critical thinking in teaching and learning

Classroom Q&A

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In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom

critical thinking in teaching and learning

(This is the second post in a three-part series. You can see Part One here .)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?

Part One ‘s guests were Dara Laws Savage, Patrick Brown, Meg Riordan, Ph.D., and Dr. PJ Caposey. Dara, Patrick, and Meg were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Today, Dr. Kulvarn Atwal, Elena Quagliarello, Dr. Donna Wilson, and Diane Dahl share their recommendations.

‘Learning Conversations’

Dr. Kulvarn Atwal is currently the executive head teacher of two large primary schools in the London borough of Redbridge. Dr. Atwal is the author of The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community , published by John Catt Educational. Follow him on Twitter @Thinkingschool2 :

In many classrooms I visit, students’ primary focus is on what they are expected to do and how it will be measured. It seems that we are becoming successful at producing students who are able to jump through hoops and pass tests. But are we producing children that are positive about teaching and learning and can think critically and creatively? Consider your classroom environment and the extent to which you employ strategies that develop students’ critical-thinking skills and their self-esteem as learners.

Development of self-esteem

One of the most significant factors that impacts students’ engagement and achievement in learning in your classroom is their self-esteem. In this context, self-esteem can be viewed to be the difference between how they perceive themselves as a learner (perceived self) and what they consider to be the ideal learner (ideal self). This ideal self may reflect the child that is associated or seen to be the smartest in the class. Your aim must be to raise students’ self-esteem. To do this, you have to demonstrate that effort, not ability, leads to success. Your language and interactions in the classroom, therefore, have to be aspirational—that if children persist with something, they will achieve.

Use of evaluative praise

Ensure that when you are praising students, you are making explicit links to a child’s critical thinking and/or development. This will enable them to build their understanding of what factors are supporting them in their learning. For example, often when we give feedback to students, we may simply say, “Well done” or “Good answer.” However, are the students actually aware of what they did well or what was good about their answer? Make sure you make explicit what the student has done well and where that links to prior learning. How do you value students’ critical thinking—do you praise their thinking and demonstrate how it helps them improve their learning?

Learning conversations to encourage deeper thinking

We often feel as teachers that we have to provide feedback to every students’ response, but this can limit children’s thinking. Encourage students in your class to engage in learning conversations with each other. Give as many opportunities as possible to students to build on the responses of others. Facilitate chains of dialogue by inviting students to give feedback to each other. The teacher’s role is, therefore, to facilitate this dialogue and select each individual student to give feedback to others. It may also mean that you do not always need to respond at all to a student’s answer.

Teacher modelling own thinking

We cannot expect students to develop critical-thinking skills if we aren’t modeling those thinking skills for them. Share your creativity, imagination, and thinking skills with the students and you will nurture creative, imaginative critical thinkers. Model the language you want students to learn and think about. Share what you feel about the learning activities your students are participating in as well as the thinking you are engaging in. Your own thinking and learning will add to the discussions in the classroom and encourage students to share their own thinking.

Metacognitive questioning

Consider the extent to which your questioning encourages students to think about their thinking, and therefore, learn about learning! Through asking metacognitive questions, you will enable your students to have a better understanding of the learning process, as well as their own self-reflections as learners. Example questions may include:

Why did you choose to do it that way?
When you find something tricky, what helps you?
How do you know when you have really learned something?

‘Adventures of Discovery’

Elena Quagliarello is the senior editor of education for Scholastic News , a current events magazine for students in grades 3–6. She graduated from Rutgers University, where she studied English and earned her master’s degree in elementary education. She is a certified K–12 teacher and previously taught middle school English/language arts for five years:

Critical thinking blasts through the surface level of a topic. It reaches beyond the who and the what and launches students on a learning journey that ultimately unlocks a deeper level of understanding. Teaching students how to think critically helps them turn information into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom. In the classroom, critical thinking teaches students how to ask and answer the questions needed to read the world. Whether it’s a story, news article, photo, video, advertisement, or another form of media, students can use the following critical-thinking strategies to dig beyond the surface and uncover a wealth of knowledge.

A Layered Learning Approach

Begin by having students read a story, article, or analyze a piece of media. Then have them excavate and explore its various layers of meaning. First, ask students to think about the literal meaning of what they just read. For example, if students read an article about the desegregation of public schools during the 1950s, they should be able to answer questions such as: Who was involved? What happened? Where did it happen? Which details are important? This is the first layer of critical thinking: reading comprehension. Do students understand the passage at its most basic level?

Ask the Tough Questions

The next layer delves deeper and starts to uncover the author’s purpose and craft. Teach students to ask the tough questions: What information is included? What or who is left out? How does word choice influence the reader? What perspective is represented? What values or people are marginalized? These questions force students to critically analyze the choices behind the final product. In today’s age of fast-paced, easily accessible information, it is essential to teach students how to critically examine the information they consume. The goal is to equip students with the mindset to ask these questions on their own.

Strike Gold

The deepest layer of critical thinking comes from having students take a step back to think about the big picture. This level of thinking is no longer focused on the text itself but rather its real-world implications. Students explore questions such as: Why does this matter? What lesson have I learned? How can this lesson be applied to other situations? Students truly engage in critical thinking when they are able to reflect on their thinking and apply their knowledge to a new situation. This step has the power to transform knowledge into wisdom.

Adventures of Discovery

There are vast ways to spark critical thinking in the classroom. Here are a few other ideas:

Critical Expressionism: In this expanded response to reading from a critical stance, students are encouraged to respond through forms of artistic interpretations, dramatizations, singing, sketching, designing projects, or other multimodal responses. For example, students might read an article and then create a podcast about it or read a story and then act it out.
Transmediations: This activity requires students to take an article or story and transform it into something new. For example, they might turn a news article into a cartoon or turn a story into a poem. Alternatively, students may rewrite a story by changing some of its elements, such as the setting or time period.
Words Into Action: In this type of activity, students are encouraged to take action and bring about change. Students might read an article about endangered orangutans and the effects of habitat loss caused by deforestation and be inspired to check the labels on products for palm oil. They might then write a letter asking companies how they make sure the palm oil they use doesn’t hurt rain forests.
Socratic Seminars: In this student-led discussion strategy, students pose thought-provoking questions to each other about a topic. They listen closely to each other’s comments and think critically about different perspectives.
Classroom Debates: Aside from sparking a lively conversation, classroom debates naturally embed critical-thinking skills by asking students to formulate and support their own opinions and consider and respond to opposing viewpoints.

Critical thinking has the power to launch students on unforgettable learning experiences while helping them develop new habits of thought, reflection, and inquiry. Developing these skills prepares students to examine issues of power and promote transformative change in the world around them.

‘Quote Analysis’

Dr. Donna Wilson is a psychologist and the author of 20 books, including Developing Growth Mindsets , Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains , and Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (2 nd Edition). She is an international speaker who has worked in Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe, Jamaica, and throughout the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Wilson can be reached at [email protected] ; visit her website at www.brainsmart.org .

Diane Dahl has been a teacher for 13 years, having taught grades 2-4 throughout her career. Mrs. Dahl currently teaches 3rd and 4th grade GT-ELAR/SS in Lovejoy ISD in Fairview, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @DahlD, and visit her website at www.fortheloveofteaching.net :

A growing body of research over the past several decades indicates that teaching students how to be better thinkers is a great way to support them to be more successful at school and beyond. In the book, Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains , Dr. Wilson shares research and many motivational strategies, activities, and lesson ideas that assist students to think at higher levels. Five key strategies from the book are as follows:

Facilitate conversation about why it is important to think critically at school and in other contexts of life. Ideally, every student will have a contribution to make to the discussion over time.
Begin teaching thinking skills early in the school year and as a daily part of class.
As this instruction begins, introduce students to the concept of brain plasticity and how their brilliant brains change during thinking and learning. This can be highly motivational for students who do not yet believe they are good thinkers!
Explicitly teach students how to use the thinking skills.
Facilitate student understanding of how the thinking skills they are learning relate to their lives at school and in other contexts.

Below are two lessons that support critical thinking, which can be defined as the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.

Mrs. Dahl prepares her 3rd and 4th grade classes for a year of critical thinking using quote analysis .

During Native American studies, her 4 th grade analyzes a Tuscarora quote: “Man has responsibility, not power.” Since students already know how the Native Americans’ land had been stolen, it doesn’t take much for them to make the logical leaps. Critical-thought prompts take their thinking even deeper, especially at the beginning of the year when many need scaffolding. Some prompts include:

… from the point of view of the Native Americans?
… from the point of view of the settlers?
How do you think your life might change over time as a result?
Can you relate this quote to anything else in history?

Analyzing a topic from occupational points of view is an incredibly powerful critical-thinking tool. After learning about the Mexican-American War, Mrs. Dahl’s students worked in groups to choose an occupation with which to analyze the war. The chosen occupations were: anthropologist, mathematician, historian, archaeologist, cartographer, and economist. Then each individual within each group chose a different critical-thinking skill to focus on. Finally, they worked together to decide how their occupation would view the war using each skill.

For example, here is what each student in the economist group wrote:

When U.S.A. invaded Mexico for land and won, Mexico ended up losing income from the settlements of Jose de Escandon. The U.S.A. thought that they were gaining possible tradable land, while Mexico thought that they were losing precious land and resources.
Whenever Texas joined the states, their GDP skyrocketed. Then they went to war and spent money on supplies. When the war was resolving, Texas sold some of their land to New Mexico for $10 million. This allowed Texas to pay off their debt to the U.S., improving their relationship.
A detail that converged into the Mexican-American War was that Mexico and the U.S. disagreed on the Texas border. With the resulting treaty, Texas ended up gaining more land and economic resources.
Texas gained land from Mexico since both countries disagreed on borders. Texas sold land to New Mexico, which made Texas more economically structured and allowed them to pay off their debt.

This was the first time that students had ever used the occupations technique. Mrs. Dahl was astonished at how many times the kids used these critical skills in other areas moving forward.

Thanks to Dr. Auwal, Elena, Dr. Wilson, and Diane for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

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The Will to Teach

Critical Thinking in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, teaching students the skill of critical thinking has become a priority. This powerful tool empowers students to evaluate information, make reasoned judgments, and approach problems from a fresh perspective. In this article, we’ll explore the significance of critical thinking and provide effective strategies to nurture this skill in your students.

Why is Fostering Critical Thinking Important?

Strategies to cultivate critical thinking, real-world example, concluding thoughts.

Critical thinking is a key skill that goes far beyond the four walls of a classroom. It equips students to better understand and interact with the world around them. Here are some reasons why fostering critical thinking is important:

Making Informed Decisions: Critical thinking enables students to evaluate the pros and cons of a situation, helping them make informed and rational decisions.
Developing Analytical Skills: Critical thinking involves analyzing information from different angles, which enhances analytical skills.
Promoting Independence: Critical thinking fosters independence by encouraging students to form their own opinions based on their analysis, rather than relying on others.

Creating an environment that encourages critical thinking can be accomplished in various ways. Here are some effective strategies:

Socratic Questioning: This method involves asking thought-provoking questions that encourage students to think deeply about a topic. For example, instead of asking, “What is the capital of France?” you might ask, “Why do you think Paris became the capital of France?”
Debates and Discussions: Debates and open-ended discussions allow students to explore different viewpoints and challenge their own beliefs. For example, a debate on a current event can engage students in critical analysis of the situation.
Teaching Metacognition: Teaching students to think about their own thinking can enhance their critical thinking skills. This can be achieved through activities such as reflective writing or journaling.
Problem-Solving Activities: As with developing problem-solving skills , activities that require students to find solutions to complex problems can also foster critical thinking.

As a school leader, I’ve seen the transformative power of critical thinking. During a school competition, I observed a team of students tasked with proposing a solution to reduce our school’s environmental impact. Instead of jumping to obvious solutions, they critically evaluated multiple options, considering the feasibility, cost, and potential impact of each. They ultimately proposed a comprehensive plan that involved water conservation, waste reduction, and energy efficiency measures. This demonstrated their ability to critically analyze a problem and develop an effective solution.

Critical thinking is an essential skill for students in the 21st century. It equips them to understand and navigate the world in a thoughtful and informed manner. As a teacher, incorporating strategies to foster critical thinking in your classroom can make a lasting impact on your students’ educational journey and life beyond school.

1. What is critical thinking? Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment.

2. Why is critical thinking important for students? Critical thinking helps students make informed decisions, develop analytical skills, and promotes independence.

3. What are some strategies to cultivate critical thinking in students? Strategies can include Socratic questioning, debates and discussions, teaching metacognition, and problem-solving activities.

4. How can I assess my students’ critical thinking skills? You can assess critical thinking skills through essays, presentations, discussions, and problem-solving tasks that require thoughtful analysis.

5. Can critical thinking be taught? Yes, critical thinking can be taught and nurtured through specific teaching strategies and a supportive learning environment.

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Connecting Learning to Real-World Contexts: Strategies for Teachers

When students see the relevance of their classroom lessons to their everyday lives, they are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and retain information.

