Critical Thinking Review

The author’s goal for this research study “was to move a group of fourth grade students identified as gifted and talented from being naïve and self absorbed about their thinking to taking ownership of their thoughts.” The source of this study was from The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking for Children. The main focus of this study was on a “combination of affective and cognitive skills and applied the intellectual standards of clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic and far mindedness to students thinking.” The point of taking “ownership of ones thoughts”, when one assess that particular piece of information, one can agree that is a key element in teaching critical thinking skills to students to be able to “think for themselves”. When one applies reasoning and take ownership that one has a problem in their thought process, this is “insightful reflection” to be able to identify the problem and take action to resolve this issue, then and only then can one advance and learn critical thinking skills.

Another interesting article, “How to teach critical thinking skills, by eHow Education Editor.” Students must be “encouraged to apply their knowledge”, don’t take for granted what they read, but “question or assess the material that they read and just not look on the “surface”.

The author went on to mention several steps to teaching critical thinking skills:

1. Rearrange the classroom if possible so all students can see each other and the teacher at the same time.

   This type of teaching or classroom arrangement reminded me of a model work environment (MWE). The environment for our students is just as important or more important, because one can function better in the right environment, clean, attractive and pleasant to learn in. The norm is or we take for granted doing things as we always do is the expectable thing to do, but that is not the case in the 20th and 21st century, one must step outside the box and embrace change and apply or teach critical thinking skills to our students and the earliest that we engage in this type of teaching is advantageous.

2. Encourage students to participate.
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   This is accomplished by practicing or applying far-minded thinking skills as a teacher to have the ability to recognize and take charge of the classroom atmosphere, because there will always be students who or more aggressive than others, students who are shy, reserved, so the teacher has to be very creative to engage and make each student feel important and encourage group participation to actively include everyone’s involvement in apply critical thinking activities.

3. Post important critical thinking questions in the classroom to remind students of the questions they should ponder.

   That to me is excellent idea because learning how to analyze questions, or make application of critical thinking skills at this age level, what an advantage for the student because being able to reason and evaluate circumstances and situations at an early age will enable them to make wise choices and thus produce a more rational class of people into society through intellectual reasoning.

4. Engage your students in critical reading by encouraging them to reflect on what they read.

   Reading is one of the most valuable skills one can engage in, because knowledge is power and applying critical thinking skills when studying and reading, being able to separate facts and analyze data and not take for granted what you hear, but be able to validate for oneself is a valuable tool that teaching critical thinking skills to students early on in life will pay great dividends throughout their life.

5. Use the web to help students apply their critical thinking skills so that they can distinguish among credible sources and questionable sources.

   There is no excuse for being information literate and for teachers not to teach students how to search out information about critical thinking through the website, library, journals, articles, etc., just to mention a few pointers the author brought out.

In the final analysis, as a future educator, my aim and my goals as an educator will be to launch my students mind into the direction to “think to some purpose “. There is some form of reasoning behind everything one does, that influences ones choices, ones decisions, ones families, ones community, ones church, ones schools, even the people we socialize with, all have some implications and consequences, thus we must be clear as to what we are striving to accomplish, what ones desire or focus, ones goals and what one wants to happen, for example, if one buys a car now, can one afford it now, as to waiting to when one can afford it, weighing the pros and cons of one decision as to when to make that decision, is very critically. The element of “time” is very important. The end result maybe keeping the car verses loosing the car. Whatever choice one makes, it will either have a positive or negative effect on oneself.

Another example, when choosing ones peer groups, if one is to succeed, one must chose wisely those whom one will allow to be a part of his/her intellectual circle. One wishes to embody people who are positive people, people who have strong values, ambitious, not complacent, self-well, self motivated, self-driven. People who are capable of “thinking for themselves”, because one learns a lot from ones peers, positive people stretch us or influence us to think as they think, thus it is important to be careful who you associate with or allow in your inter-circle. Just as positive thinking people have positive influences, so it is with people who are narrow-minded, immature, insecure, and negative thinkers. It is very important to “think to some purpose” in mind in order to obtain the end result one is looking for. If you won’t to win in life, It is really up to you and it all lies in our ability to process information intellectually by applying critical thinking skills.