Incorporating Critical Thinking Skills Into Teaching Across the Curriculum.

Suzie Bean and Ian Stanbridge

Colyton Grammar School

Contextual Background

• Co-educational Grammar in rural East Devon

• Selective within top 25% of ability range

• KS3 Years 7 and 8

• GCSE Years 9 and 10

• VIth Form Years 11-13

‘Critical Thinking’ includes:

• The analysis and evaluation of ‘arguments’.– Argument: a reasoned case designed to

persuade, consisting of:• A conclusion (what the writer is trying to persuade

a reader of);• At least one reason – the support for the conclusion.• eg. “You should include thinking skills in your

lessons because they will transform students’ essays into virtual temples of logic.”

What is ‘Critical Thinking’? cont’d• Students learn to:

– identify arguments;– understand the structures of arguments;– understand the component parts of arguments,

using precise terminology;– evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of

reasons and evidence used to support conclusions.

What is Critical Thinking? cont’d

• Students also consider the credibility of sources.

• Given several perspectives on one event or issue, students apply criteria to consider how credible different reports or interpretations are. – eg. A fight in a pub.

• Individuals involved (brawlers, police, pub-owners)• Documents in which evidence is given (newspapers,

web-sites, etc).

• ‘Thinking skills’ also encompasses study and revision skills.

Past Delivery of Thinking Skills

• In past, thinking skills only explicitly taught to students in discrete Critical Thinking lessons solely delivered to Year 12 students.

Problems with past model• Discrete delivery of skills meant students

reluctant to view thinking skills as relevant to other subjects.

• Thinking skills not explicitly reinforced by other subjects, allowing skills to ‘rust’.

• Year 12 late in a student’s career to first encounter many tools provided by ‘thinking skills’; by Sixth Form, many resistant to exercising brains in new and challenging ways.

New Practice

• Whilst still teaching Critical Thinking as a subject in Year 12, thinking skills now explicitly integrated into other subjects, not only in the Sixth Form, but also in lower school.

• Benefits:– introduces skills earlier, when students may be

more receptive;– demonstrates relevance of such skills to most

subjects;– provides further opportunities for students to

practise skills learnt;– enhances range of thinking skills with which

students approach subjects, doing this throughout their secondary school career.

Integrating Thinking Skills into English

• Lower school (Years 7 and 8):– Introduces skills early in students’ academic

career. Benefits:• Provides explicit vocabulary and thinking ‘toolkit’ useful

for essay writing and conceptual discussion; such skills useful for younger students who are struggling to understand what an essay is or how to construct basic written arguments.

• Early introduction provides opportunity for consolidation of skills.

Integrating Thinking Skills into English

• English requires many key ‘thinking skills’. For example:– critical evaluation of ideas (others’ and one’s own);– selection and use of relevant evidence;– construction of logical, clearly written arguments.

• However, English also encourages thoughtful rhetoric (often ‘shunned’ by critical thinkers). Nevertheless, teaching students to recognise others’ use of rhetoric and literary techniques encourages independent, ‘critical’ view of texts in class and in the wider world.

Integrating Thinking Skills into English

• Many existing Schemes of Work encouraged such thinking skills implicitly.

• It was agreed to use vocabulary of thinking skills explicitly and to interweave relevant tasks which explicitly taught thinking skills. This was integrated into existing schemes of work rather than wholly new tasks created, ensuring relevance of information to subject.

Examples of Thinking Skills integrated into English

(detailed sample schemes of work are available on accompanying disk)

• Year 7:• Persuasive Writing Unit:

– Task: Write a persuasive formal letter to a real company.

• In terms of thinking skills, students :– Consider need for reasons (vs. impressive bluster, threats of

violence, etc.) when persuading others;– Evaluate relevance and strength of reasons they and others

give;– Recognise and understand common flaws (weaknesses) and

traps of logic.

• Throughout unit, key thinking skills vocabulary (eg. conclusion, reason, argument, counterargument) is explicitly taught and used.

Examples of Thinking Skills integrated into English, cont’d.

• Year 7:– Writing a Newspaper Article - Spin:– Task: write two newspaper articles on the same

event, giving one article a ‘positive spin’, the other a ‘negative’ one.

– In terms of thinking skills, students learn how:• rhetorical devices and clever phrasing can skew

objective events;• selectivity of evidence can distort presentation of

people or events.

Examples of Thinking Skills integrated into English

• Year 7:– Reading the Novel:– Task: analytical essay on a character in a novel, using

quotations to back up ideas.

– Within this unit, students learn how to:• consider the use of evidence;• consider the relevance and quality of evidence.

Throughout yearStudents given sheet of ‘critical thinking’ questions for

peer and self-evaluation. These are:

• Do I have a clearly stated conclusion in my writing?• Do all of my points (reasons) ultimately support my conclusion?• Is my evidence relevant to the reason it is being used to support?• Have I clearly explained how the evidence I have used supports the

point?• If I have included contradictory evidence, have I signalled it by

using an appropriate connective?• Have I included alternative interpretations, perhaps by writing them

as counter-assertions in my argument?