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Encouraging Active Involvement in Learning: Strategies for Teachers

Active learning benefits students by improving retention of information, enhancing critical thinking skills, and encouraging a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

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Collaborative and Cooperative Learning: A Guide for Teachers

These methods encourage students to work together, share ideas, and actively participate in their education.

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Experiential Teaching: Role-Play and Simulations in Teaching

These interactive techniques allow students to immerse themselves in practical, real-world scenarios, thereby deepening their understanding and retention of key concepts.

In a school classroom, a teacher engages with her students while delivering a lesson.

Project-Based Learning Activities: A Guide for Teachers

Project-Based Learning is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic approach to teaching, where students explore real-world problems or challenges.

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Critical thinking and problem-solving, jump to: , what is critical thinking, characteristics of critical thinking, why teach critical thinking.

Teaching Strategies to Help Promote Critical Thinking Skills

References and Resources

When examining the vast literature on critical thinking, various definitions of critical thinking emerge. Here are some samples:

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined 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" (Scriven, 1996).
"Most formal definitions characterize critical thinking as the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation" (Angelo, 1995, p. 6).
"Critical thinking is thinking that assesses itself" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996b).
"Critical thinking is the ability to think about one's thinking in such a way as 1. To recognize its strengths and weaknesses and, as a result, 2. To recast the thinking in improved form" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996c).

Perhaps the simplest definition is offered by Beyer (1995) : "Critical thinking... means making reasoned judgments" (p. 8). Basically, Beyer sees critical thinking as using criteria to judge the quality of something, from cooking to a conclusion of a research paper. In essence, critical thinking is a disciplined manner of thought that a person uses to assess the validity of something (statements, news stories, arguments, research, etc.).

Back

Wade (1995) identifies eight characteristics of critical thinking. Critical thinking involves asking questions, defining a problem, examining evidence, analyzing assumptions and biases, avoiding emotional reasoning, avoiding oversimplification, considering other interpretations, and tolerating ambiguity. Dealing with ambiguity is also seen by Strohm & Baukus (1995) as an essential part of critical thinking, "Ambiguity and doubt serve a critical-thinking function and are a necessary and even a productive part of the process" (p. 56).

Another characteristic of critical thinking identified by many sources is metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about one's own thinking. More specifically, "metacognition is being aware of one's thinking as one performs specific tasks and then using this awareness to control what one is doing" (Jones & Ratcliff, 1993, p. 10 ).

In the book, Critical Thinking, Beyer elaborately explains what he sees as essential aspects of critical thinking. These are:

Dispositions: Critical thinkers are skeptical, open-minded, value fair-mindedness, respect evidence and reasoning, respect clarity and precision, look at different points of view, and will change positions when reason leads them to do so.
Criteria: To think critically, must apply criteria. Need to have conditions that must be met for something to be judged as believable. Although the argument can be made that each subject area has different criteria, some standards apply to all subjects. "... an assertion must... be based on relevant, accurate facts; based on credible sources; precise; unbiased; free from logical fallacies; logically consistent; and strongly reasoned" (p. 12).
Argument: Is a statement or proposition with supporting evidence. Critical thinking involves identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments.
Reasoning: The ability to infer a conclusion from one or multiple premises. To do so requires examining logical relationships among statements or data.
Point of View: The way one views the world, which shapes one's construction of meaning. In a search for understanding, critical thinkers view phenomena from many different points of view.
Procedures for Applying Criteria: Other types of thinking use a general procedure. Critical thinking makes use of many procedures. These procedures include asking questions, making judgments, and identifying assumptions.

Oliver & Utermohlen (1995) see students as too often being passive receptors of information. Through technology, the amount of information available today is massive. This information explosion is likely to continue in the future. Students need a guide to weed through the information and not just passively accept it. Students need to "develop and effectively apply critical thinking skills to their academic studies, to the complex problems that they will face, and to the critical choices they will be forced to make as a result of the information explosion and other rapid technological changes" (Oliver & Utermohlen, p. 1 ).

As mentioned in the section, Characteristics of Critical Thinking , critical thinking involves questioning. It is important to teach students how to ask good questions, to think critically, in order to continue the advancement of the very fields we are teaching. "Every field stays alive only to the extent that fresh questions are generated and taken seriously" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996a ).

Beyer sees the teaching of critical thinking as important to the very state of our nation. He argues that to live successfully in a democracy, people must be able to think critically in order to make sound decisions about personal and civic affairs. If students learn to think critically, then they can use good thinking as the guide by which they live their lives.

Teaching Strategies to Help Promote Critical Thinking

The 1995, Volume 22, issue 1, of the journal, Teaching of Psychology , is devoted to the teaching critical thinking. Most of the strategies included in this section come from the various articles that compose this issue.

CATS (Classroom Assessment Techniques): Angelo stresses the use of ongoing classroom assessment as a way to monitor and facilitate students' critical thinking. An example of a CAT is to ask students to write a "Minute Paper" responding to questions such as "What was the most important thing you learned in today's class? What question related to this session remains uppermost in your mind?" The teacher selects some of the papers and prepares responses for the next class meeting.
Cooperative Learning Strategies: Cooper (1995) argues that putting students in group learning situations is the best way to foster critical thinking. "In properly structured cooperative learning environments, students perform more of the active, critical thinking with continuous support and feedback from other students and the teacher" (p. 8).
Case Study /Discussion Method: McDade (1995) describes this method as the teacher presenting a case (or story) to the class without a conclusion. Using prepared questions, the teacher then leads students through a discussion, allowing students to construct a conclusion for the case.
Using Questions: King (1995) identifies ways of using questions in the classroom:
Reciprocal Peer Questioning: Following lecture, the teacher displays a list of question stems (such as, "What are the strengths and weaknesses of...). Students must write questions about the lecture material. In small groups, the students ask each other the questions. Then, the whole class discusses some of the questions from each small group.
Reader's Questions: Require students to write questions on assigned reading and turn them in at the beginning of class. Select a few of the questions as the impetus for class discussion.
Conference Style Learning: The teacher does not "teach" the class in the sense of lecturing. The teacher is a facilitator of a conference. Students must thoroughly read all required material before class. Assigned readings should be in the zone of proximal development. That is, readings should be able to be understood by students, but also challenging. The class consists of the students asking questions of each other and discussing these questions. The teacher does not remain passive, but rather, helps "direct and mold discussions by posing strategic questions and helping students build on each others' ideas" (Underwood & Wald, 1995, p. 18 ).
Use Writing Assignments: Wade sees the use of writing as fundamental to developing critical thinking skills. "With written assignments, an instructor can encourage the development of dialectic reasoning by requiring students to argue both [or more] sides of an issue" (p. 24).
Written dialogues: Give students written dialogues to analyze. In small groups, students must identify the different viewpoints of each participant in the dialogue. Must look for biases, presence or exclusion of important evidence, alternative interpretations, misstatement of facts, and errors in reasoning. Each group must decide which view is the most reasonable. After coming to a conclusion, each group acts out their dialogue and explains their analysis of it.
Spontaneous Group Dialogue: One group of students are assigned roles to play in a discussion (such as leader, information giver, opinion seeker, and disagreer). Four observer groups are formed with the functions of determining what roles are being played by whom, identifying biases and errors in thinking, evaluating reasoning skills, and examining ethical implications of the content.
Ambiguity: Strohm & Baukus advocate producing much ambiguity in the classroom. Don't give students clear cut material. Give them conflicting information that they must think their way through.
Angelo, T. A. (1995). Beginning the dialogue: Thoughts on promoting critical thinking: Classroom assessment for critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 6-7.
Beyer, B. K. (1995). Critical thinking. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Center for Critical Thinking (1996a). The role of questions in thinking, teaching, and learning. [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univlibrary/library.nclk
Center for Critical Thinking (1996b). Structures for student self-assessment. [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univclass/trc.nclk
Center for Critical Thinking (1996c). Three definitions of critical thinking [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univlibrary/library.nclk
Cooper, J. L. (1995). Cooperative learning and critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 7-8.
Jones, E. A. & Ratcliff, G. (1993). Critical thinking skills for college students. National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, University Park, PA. (Eric Document Reproduction Services No. ED 358 772)
King, A. (1995). Designing the instructional process to enhance critical thinking across the curriculum: Inquiring minds really do want to know: Using questioning to teach critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22 (1) , 13-17.
McDade, S. A. (1995). Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking. Teaching Psychology, 22(1), 9-10.
Oliver, H. & Utermohlen, R. (1995). An innovative teaching strategy: Using critical thinking to give students a guide to the future.(Eric Document Reproduction Services No. 389 702)
Robertson, J. F. & Rane-Szostak, D. (1996). Using dialogues to develop critical thinking skills: A practical approach. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 39(7), 552-556.
Scriven, M. & Paul, R. (1996). Defining critical thinking: A draft statement for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univlibrary/library.nclk
Strohm, S. M., & Baukus, R. A. (1995). Strategies for fostering critical thinking skills. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 50 (1), 55-62.
Underwood, M. K., & Wald, R. L. (1995). Conference-style learning: A method for fostering critical thinking with heart. Teaching Psychology, 22(1), 17-21.
Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28.

On the Internet

Carr, K. S. (1990). How can we teach critical thinking. Eric Digest. [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://ericps.ed.uiuc.edu/eece/pubs/digests/1990/carr90.html
The Center for Critical Thinking (1996). Home Page. Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/
Ennis, Bob (No date). Critical thinking. [On-line], April 4, 1997. Available HTTP: http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/teach/for442/ct.htm
Montclair State University (1995). Curriculum resource center. Critical thinking resources: An annotated bibliography. [On-line]. Available HTTP: http://www.montclair.edu/Pages/CRC/Bibliographies/CriticalThinking.html
No author, No date. Critical Thinking is ... [On-line], April 4, 1997. Available HTTP: http://library.usask.ca/ustudy/critical/
Sheridan, Marcia (No date). Internet education topics hotlink page. [On-line], April 4, 1997. Available HTTP: http://sun1.iusb.edu/~msherida/topics/critical.html

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CTL Guide to the Critical Thinking Hub Area

Guidance for designing or teaching a Critical Thinking (CRT) course, including assignment resources and examples.

From the BU Hub Curriculum Guide

“The ability to think critically is the fundamental characteristic of an educated person. It is required for just, civil society and governance, prized by employers, and essential for the growth of wisdom. Critical thinking is what most people name first when asked about the essential components of a college education. From identifying and questioning assumptions, to weighing evidence before accepting an opinion or drawing a conclusion—all BU students will actively learn the habits of mind that characterize critical thinking, develop the self-discipline it requires, and practice it often, in varied contexts, across their education.” For more context around this Hub area, see this Hub page .

Learning Outcomes

Courses and cocurricular activities in this area must have all outcomes.

Students will both gain critical thinking skills and be able to specify the components of critical thinking appropriate to a discipline or family of disciplines. These may include habits of distinguishing deductive from inductive modes of inference, methods of adjudicating disputes, recognizing common logical fallacies and cognitive biases, translating ordinary language into formal argument, distinguishing empirical claims about matters of fact from normative or evaluative judgments, and/or recognizing the ways in which emotional responses or cultural assumptions can affect reasoning processes.
Drawing on skills developed in class, students will be able to critically evaluate, analyze, and generate arguments, bodies of evidence, and/or claims, including their own.

If you are proposing a CRT course or if you want to learn more about these outcomes, please see this Interpretive Document . Interpretive Documents, written by the General Education Committee , are designed to answer questions faculty have raised about Hub policies, practices, and learning outcomes as a part of the course approval process. To learn more about the proposal process, start here .

Area Specific Resources

Richard Paul , Center for Critical Thinking ( criticalthinking.org ). Includes sample lessons, syllabi, teaching suggestions, and interdisciplinary resources and examples.
John Bean ’s Engaging Ideas – The Professor’s Guide to integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active learning in the Classroom is an invaluable resource for developing classroom activities and assignments that promote critical thinking and the scaffolding of writing.

Assignment Ideas

Weekly writing assignments.

These assignments are question-driven, thematic, and require students to integrate disciplinary and critical thinking literature to evaluate the validity of arguments in case studies, as well as the connections among method, theory, and practice in the case studies. Here, students are asked to utilize a chosen critical thinking framework throughout their written responses. These assignments can evolve during the semester by prompting students to address increasing complex case studies and arguments while also evaluating their own opinions using evidence from the readings. Along the way, students have ample opportunities for self-reflection, peer feedback, and coaching by the instructor.

Argument Mapping

A visual technique that allows students to analyze persuasive prose. This technique allows students to evaluate arguments–that is, distinguish valid from invalid arguments, and evaluate the soundness of different arguments. Advanced usage can help students organize and navigate complex information, encourage clearly articulated reasoning, and promote quick and effective communication. To learn more, please explore the following resources:

Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative course on this topic provides an excellent i ntroduction to exploring and understanding arguments. The course explains what the parts of an argument are, how to break arguments into their component parts, and how to create diagrams to show how those parts relate to each other.
Philmaps.com provides a handout that introduces the concept of argument mapping to students, and also includes a number of sample activities that faculty can use to introduce students to argument mapping.
Mindmup’s Argument Visualization platform is an online mind map tool easily leveraged for creating argument maps.

