This week I will discuss critical thinking and problem-solving.  Both are important aspects of a student's education and can be easily overlooked or put aside by teachers.

The ability to think critically is essential for everyday mankind; the path to critical thinking has many components.  I many use different components than you and both of us can be critically thinking about the same issue.  As a classroom teacher, teaching critical thinking to 7th grade students appears to be a lesson in herding cats.  Sometimes I hit a home run, sometimes a grounder and reach on an error, but I am always thinking about how I can phrase my questions to require answers that are more than rote memory or regurgitation of facts.

Egbert, in Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice (2009), implores teachers to model critical thinking for students.  She gives five ways that teachers can model for students: overtly and explicitly explain what they do and why they do it, encourage student to think for themselves, be willing to admit and correct their own mistakes, be sensitive to students' feelings, abilities, and goals and to what motivates them, and allow students to participate in democratic processes in the classroom.

When I do a demonstration during math class, I think aloud.  My students hear the type of questions I ask myself as I am working through the problem.  They see me encounter a roadblock, backtrack my steps, and then forge ahead.  They see mistakes and are encouraged to correct my mistakes, many purposefully made.  When I think of it, I give the student who reports the mistake a Pez (a tiny candy).  Remember, it is scary for students to report an error made by the teacher.  They must feel safe and confident of the reaction of their teacher.  This is a learned activity.

The internet research is a perfect arena for teaching critical thinking.  Analyzing the research, thinking about who wrote the article or website and their motivation in the writing of the same increases a student's own critical thinking ability and media literacy.

Learning to think critically will not happen overnight!  Much practice is required of the fledgling critical thinker.  I say to my fellow teacher -- don't give up on your students!  Encourage, prompt, and help them develop this skill.

This blog has become lengthy and so I will leave a discussion of problem solving for another time.  Perhaps I will get back here during the week, but grades are due this week and that is always a busy time for me.