July 19 2011Nishtha Pant
Module 5 Research
Critical Thinking Skills
Why Do High School Students need them
[Critical thinking is a] desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
~ Francis Bacon (1605)
“Appropriately focused metacognitive instruction increases practical intelligence, thus enabling students to gain greater insights into their learning strategies”
(Flavell, 1979; Lambert, 2000)
Problem StatementLack of Critical Thinking Skills are impeding the growth of High School Students
What are Thinking Skills
Skills in problem solving Skills in making inquiries Skills in making decisions Skills in making judgments Skills in organizing and managing
Critical Thinking Skills -
Purposeful Should be taught Not just subject matters
Benefits of Thinking Skills
Solve problems Make decisions Adapt Be successful
President Obama’s vision
Promoting world-class academic standards and a curriculum that fosters -
critical thinking, problem solving, and the innovative use of knowledge to prepare students for college and career
Foundation for Critical Thinking
Socratic teaching- give students questions, not answers
Changing one’s habits of thought is a long-range project
(criticalthinking.org)
Research in critical thinking demonstrates
Critical Thinking is not presently being effectively taught at the high school, college and university levels, and yet
it is possible to do so.
Educator Research Researches done in Universities in US, UK and Indonesia point towards the importance of teaching thinking skills to students.
The purpose of this research is to :
examine impact of teaching critical thinking skills on standardized test scores of students in science classroom.
help Educators improve student learning by incorporating thinking skills activities in every day class
Significance of study Action research done by teachers in the
classrooms
Control and experimental classes
Students interested in the study
Students motivated and ready to learn
Results from Benchmark
Group 1 Group 2 Group 356586062646668707274
DecFeb
CLASS
PERCENTILES
Conclusion
Benchmark test results showed marked improvement in scores
TAKS test results slightly better in “Nature of Science” problems than the control group
Bibliography Joseph, N. (2010). Metacognition Needed:
Teaching Middle and High School Students to Develop Strategic Learning Skills. [Article]. Preventing school failure, 54(2), 99-102
Guzzetti, B. (2009).Thinking Like a Forensic Scientist: Learning With Academic and Everyday Texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(3), 192-203
Sampson, V & Gleim, L. (2009). Argument- Driven Inquiry to Promote the Understanding of Important Concepts & Practices in Biology. The American Biology Teacher, 71(8), 465-471
Bibliography Cosgrove, R (2010).Critical Thinking: Lessons from
a Continuing Professional Development Initiative in a London Comprehensive Secondary School. University of Cambridge - Cambridge, UK .Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/research/index.cfm
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