Like all teachers I believe in a brighter, better, future and I believe education is key in creating that future. I have some very deep rooted assumptions about learning and critical thinking. Some of my assumptions come from my own experiences as a student while others are formed from teaching. The assumptions I formed as an educator have been evaluated and tested.
Every teacher knows student’s have to want and have the ability to learn. “Students learn when they’re motivated to learn. If they (students) want to learn, they will” (Kolderie, T, 2001). This is reinforced with Stephen Brookfeilds idea that “Emotion is right at the core of critical thinking (Johanson, 2012). If students don’t feel safe and accepted they cannot learn. Dr. Becky Bailey writes that human brains have 3 states of functioning, survival, emotional and executive. Only in the Executive state can they problem solve and think critically (2015 p 30-54). School has become more than just a place to seek knowledge. Schools are a place for children to get a warm meal, a loving smile and acceptance. It is impossible to think critically until basic needs are met.
The underlying factor is how we keep students engaged? When students are engaged moving them from the lower levels to the higher levels of boom can be easier. We as educators are looking for ways to keep students engaged and help them develop more effective critical thinking. According to Ulku S. Karabult class discussion, writing and application of questions have been used to teach students in Social Studies classes since 1977 (2012). These are still used in Social studies classes today. Kathryn Carr suggests critical reading, writing to learn and classification games to help keep students engaged and move them to a better understanding of their critical thinking (1990). In “Revisiting Bloom’s Taxonomy: a Framework for Modeling Writing and Critical Thinking Skills the authors suggest a modeling approach (Jacobson and Lapp 2010). While these are ways to keep students engages a way to understand a student’s learning experience is to ask them. Stephen Brookfield created a “Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) to evaluate what the students find helpful and engaging (Johanson, 2012). This questionnaire can be used for a wide range of ages as well as for any subject. It is helpful for teacher to better plan upcoming lessons based on their findings.
One of my other individual assumptions one of my colleges is that students need constant modeling and practice to obtain a better understanding of the information taught and then more modeling is needed of the critical thinking process to aid students in effectively applying the skill to new ideas and concepts. This scaffolding process needs to be scaffold and well planned out. We use the think aloud method mentioned in Jacobson and Lapps article when reading aloud, breaking down test questions, editing writing and in other learning opportunities (2010). Often during the think aloud we incorporate the Socratic method of questioning the student. It turns into a whole class discussion of interpreting information analyzing and clarifying understanding. The district I work for has discovered that these think aloud questioning session help students in “arriving at judgments through their own reasoning” as well as help students analyze thinking and thought including its purpose, assumptions, questions, points of view, information, inferences concepts and implications” (Oyler, D. & Romanelli, F. 2014). This process over many lessons has students start thinking independently and more critically. We use think, pair, share partners for student to discuss their answers with a classmate. Students think on their own about their answer. Then they pair with a partner to discuss their finding. As they discuss they are required to agree or disagree and then justify their answer. Finally a few answers are shared with the whole class where we again analyze the depth of knowledge and evaluate the answers. Students are asked to evaluate their own answer before finalizing their own answer. Often I have students saying to their, think, pair, share partner “Mrs. Ryan won’t take that answer because it does not prove up understand.” Or “Mrs. Ryan will ask us to be more specific.” This reinforces my assumption that the modeling and questioning are important to student understanding as well as engagement.
As I myself learn more about the process of critical thinking some of my assumptions are challenges. As a collaborative effort I have shared some of my findings with my coworkers and discussed and hunted out underlying assumptions to better improve my own teaching. I originally held the assumption that while real life application can engage students it is not necessary to build a deeper understanding. This is one of the assumptions that has been challenged and changed is that students need authentic connections to their learning. I myself have always enjoyed school and felt motivated to get a good grade. The idea behind authentic tasks was one that I was aware with but did not effectively use in my own classroom. After reading “Steps to Critical Thinking” written by John Hughes I immediately emailed my districts Gifted and Talented teacher as well as other teachers who I felt would find the article interesting. Our district recently received a grant to implement problem based learning. Hughes clearly indicates that authentic tasks or tasks where student work on real life situations builds critical thinking skills. I enjoyed how Hughes clearly laid out an easy to follow plan to introduce critical thinking as well as engage students in critical thinking. Wineburg and Shneider simple states “Problem solved. Picture painted. Knowledge gained. That’s critical thinking”. Their article “Was Bloom’s Taxonomy Pointed in the Wrong Direction” also gave clear examples that I related to my own experience to help adjust my assumption (2010).
“Unless we take that first step into unknown, we will never know our own potential!” is a quote by Allan Rufus that speaks to hunting assumptions. This has been a change for me during this course I find myself researching and evaluating the way that I run my own classroom. My assumptions are changing and shaping and strengthening my knowledge base. Allowing myselg to critically think about the way I approach my own role in education. I have started to implement ways to keep my students more engaged including the use of padlet.com to allow a more collaborative approach to questioning and analyzing information. I also have started working more with small groups of students, using Quizlet and Kahoot, both online interactive quizzing games, to build one group of students’ basic knowledge while using strategic questioning with another small group. This has helped me build a better bond with my students and meet their basic need for attention and validation. I am hoping to integrate the use of Brookfield’s Critical Incident Questionnaire to help understand what they find as effective and engaging. Constantly evaluating my assumptions and making changes to my current actions allows me the ability to model the critical thinking that I strive to help my students understand and apply.
References
Bailey.B (2015) Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms. Oviedo, Fl: Loving Guidance.
Carr, K. S. (1990). How can we teach critical thinking? ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early
Childhood Education.
Hughes, J. (2014). Steps to critical thinking. English Teaching Professional, 6(91), 4-6.
Kolderie, T ,(2001)If Kids Don’t Want to Learn You Probably Can’t Make’ Em: Ted Kolderie’s Notes
From Jack Frymier’s Visit to Saint Paul (2006) retrieved (2/7/2016) from:
Click to access Frymier-Motivation-Matters.pdf
Jacobson, J., & Lapp D. (2010). Revisiting Bloom’s Taxonomy: A framework for modeling writing and
critical thinking skills. The California Reader, 43(3), 32-47.
Johanson, J. (2010). Cultivating critical thinking: An interview with Stephen Brookfield. Journal of
Developmental Education, 33(3), 26-28.
Karabulut, Ü. S. (2012). How to teach critical thinking in social studies education: An examination of
three NCSS journals. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (EJER), 49, 197-212.
Oyler, D. R., & Romanelli, F. (2014). The fact of ignorance revisiting the Socratic method as a tool for
teaching critical thinking. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 78(7), 1-9.
Quotes About Knowledge and Education (n.d.) Good Reads. Retrived 2/1/2016 from:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/knowledge-education
Wineburg, S., & Schneider J. (2010). Was Bloom’s Taxonomy pointed in the wrong direction? Phi Delta
Kappan, 91(4), 56-61.
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