one's own well-supported arguments and beliefs.

• Workplace– Helps us to reflect and get a deeper understanding of our own and others’

decisions– Encourage open-mindedness to change– Aid us in being more analytical in solving problems

• Daily life – Helps us to avoid making foolish personal decisions.– Promotes an informed and concerned citizenry capable of making good

decisions on important social, political and economic issues. – Aids in the development of autonomous thinkers capable of examining their

assumptions, dogmas, and prejudices.

Here are some guidelines for teaching critical thinking:

• Ask students to explain and clarify terms in their own words.• Ask thought-provoking questions such as Why? How?

What makes you think so? How do they compare? Which would be more useful?• Make judgments based on credible sources, such as, experts, agreement between

sources, reputable individuals, etc.• Solve problems to make conclusions.• Use variety of teaching strategies to promote critical thinking skill such as problem

solving and decision making.• Encourage group problem solving and decision making. Your students will enjoy

learning together.

6 Thinking Hats of Edward De Bono

Six Thinking Hats is a flexible and easy-to-use thinking processEach of the Six Thinking Hats represents a different direction or type of thinking, which is identified by a color

Benefits of using critical thinking for teachers and students?

Teachers will be able to • Assess his/her own work critically • Create friendly atmosphere • Increase students’ motivation • Improve quality of teaching and learning • Become reflective and effective

Students:

• Comprehend and use information more effectively • Become responsible for their learning • think critically • Work in teams • Assess themselves and others authentically