Research Proposal and Final Research Paper

Demonstrates students’ ability to identify, distinguish, and assess ideological and evaluative claims and judgments about the selected research topic. Throughout the semester, students have the opportunity to practice their ability to evaluate the validity of arguments, including their own beliefs about the topic. Formative and summative assessments are provided to students at regular intervals and during each stage of the project.

Facilitating discussion that Presses Students for Accuracy and Expanded Reasoning . This resource is part of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education “Instructional Moves” video series.

Additional sample assignments and assessments can be found throughout the selected Resources section located above.

Course Design Questions

As you are integrating critical thinking into your course, here are a few questions that you might consider:

What framework/vocabulary/process do you use to teach the key elements of critical thinking in your course?
What assigned readings or other materials do you use to teach critical thinking specifically?
Do students have opportunities throughout the semester to apply and practice these skills and receive feedback?
What graded assignments evaluate how well students can both identify the key elements of critical thinking and demonstrate their ability to evaluate the validity of arguments (including their own)?

You may also be interested in:

Thinking critically in college workshop, ctl guide to the teamwork/collaboration hub area, ctl guide to writing-intensive hub courses, ctl guide to the individual in community hub area, ctl guide to digital/multimedia expression, oral & signed communication hub guide, creativity/innovation hub guide, research and information literacy hub guide.

Our Mission

Helping Students Hone Their Critical Thinking Skills

Used consistently, these strategies can help middle and high school teachers guide students to improve much-needed skills.

Middle school students involved in a classroom discussion

Critical thinking skills are important in every discipline, at and beyond school. From managing money to choosing which candidates to vote for in elections to making difficult career choices, students need to be prepared to take in, synthesize, and act on new information in a world that is constantly changing.

While critical thinking might seem like an abstract idea that is tough to directly instruct, there are many engaging ways to help students strengthen these skills through active learning.

Make Time for Metacognitive Reflection

Create space for students to both reflect on their ideas and discuss the power of doing so. Show students how they can push back on their own thinking to analyze and question their assumptions. Students might ask themselves, “Why is this the best answer? What information supports my answer? What might someone with a counterargument say?”

Through this reflection, students and teachers (who can model reflecting on their own thinking) gain deeper understandings of their ideas and do a better job articulating their beliefs. In a world that is go-go-go, it is important to help students understand that it is OK to take a breath and think about their ideas before putting them out into the world. And taking time for reflection helps us more thoughtfully consider others’ ideas, too.

Teach Reasoning Skills

Reasoning skills are another key component of critical thinking, involving the abilities to think logically, evaluate evidence, identify assumptions, and analyze arguments. Students who learn how to use reasoning skills will be better equipped to make informed decisions, form and defend opinions, and solve problems.

One way to teach reasoning is to use problem-solving activities that require students to apply their skills to practical contexts. For example, give students a real problem to solve, and ask them to use reasoning skills to develop a solution. They can then present their solution and defend their reasoning to the class and engage in discussion about whether and how their thinking changed when listening to peers’ perspectives.

A great example I have seen involved students identifying an underutilized part of their school and creating a presentation about one way to redesign it. This project allowed students to feel a sense of connection to the problem and come up with creative solutions that could help others at school. For more examples, you might visit PBS’s Design Squad , a resource that brings to life real-world problem-solving.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Moving beyond the repetition of facts, critical thinking requires students to take positions and explain their beliefs through research, evidence, and explanations of credibility.

When we pose open-ended questions, we create space for classroom discourse inclusive of diverse, perhaps opposing, ideas—grounds for rich exchanges that support deep thinking and analysis.

For example, “How would you approach the problem?” and “Where might you look to find resources to address this issue?” are two open-ended questions that position students to think less about the “right” answer and more about the variety of solutions that might already exist.

Journaling, whether digitally or physically in a notebook, is another great way to have students answer these open-ended prompts—giving them time to think and organize their thoughts before contributing to a conversation, which can ensure that more voices are heard.

Once students process in their journal, small group or whole class conversations help bring their ideas to life. Discovering similarities between answers helps reveal to students that they are not alone, which can encourage future participation in constructive civil discourse.

Teach Information Literacy

Education has moved far past the idea of “Be careful of what is on Wikipedia, because it might not be true.” With AI innovations making their way into classrooms, teachers know that informed readers must question everything.

Understanding what is and is not a reliable source and knowing how to vet information are important skills for students to build and utilize when making informed decisions. You might start by introducing the idea of bias: Articles, ads, memes, videos, and every other form of media can push an agenda that students may not see on the surface. Discuss credibility, subjectivity, and objectivity, and look at examples and nonexamples of trusted information to prepare students to be well-informed members of a democracy.

One of my favorite lessons is about the Pacific Northwest tree octopus . This project asks students to explore what appears to be a very real website that provides information on this supposedly endangered animal. It is a wonderful, albeit over-the-top, example of how something might look official even when untrue, revealing that we need critical thinking to break down “facts” and determine the validity of the information we consume.

A fun extension is to have students come up with their own website or newsletter about something going on in school that is untrue. Perhaps a change in dress code that requires everyone to wear their clothes inside out or a change to the lunch menu that will require students to eat brussels sprouts every day.

Giving students the ability to create their own falsified information can help them better identify it in other contexts. Understanding that information can be “too good to be true” can help them identify future falsehoods.

Provide Diverse Perspectives

Consider how to keep the classroom from becoming an echo chamber. If students come from the same community, they may have similar perspectives. And those who have differing perspectives may not feel comfortable sharing them in the face of an opposing majority.

To support varying viewpoints, bring diverse voices into the classroom as much as possible, especially when discussing current events. Use primary sources: videos from YouTube, essays and articles written by people who experienced current events firsthand, documentaries that dive deeply into topics that require some nuance, and any other resources that provide a varied look at topics.

I like to use the Smithsonian “OurStory” page , which shares a wide variety of stories from people in the United States. The page on Japanese American internment camps is very powerful because of its first-person perspectives.

Practice Makes Perfect

To make the above strategies and thinking routines a consistent part of your classroom, spread them out—and build upon them—over the course of the school year. You might challenge students with information and/or examples that require them to use their critical thinking skills; work these skills explicitly into lessons, projects, rubrics, and self-assessments; or have students practice identifying misinformation or unsupported arguments.

Critical thinking is not learned in isolation. It needs to be explored in English language arts, social studies, science, physical education, math. Every discipline requires students to take a careful look at something and find the best solution. Often, these skills are taken for granted, viewed as a by-product of a good education, but true critical thinking doesn’t just happen. It requires consistency and commitment.

In a moment when information and misinformation abound, and students must parse reams of information, it is imperative that we support and model critical thinking in the classroom to support the development of well-informed citizens.

Critical Thinking for Teachers

First Online: 02 January 2023

Cite this chapter

Diler Oner 3 &
Yeliz Gunal Aggul 3

Part of the book series: Integrated Science ((IS,volume 13))

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Developing critical thinking is an important educational goal for all grade levels today. To foster their students’ critical thinking, future teachers themselves must become critical thinkers first. Thus, critical thinking should be an essential aspect of teacher training. However, despite its importance, critical thinking is not systematically incorporated into teacher education programs. There exist several conceptualizations of critical thinking in the literature, and these have different entailments regarding the guidelines and instructional strategies to teach critical thinking. In this paper, after examining the critical thinking literature, we suggested that critical thinking could be conceptualized in two distinct but complementary ways—as the acquisition of cognitive skills (instrumental perspective) and as identity development (situated perspective). We discussed the implications of these perspectives in teacher education. While the instrumental perspective allowed us to consider what to teach regarding critical thinking, the situated perspective enabled us to emphasize the broader social context where critical thinking skills and dispositions could be means of active participation in the culture of teaching.

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Critical thinking.

Everything we teach should be different from machines. If we do not change the way we teach, 30 years from now, we will be in trouble . Jack Ma

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Oner, D., Aggul, Y.G. (2022). Critical Thinking for Teachers. In: Rezaei, N. (eds) Integrated Education and Learning. Integrated Science, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15963-3_18

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Our Conception of Critical Thinking...

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined 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. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."

"Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fairminded way. People who think critically attempt, with consistent and conscious effort, to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest.

They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They strive never to think simplistically about complicated issues and always to consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic principle: The unexamined life is not worth living , because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world."

Why Critical Thinking?

The Problem:

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our lives and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.

A Brief Definition:

Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. The Result:

A well-cultivated critical thinker:

raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;
comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, and a commitment to overcoming our native egocentrism and sociocentrism. Read more about our concept of critical thinking .

The Essential Dimensions of Critical Thinking

Our conception of critical thinking is based on the substantive approach developed by Dr. Richard Paul and his colleagues at the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking over multiple decades. It is relevant to every subject, discipline, and profession, and to reasoning through the problems of everyday life. It entails five essential dimensions of critical thinking:

At the left is an overview of the first three dimensions. In sum, the elements or structures of thought enable us to "take our thinking apart" and analyze it. The intellectual standards are used to assess and evaluate the elements. The intellectual traits are dispositions of mind embodied by the fairminded critical thinker. To cultivate the mind, we need command of these essential dimensions, and we need to consistently apply them as we think through the many problems and issues in our lives.

The Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards

To learn more about the elements of thought and how to apply the intellectual standards, check out our interactive model. Simply click on the link below, scroll to the bottom of the page, and explore the model with your mouse.

Why the Analysis of Thinking Is Important If you want to think well, you must understand at least the rudiments of thought, the most basic structures out of which all thinking is made. You must learn how to take thinking apart. Analyzing the Logic of a Subject When we understand the elements of reasoning, we realize that all subjects, all disciplines, have a fundamental logic defined by the structures of thought embedded within them. Therefore, to lay bare a subject’s most fundamental logic, we should begin with these questions:

Going Deeper...

The Critical Thinking Bookstore

Our online bookstore houses numerous books and teacher's manuals , Thinker's Guides , videos , and other educational materials .

Learn From Our Fellows and Scholars

Watch our Event Calendar , which provides an overview of all upcoming conferences and academies hosted by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Clicking an entry on the Event Calendar will bring up that event's details, and the option to register. For those interested in online learning, the Foundation offers accredited online courses in critical thinking for both educators and the general public, as well as an online test for evaluating basic comprehension of critical thinking concepts . We are in the process of developing more online learning tools and tests to offer the community.

Utilizing this Website

This website contains large amounts research and an online library of articles , both of which are freely available to the public. We also invite you to become a member of the Critical Thinking Community , where you will gain access to more tools and materials. If you cannot locate a resource on a specific topic or concept, try searching for it using our Search Tool . The Search Tool is at the upper-right of every page on the website.

Blogs @Oregon State University

Teaching With Writing: The WIC Newsletter

Critical thinking: multiple models for teaching and learning (abridged), excerpts from critical thinking: multiple models for teaching and learning.

By Aubrae Vanderpool and Tracy Ann Robinson

“A great truth wants to be criticized, not idolized.”

The development of critical thinking skills increasingly is being identified not only as an essential component of writing courses but even more broadly, as a desired outcome of an undergraduate education. In this article, adapted from a paper by Aubrae Vanderpool that focuses on critical thinking in first-year writing classes, we take a look at what critical thinking means, offer some strategies and suggestions for incorporating critical thinking pedagogy into subject-matter courses, and comment on assessment issues and strategies.

Critical Thinking Defined…Or Not…

For some critical thinking has a lot to do with understanding one’s own perspective and those of others. Another model [of critical thinking] is dialectic, an idea or work is critiqued in a way that produces a counter-perspective and ultimately leads to a synthesis. For some critical thinking evokes a synthetic or inductive model based on testing evidence and making arguments. The exercise of reflective judgment is also a form of critical thinking. (“Critical Thinking and Broad Knowledge”)

While widely accepted as an educational imperative, critical thinking, as the above statement (excerpted from meeting notes for a Critical Thinking dialogue group at Western Washington University) indicates, is quite variously conceived and described. . . . Clearly, however, how an institution or department defines this intellectual practice will influence where in the curriculum critical thinking is taught, how it is taught, and, equally importantly, how it is assessed. For those in the process of formulating a working definition, familiarity with the following widely utilized models may serve as a helpful starting point.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

According to Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)—a cross-disciplinary model for developing higher-order thinking in students—learning how to think critically involves the mastery of six increasingly complex cognitive skills: knowledge (i.e., possession of specific facts or pieces of information) , comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation . See sidebar for details.

