8/11/2019 Week 2: Why Critical Thinking

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Professional learning

challenges and opportunities

Roles and responsibilities in the

classroom shift as teachers work

to provide space for students to

develop and extend their

understanding and capacity todeploy many different aspects

of each key competency. This

does not mean that the teacher

moves to the background.

Instead they use their own

knowledge and expertise in

ways that bring students

thinking and reasoning into the

foreground.

Addressing this question we

envisaged that learners would

need:

space in which they could

take initiative and directly

experiencewhat it feels like to

be and become a person who

can;

to be able to make

meaningful connections

between the task at hand and

other aspects of their lives, and

of their cumulative, ongoing,

and lifelong learning;

to be challenged and

supported to develop them [the

key competencies] in contexts

that are increasingly wide-

ranging and complex (Ministry

of Education, 2007, p. 12). Being

busily engaged is not enough:

the learning must also stretchstudents. Hence, the third

dimension built into the

framework was challenge.

These conditions for effective

learning apply in the first

instance to students learning,

but they also apply to the

professional learning that

teachers experience as they

explore ways to help realise the

NZC vision for students now and

in their futures

.http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/

pp.%202-10_Hipkins_Teaching_.pdf

Why Critical Thinking?The Problem

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

Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - inwhich the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of

the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.The ResultA well cultivated critical thinker:

raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret iteffectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them againstrelevant criteria and standards;

thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing andassessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practicalconsequences; 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 presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and

mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solvingabilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.

(Taken from Richard Paul and Linda Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking

Concepts and Tools, Foundation for Critical Thinking Press, 2008)

Consider this Challenge: It is important for our students to be productivemembers of the work-force. How can we better prepare our students to meetthese challenges?

An Answer: The fundamental characteristic of the world students now enter is ever-accelerating change; a world in which information is multiplying even as it is swiftly

becoming obsolete and out of date; a world in which ideas are continually restructured,retested, and rethought; where one cannot survive with simply one way of thinking;where one must continually adapt one's thinking to the thinking of others; where onemust respect the need for accuracy and precision and meticulousness; a world in which

job skills must continually be upgraded and perfected

even transformed. We havenever had to face such a world before. Education has never before had to preparestudents for such dynamic flux, unpredictability, and complexity for such ferment, tumult,and disarray.

We as educators are now on the firing line. Are we willing to fundamentally rethink our methods of teaching? Are we ready for the 21st Century? Are we willing to learn new concepts and ideas? Are we willing to learn a new sense of discipline as we teach it to our students? Are we willing to bring new rigor to our own thinking in order to help our

students bring that same rigor to theirs? Are we willing, in short, to become critical thinkers so that we might be an

example of what our students must internalize and become?

These are profound challenges to the profession. They call upon us to do what noprevious generation of teacherswas ever called upon to do. Those of us willing to

pay the price will yet have to teach side by side with teachers unwilling to pay the price.This will make our job even more difficult, but not less exciting, not less important, notless rewarding. Critical thinking is the heart of well-conceived educational reform and

restructuring, because it is at the heart of the changes of the 21st Century. Let us hopethat enough of us will have the fortitude and vision to grasp this reality and transform ourlives and our schools accordingly.

Adapted fromHow to Prepare Students for a rapidly Changing Worldby RichardPaul.

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