Fostering Critical Thinking in the High School Classroom

1. Fostering Critical Thinking in the High School Classroom

2. 2 Organizing Questions WHAT is critical thinking? HOW do we foster critical thinking in the high school classroom?

3. Session Structure Big picture Key obstacles and problems Clarify the essence of critical thinking Examine teaching and learning strategies

4. BIG PICTURE We want to point our students in a direction that involves them in essential intellectual work: Take command of the basic concepts of critical thinking. Use these concepts to think within a discipline.

5. If we contextualize our goals it means teaching students to think like: Historians Geographers Economists Political scientists Sociologists Chemists Mathematicians Psychologists Scientists Archaeologists Biologists Literary critics Ecologists Critical thinkers

6. The Elements of Reasoning open up the logic of a subject or discipline. The Intellectual Standards assess the quality of our thinking about that logic.

7. I understand science when I can think scientifically, when I can: Formulate scientific questionsprecisely Pursue scientific purposesclearly Gather relevant scientific information Make reasonable scientific inferences Follow out logical scientific implications Accurately think within a scientific point of view (or multiple scientific viewpoints) Clarify and use scientific assumptions Clarify and use scientific concepts

8. Some Educational Practices Discourage Critical Thinking The student’s role is to be a passive recipient of knowledge. The student’s role is to memorize and regurgitate information (they do not understand). The teacher’s role is to “dispense” knowledge.

9. Questions on exams should be taken only from what has been covered in class. Problems students are asked to reason through are always formulated for them. There is an accurate answer to every question. Or every view is treated as just a matter of opinion.

10. Content does not seem to students to be explicitly inter-connected. Content/Tasks are not explicitly connected to students’ values, experiences, & lives.

11. Students are often unprepared for critical thinking, due to: Fear of making mistakes Fear of trying something new Fear of looking foolish Misunderstanding what it means to learn deeply Misunderstanding what it takes to cultivate the intellect The inability to read, write, speak or listen in a disciplined way.

12. John Henry Newman A man may hear a thousand lectures, and read a thousand volumes, and be at the end of the process very much where he was, as regards knowledge. Something more than merely admitting it in a negative way into the mind is necessary if it is to remain there. It must not be passively received, but actually and actively entered into, embraced, mastered. The mind must go half-way to meet what comes to it from without.”

13. Booth Tarkington, author “He had learned how to pass examinations by ‘cramming’; that is, in three or four days and nights he could get into his head enough of a selected fragment of some scientific or philosophical or literary or linguistic subject to reply plausibly to six questions out of ten. He could retain the information necessary for such a feat just long enough to give a successful performance; then it would evaporate utterly from his brain, and leave him undisturbed.” On what George Amberson had learned in college, from the Magnificant Ambersons (1918)}

14. When we sacrifice understanding to gain coverage, we sacrifice knowledge at the same time, because knowledge presupposes understanding.

15. If we accept that critical thinking is essential for substantive learning, then it is necessary to internalize a rich conception of critical thinking.

16. Questions Students Should be asking every day in the classroom: Are we clear about the question at issue? Is the information we are using accurate? Do we need to be more precise? Are we sticking to our purpose? Are we dealing with the complexities in the issue? Do we need to consider another perspective? Are our assumptions justifiable in context or are they faulty? Is our purpose fair-minded, or are we only concerned about advancing our own desires?

17. We don’t want students to think through random content, but core content; key content; seminal content. We want them to understand subjects as systems of ideas or meanings, all of which is interconnected.

19. Thinking must be at the core of the curriculum

20. Content is: Understood by thinking Constructed by thinking Modified by thinking Applied by thinking Questioned by thinking Assessed by thinking

21. To learn content students have to think it into their thinking using their thinking.

22. Critical thinking provides the tools students need to think through content. Critical thinking is a system of thinking that opens up all other systems of thinking.

23. What is Critical Thinking?

24. Clarify the concept of critical thinking Critical thinking is… In other words… For example… To illustrate…

25. Strategy: SEEI STATE in your own words what someone else has said or written, or the key concept, problem or question at issue. ELABORATE on your statement. In other words… EXEMPLIFY: give an example of the concept from your life and from the content. ILLUSTRATE: create an analogy, metaphor, simile, graph, chart, cartoon, etc.

