Creating a School-Wide

Culture of Critical and

Creative Thinking

“Children must be taught how to think,not what to think.”

Margaret Mead

Carol V. Horn, Ed.D K-12 Coordinator, Fairfax County Public Schools Horn.carol71@gmail.com

Why Teach Critical and Creative Thinking in All K- 12 Classrooms?

Moving away from

an industrial economy

and toward a knowledge economy

innovation is a major

keystone

2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz7avOfgDvE&feature=youtu.be

What are the benefits?

• Creative problem solving is an essential skill for successful global citizens in the 21st century.

21st Century Skills

• Higher order thinking skills help students construct meaningful understandings of the curriculum.

Construct Meaning

• Strategies are engaging for students and teachers!

•Student Engagement

What are we talking about?

On one side of your strip of paper, jot down verbs you think relate to critical thinking.

Turn the strip over. Jot down verbs you think relate to creative thinking.

Discuss with a partner what you wrote on each side and why.

generate new ideas

combine ideas

defer judgment

visualize

analyze

predict use evidence to support thinking

logical reasoning

Critical Thinking

Creative Thinking

Critical and Creative Thinking are interrelated processes essential to problem solving

Critical thinking involves logic and

reasoning skills

Creative thinking involves

constructing something new

Sir Ken Robinson says…

“All kids have tremendous talents.”

“Creativity is as important as literacy.”

“We are educating children out of their creative capacities.”

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

Dr. Edward de Bono Dr. Richard Paul

9 Strategies for Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking

adapted from the work of . . .

8

Analogies

Give students a structure for generating creative ideas, seeing complex relationships, and making unusual comparisons.

Analogies may be used to deepen understanding of topics or concepts.

Teacher assigns a topic. The topic can be anything to which there are many possible answers. Use thought-provoking topics to enhance creativity and higher-level thinking.

Fold your sheet of paper into fourths.

Write one idea on your sheet in one of the squares, then exchange the paper with the one in the center.

Read idea from centerpiece and add a new idea in a different square, then trade paper again with the centerpiece.

CENTERPIECE

Using the gecko’s “sticky” feet as inspiration, a team of University of Massachusetts, Amherst researchers developed Geckskin, an adhesive so strong that an index-card-size strip can hold up to 700 pounds. A form of gecko tape could replace sutures and staples in the hospital.

The firefly's’ radiance is amplified by their anatomy — sharp, jagged scales. Based on this observation, the scientists built a similar structure on a light-emitting diode (LED), which increased its brightness by 55 percent.

Relationship to Innovation

Analogies Can be Applied Within and Across Content Areas to

Deepen Student Understanding

How are your friendships like an electrical circuit?

How is the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem like the Real Number system?

How is a government like a (cell, blueprint, city, school, family…)?

Freedom of expression is like a garden because . . .

What would you describe as a “calm explosion”?

It is not something more to do; just a different way to engage in the curriculum you already teach!

http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CTModel1.cfm

Questioning Must Be Taught!

Model asking higher level questions…beyond facts, open ended…not “Googleable” Let students actively clarify, explore, challenge, and assess their understanding of ideas

Questioning

Students actively clarify, explore, challenge, and assess the understanding of ideas through questioning.

Students who take responsibility for asking their own questions are more productive and engaged in their learning.

Questioning helps us solve problems by developing, implementing, and evaluating plans of action.

Active learners are always questioning

Questions Surrounding Intellectual Standards

What do you think?

Why do you think that?

How do you know this?

Can you tell me more?

What questions do

you still have?

Questions that Lead to Enduring Understandings

How are things, events or people

connected to each other?

What is the cause and what is the effect? How do

they fit together?

When is a conflict a revolution?

When is the “correct” answer

not the best solution?

Was math discovered or

invented?

What is the evidence, and how

reliable is it?

What are some pros and cons about asking higher level questions in class?

How can you teach your students to formulate their own higher level questions?

Think about ways these intellectual standards come into play in your current position.

Which intellectual standards do you feel are strong in your current curriculum?

Why is it important to give students opportunities to work with these standards?

Questioning Through the Intellectual Standards CLARITY

understanding/ meaning can be grasped

Could you elaborate further? Could you give me an example?

ACCURACY free from errors or distortions/true

How could we check on that? How could we verify or test that?

PRECISION exact to a necessary level of detail

Could you be more specific? Could you give me more details?

RELEVANCE relating to the matter at hand

How does that related to the problem or question? How does that help us with the issue?

DEPTH containing complexities and multiple

interrelationships

What factors make this a difficult problem? What are some of the complexities and difficulties we need to deal with?

BREADTH encompassing multiple viewpoints

Do we need to look at this from another perspective or point of view? What other ways are there of looking at this?

LOGIC the parts make sense together/no contradictions

Does this all make sense together? Does what you say follow from the evidence?

