Episode 7: Is your child a critical thinker?

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with with school educators and administrators that I had while raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to know how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. If you're looking to find out more about current topics in education that could affect you or your children and the practical applications you can take to address these issues, the Then you're in the right place. In today's episode, I will cover the key aspects of critical thinking. Although this topic is broad and involves critical thinking in various subjects including music, reading and science, I will explore and discuss the main points about developing critical thinking skills overall without going too much into any specific discipline. Critical thinking is vital for participation in the knowledge economy and society. It is often viewed as rational and analytic thinking. Children overall don't seem to be learning anywhere near curricular content, not enough of it anyway, and they don't seem to be learning how to think. They are acquiring a lot of information in school, some of which is not even useful, but they don't get sufficient application of or reflection on that knowledge. And this happens in public and private schools. So what is critical thinking? Researchers Scriven and Paul define critical thinking as the 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. To state that more simply, critical thinking is a reflective thinking ability in which students judge and confirm the accuracy, significance and validity of the information they collect and use. Teaching analytic thinking involves encouraging students to analyze, critique, judge, compare and contrast, evaluate and assess. In order for children to be able to function successfully in a highly technical, knowledge oriented society, these they must have structured thinking skills and habits of lifelong learning. A critical thinker does not accept things without careful examination. They have a certain manner to approaching information, which is more analytical and synthetic as well as skeptical. They use reasoning to form an opinion, to settle some question, to solve some problem and its implications and consequences. Reasoning uses data, information and evidence and is expressed through and shaped by concepts and ideas. A plan suggested in the research from the Education Technology journal in 2011 provides a plan that will help students learn critical thinking and it is comprised of of five parts. Part one Content Instead of just memorizing information, the students should learn to use cognitive strategies to facilitate the learning of the subject matter, the verbal information, the concepts, the rules, the principles, and the logic and structure that comprise the subject. Content is merely a mode of thinking, a way of figuring something out, a means of understanding something through thought. There's no way to learn a body of content or subject without learning the concepts which define and structure that content. The content is logically interrelated. That content should be approached as a mode of thinking, a system for thought, and when content is approached as information to be routinely covered, there's no solid basis for intellectual growth, no basis for long term grasp and control. Part 2 Attitudes and dispositions the student should develop positive attitudes about learning a subject. This includes personal responsibility, persistence, mastery, self efficacy, and autonomy. A child's disposition about learning is usually formed in the home in the early stages of life and are more influenced by the parent than by the teacher. After all, parents are their child's first teacher. Part 3 Intellectual Standards Intellectual standards include mastery and analysis of information, things such as clarity and objectivity, relevance, depth, breadth, significant, and things along those lines. Standards require practice and most students do not develop a solid standpoint concerning clarity of thinking, precision and relevance. Part 4 Learning strategies the student needs to be aware of what and how he or she is learning, when and how to use cognitive learning and and specific strategies when to review, rehearse, and evaluate what is being learned and how to think about applying that knowledge. This is known as metacognition or what you know about what you know. It is critical in controlling motivations and dispositions and part 5 problem solving in order to solve a problem, the student needs to apply what he or she has learned to respiratory spectrum analysis, evaluation, and synthesis in order to resolve a problem. Worth noting is that all five of these activities interact. A person can't think without content, so learning new information and ideas is important. If a student doesn't have a positive disability, disposition or attitude about thinking, then he or she will not be a good thinker. A good attitude and a lot of knowledge will not be enough if the child has not learned the rules of intellectual standards such as what is and what is not good information, logically organized and available in a precise and accurate form at the appropriate moment. Self awareness and and good cognitive strategies are also required and solving problems requires all these things. So here's how this applies in the K12 education. The five conceptual areas of content, attitude and dispositions, intellectual standards, learning strategies, and problem solving can be taught in schools, although they almost never are. Because teachers tend to focus more on teaching facts and information, and they are under pressure to cover the official curriculum with few incentives to do anything different. Education systems in general focus on what and how much content information their students learn, not on how well the students learn to think. More attention is paid on memorizing information rather than on developing critical thinking skills. Teachers need to acquire prerequisites before teaching critical thinking. Although many teachers consider themselves critical thinking, the challenge comes in creating a classroom of critical thinkers. It's the combination of skills and attitudes that will make possible the lifelong ability to question assumptions, to make personal decisions. Critical thinking is not passive it is emotive as well as rational, and students must become active in the process of critical thinking. Research presented by Susan Nugent proposes five prerequisites for teaching critical thinking. Prerequisite number one There must be liberal enough definition of what critical thinking is. The definition of critical thinking is often limited to specific skills within a specific course. However, the skills of analyzing the validity of an argument and other critical thinking skills need to be continually used in order to become competent. Critical Thinking the working definition of critical thinking is liberal enough to include three acknowledgments. One that personal or emotional response is a necessary component of critical thinking, 2 that critical thinking must include creative thinking and 3 that the understanding of multiple perspectives results in change. Using creativity and critical thinking foster skills that apply to a broader perspective. Critical thinking is not just a set of skills, it's a set of principles. These principles are applied to life, not just procedures learned for a specific task. Critical thinking is a way of life and approach to all intellectual activity, and it is therefore the ability to use these skills as well as the spirit to do so. Critical thinking induces intellectual growth, thereby affecting change, because critical thinking is a process, not an outcome. Prerequisite number two Respect the students. It is hoped that as teachers respect their students, the students will ask more meaningful questions, consider perspectives other than the teachers, and present their own views in class as well as everywhere else. In order to teach critical thinking thinking, the student needs to develop his or her own voice, their own perspective on issues common on various positions. The respect comes when the teacher honors the student's right to question, to