Bloom’s Taxonomy conceives critical thinking mastery as a sequential process, that is, one cannot move to the next cognitive tier without successfully negotiating the previous level. (“Teaching Critical Thinking”). Thus, some view the taxonomy as “a set of microlevel skills which may be used in critical thinking but do not represent critical thinking” (French and Rhoder 195). Philosopher Richard Paul objects to the taxonomy’s product-oriented conceptualization of thinking as a “one-way hierarchy” as opposed to thinking being a process that involves the recursive use of interrelated skills (French and Rhoder 195). Nonetheless, Bloom’s Taxonomy has been and continues to be an influential model for those developing critical thinking programs, as its inclusion in the Dartmouth College Composition Center’s critical thinking web page attests (Gocsik).

Knowledge: the remembering (recalling) of appropriate, previously learned terminology/specific facts/ways and means of dealing with specifics (conventions, trends and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology)/universals and abstractions in a field (principles and generalizations, theories and structures). defines; describes; enumerates; identifies; labels; lists; matches; names; reads; records; reproduces; selects; states; views.

Comprehension: Grasping (understanding) the meaning of informational materials. classifies; cites; converts; describes; discusses; estimates; explains; generalizes; gives examples; makes sense out of; paraphrases; restates (in own words); summarizes; traces; understands.

Application: The use of previously learned information in new and concrete situations to solve problems that have single or best answers. acts; administers; articulates; assesses; charts; collects; computes; constructs; contributes; controls; determines; develops; discovers; establishes; extends; implements; includes; informs; instructs; operationalizes; participates; predicts; prepares; preserves; produces; projects; provides; relates; reports; shows; solves; teaches; transfers; uses; utilizes.

Analysis: The breaking down of informational materials into their component parts, examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) such information to develop divergent conclusions by identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and/or finding evidence to support generalizations. breaks down; correlates; diagrams; differentiates; discriminates; distinguishes; focuses; illustrates; infers; limits; outlines; points out; prioritizes; recognizes; separates; subdivides.

Synthesis: Creatively or divergently applying prior knowledge and skills to produce a new or original whole. adapts; anticipates; categorizes; collaborates; combines; communicates; compares; compiles; composes; contrasts; creates; designs; devises; expresses; facilitates; formulates; generates; incorporates; individualizes; initiates; integrates; intervenes; models; modifies; negotiates; plans; progresses; rearranges; reconstructs; reinforces; reorganizes; revises; structures; substitutes; validates.

Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on personal values/opinions, resulting in an end product, with a given purpose, without real right or wrong answers. appraises; compares & contrasts; concludes; criticizes; critiques; decides; defends; interprets; judges; justifies; reframes; supports.

SOURCE: http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom.html (no longer available)

Beyer’s evaluative thinking model

Barry Beyer, a prominent contemporary thinking skills theorist and teacher, interprets critical thinking as a more specifically evaluative activity than Bloom’s Taxonomy would imply:

Critical thinking is not making decisions or solving problems. It is not the same as reflective thinking, creative thinking, or conceptualizing. Each of these other types of thinking serves a specific purpose. We make decisions in order to choose among alternatives. We solve problems when we encounter an obstacle to a preferred condition. We engage in creative or conceptual thinking to invent or improve things. Critical thinking serves a purpose quite different from these other types of thinking. (Beyer 1995, 8)

For Beyer, the crux of critical thinking is criteria : “ The word critical in critical thinking comes from the Greek word for criterion, kriterion , which means a benchmark for judging” (Beyer 1995, 8-9). Thus, critical (or, to use Beyer’s preferred term, evaluative) thinking provides the means to assess the “accuracy, authenticity, plausibility, or sufficiency of claims” (Beyer 1995, 10).

Beyer asserts that critical thinking involves 10 cognitive operations, which can be employed in any sequence or combination as needed for the thinking task at hand:

Distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims
Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information, claims, or reasons
Determining the factual accuracy of a statement
Determining the credibility of a source
Identifying ambiguous claims or arguments
Identifying unstated assumptions
Detecting bias
Recognizing logical fallacies
Recognizing logical inconsistencies in a line of reasoning
Determining the strength of an argument or claim (Beyer 1988, 57)

Further, Beyer argues that successful critical thinking requires “complex and often simultaneous interaction” of the following six elements:

o Dispositions. Critical thinkers develop habits of mind that “guide and sustain critical thinking”, including skepticism, fairmindedness, openmindedness, respect for evidence and reasoning, respect for clarity and precision, ability to consider different points of view, and a willingness to alter one’s position when reason and evidence call for such a shift.

o Criteria . Critical thinkers know about and have the ability to construct appropriate benchmarks for judging the issue at hand.

o Argument —defined as “a proposition with its supporting evidence and reasoning.” Critical thinkers are skillful at constructing, identifying, and evaluating the strength of arguments.

o Reasoning —the “cement that holds an argument together.” Critical thinkers determine the strength and validity of a conclusion by examining the soundness of the inductive or deductive process through which the conclusion was reached.

o Point of View. Critical thinkers are aware of their own point of view and capable of examining other points of view in order to better evaluate an issue.

o Procedures for applying criteria and judging. Critical thinkers have a repertoire of strategies appropriate to the subject matter and type of judgment to be made (Beyer 1995, 10-20)

In other words, critical thinkers habitually question the authenticity of anything that confronts them to ascertain exactly the extent to which it is an authentic instance of what it purports to be. In addition, they make judgments based on certain standards or other measures that serve as criteria for plausibility and truthfulness. And they pay special attention to the reasons and reasoning that undergird conclusions and claims.” (Beyer 1995, 22)

Critical thinking as a divergent process

While Beyer depicts critical thinking as a “ con vergent,” narrowing process, others prefer to view it as a di vergent, expanding, exploratory practice (French and Rhoder, 184-85) —a way to open up new solutions as well as evaluate those that have already been identified. For example, consider this statement from Peter Taylor of the UMass/Boston Graduate College of Education’s Critical and Creative Thinking Program. (In February, 2001, Taylor led a critical thinking workshop at OSU, sponsored jointly by the College of Liberal Arts’ Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Research, the Center for Water and Environmental Sustain-ability, and the Office of Academic Affairs; and organized by Anita Helle [English] and Denise Lach [CWest].)

My sense of critical thinking […] depends on inquiry being informed by a strong sense of how things could be otherwise. I want students to see that they understand things better when they have placed established facts, theories, and practices in tension with alternatives . Critical thinking at this level should not depend on students rejecting conventional accounts, but they do have to move through uncertainty. Their knowledge is, at least for a time, destabilized; what has been established cannot be taken for granted.

This view suggests a much closer connection between critical and creative thinking than Beyer, for instance, would subscribe to. However, many of the concerns that underlie the current interest in furthering college students’ critical thinking skills recognize and affirm this connection.

Teaching Considerations and Strategies

. . . B. Lehman and D. Hayes propose the following strategies for promoting critical thinking in the classroom:

o Help students recognize what they already know about a topic. [For suggestions, see next section.]

o Help students learn to recognize their biases and keep an open mind about the topic. Have students list and share opinions on the subject, but postpone evaluation until more information is gathered.

o Formulate open-ended questions to help students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the topic.

o Guide students in finding and using diverse sources to explain and support their ideas.

o Have students check the validity of sources and qualifications of authors.

o Help students see there is no single, final authority. By reading several sources on the same topic, students will discover that information is often conflicting and contradictory.

o Help students develop criteria for evaluation. As students learn to support their opinions with logical thinking and comparison of sources, they [develop] critical thinking skills. (Smith 350) . . . .

The Writing–Critical Thinking Connection

For centuries, the rhetorical assumption about language was that “one first finds knowledge and then puts it into words” (Bizzell, Herzberg, and Reynolds 1)—in other words, thinking always precedes writing or speaking. Today, however, we recognize that “knowledge is actually created by words” (Bizzell, Herzberg, and Reynolds 1) and that writing and thinking are recursive, interdependent processes that promote and enhance one another.

James Sheridan points out that “the act of generating written discourse is not merely a result of critical thinking but also a stimulus to new thinking and new discoveries” (52). This claim echoes Linda Flower’s assertion that “writing is a generative act—a process of not just ‘expressing’ but ‘making’ meaning” (193-94). The fact is that “when students write, they cannot remain passive players in the learning game” (Gocsik-source no longer available). As Peter Elbow suggests, “writing helps us achieve the perennially difficult task of standing outside our own thinking” (27). Hence, the concept of “writing to learn,” which has become so integral to Writing Across the Curriculum courses and programs.

Using writing to uncover knowledge

As well as using writing to reinforce and integrate new information, writing can be a way of discovering existing knowledge. Many critical thinking experts advocate beginning any new learning unit by identifying what students already know (but often don’t know they know) about the topic. This strategy promotes critical thinking and active learning by allowing students to “establish a context for new information and share ideas with others” (Smith 350). Two writing strategies that can assist in this discovery process are freewriting and the “write-and-pass” exercise:

Freewriting. Describing freewriting as an activity that “helps students break the writing-is-grammar chain [, which] stultifies the freedom and risk-taking necessary for innovative critical thinking” (53), James Sheridan suggests the process has only two r equirements:

( 1) “You cannot stop writing during the 10-minute exercise.” (2) “You are forbidden to think. [. . .] Write whatever comes into your right (or left) hand. You must keep on writing. Even if you say ‘I don’t know what to write,’ write that. You cannot scratch your head. You cannot gaze pensively at the ceiling. Just write. You are not responsible for what you say; your hand is doing it all. Say anything. Say ‘This is the worst exercise I ever heard of and I can’t believe they’re paying this guy good bucks to have us do it.’ Yell, scream, shout, kick (in written words). Say anything, but keep writing” (52)

With unfocused freewriting, students write about whatever they want. With focused , or directed , freewriting, students are given a topic or question to write on.

Write-and-pass. Another informal writing assignment that helps students discover what they already know is to ask them to spend a few minutes writing everything they can think of about a given topic or question (for example, “What is critical thinking?”). After several minutes, students pass what they’ve written to the person next to them, and that person reads and expands on the original response. The process is repeated a few more times; generally, with each pass, adding new information becomes more challenging.. The exercise provides a way both for students to focus their thoughts on a particular topic and to benefit from one another’s stores of knowledge.

Assessing Critical Thinking: Current Models

[A]n informed choice of an approach to assessing critical thinking can be made only after faculty have [asked and answered] these questions: What do we think critical thinking is? How do the critical thinking skills, processes, and strategies work together, and what aspects or combinations of them do we wish to assess? What are our students like? What are their motivations [and] environments? What are our assumptions relative to the knowledge and abilities that students need prior to engaging in college-level critical thinking? (Carpenter and Doig 34-35)

Carpenter and Doig’s observation comes from a 1988 review of assessment instruments developed for specific critical thinking courses and programs. Alternatively, the rubric developed in 2002 by Washington State University’s Critical Thinking Project can be used in subject-matter courses across the curriculum that focus on critical thinking. This rubric includes the following criteria for student writing:

Identifies and summarizes the problem/question at issue.
Identifies and presents the student’s own perspective and position as it is important to the analysis of the issue.
Identifies and considers other salient perspectives and positions that are important to the analysis of the issue.
Identifies and assesses the key assumptions.
Identifies and assesses the quality of supporting data/evidence and provides additional data/evidence related to the issue.
Identifies and considers the influence of the context (e.g. cultural/social, scientific, educational, economic, technological, ethical, political, personal, and so on) on the issue.
Identifies and assesses conclusions, implications, and consequences. “Critical Thinking Rubric” no longer available online.

Each item in the rubric includes a description of what would be considered “scant” vs “substantially developed” coverage of that item. The Washington State Critical Thinking Project website is no longer available online.

A Final Note

In this article, we have focused on what Kerry S. Walters describes as the “logicistic” model of critical thinking—that is (according to Walters) “the unwarranted assumption that good thinking is reducible to logical thinking” (1). In Re-Thinking Reason: New Perspectives in Critical Thinking , Walters explores an alternative model being forwarded by an emerging “second-wave” of critical thinking research and pedagogy. Second-wave advocates argue that while “logical skills are essential functions of good thinking, […] so are non-analytic ones such as imagination and intuition, and the good thinker knows how to utilize both types” (2). This reconception of critical thinking is grounded in current scholarship in the fields of philosophy, psychology, education, feminist theory, and critical pedagogy; Walters’s book serves as an introduction to and dialogue among some of the proponents and practitioners of this alternative. While beyond the scope of this article, the second-wave perspective on critical thinking deserves our serious attention and consideration as well.

This article was previously published in entirety in Teaching with Writing , Winter 2004.

Works Cited (some sources no longer available)

Beyer, Barry K. Critical Thinking. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1995.

________. Developing a Thinking Skills Program. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1988.

Bizzell, Patricia, Bruce Hertzberg, and Nedra Reynolds. The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing. 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.

Carpenter, C. Blaine, and James C. Doig. “Assessing Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum.” Assessing Student’s Learning 34 (Summer 1988): 33-46.

“Critical Thinking and Broad Knowledge Meeting Notes.” 2 Nov. 2001. Center for Instructional Innovation, Western Washington University. 4 March 2003. http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/gened/dialogue/critical_notes_nov.htm Source no longer available.

Elbow, Peter. “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing.” Re-Thinking Reason: New Perspectives in Critical Thinking . Ed. Kerry S. Walters. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994. 25-31.