SIGNIFICANCE focusing on the important, not the trivial

What is the most important thing to consider? What is the central idea/focus?

FAIRNESS justifiable/not self-serving or one-sided

Do I have any vested interest in this issue? Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others?

OTHER STANDARDS TO CONSIDER

Completeness Validity Rationality Sufficiency Necessity Feasabilty

Consistency Authenticity Effectiveness Efficiency

Visual note taking that helps students organize information

Helps students retain, remember, recall information, see the big picture, and make connections.

As students begin to work with more information in the content areas, mind mapping is especially important for visual and global learners.

Activity: Create a Mind Map

Start in the

center with a topic.

Work OUTWARD

in ALL Directions

Use Keywords & Phrases

Organize with Color,

Symbols and Shape

Use lines to show

connections and put

connecting words on the

lines.

Be creative, original, and have

fun!

Make a quick mind map of how your students can use mind mapping.…

Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping

Assessment

Identify relationships

Content knowledge

Encapsulating is the process of stating ideas in a concise, precise form. Encapsulation requires students to synthesize information and nuances in order to capture the essence of an idea, object, or activity.

@fcpsaap

BUMPER STICKER

Create an original bumper sticker that expresses an important idea you’ll take away from our time together today.

Slogan or Bumper Sticker Encapsulation

Think about one strategy idea (major idea or specific strategy) that has been presented so far and choose one to encapsulate.

SLOGAN

Think different. (Apple) We mean clean. (Bissell) Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (M&Ms)

Brainstorm the essence of an idea from today you want to encapsulate and write an original slogan for: ____________ (questioning) ___________ (analogies) _________ (importance of critical and creative thinking)

Tweet it! With a partner use no more

than 140 characters to encapsulate CRITICAL & CREATIVE THINKING.

Now change your Tweet into a hashtag! OR Make a license plate which encapsulates

CCT (no more than 7 characters)

Afternoon Session

Students who practice FOFE are more able to make inventive or creative connections between ideas.

TORRANCE KIDS

In1958, four hundred children completed creativity tasks designed by professor E. Paul Torrance

“How could you improve this toy to make it better and

more fun to play with?”

entrepreneurs,

inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software

developers...

The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment

was more than 3 x stronger for creativity than IQ.

30

The Results…

Support Creativity Inhibit Creativity Opportunities to explore personal interests Active engagement with content Challenging tasks Choice in products Teaching about growth mindset

Rewards Competition, stress, or comparisons Constant monitoring and evaluation Fixed mindset

Classroom Practices that …

Consider your classroom, what practices support creativity? What might be some areas of focus or change?

Those who practice creative activities learn to

recircuit their brains’ creative networks quicker

and better.

Fact finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process. The Creativity Crisis, Bronson &

Merryman

Treffinger’s Creative Problem-Solving Method is composed of fact-finding,

problem-finding, idea-finding, solution-finding,

and plan of action - has high success rate in increasing

children’s creativity.

Fluency

Thinking of and listing many ideas

Originality

Coming up with unique

ideas

Flexibility

Thinking from

different perspectives

Elaboration

Building upon an existing ideas – adding details

Generate Recall Brainstorm

~May use mindmaps, lists, wordsplashes, flowcharts…

What is an unusual way to __ Think of a

unique solution to… What if there

were no limits/ constraints?

What else? Tell me

more Explain Add detail Improve

upon…

Look from different lens What if there

were no __ Change the

ending Take a

different path

Fluency The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling

Fluency is… The generation of ideas OR recall of thoughts Fluency isn’t necessarily linear

Fluency needs management/structure

Mind mapping Webs Outlines

Strategies to maximize fluency

“In what ways?” “List” “Brainstorm”

A Note on Brainstorming Research shows that group brainstorming doesn’t actually produce the best ideas. When in person, allow time to work as individuals to brainstorm before having students share rather than brainstorming altogether aloud. It will increase the number and quality of ideas. (Exception – online brainstorming).

Quiet by Susan Cain (2012)

Flexibility and Originality

Flexibility requires generating a wide range of ideas.

How many different ways…

List different ways…

Originality refers to unique, unusual responses.

What is the most unusual idea…

What if…

Think of a unique way to…

Requires adding ideas, providing details, extending thinking.

Allows the learner to expand, add on, enlarge, enrich, or

embellish upon ideas in order to build upon previous thoughts.

What else do you need… Tell me more…

Explain…

Elaboration

FOFE…in the real world

Watch the video http://goo.gl/xLxl1T

How can you use FOFE in your content area?

Fluency

Think of and list many ideas

Originality

Come up with unique ideas

Flexibility

Think from different

perspectives

Elaboration

Build upon an existing ideas – add details

21st Century Skills Rethinking How Students Learn

p. 314

Without a combination of critical thinking,

problem-solving, effective teamwork, and

creativity, learning remains stagnant,

more useful for passing a test than solving

a real world challenge.