challenge, and to demand reasons. Prerequisite number three the teacher's critical thinking must be willing to discuss values and accept shifting values. Critical thinking allows the teacher and students to consider a multitude of values or behaviors. It's believed that identifying and discussing these closely held values will lead to better decision making. As students understand the values of others, they may find that their own values are changing. The students then learn that many of their actions stem from their values and oftentimes these values cannot be readily articulated. Prerequisite Number four A teacher of critical thinking must be receptive to change. This involves examining and re examining one's own beliefs. Teaching critical thinking necessitates change, change in the classroom methods, change of the view of the student, change of self, and even change of subject. Prerequisite Number five the teacher of critical thinking must know how he or she came to understand the subject matter. This teacher needs to understand how they arrived at the answers that they arrived at what shaped their thinking. In other words, the teacher needs to engage in metacognition as well as reflective writing. Students must practice in order to develop critical thinking. They need to articulate answers to well formed critical thinking questions and they need to listen to many perspectives. They need to question again and again. Critical thinking skills can even be taught to Pre K children. Mathematics for young children, that is, the Pre K kids helps to build critical thinking skills. Between the ages of three and six, children begin to advance their abilities to use analogical reasoning, which is making connections between prior knowledge and newly presented information. Preschool children universally learn by doing, interacting with materials and drawing conclusions or are testing hypotheses about things that are new to them. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, or nctm, identifies five content standards for pre kindergarten mathematics education Numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement and data analysis, and probability. Now in Pre K, the core of mathematics instruction rests in numbers and geometry standards, with each of the other standards contributing to and being learned in conjunction with numbers and geometry standards. With mathematical instruction, children can develop the ability to build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving. They can solve problems that arise in mathematics and other contexts, they can apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems, and they can monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving. It's important to include mathematics content areas and process standards throughout the children's daily activities in order for these critical thinking skills to be reinforced in some cases. Although this framework may be relevant, mathematics often receives less emphasis or may be omitted altogether from commonly used preschool curricula. When mathematics instruction is included in these curricula, the focus is frequently limited to teaching just numbers and operations like number recognition and counting and geometry like shapes. Since school curricula are beginning to focus more on ste stem subjects from the earliest years of children's schooling. Then, the infusion of mathematics process standards in preschool curriculum is critical and will connect children's learning experiences from preschool to learning in the early primary grades. Parents have a critical role in the development of their children's thinking. The parental role is more important than that of the teacher because thinking begins early and it begins at home. The child's basic dispositions and attitudes toward thinking are most likely acquired in the home. The student themselves must assume considerable responsibility for learning how to think. This is where they need the guidance of the parents to assist with the skill. The parent's role is to one stimulate children to develop strategies for learning primarily through questioning and modeling 2 help children understand the structure of ideas and concepts and teach and encourage the use of basic logic 3 parents should model, demonstrate, request, and reward positive Dispositions and attitudes 4 Parents should focus on honesty, precision, relevance as the standards that they promote at home and five parents can model to their children how to analyze problems and look for solutions. Additionally, to build critical thinking, problem solving, and team building skills, you could set aside time for reading and literacy such as building vocabulary through word games. You could play interactive and ad hoc math games and drills with your kids, and some board games have advanced features and you may want to include those in order to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Here are this episode's takeaways. Critical thinking focuses on improving one's thought processes about all areas of life. Robert Sternberg defined critical thinking broadly as the mental processes, strategies, and representation that people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts. Developing critical thinking is complex, especially since it involves disposition and attitudes which are often difficult to develop without the role of the parent. What constitutes critical thinking is clear. The importance of learning critical thinking is also clear. There has to be a paradigm shift in teaching critical thinking skills in school, and that shift involves moving away from teacher content centered education to student thinking education. Without this shift, schools will fail to lead students into a knowledge economy world. The importance of helping parents to understand their role is crucial, essential, and indispensable, and this must be recognized and put into action. Students need critical thinking skills to move from being simply recipients of knowledge to actively embracing and working with objective knowledge to make it their own. This allows them to have a deep and meaningful discussion discussion with their peers and their teachers. On the other hand, students who lack critical thinking skills are often passive learners, merely absorbing knowledge rather than being active learners who are consuming and constructing knowledge based on their personal experiences and because of this, critical thinking skills become an essential competency for 21st century learners. Many students today lack critical thinking skills and this lack of critical thinking skills threatens the students learning even in online classes, especially in asynchronous online discussion activities because students often find it difficult to explain complex concepts which generally results in misunderstanding and breakdown in the discussions. Concept mapping tools are one alternative to foster critical thinking skills. A concept map is just a visual representation model of information that has been constructed through nodes and lines. One such tool is called Poplet P O P P L E T. It's a free tool and open to anyone who uses a computer or mobile device. You can find it at www.popplet.com. popplit can be used by elementary school students and it enables users to create mind maps with drawings, text, images and videos. It also supports collaborative learning as well. Another concept mapping tool is mindomo M I N D O M O and it's similar in features and functionality to Poplit. Mondomo can be found at www.mondomo.com. both of these are valid supplemental tools that a parent can use to support the development of deeper critical thinking skills for their children. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please subscribe to my podcast on whatever service you're listening to. This this also I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a comment or a review and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. By the way, if you haven't urgent question about a current issue or specific topic that you'd like for me to cover and explore, shoot me a quick email at kimiberation through education.com that's kimberation through education.com to let me know what your question is. 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