Flower, Linda. “Taking Thought: The Role of Conscious Processing in the Making of Meaning.” Thinking, Reasoning, and Writing. Ed. Elaine P. Maimon, Barbara F. Nodine, and Finbarr W. O’Connor. NY: Longman, 1989. 185-212.

French, Joyce N. and Carol Rhoder. Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice. NY: Garland, 1992.

Gocsik, Karen. “Teaching Critical Thinking.: 1997 Dartmouth College Composition Center. Source no longer available.

Scriven, Michael and Richard Paul. “Defining Critical Thinking.” Draft Statement for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. Foundation for Critical Thinking. 27 Feb. 2003. <http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/definint-critical-thinking/766>

Sheridan, James J. “Skipping on the Brink of the Abyss: Teaching Thinking Through Writing.” Cr itical Thinking: Educational Imperative. Ed. Cynthia A. Barnes. New Directions for Community Colleges, No. 77. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992. 51-61.

Smith, Carl B. “Two Approaches to Critical Thinking.” The Reading Teacher 4.4 (Dec. 1990): 350-51.

Stewart, Ruth. “Teaching Critical Thinking in First-Year Composition: Sometimes More Is More.” Teaching English at the Two-Year College 29 (Dec. 2001): 162-171.

Taylor, Peter. “We Know More Than We Are, At First, Prepared To Acknowledge: Journeying to Develop Critical Thinking.” 12 March 2003 <http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/journey.html>

Walters, Kerry S. Re-Thinking Reason: New Perspectives in Critical Thinking. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994.

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The Institute for Learning and Teaching

College of business, teaching tips, the socratic method: fostering critical thinking.

"Do not take what I say as if I were merely playing, for you see the subject of our discussion—and on what subject should even a man of slight intelligence be more serious? —namely, what kind of life should one live . . ." Socrates

By Peter Conor

This teaching tip explores how the Socratic Method can be used to promote critical thinking in classroom discussions. It is based on the article, The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom, published in the newsletter, Speaking of Teaching, a publication of the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

The article summarizes a talk given by Political Science professor Rob Reich, on May 22, 2003, as part of the center’s Award Winning Teachers on Teaching lecture series. Reich, the recipient of the 2001 Walter J. Gores Award for Teaching Excellence, describes four essential components of the Socratic method and urges his audience to “creatively reclaim [the method] as a relevant framework” to be used in the classroom.

What is the Socratic Method?

Developed by the Greek philosopher, Socrates, the Socratic Method is a dialogue between teacher and students, instigated by the continual probing questions of the teacher, in a concerted effort to explore the underlying beliefs that shape the students views and opinions. Though often misunderstood, most Western pedagogical tradition, from Plato on, is based on this dialectical method of questioning.

An extreme version of this technique is employed by the infamous professor, Dr. Kingsfield, portrayed by John Houseman in the 1973 movie, “The Paper Chase.” In order to get at the heart of ethical dilemmas and the principles of moral character, Dr. Kingsfield terrorizes and humiliates his law students by painfully grilling them on the details and implications of legal cases.

In his lecture, Reich describes a kinder, gentler Socratic Method, pointing out the following:

Socratic inquiry is not “teaching” per se. It does not include PowerPoint driven lectures, detailed lesson plans or rote memorization. The teacher is neither “the sage on the stage” nor “the guide on the side.” The students are not passive recipients of knowledge.
The Socratic Method involves a shared dialogue between teacher and students. The teacher leads by posing thought-provoking questions. Students actively engage by asking questions of their own. The discussion goes back and forth.
The Socratic Method says Reich, “is better used to demonstrate complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty than to elicit facts about the world.” The aim of the questioning is to probe the underlying beliefs upon which each participant’s statements, arguments and assumptions are built.
The classroom environment is characterized by “productive discomfort,” not intimidation. The Socratic professor does not have all the answers and is not merely “testing” the students. The questioning proceeds open-ended with no pre-determined goal.
The focus is not on the participants’ statements but on the value system that underpins their beliefs, actions, and decisions. For this reason, any successful challenge to this system comes with high stakes—one might have to examine and change one’s life, but, Socrates is famous for saying, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
“The Socratic professor,” Reich states, “is not the opponent in an argument, nor someone who always plays devil’s advocate, saying essentially: ‘If you affirm it, I deny it. If you deny it, I affirm it.’ This happens sometimes, but not as a matter of pedagogical principle.”

Professor Reich also provides ten tips for fostering critical thinking in the classroom. While no longer available on Stanford’s website, the full article can be found on the web archive: The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the classroom

More Teaching Tips
Tags: communication , critical thinking , learning
Categories: Instructional Strategies , Teaching Effectiveness , Teaching Tips

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Articles on Critical Thinking

Listed below are articles on Critical Thinking. Short summaries and citations are provided when available.

Allen, Robert D. “Intellectual Development and the Understanding of Science: Applications of William Perry’s Theory to Science Teaching.”

Arons, Arnold B. “‘Critical Thinking’ and the Baccalaureate Curriculum.”
Baker, Paul J. “Learning Sociology and Assessing Critical Thinking”
Bean, John. “Helping Students Read Difficult Texts.”
Berthoff, Ann. “Speculative Instruments: Language in the Core Curriculum.”
Brand, Manny. “Toward a Better Understanding of Undergraduate Music Education Majors: Perry’s Perspective.”
Brouwer, Peter. “Hold on a Minute Here: What Happened to Critical Thinking in the Information Age?”
Bruffee, Kenneth. “Constructive Reading.”
Bruffee, Kenneth A. “Writing and Reading as Collaborative or Social Acts.”
Carpenter, C. Blaine, and James C. Doig. “Assessing Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum.”
Carr, Kathryn S. “How Can We Teach Critical Thinking?”
Ellis, Edwin S. “Integrating Writing Strategy Instruction with Content-Area Instruction: Part II–Writing Processes.”
Gleichsner, Jean A. “Using Journal Articles to Integrate Critical Thinking with Computer and Writing Skills”
King, Patricia M., Phillip K. Wood, and Robert A. Mines. “Problem Structure, Tests of Critical Thinking and Disciplinary Differences: A Study of Critical Thinking Among College and Graduate Students.”
Kiniry, Malcolm and Ellen Strenski. “Sequencing Expository Writing: A Recursive Approach.”
Kitchener, Karen S., and Patricia M. King. “The Reflective Judgment Model: Transforming Assumptions About Knowing.”
Kitchener, Karen Strohm. “Educational Goals and Reflective Thinking.”
Kitchener, Karen Strohm, and Patricia M. King. “The Reflective Judgment Model: Ten Years of Research.”
Kloss, Robert J. “A Nudge is Best: Helping Students through the Perry Scheme of Intellectual Development.”
Law, Joe. “Critical Thinking and Computer-aided Instruction in Sociology 200.”
Law, Joe. “Uncritical `Critical Thinking’: Reexamining Current Paradigms.”
McPeck, John E. “The Meaning of Critical Thinking.”
Moll, Michael B., and Robert D. Allen. “Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Biology.”
Nelson, Craig E. “Critical Thinking and Collaborative Learning.”
Nelson, Craig E. “Fostering Critical Thinking and Mature Valuing Across the Curriculum: Comments & Conversations”
Nelson, Craig E. “Skewered on the Unicorn’s Horn: The Illusion of Tragic Tradeoff Between Content and Critical Thinking in the Teaching of Science.”
Olson, Carol Booth. “The Thinking/Writing Connection.”
Paul, Richard. “Teaching Critical Thinking in the ‘Strong’ Sense: A Focus on Self-Deception, World Views, and a Dialectical Mode of Analysis.”
Perry, William G., Jr. “Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning”
Slattery, Patrick. “Encouraging Critical Thinking: A Strategy of Commenting on College Papers.”
Smith, Raymond. “Sequenced Microthemes: A Great Deal of Thinking for Your Students, and Relatively Little Grading for You.”
Tallman, Julie. “Connecting Writing and Research through the I-Search Paper: A Teaching Partnership Between the Library Program and Classroom.”
Thoma, George A. “The Perry Framework and Tactics for Teaching Critical Thinking in Economics.”
Thompson, Jan C. “Beyond Fixing Today’s Paper: Promoting Metacognition and Writing Development in the Tutorial through Self-Questioning.”
Turner, Michele. “Writing Across the Curriculum and Critical Thinking Skills in Nursing 414.”
“Two Ways of Approaching Cognitive and Ethical Development.”

Science students often experience difficulties as a result of their inability to see that multiple interpretations of the same data can coexist. Perry’s scheme helps show that such students are not lazy, but rather that their perceptions are limited by their stage of development. Understanding the different stages may help science teachers consider the best ways of presenting material in order to help students make the transition from one stage to the next.

Arons, Arnold B. “‘Critical Thinking’ and the Baccalaureate Curriculum.” Liberal Education 71.2 (1985): 141-157.

First asks, “What is involved in critical thinking?” Answers: Asking “how do we know? What is the evidence?” Being aware of gaps in knowledge. Distinguishing between fact and conjecture. Distinguishing between an idea and the name of that idea, and providing definitions. Looking for (hidden) assumptions. Performing hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Knowing inductive and deductive reasoning. Intellectual self-reliance. Being aware of own thinking process. Then discusses why one should bother with critical thinking, bemoans the lack of it in American students, and discusses how to increase or decrease it in students.

Baker, Paul J. “Learning Sociology and Assessing Critical Thinking” Teaching Sociology . 8.3 (April 1981): 325-63.

Reviews works of philosophers, educators, and sociologists who have examined critical thinking as central to the learning process. Suggests 3 strategies to improve the sociology teacher’s capacity to assess critical thinking: a survey of existing instructors, development of analytic tools to assess existing test items, and teacher-developed evaluation materials.

Bean, John. “Helping Students Read Difficult Texts.” Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. 133-147.

Instructors often note that poor reading and poor writing are interlinked. Reading difficulties may stem from a variety of causes–ten are listed here–and understanding the causes can help instructors devise strategies to help students read more effectively. A variety of suggestions for discussing more effective strategies are given, along with some guidelines in how to construct assignments that require students to employ better reading strategies.

Berthoff, Ann. “Speculative Instruments: Language in the Core Curriculum.” The Making of Meaning: Metaphors, Models, and Maxims for Writing Teachers . Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1981. 113-126.

Claims that teaching writing is teaching critical thinking. 3 points about this relationship: observation is central to all disciplines, and learning to observe is learning to think critically; learning terms of art is learning concepts of a field; all disciplines use rhetorical ideas of invention and disposition (organization). Discusses 4 uses of language in all disciplines: speaking, hearing, reading, and writing. Can use writing to relate other aspects of language use in a course together (e.g. to relate lectures to texts).

Brand, Manny. “Toward a Better Understanding of Undergraduate Music Education Majors: Perry’s Perspective.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 98 (1988): 22-31.

Music teacher educators often become dismayed when their students fail to demonstrate the type of intellectual engagement with the topic that the educators expect. The Perry model of intellectual development, however, helps to explain the different stages that students move through as they become incorporated into the academic community, and examples of these stages are sketched out. Music teacher educators may want to consider that their students’ responses will, in some ways, be restricted by their students’ stage of development. Therefore, music teacher educators may want to plan their courses in such a way as to foster transitions between the stages.

Brouwer, Peter. “Hold on a Minute Here: What Happened to Critical Thinking in the Information Age?” Journal of Educational Technology Systems 25 (1996-97): 189-197.

Although information technology (IT) is often touted as a means of improving the quality of teaching and learning, as well as enabling universities to offer more and better distance learning courses, IT also offers the potential for information overload. Educators need to teach information literacy so that students are better able to negotiate the amount and the quality of the information they receive. This type of literacy will enable students to make the distinction between information and knowledge.

Bruffee, Kenneth. “Constructive Reading.” A Short Course in Writing , 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. 147-187.

In order to write well, students need to learn to read well. By reading constructively, students learn to recognize how meaning is created in a text. This selection offers a series of suggestions for getting students to read constructively, including using a descriptive outline–an outline that makes the distinction between a paragraph’s content and its rhetorical purpose.

Bruffee, Kenneth A. “Writing and Reading as Collaborative or Social Acts.” Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers . Ed. Theresa Enos. New York: Random House. 565-574.

Collaborative learning, as evidenced by the social nature of language use, is vital to the writing process. Insofar as writing is a type of “talking” to a reader in a coherent fashion, writing uses language that emerges from a community’s experiences as a means to communicate to that particular community. Entrance to the community is partially dependent upon being able to demonstrate competence within the specific discourse, which in turn implies that the writer has internalized the language conventions of that community in order to think about the topic–a type of thinking that involves what Vygotsky would call internalized social speech. That the writer often works alone fails to detract from the social nature of the act because the writer still internalizes the collaborative exchange within her imagination as part of the writing process.

Carpenter, C. Blaine, and James C. Doig. “Assessing Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum.” Assessing Students’ Learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning no. 34. Ed. J.H. McMillan. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988.

