Critical+Thinking

“ They are the skills of high quality thinking. If we are to foster the skills, abilities and traits that students need to function in their world, they need to take command of their minds, of their thoughts, their motivations, their emotions. They need to know how to assess the quality of their thinking and the thinking of others. To do these things they need the tools of critical thinking. When we understand the intimate relationship between critical thinking and instruction, and between critical thinking and the decisions we should be making in everyday life, we see critical thinking as integral to teaching and learning. We see critical thinking as integral to both the skills we need to teach students and the traits of mind we should foster in student thought.” ([|www.criticalthinking.org])

.What is Critical Thinking and Problem Solving? Critical thinking has many definitions, but in general, it is the ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate, summarize and synthesize information, and apply the results to solve complex problems or create new proposals. With the availability of powerful technology, students have easy access to information and the ability to organize, store and share it. They have opportunities to learn from experts, collaborate with peers, and communicate their findings with an authentic audience. To effectively participate, one needs to be able to: use various types of reasoning, analyze how parts work together to create a 'whole', effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, and differing points of view, interpret information and draw conclusions, and reflect critically on the process. In addition, one needs to be able to solve different types of problems with innovation, including the ability to identify questions to clarifying different points of view and facilitate solutions.
 * Critical Thinking and Problem Solving **** : **

At New Parker we believe each student can learn the skills needed to participate in our global society and to facilitate this, they will par take in courses that develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.
 * Our Proposal: **

1) Socratic Seminar classes, which are small group and differentiated by interest. Facilitated by a teacher, these small group classes would allow students to lead the conversations about class readings or research. Students would be graded based upon the quality of their participation and preparation, as well as their ability to build on others ideas and reference the text for support. These seminars would focus on developing good questioning skills to access higher level information, fair evaluative skills, and the ability to cite reasons to support their ideas. In sixth grade, one would be learn about the different types of thinking. One possibility is discussed in Elder’s: The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children, in which he describes three styles of thinking as “naïve, selfish, and fair-minded’. He creates activities to have students identify and practice the different ways of thinking with the focus on developing fair-mindedness, which is needed for collaboration. In addition, focus is on developing interpretive questions and responding with clarity and citing reasons (evidence) to support their ideas. As students progress through middle school, focus would evolve to relevance of ideas, logical thinking, and synthesis.

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2) Project based learning within each classroom, with the assistance of a grade level media specialist in developing appropriate projects within their content curriculum. Project based learning is an approach to instruction that involves student’s in a problem-solving activity that reflects the types of learning and work people do within their jobs. According to [|www.pbl-online.org], Project based learning teaches students 21st century skills as well as content. These skills include communication and presentation skills, organization and time management skills, research and inquiry skills, self-assessment and reflection skills, and group participation and leadership skills. They have to work as a team and contribute to a group effort. Within the context of a problem to solve or a desired final product, students need to learn content and apply important skills to complete the task. This results in a deeper understanding of the subject content plus necessary application of higher-thinking skills. It is commonly believed that our students will need to have these skills in order to participate in the global economy of today’s world. It is no longer enough to teach skills and then have students apply them- they need to know how to research and evaluate information in order to apply it to task completion. In the end, something new should be created- even if it is a new way to display understanding

3) Incorporating games into learning models and assessments: Researchers predict that games are "undoubtedly where we'll go in the future" when assessing students (Spotlight on Tech p. 72). At our school we would like to pilot new technologies that are making assessments more engaging and more able to assess students ability to synthesize and apply what they have learned. Games can also provide feedback to players to show them how they can get out of a situation in which they get stuck. The assessment can actually become a method of learning while assessing the child's ability to learn and apply their skills to virtual scenarios. Our goal is to create students who are flexible, innovative, life-long learners. Using video games in the classroom is an excellent way to develop and mold students with these traits. Example of games we use: Brainpop has a game we use in social studies where students apply their knowledge of the branches of government to try to get a bill passed by a virtual society. SimCity and SimEarth are both games that simulate urban development and environmental resource issues.

4) Instruction in Web Literacy Skills: With the instant availability of unlimited- and uncensored- information on the internet, it is imperative that our students learn strategies to evaluate the information they find. In addition, they need to be able to communicate their knowledge with others and collaborate to achieve common goals. These abilities are known as ‘Web Literacy’ skills. According to Alan November, students need to know the ‘grammar’ of the internet before they can effectively evaluate the internet in the same way they learned to decode before they could read. They need to become information and communication literate. In order to achieve these learning objectives in our students, we plan to offer courses in: In addition, professional development in these areas will be available for all teachers.
 * ‘MAPping’ the Internet- to understand the structure of internet information, including how to read a URL, evaluate the author and purpose of the information.
 * The ethical and social responsibility necessary for global communication; to learn to manage an immense amount of information and work with others internationally. Classes will create and facilitate collaborative partnerships with appropriate ‘sister’ classrooms within and outside our community. Students will learn to provide and receive peer-feedback.
 * Skills needed to Solve Real Problems, including interpreting data, organizing and delegating tasks within a team, and developing an overall plan for project completion.


 * 21st Century Skills **
 * 1) Life & Career Skills
 * 2) ** Flexibility & Adaptability (77) **
 * 3) Initiative & Self-Directive (79)
 * 4) ** Social & Cross-Cultural Skills (81) **
 * 5) Productivity & Accountability Skills (83)
 * 6) ** Leadership & Responsibility (84) **
 * 7) Learning & Innovation Skills
 * 8) ** Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (52) **
 * 9) ** Communication & Collaboration Skills (55 ** )
 * 10) ** Creativity & Innovation Skills (59) **
 * 11) Information, Technology, and Media Skills
 * 12) ** Digital Literacy Skills (67 **** ) **
 * 13) Media Literacy (69)
 * 14) ICT Literacy (71)


 * How Does This Connect With Outside Of The Community? **

The development of critical thinking skills and problem solving skills both require others outside our immediate building to broaden our perspectives and collaborate with to achieve common goals. It is through the appreciation of another's perspective that we broaden our own. Our intention is to provide opportunities for our students to form working relationships with others- both peers and adult ‘experts’- to develop these skills.


 * What Others Are Saying: **

“The exercise (Socratic seminars) builds critical thinking, oral communication, flexibility, self-direction, and teamwork” Spotlight on Technology in Education/40

"Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions. Had no questions been asked by those who laid the foundation for a field — for example, Physics or Biology — the field would never have been developed in the first place. Furthermore, every field stays alive only to the extent that fresh questions are generated and taken seriously as the driving force in a process of thinking. To think through or rethink anything, one must ask questions that stimulate our thought. Questions define tasks, express problems and delineate issues. Answers on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further question does thought continue its life as such.This is why it is true that only students who have questions are really thinking and learning." http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-role-of-questions-in-teaching-thinking-and-learning/524 "New models of assessment immerse students in virtual worlds to measure abilities that are difficult, if not impossible, to capture on pencil and paper tests such as the ability to solve problems and conduct scientific inquiry. In some cases, these assessments are also learning experiences, because students receive instantaneous feedback, as players do in actual video games.” Spotlight on Technology in Education/ 66

"Critical thinking and problem solving are considered by many to be the new basics of 21st century learning. Recent research in // cognition, // the science of thinking, has punctured a time-honored tenet of teaching- that mastering content must come before an attempt to put it to good use. As it turns out, using knowledge as it is being used- applying skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity to the content knowledge- increases motivation and improves learning outcomes. " 21st Century Skills (p.50)