26. Critical Thinking is a self-directed process by which we take deliberate steps to think at the highest level of quality.

27. Read, write hear etc Read It Write It Substantive Learning Draw It Hear It Teach It Apply It

28. Critical thinking is the way you do everything you do

29. Overview slide Thinking that assesses thinking Thinking that analyzes thinking critical thinking: disciplined, self-guided thinking aimed at living a rational life. thinking that combats its native egocentricity Thinking that develops within itself intellectual habits

30. Why Critical Thinking? Work in pairs. Concepts and Tools mini-guide. Person A, Person B. Critically read page 2 together, using the following method: a.  Person B reads one sentence aloud, then states in his/her own words what has been read. In other words, person B interprets the sentence. b. Person A then either agrees with the interpretation or offers a different interpretation, adds to the interpretation, etc. c.  During this process, do not critique what you are reading, merely interpret.

31. d. Person B then reads the second sentence, and the same process occurs. e.  Person A then takes the next two sentences, one sentence at a time, reading, interpreting, getting feedback from person B, using the same method. f.  Take turns reading and interpreting using this method, each person reading and interpreting two sentences, then switching roles, until the entire page is read.

32. Strategy: Critical Reading (1) Work in pairs. a.  Person B reads one sentence aloud, then states in his/her own words what has been read. In other words, person B interprets the sentence. b. Person A then either agrees with the interpretation or offers a different interpretation, adds to the interpretation, etc. c.  Do not critique, merely interpret. d. Move on to next sentence.

33. StandardsElementsTraits

34. VirtuesElements Standards

35. Red/green thinking

36. Green Thinking Unconscious Mixture Of High Quality And Low Quality Thinking Spontaneous Subconscious Uncontrolled Impulsive Self protecting Unanalyzed Reflexive Self validating Includes ideas that are valid, as well as nonsense, confusion, stereotypes, prejudices. The key is that we cannot distinguish the difference between high and low quality thought in green thinking mode. Green thinking goes without assessing itself.

37. Red Thinking Red Thinking stops and assesses itself before going forward. Disciplined Seeks the truth Self assessing Critical Thinking Self correcting Probing In red thinking mode, we actively work to eliminate prejudices, biases, dysfunctional thinking from our thinking. We actively work on our thinking. We rigorously apply intellectual standards to our thinking.

38. Trap or free Your Thinking can either Trap You Free You Open your mind to new ways of thinking Hold you Hostage within uncritically held beliefs

39. The critical thinking mind is the educated mind The Critical Thinking Mind=The Educated Mind

40. To Learn Anything, We Must Actively Bring It Into Our Thinking

41. How do we foster critical thinking in high school classrooms?

42. LOGIC OF Instruction Student Thinking Content

43. Typical Standards One Logic of Student Thinking Instead of Intellectual Standards, what are the standards students most often use in their thinking?

44. Typical Standards Two Standards TypicallyUsed in Thinking “It’s true because I believe it” (innate egocentrism) “It’s true because we believe it” (innate sociocentrism) “It’s true because I want to believe it” (innate wish fulfillment) “It’s true because I have always believed it.” (innate self-validation) “It’s true because it is in my selfish interest to believe it.” (innate selfishness)

45. Non-Critical Thinking Standards Fun Exciting Feels good Attention-getting Popular Patriotic free Chic Spontaneous Advantageous Easy Beneficial to me Deeply moving/felt

46. Logic of the Content • Complete the logic of one of your subjects. • Refer to pages XXXXX in Analytic Reasoning guide for examples.

47. Logic of Instruction Two approaches to redesigning instruction Daily strategies Reconstructing individual lessons

48. Enoch’s Strategy List SEEI Deck of Cards Role Play Peer Teach Structural Reading Critical Reading Peer Assessments Socratic Dialogue Domain Diagram Question Tree Bull’s Eye Diagram Write Encyclopedia Entry CT Journal CT Notes List Weaknesses