A more detailed example: Spin• Students learn conventions of

newspaper articles.

• Thinking skills – understand how rhetorical devices/ clever phrasing skews objective events;

• Thinking skills – understand how selectivity of evidence can distort presentation of people or events.

Newspaper articles - spin• Class divided in two. Each student given newspaper article

about a local lottery winner. Students come up own words to describe the man featured in the article.

• Students don’t know that each half of the class has a different article:– one presents lottery winner as greedy and corrupted by his

win– the other presents him as unchanged and decent.

• In class, students share their impressions – confusion ensues.

(adapted from ‘Developing Comprehension Skills’ Clare Constant and David Kitchen, Heinemann 1997)cont’d

Spin, cont’d

• Looking at both articles, students create a list of objective facts – events both articles agree happened.

• Students consider how such different impressions of same man created, studying:– language used;– selection/withholding of evidence/facts

Spin, cont’d• During lesson, teacher has acted oddly.

– eg. teacher has sung loudly, worn a school tie around his/her head, collected garish pencil cases in class and/or been asked to see the Head of English for mysterious reason.

• At end of lesson, students write down ‘facts’ of teacher’s strange actions.

• ‘Facts’ used as basis of students’ own two ‘spun’ articles – one presenting teacher as abomination to profession, the other presenting him/her as a model teacher.

Critical Thinking in Chemistry

“Problem solving is what you do when you don’t know what to do; otherwise it’s not a problem”

G. Bodner

“Science is a way to teach…how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are,

how to think about things so that judgements can be made…”

R. Feynman

Critical Thinking in Chemistry Proposal

• Major ‘critical thinking’ task – act as baseline

• Series of tasks to develop critical thinking strategies and techniques

• Final major assessment similar in scope to first task

Scope of Project

• At Colyton, year 11/12, then year 9.

• Starting after Christmas (year 11) and after January modules (year 12).

• After SATS (year 9).

Thinking Skills Activities

• Short activities to develop critical thinking skills.

• Must be useful to the students – centred on current work or appropriate revision.

• Short duration so as not to interfere with teaching of ‘material’.

Thinking Skills

• In Chemistry..– understanding an Argument– constructing an Argument (from data/information)– criticising an Argument (identifying fallacious

arguments)– critical Reading (of scientifically accurate material).– making Judgements– reference trails

Understanding an Argument

• Understanding an argument...or ‘chain of reasoning’.

• Decide upon follow up statements which– Strengthen the argument– Identifies flaws or weaknesses– Weakens the argument– States an underlying assumption

Example• In graphite, only three of the valence (outer shell) electrons of

carbon are involved in forming s bonds using sp2 hybrid orbitals. This gives rise to a sheet structure within which the remaining electron forms a p bond. A single crystal of graphite conducts electricity in the two dimensions which form the sheet but not in the third. Therefore conduction of electricity occurs within a sheet but not from one sheet to another.Which one of the following statements best represents a theoretical explanation for the conclusion drawn in this passage?A Delocalisation of p electrons in graphite takes place in two dimensions rather than in three dimensions.B The distance between sheets in graphite is too large for electrons to ‘jump’.C p bonds must be present for conduction of electricity.D sp2 hybridisation gives rise to sheet structures.

Constructing an Argument

• Using logical sequencing to construct an argument of the form – X, Y, this illustrates or demonstrates Z– X, Y, therefore Z.– X, Y this explains why Z.

• Assertion/reason questions

Example

• Building an Argument. Each should follow the patterns outlined (e.g. X, Y therefore Z)

• 1. A Graphite has a layer structure.

• B Graphite is soft and can be used as a lubricant.

• C The layers of graphite are held together by weak van der Waal’s forces.

Criticising an Argument

• Reading material to identify fallacious arguments or arguments with little acceptable proof.

• Most linked perhaps to HSW in GCSE courses, ideas about bias, reliability etc..

• Best done using ‘current’ material, particularly climate change etc..

Critical Reading

• Interpretation of scientific (or pseudo scientific) information to establish meaning.

• Most wide ranging tasks which could include– Selecting a response from a list– Answering specific questions– Writing explanatory sentences or paragraphs

Making Judgements

• Selecting the best answer or possible answers from available information.

• These will probably stimulate discussion as often there is no ‘right’ answer.

Reference Trails

• Important skill for undergraduate students, and increasingly with access to internet for ‘A’ level students, and even younger students.

• Probably most time consuming tasks (and in some ways most difficult to set up.)

Learning Styles and Critical Thinking

• An examination of the thinking skills demonstrated by students in year 11 and their preferred learning styles is underway.

• This is an area for further development next year.