Defines critical thinking. Discusses several standardized tests to assess critical thinking. Then outlines efforts to define, assess, and teach/strengthen critical thinking at several colleges and universities.

Carr, Kathryn S. “How Can We Teach Critical Thinking?” Childhood Education 65 (1988): 69-73.

Although most people recognize the need for critical thinking skills, the teaching of those skills is often divorced from content. As a result, critical thinking programs are often unsuccessful. A better program would integrate the application of critical thinking skills into the learning of content. Carr offers a review of various types of thinking skills activities–based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain–applied to content areas.

Ellis, Edwin S. “Integrating Writing Strategy Instruction with Content-Area Instruction: Part II–Writing Processes.” Intervention in School and Clinic 29.4 (1994): 219-228.

Integrated Strategies Instruction Model (ISI) integrates learning strategy instruction with content-area instruction. One part of this model uses writing as a means to get students to think about and apply their content area knowledge. Special attention is given to understanding the writing problems of ineffective writers at the secondary level, especially students with mild learning handicaps. Students are introduced to an executive strategy which uses recursive thinking in order to solve problems, and then taught how to integrate the strategy into a written format. Studies indicate that this method of instruction is successful at improving student performance.

Gleichsner, Jean A. “Using Journal Articles to Integrate Critical Thinking with Computer and Writing Skills” NACTA Journal 38.4 (December 1994): 34-35.

Gleichsner presents an assignment of writing a critical review of a refereed journal article as a way to develop critical thinking in the classroom. She describes in detail the procedure the students follow in doing the assignment and then considers the assignment’s importance for undergraduates, especially in the sciences.

King, Patricia M., Phillip K. Wood, and Robert A. Mines. “Problem Structure, Tests of Critical Thinking and Disciplinary Differences: A Study of Critical Thinking Among College and Graduate Students.” Manuscript. Marked “Submitted for Publication. Do not quote without permission.” Version published in RHE 13.2 (Winter 1990): 167-186.

The authors use multiple measures of critical thinking to find out whether critical thinking ability varies by grad/undergrad, gender, discipline, and “academic ability.” Results: graduate students scored higher than undergrads, some differences that could be accounted for by academic ability and discipline. Results for the different tests differed.

Kiniry, Malcolm and Ellen Strenski. “Sequencing Expository Writing: A Recursive Approach.” College Composition and Communication 36.2 (May 1985): 191-202.

Kiniry and Strenski draw on their experience in UCLA’s writing program to describe a new approach to sequencing assignments in composition courses. They describe 8 typical tasks that undergraduate writers do in all their courses, in a developmental sequence requiring more complex skills: listing, definition, seriation, classification, summary, comparison/contrast, analysis, and academic argument. Each successive skill requires repeating and reinforcing the earlier skills. In addition, they provide sample assignments which would require varying levels of each skill.

Kitchener, Karen S., and Patricia M. King. “The Reflective Judgment Model: Transforming Assumptions about Knowing.” Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory Learning . Ed. Jack Mezirow. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990. 159- 176.

Describes a model of the development of the ability to make reflective judgments (basically epistemology): the 7 stages people go through in their ability to make such judgments, and what influences this development. Discusses research indicating that this is a legitimate stage theory and research on education in the different stages.

Kitchener, Karen Strohm. “Educational Goals and Reflective Thinking.” The Educational Forum (Fall 1983): 75-92.

After summarizing history of work on reflective thinking, discusses research on, and models of, reflective thinking and its development. Describes a 7-stage model of the development of reflective thinking ability. Discusses educational implications: reflective judgment isn’t taught explicitly, or if it is epistemology is being ignored. Education might be able to help students progress through developmental stages.

Kitchener, Karen Strohm, and Patricia M. King. “The Reflective Judgment Model: Ten Years of Research.” Beyond Formal Operations III: Models and Methods in the Study of Adolescent and Adult Thought . Eds. M.L. Commons, C. Armon, L. Kohnberg, F.A. Richards, T.A. Grotzer and J. Sinnott. NY: Praeger. 2-29.

Describes a 7-stage model of the development of reflective judgment. Relates reflective judgment to Piaget’s formal operations. Describes how it is determined what stage a person is in, and summarizes research on the model, specifically research relating age and educational level to stage.

Kloss, Robert J. “A Nudge is Best: Helping Students through the Perry Scheme of Intellectual Development.” Journal of College Teaching 42.4 (1994): 151-158.

The Perry scheme of intellectual development is one of the few schemes with practical classroom applications. Drawing upon his ten-year experience of incorporating the scheme in his pedagogy, Kloss describes the different stages and offers concrete suggestions on how to challenge students to move from their initial dualist stage to commitment in relativism.

Law, Joe. “Critical Thinking and Computer-aided Instruction in Sociology 200.” Writing Across the Curriculum . 8 (March, 1998): 1, 3.

Instructors of large classes often have difficulty in knowing whether the students have read and understood the text. One instructor requires her students to take weekly computerized tests over the reading. Outside of the tests, the instructor also requires a research project in which students must keep field notes of their observations of a sociological concept in process.

Law, Joe. “Uncritical `Critical Thinking’: Reexamining Current Paradigms.” no citation. Possibly part of a workshop.

The problem with current instruction in composition in critical thinking is that it separates factual content from thinking, and tends to treat critical thinking as if it were a mechanistic skill. Current approaches may deal with formal/informal logic issues, but shows examples of logic fallacies, rather than the thought processes which led to them. Overviews the major approaches to teaching critical thinking and gives suggestions for overcoming their limitations.

McPeck, John E. “The Meaning of Critical Thinking.” Critical Thinking and Education . New York: St. Martin Press, n.d. 1- 23.

Defines critical thinking as thinking with skepticism about a subject or field. Requires that the thinker have the skills associated with practitioners in that field. Critical thinking can include certain aspects of problem solving and various skills. Argues that critical thinking can be taught using drills and practice, but not with just any drills–only drills that encourage the use of critical thinking. Students must be motivated to use their critical thinking skills.

Moll, Michael B., and Robert D. Allen. “Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Biology.” Journal of College Science Teaching (November 1982): 95- 98.

Describes efforts of biology faculty at West Virginia University to teaching critical thinking skills to introductory biology students. Uses video and discussion during class to enable students to apply concepts as they learn them; derive concepts from observations and data; and practice scientific processes. Presents assessment of the program, including data on improvement in students’ critical thinking skills pretest/posttest.

Nelson, Craig E. “Critical Thinking and Collaborative Learning.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 59 (Fall 1994): 45-58.

Nelson introduces key aspects of the pedagogy of critical thinking and their relationships with collaborative learning. He suggests that it is important to learn how to explain why incorrect responses occur, in addition to providing the disciplinary expectations of a subject. Students need to move beyond a dualistic approach (yes/no answers) or a multiplistic approach (all answers are equally valid) to one of contextual relativism, where they learn the criteria for judging alternatives in a specific discipline. Nelson includes some examples of in-class exercises to accomplish this level of critical thinking.

Nelson, Craig E. “Skewered on the Unicorn’s Horn: The Illusion of Tragic Tradeoff Between Content and Critical Thinking in the Teaching of Science.” Materials for IU Teaching Resources Center workshop, February 4, 1991.

Presentation by Craig Nelson on the Perry scale, critical thinking in science and how to foster it, and how to use small group discussion fruitfully.

Nelson, Craig E. Fostering Critical Thinking and Mature Valuing Across the Curriculum: Comments & Conversation” Work in progress.

This document is an outline of a workshop presented at Indiana University Bloomington. It covers four modes of thinking ranging from fact recognition to contextual reasoning, with different transitional stages listed. Nelson includes some brief references.

Olson, Carol Booth. “The Thinking/Writing Connection.” Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking . Ed. Arthur L. Costa . Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1985. 102- 107.

Connects writing and thinking processes. Presents a lesson plan to be used at grade-school level that supposedly encourages students to use all levels of thinking (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and all parts of the writing process (prewriting, precomposing, writing, sharing, revising, editing, evaluation).

Paul, Richard. “Teaching Critical Thinking in the ‘Strong’ Sense: A Focus on Self-Deception, World Views, and a Dialectical Mode of Analysis.” No citation. 2-7.

Discusses how not to teach critical thinking (as a set of technical skills without larger contextual issues), and how to teach critical thinking. Argues that critical thinking needs to be taught in a dialectical or dialogic way–as arguments in relation to counterarguments. Lists means of evaluating a course on critical thinking taught in this way, and some “basic theoretic underpinnings” for such a course. Argues that multi-categorical ethical issues are ideal for teaching critical thinking.

Perry, William G., Jr. “Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning” (Ed.), The Modern American College: Responding to the New Realities of Diverse Students and a Changing Society . Ed. Arthur W. Chickering. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1981. 76-116.

A basic overview of the Perry scheme of intellectual development of college students. Also discusses some research done on the scheme, and some efforts at changing teaching.

Smith, Raymond. “Sequenced Microthemes: A Great Deal of Thinking for Your Students, and Relatively Little Grading for You.” Teaching Resources Center Newsletter .

This article responds to a Campuswide Writing Program survey of nearly 300 faculty members about the degree of writing used in their courses. While the motivations for assigning writing varies widely, nearly all of the respondents demand writing assignments from their students, although instructors cite that the time involved in grading is a major drawback. The use of sequenced micro-themes, however, allows instructors to foster critical thinking skills or other abilities in their students without adding an inordinate amount of time in grading. Smith includes two different sequences of assignments–one from his Shakespeare course and the other from a journalism course–designed to enable students to grasp important concepts and become prepared for later, more difficult work.

Slattery, Patrick. “Encouraging Critical Thinking: A Strategy of Commenting on College Papers.” College Composition and Communication 41 (October 1990): 332-335.

Suggests types of comments that can be made on student papers to encourage critical thinking: a support response and a challenge response.

Tallman, Julie. “Connecting Writing and Research through the I-Search Paper: A Teaching Partnership between the Library Program and Classroom.” Emergency Librarian 23.1 (September 1995): 20-23.

This article describes the collaboration between a high school English teacher and a librarian in doing a process-oriented research project called the I-Search paper. This process allows students to define their own research topics and reflect on the strategies used to gather and organize information at each step of the process. I-Search emphasizes interpretation over regurgitation of findings. The article also includes some sample prewriting exercises and journal prompts to use with students.

Thoma, George A. “The Perry Framework and Tactics for Teaching Critical Thinking in Economics.” Journal of Economic Education 42 (1993): 128-136.

Offers strategies for nudging student development within the Perry scheme of intellectual development. The underlying principles for these strategies rest in Craig Nelson’s work on transitioning between different modes of thinking.

Thompson, Jan C. “Beyond Fixing Today’s Paper: Promoting Metacognition and Writing Development in the Tutorial through Self-Questioning.” The Writing Lab Newsletter 23.6 (1999): 1-6.

Although open-ended questions are generally preferred by composition specialists, these types of questions are particularly important within the context of tutoring students with learning disabilities. These students tend not to strategize without outside, explicit direction, but open-ended questions help these students develop metacognitive skills through active learning. Socratic discussions, outlines, and the five Ws are discussed, along with rhetorical modes. Self-cuing is another important part of this type of tutorial, especially LD students.

Turner, Michele. “Writing Across the Curriculum and Critical Thinking Skills in Nursing 414.” Writing Across the Curriculum . 9 (May 1998): 1-2.

Describes three assignments used to develop critical thinking skills in a course entitled, “Applying Neuroscience Nursing Principles to Practice.” “Development of a Concept” requires students to use journals to develop a historical review of the evolution of a neuroscience nursing concept. Student-developed questions relating to the daily topic and based upon the preparatory reading, and a textbook exercise meant to stimulate students to become more critical readers as they search for outdated or inaccurate information in the assigned textbook.

“Two Ways of Approaching Cognitive and Ethical Development.” Campus Writing Program. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

One-page summary of both Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives and Perry’s scheme. Part of a series of handouts designed for workshops.

Go to Indiana University Campus Writing Program Library Directory at Indiana University .

Teaching, Learning and Assessing Creative and Critical Thinking Skills

Creativity and critical thinking prepare students for innovative economies and improve wellbeing. However, educators often lack guidance on how to equip students with creativity and critical thinking within subject teaching. Education systems have likewise rarely established ways to systematically assess students’ acquisition of creativity and critical thinking.

Select a language

The project explores new approaches to equip people with the skills required for innovation and to support radical innovation and continuous improvement in education systems.

Creativity and critical thinking are key skills for the complex and globalized economies and societies of the 21st century. There is a growing consensus that education systems and institutions should cultivate these skills with their students. However, too little is known about what this means for everyday teaching and assessment practices.

This project at the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) aims to support education institutions to innovate in their teaching and nurture students’ creative and critical thinking.

The project builds an international community of practice around teaching, learning and assessing creativity and critical thinking. It seeks to identify the key contextual factors and effective approaches to foster these skills in education settings, develop and implement example instructional practices and assess the effects of innovative pedagogies on students and educators

.The project works across primary, secondary and higher education. It includes a strong focus on initial teacher education and continuing professional learning.