Asking students to explore an idea from multiple points of view helps to broaden students’ thinking and demonstrates that an idea should be examined from many angles before an opinion is formed.

The discipline of examining an issue from many perspectives provides students with a good model for open-ended receptive thinking and empathizing with the opinions of others.

DeBono’s Hats

Debate

Socratic Seminar

RAFT

Ex. Use to analyze the feelings, possibilities, consequences, etc. of the Declaration of Independence

Ex. Use paired with research in Language Arts to debate a topic related to using nuclear energy.

Ex. Use to discuss the Declaration of Independence.

Ex. Provide product choices – such as role - playground architect audience - school principal format – blueprint and cost spreadsheet topic – estimate for your new playground materials

Examples of Point of View strategies

DeBono’s Hats— Speaker expresses a particular Point of View depending

on the hat color you are “wearing”:

White hat: Information, objective FACTS

Red hat: Emotion, How do I FEEL about this?

Purple Hat: Judgment, CONs, “Devil’s Advocate”

Yellow hat: optimism, PROs, “Pollyanna”

Green hat: creativity, innovative IDEAS, no constraints

Blue hat: metacognition, thinking, PLANS, next steps

Point of View

RAFT

Socratic Seminar

DeBono’s Thinking Hats

Debate

On your paper write down three ways you can use point of view in science, language arts, social studies or math. When you are done, share your ideas with a partner.

Opens student’s thinking by stimulating the imagination with words, images, and/or simulated experiences.

Helps students plan out an experience, set goals and decide how to handle potential roadblocks before encountering them to build resiliency and increase organization.

Visualize a school that integrates critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and communication skills into all lessons. What do you see and hear from teachers? In their collaborative planning and teamwork In their classroom instruction and feedback to students

Ways to Use Visualization

Reflective Looking Forward

Kindergarten Critical and Creative Thinking Lesson

Circles in Your Imagination

• State Standard: • The student will identify

representations of plane geometric figures regardless of their position and orientation in space.

• The student will compare the size and shape of plane geometric figures.

• Materials: circular objects, circles,

paper, crayons

Visualization

Visualize how Creative and Critical Thinking Strategies might be used at your school. What can you do to encourage or support implementation?

How might visual thinking be used by your

students to improve problem-solving and/or

goal setting in the subject that you teach?

Visualization

http://www.slideshare.net/darmano/thinking-visually-presentation

Encourages students to think about many possibilities and to explore the positive and negative aspects of ideas, events, or activities.

PMI encourages students to look beyond the polarity of “yes or no,” “wrong or right,” and “my answer or your answer.”

The goal of PMI is to develop independent thinkers who consider a range of ideas and possibilities to see beyond the obvious.

Leads students to think about many possible aspects of ideas, events, or activities.

Pushes students to look beyond the polarity of “yes or no,” “wrong or right,” and “my answer or your answer.” Encourages academic conversations that build vocabulary and understanding for ELL learners

Goal: develop independent thinkers who consider a range of ideas and possibilities to see beyond the obvious.

Plus, Minus, Interesting

+ Plus

- Minus

! Interesting 53

Decisions & Outcomes

Have you ever made a decision that you wish you could change?

Did you make that decision before you gathered all the facts or was your decision based on your impulse reaction to the situation?

Decisions & Outcomes

You are George Washington and your second term is coming to a close. What are your choices and what are possible outcomes?

What curriculum connections can you think of for using Decisions and Outcomes with your content?

Idea Short term outcome

Long term outcome

Idea Short term outcome

Long term outcome

Next Steps

Consider long and

short term outcomes.

What are one or two strategies

you can use in your

classroom tomorrow?

For example: As I start the new

unit on energy I will begin by asking the students to create a

mind map on alternative energy

sources. As the unit finishes, I will

have students create another

mind map and use it as a pre and post

assessment

1 Experimentation

2 Infusion

3 Practice

4 Leadership

Individual teachers are learning the strategies, and trying them out on a limited basis

CLTs are planning and infusing into lessons on a regular basis

CCT strategies are used as part of the teaching and learning that takes place across the grade level teams every day

Teams implement strategies on a regular basis and provide feedback and support to each other in order to ensure continuous growth and improvement.

Change … it’s a continuum

Suggested Reading

Igniting Creativity in Gifted Learners, K – 6 by Joan Franklin Smutny and S.E. vonFreund

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Outliers the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Out of our Minds (Learning to be Creative) by Ken Robinson

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

Critical and Creative Thinking Online Challenges

Future Problem Solving http://www.fpspi.org

eCybermission http://www.ecybermission.com

ExploraVision http://www.exploravision.org