Critical Thinking
We’ve been seeing lots of potential colleagues in the hallway these last few days of the academic year. People are being interviewed for positions this fall. A couple of days ago, a colleague who was part of a panel interview with one of the recent candidates commented upon how well the candidate had answered the following question. “How would you teach critical thinking?”
This got me to thinking about what my response to that question would be. Honestly, I don’t know what would come out of my mouth in an interview situation but here’s my own answer to that question.
I wouldn’t teach critical thinking. I don’t believe it needs to be taught because I think people do it naturally. They may not do it about all things all the time, but I believe that all people do think critically about some things some times.
As educators, we want our students not to become critical thinkers but rather to become better at thinking critically. This can be done by modeling critical thinking ourselves, encouraging students to think critically and by rewarding students for taking up the challenge regardless of what we may think of their outcomes.
How do I model critical thinking in my classroom? I’m not sure that I can answer that at this time.
How do I encourage it? I encourage critical thinking by asking students to explain why they believe / say a particular thing is true, worthy, correct etc. Sometimes I challenge their suppositions about particular subjects. I also try to create an atmosphere in the classroom/community that is safe for questioning me about my suppositions.
How do I reward critical thinking? I do this primarily (exclusively?) through verbal praise. If it’s necessary, then I admit shortcomings in my reasoning when a student “catches me out” before the class.
Since my critical thinking skills are certainly in process and in need of improvement, I’m sure that my methods for modeling, encouraging and rewarding are also in need of improvement.
I’m not sure how that answer would fly in an interview, but for the moment, these are my thoughts on the matter.
2 Comments
You might be interested in what I wrote about critical thinking 2 years ago. Be sure to read the comments and other blogs that are linked.
critical thinking in non western learners
critical thinking part 2
Thanks for that.
I took a quick look at the posts and comments too late at night to say anything worth reading but perhaps I’ll get a chance to mull it all over…until then, I’m sticking with my original sentiment: all humans think critically in varying degrees of skill regarding various issues and the best thing teachers can do is model, encourage and reward critical thinking.