Networks of institutions and educators experience professional learning and change their teaching to more explicitly develop students’ creativity and critical thinking along with disciplinary content and skills.

This redesign of teaching relies on a shared definition of creativity and critical thinking made visible through a common international rubric. Beyond this common goal, institutions and educators preserve full pedagogical freedom.

The OECD developed a monitoring system to assess the impact of re-designed teaching using both quantitative and qualitative data. Questionnaires were designed to measure the progression of related skills, beliefs and attitudes.

Questionnaires are also administered to control groups for comparison and to better evaluate the outcomes of the pedagogical changes. Qualitative data collection based on interviews, focus groups and observations, complements the quantitative data to provide comprehensive evidence of the effects of the different pedagogies tested.

Participating countries and institutions

Countries (primary and secondary education).

The Netherlands
Russian Federation
Slovak Republic
United States
United Kingdom (Wales)

Institutions (Higher Education)

Monash University - Australia
Ontario Tech University - Canada
McGill University - Canada
University College Copenhagen - Denmark
Aalto University - Finland
NISE (University of Limerick + Mary Immaculate College) - Ireland
Politecnico di Torino - Italy
Sophia University - Japan
International Christian University - Japan
KEDI (national coordinator) - Korea
Universidad de Guadalajara - Mexico
Universidad Pedagogica Nacional - Mexico
Shanghai Normal University - People's Republic of China
Northeast Normal University - People's Republic of China
Central China Normal University - People's Republic of China
Escola Superior de Saude de Santa Maria - Portugal
Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo - Portugal
Tecnico Lisboa (Lisbon University) - Portugal
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias - Portugal
University of Porto - Portugal
Universidade de Aveiro - Portugal
Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro - Portugal
Politecnico de Leiria - Portugal
Universidad Camilo Jose Cela - Spain
University of Winchester - United Kingdom

Project outputs

Conceptual rubrics.

Comprehensive domain general rubric
Class friendly domain general rubric
Class friendly science rubric
Class friendly maths rubric
Class friendly music rubric
Class friendly visual arts rubric
Class friendly language arts rubric
Blank rubric template

ASSESSMENT RUBRICS

Class friendly assessment rubric creativity (available in spanish/español )

Class friendly assessment rubric critical-thinking (available in spanish/español )

Design criteria

Lesson plans, interdiciplinary.

My region past and future
The Vinland Map
Smart clothes
Digging for Stories
Telling the world what we are learning
The bicycle
Mapping the future
Journey into space
The interdisciplinary world
Healthy eating and suspended vegetable garden
The garbage
Worms: How is a worm like a first grader?

Language and literacy

The 50 word mini epic
Do you believe in dragons?
The debate that multiplies
Alternative books
Musical poetry (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
Create a movie Score
Haiku composition
Discover the sounds of your school SECONDARY
Discover the sounds of your school PRIMARY
Folk song with word chains
Scotland's burning song revision
Making music without instruments: sounds from water
Body percussion
Shoes as musical inspiration (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
Harry Potter Ostinato

Visual Arts

Symbolic Self Portrait
The Duke of Lancaster: a graffiti case-study
Graffiti art Styles, iconography and message
Graffiti Perceptions and historical connections
Integrity in art
Curate your own exhibition
The world through the eyes of colour
How can everyday objects and living beings become art
Attachment and junk challenge
Painting with tape
Hybrid creatures of the subconscious
Memory maps
Perspective in drawing and beyond
Useless object redesign
Glow in the dark: design a multi-functional product
Building buildings
Revitalizing the school environment with Modern Art
The Mystery of the Disappearing Water
Should we replace our power station
Rivers full of Water
When is a Mammal not a Mammal
Ant Communication
Molecules-workshop
Forces and Motion
What Controls My Health (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
Evaporative-Cooling (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
Dynamic Earth: How is this place on Earth going to change over 10, 100, 1 000, 10 000, and 1 000 000 years?
How can we help the birds near our school grow up and thrive?
Why do I see so many squirrels but I can’t find any stegosauruses?
How to classify an alien
3D printing
Cells on t-shirts
Negative climatic events
Building ecosystems
Animal cell creation
Prepare for a natural disaster
How is human activity and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere changing our oceans?
How we can prevent a chocolate bar from melting in the sun?
Does Rubbish disappear?
If fire is a hazard, why do some plants and animals depend on fire?
What makes a good environment for fungi? How do fungi make a good environment for us?
How do farmed animals affect our world?
When are rain events a problem for people, and what can we do about them?
London Bridge is Falling Down
Mathematics for a new Taj Mahal (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
How happy are we (version with adaptatation for online teaching)
Create a lesson for the year above
How much will the school trip cost
The math-mystery of the Egyptian Pyramids
A world of limited resources
The probability games
The pie of life
How can I use mathematics for painting?
Paper airplanes
Geometrical architecture and artwork
Improving sport performance with maths
Cutting and enlarging art
Refresher bomb
Should this be in the Guinness book of records?
The great cookie bake
Crime scene investigation
Area of a dream place

Professional learning resources

Supporting teachers to foster creativity and critical thinking: a draft professional learning framework for teachers and leaders .

This professional learning framework offers professional learning activities to help teachers, institutional leaders and policy-makers consider what planning, teaching, assessment and school practices can support students to develop creativity and critical thinking as part of subject learning.

It provides a flexible framework, with separate modules on creativity and critical thinking, which can be adapted and implemented to address the needs of local contexts, participants, disciplines, and education levels according to the time and resources available.

The OECD CERI creativity and critical thinking app

The app brings together the pedagogical resources developed in the primary and secondary phase of the project with the aim of supporting changes in teaching and learning.

Please register as a teacher to ensure you have access to all resources (whatever your status).

Main publications

All publications

Primary and secondary education, fostering students' creativity and critical thinking: what it means in schools.

What are the key elements of creativity and critical thinking? What pedagogical strategies and approaches can teachers adopt to foster them? How can school leaders support teachers' professional learning? To what extent did teachers participating in the project change their teaching methods? How can we know whether it works and for whom? These are some of the questions addressed in this book, which reports on the outputs and lessons of this international project.

Skills for Life: Fostering Creativity

In an age of innovation and digitalization, creativity has become one of the most valued skills in the labor market. This brief shows how policymakers and teachers can empower students to innovate and improve their education by developing students creativity.

by Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin

Skills for Life: Fostering Critical Thinking

Critical thinking has become key to the skill set that people should develop not only to have better prospects in the labor market, but also a better personal and civic life. This brief shows how policymakers and teachers can help students develop their critical thinking skills.

How do girls and boys feel when developing creativity and critical thinking?

Do girls and boys report different feelings during teaching and learning for creativity and critical thinking? This document highlights differences between the emotions reported by male and female secondary students in a project about fostering creativity and critical thinking run by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation at the OECD.

Progression in Student Creativity in School

The paper suggests a theoretical underpinning for defining and assessing creativity along with a number of practical suggestions as to how creativity can be developed and tracked in schools.

by Bill Lucas, Guy Claxton and Ellen Spencer

Intervention and research protocol for OECD project on assessing progression in creative and critical thinking skills in education

This paper presents the research protocol of the project of school-based assessment of creative and critical thinking skills of the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).

Higher Education

Fostering higher-order thinking skills online in higher education: a scoping review.

This scoping review examines the effectiveness of online and blended learning in fostering higher-order thinking skills in higher education, focussing on creativity and critical thinking. The paper finds that whilst there is a growing body of research in this area, its scope and generalisability remain limited.

by Cassie Hague

The assessment of students’ creative and critical thinking skills in higher education across OECD countries. A review of policies and related practices

This paper reviews existing policies and practices relating to the assessment of students’ creativity and critical thinking skills in higher education across OECD countries.

by Mathias Bouckaert

Fostering creativity and critical thinking in university teaching and learning. Considerations for academics and their professional learning

This paper focuses on ways in which students’ creativity and critical thinking can be fostered in higher education by contextualising such efforts within the broader framework of academics’ professional learning.

by Alenoush Saroyan

Does Higher Education Teach Students to Think Critically?

There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills with which students graduate from higher education. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency. As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of skills level.

Conferences and session replays

17 October 2024 : IIEP–UNESCO, Paris

18 October 2024 : OECD Conference centre, Paris

Creativity in Education Summit 2024

The 2024 Creativity in Education Summit on 'Empowering Creativity in Education via Practical Resources' is a premier gathering designed to address the critical role of creativity in shaping the future of education.

Co-organised by the OECD , UNESCO anf the Global Institute of Creative Thinking .

CREATIVITY IN EDUCATION SUMMIT 2023 (Paris, 23-24 November 2023)

The 2023 Creativity in Education Summit was the stage for the launch of the OECD’s Professional Learning framework for fostering and assessing creativity and critical thinking, an initiative that seeks to enhance the teaching of creative and critical thinking skills in schools internationally.

Watch the recordings of the sessions at this link .

23 November 2023 - all sessions
24 November 2023 - morning sessions
24 November 2023 - afternoon sessions

Read the brochure about the conference and its highlights.

CREATIVITY EDUCATION SUMMIT 2022 (London, 17 October 2022 and Paris, 18 October 2022)

The theme of this year’s event was “Creative Thinking in Schools: from global policy to local action, from individual subjects to interdisciplinary learning”.

Download the agenda and the brochure .

ONLINE EVENT: HOW CAN GOVERNMENTS AND INSTITUTIONS SUPPORT STUDENTS’ SKILLS DEVELOPMENT? (12-13 January 2022)

Download the agenda .

CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN SCHOOL: MOVING A SHARED AGENDA FORWARD (London, 24-25 September 2019)

The conference took place at the innovation foundation nesta and it brought together policy makers, experts and practitioners to discuss the importance of creativity and critical thinking in OECD economies and societies – and how students can acquire these skills in school.

Rewatch the videos and the interviews at this link .

Check the agenda , the bios of the speakers and the presentations .

The Creative Classroom: Rethinking Teacher Education for Innovation

Evaluating ideas: navigating an uncertain world with critical thinking

Playing with ideas: Cultivating student creativity, innovation and learning in schools

Embedding creativity in education: Ireland’s whole-of-government approach

Teaching, learning and assessing 21st century skills in education: Thailand’s experience

Empowering students to innovate:India's journey towards a competency-based curriculum

Why and how schools should nurture students' creativity

Engaging boys and girls in learning: Creative approaches to closing gender gaps

Illustrations by Grant Snider for OECD/CERI

No adaptations of the original Art are permitted.

Download the high resolution version of the Comics in:

Comics Grant Snider Critical Thinking English

More facts, key findings and policy recommendations

Create customised data profiles and compare countries

For any information about the project, you can contact via email Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin (Project lead), Cassie Hague (Analyst) and Federico Bolognesi (Project Assistant).

Systematic review of inquiry-based learning: assessing impact and best practices in education

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Abstract and Figures

below summarizes various studies that explored the affordances of IBL in various instructional settings. Table 1. Summary of key studies.

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Education Counts

Site search, search the education counts website, find pages with, narrow results by:, nmssa 2022: hidden messages – critical thinking in media contexts publications, publication details.

In 2022, NMSSA explored students’ critical thinking strategies in a range of contexts, including analysis of advertising texts presented on media platforms. About 1800 students participated in two of these tasks reported here

Author(s): Educational Assessment Research Unit and New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Report for the Ministry of Education.

Date Published: September 2023

Introduction

Critical thinking in the health and physical education (pe) learning area.

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (1999) [1] defines critical thinking as ‘examining, questioning, evaluating, and challenging issues and practices’ and critical action as ‘action based on critical thinking’.

The central importance of being able to think critically when learning in health and PE in New Zealand cannot be underestimated, or understated [2] .

Health messages on media platforms

The purpose of marketing is to promote and sell products, generally by associating them with idealised and aspirational values which convey the impression that success and happiness can be secured by purchasing a product [3] .

For New Zealand students, developing the skills to challenge this assumption is important. In a 2022 study from University of Otago researcher Dr Louise Signal4 reported that NZ children are exposed to around 550 market brands each day.

Ministry of Education. (1999). Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum. Ministry of Education: Wellington.
Robertson,J. Underlying concepts in health and physical education. NZHEA
Smart,B. (2010). Consumer society: critical issues and environmental consequences . SAGE: London.
NMSSA | Wānangatia te Putanga Tauria
A3 Hidden Messages (PDF, 762.8 KB)

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How to Use Socratic Questioning to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills

The Speaker Lab
September 13, 2024

Socratic questioning isn’t merely a philosopher’s technique but a formidable asset for enhancing one’s critical thinking and articulation abilities. Want to improve your communication skills? Then this powerful tool is perfect for you too!

In this article, you’ll learn why this age-old technique still matters today and how it can transform conversations in your daily life. From understanding its roots to applying it in education and beyond, we’ll guide you through mastering Socratic questioning. Plus, we’ll tackle common challenges and even compare the Socratic method with other ones used for teaching. Ready to boost your analytical abilities? Let’s get started.

Understanding Socratic Questioning

Socratic questioning isn’t just a debate technique from ancient Greece. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of conversation tools, ready to dissect ideas and shine light on the truth.

This practice roots back to Socrates himself, who famously used it to challenge assumptions and foster critical thinking among his peers. But don’t let its age fool you—these questions are as useful today as they were over two millennia ago. Through the art of inquisitive interrogation, we strip down preconceived notions and unveil profound understandings about our convictions and choices.

The beauty of Socratic questioning lies in its versatility. It thrives anywhere curiosity lives, and isn’t confined to philosophy classes or legal chambers. If navigating personal quandaries or dissecting intricate work-related puzzles, embracing this method can turn ordinary chats into thoughtful dialogues.

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Types of Socratic Questions

Socrates, the renowned philosopher from ancient Athens, knew a thing or two about sparking insight. His method? Asking the right kinds of questions. Let’s break down these types of questions and look at them more closely.

Clarification Questions

First up are clarification questions. Imagine you’re trying to get to the bottom of why your friend always chooses odd vacation spots. You might ask, “What draws you to these places?” This type of open-ended question nudges someone to think more deeply about their initial statement or choice.

In practice, it’s like peeling an onion, because each layer reveals more until you hit the core truth. In this way, clarification question stay true to their name, offering a way to gain insight and better understanding.

Assumptions Probing

Next in line is probing assumptions, and using these is a bit like playing devil’s advocate. For instance, if someone says “All great speakers are born with talent,” you could counter with “Why do we assume talent can’t be developed?” These questions challenge underlying beliefs and open doors for fresh perspectives.

By adopting this method, we unearth concealed prejudices and prompt a reevaluation of our core convictions, paving the way for enlightenment and development.

Evidence Examination

Lastly we have examining evidence, and this is where critical thinking kicks into high gear. If your colleague claims “Our marketing strategy isn’t working,” dig deeper by asking “What data supports this conclusion?” This question not only scrutinizes the basis of assertions but promotes a fact-based discussion rather than one led by emotions or vague observations. In other words, this approach changes our dialogues from speculative arguments to discussions anchored in the tangible world.

By weaving Socratic inquiry into our daily dialogues, we cultivate spaces where authentic revelations and meaningful conversations flourish. The key lies in being curious enough to go deeper than surface-level exchanges and brave enough to question our own as well as others’ viewpoints rigorously.

Implementing Socratic Questioning in Everyday Life

So now you’ve been introduced to Socratic questioning and its brain-boosting powers. But how do you use it without sounding like a philosopher at dinner? Believer it or not, it’s simpler than you think.

Incorporating Into Daily Conversations

Mixing Socratic questioning into your daily conversations doesn’t mean turning every coffee run into a debate club meeting. Instead, start with simple introspection, asking yourself why you believe what you do about common topics, whether it’s politics, education, or even the best burger joint in town.

To navigate conversations effectively, aim to ignite a spark of curiosity rather than sparking heated debates. Ask open-ended questions that invite people to explain their views more deeply. While there’s nothing wrong with the occasional yes-or-no inquiry, avoid using them exclusively as they typically shut down discussion.

Mastering this method doesn’t just mean you shine in debate victories. It’s equally adept at helping you navigate significant and minor choices alike. Applying this level of scrutiny can lead to better choices by ensuring all angles are considered before jumping in headfirst.

Becoming Your Own Thoughtful Critic

As mentioned earlier, apply these methods inwardly too. When facing personal dilemmas or life choices, being able to dissect your own reasoning can clarify what you truly want. It can also help you identify what might simply be an impulsive desire. Employed thoughtfully, they foster self-reflection leading to more informed choices aligned with one’s values.

By practicing Socratic questioning regularly, you’ll develop a knack for critical thinking that rivals ancient philosophers.

Socratic Questioning in Education

Imagine walking into a classroom where the air buzzes with curiosity, and every question leads to another. Because of its exploratory nature, Socratic inquiry is perfect for transforming every classroom into a hive of exploration.

Using Socratic Questions in the Classroom

Using the three different types of Socratic questions, students can gain deeper understanding and insight into a variety of topics. For instance, suppose students in a history class used evidence-based questions to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a democratic government. Similarly, an English class could use clarification questions to dive deeper into a text and characters’ motivations. Science teachers could even use assumption questions to introduce scientific phenomena like centrifugal force or buoyancy.

The rationale behind someone’s arguments becomes clearer through Socratic questioning. By following a line of inquiry, students can dissect how certain conclusions were reached. As a result, students gain a greater understanding of other perspectives, putting them in an ideal position to experience empathy and broaden their own viewpoints.

The Challenges of Socratic Questioning

Despite its many benefits, Socratic questioning can prove challenging in the classroom. Some find it leads to confusion or frustration due to its open-ended nature or when improperly applied without consideration for individual learning styles or emotional readiness.

Navigating these challenges effectively requires patience along with an understanding of what students are prepared to handle. And of course, a little practice goes a long way.

The Challenges and Criticisms of Socratic Questioning

Socratic questioning, though effective in fostering deep thought, comes with its own set of obstacles. Diving into this approach, we often bump into a few stumbling blocks and critiques that are worth mentioning.

Can Lead to Frustration

At times, diving headfirst into the pursuit of profound insights can end up making individuals feel even more bewildered than they were to begin with. Imagine you’re trying to find your way out of a maze, but every turn you take leads to another question instead of an exit. That’s how some folks feel during intense sessions of Socratic questioning. It requires patience and resilience from all parties involved.

In addition, Socratic questioning demands a high level of engagement which might be draining over long periods. The key here is balance, knowing when to dive deeper and when to surface back with the answers found.

Potential Power Imbalance

In scenarios where one person holds all the questions (and thereby controls the direction of conversation), there can be an unintended power imbalance. This dynamic might make some participants hesitant to share their thoughts openly or challenge ideas being presented.

To mitigate this issue, facilitators need careful training on creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute equally.

Risk of Misinterpretation

Questions are open-ended by nature. This means there’s room for interpretation in responses received as well as in subsequent questions asked. Misunderstandings can occur if either party reads too much between lines or assumes knowledge not actually possessed by others.

Clear communication is crucial here, and asking follow-up questions helps ensure everyone remains on the same page throughout discussions.

Comparing Socratic Questioning with Other Teaching Methods

Socratic questioning demonstrates the power of asking questions that encourage deep thought and learning. In contrast to conventional educational tactics, which frequently emphasize memorization, this strategy nurtures analytical reasoning by prompting learners to explore and conclude independently.

Traditional Lectures

In traditional lectures, information flows one way: from teacher to student. As a result, students might find themselves drifting off or lost in a flurry of note-taking, barely connecting with the essence of what’s being taught. When you bring Socratic questioning into play, however, the classroom becomes a dialogue rather than a monologue. Students become active participants in their education, not just passive receivers of information.

In addition to increased attention, students can also gain a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts. For instance, instead of simply memorizing historical facts, students might explore why certain events unfolded as they did and how they could have been different under other circumstances.

Group Projects

Group projects aim to foster collaboration but sometimes fall short when some voices dominate while others fade into the background. Integrating Socratic questioning encourages every group member to voice their thoughts and question each other’s assumptions critically—a key skill in both academic settings and real-world problem-solving scenarios.

By dissecting intricate concepts, this technique ensures all participants can grasp and add value to the conversation, thereby enhancing inclusivity and efficacy in learning among varied groups.

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Resources for Further Exploration of Socratic Questioning

If you’re eager to dive deeper into the world of Socratic questioning, a wealth of resources awaits. From books that lay the foundational principles to interactive websites offering practical exercises, there’s something for every level of curiosity and expertise.

Books That Challenge and Inspire

If reading is your thing, there are plenty of books that delve deeper into Socratic questioning. Take, for instance, “The Art of Socratic Questioning,” which delves into the nuances of this timeless technique, offering readers insights into crafting questions that stimulate deep thinking.

Meanwhile, “Socrates’ Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy” brings philosophy out of the academy and into everyday life, demonstrating how Socratic questioning remains as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece. (And speaking of ancient Greece, have you ever heard of the three rhetorical appeals? Check them out here .)

Lastly, “Socrates in the Boardroom” delves into the application of these philosophical approaches within leadership spheres, urging individuals to scrutinize their decision-making methods critically.

Websites Offering Interactive Learning Experiences

The digital age brings with it innovative ways to engage with classical education methods. Websites like The Critical Thinking Community offer extensive guides on implementing Socratic techniques in educational settings or personal growth endeavors. For those looking for a more hands-on approach, Socrative , allows users to create real-time quizzes inspired by the probing nature of Socratic inquiry. This tool is perfect for educators aiming to invigorate their classrooms or for individuals keen on testing their critical thinking skills.

FAQs About Socratic Questioning

What is an example of socratic question.

An example of a Socratic question would be, “What evidence supports your thinking?” This question encourages a deep dive into reasoning, pushing for clarity and proof.

What is the Socratic method of questioning?

It is a form of inquiry that challenges beliefs through systematic questioning, aiming to uncover assumptions and improve understanding.

What are the 4 stages of Socratic questioning?

The four stages include clarifying concepts, examining assumptions, seeking evidence or reasons, and exploring implications or consequences.

What is Socratic questioning in CBT examples?

In CBT, it might involve asking “How does this thought affect your actions?” to link thoughts with behavior patterns.

So now you have a better handle on Socratic questioning. It’s not just ancient philosophy; it’s a tool for the critical thinkers of today. Not only does it sharpen your thinking, it ups your conversation game. By challenging us to think deeper, Socratic questioning boosts analytical skills, making every moment of curiosity matter.

While there are some hurdles to the method, there are plenty of ways to overcome those obstacles. And in comparison to other techniques, it has plenty of advantages and benefits.

Beyond sharpening minds in dialogue or education lies the power of asking better questions—and that’s where real growth happens.

Last Updated: September 12, 2024

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Mind mapping to enhance critical thinking skills in respiratory therapy education

Affiliations.

1 Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
2 King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
3 Seton Hall University, Nutley, NJ.
4 Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
5 King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
6 Department of Respiratory Therapy, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
7 Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Medical Rehabilitation Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
PMID: 39268420
PMCID: PMC11392321
DOI: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1816_23

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the use of mind maps as an active teaching strategy to enhance critical thinking skills (CTSs) among respiratory therapy (RT) students in Saudi Arabia.

Materials and methods: A total of 86 participants from two RT programs in Saudi Arabian Universities, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and The Batterjie Medical College, were randomly assigned to either the mind map group (MMG) or the standard note-taking group (SNTG). With the quasi-experimental design and quantitative method, mean comparisons were made between the groups using an independent t -test.

Results: There was no significant change between the pre-SNTG and post-SNTG as measured by the health sciences reasoning test (HSRT) after 15 weeks of standard note-taking (SNT). However, it showed the difference between the pre-MMG and post-MMG ( P = .02) as measured by the HSRT after 15 weeks of intervention. There was also a significant change between the post-MMG and SNTG ( P = .04) as measured by the HSRT, where the MMG had higher scores. However, the study had limitations, which conceded to the failure of participants in the test and the subjectivity of respondents where they were excluded from the study; also, for generalizability of the result, the study should have been taken beyond Riyadh and Jeddah.

Conclusion: Prior to this study, the effectiveness of mind mapping (MM) in the respiratory discipline has not yet been explored. It found that mind mapping was effective at improving CTS, while SNT was not, as measured by pre- and post-test HSRT scores. This was the first investigation into MM's impact on CTS within respiratory therapy education.

Keywords: Active learning; learning strategy; mind mapping; respiratory care; respiratory therapy; standard note-taking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Quantitative approach – A quasi-experimental…

Quantitative approach – A quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design. (Source: Author)

Study process (Source: Author)

Study sample (Source: Author)

Participants’ age. (Source: Author)

Overall critical thinking scores of…

Overall critical thinking scores of RT students at baseline (pre) (Author: Source)

Fox RE. Determining the Relationship Between First Time Therapist Multiple Choice Exam High Cut and Clinical Simulation Exam Pass Rates of Recent Respiratory Therapy Graduates From an Ohio University and Their Well-Being and Persistence. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2023. Available from: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4626 .
Kacmarek RM, Heuer AJ, Stoller JK. Egan’s Fundamentals of Respiratory Care E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2019. Early history of respiratory care; p. 1.
Lubken TA. Washington, USA: Walden University; 2021. Effect of Professional Exclusion Among Respiratory Therapists in the ICU.
Kacmarek RM, Stoller JK, Heuer AJ. Egan’s Fundamentals of Respiratory Care E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2019
Jaswal P, Behera B. Blended matters: Nurturing critical thinking. E-Learning and Digital Media. 2023 20427530231156184. doi: 10.1177/20427530231156184.

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We receive thousands of applications every day, but we only work with the top 5% of speakers.. Book a call with our team to get started — you'll learn why the vast majority of our students get a paid speaking gig within 90 days of finishing our program.. If you're ready to control your schedule, grow your income, and make an impact in the world - it's time to take the first step.
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