Critical thinking – Why students need it, and how you can teach it
The tendency among students to question what they see and hear – even your own classroom instruction – is one we should cultivate as much as possible, says Professor Guy Claxton…
Young people’s worlds are awash with claims of dubious knowledge. From fake news to lying politicians, seductive invitations, adverts for cosmetics, the list goes on.
If they’re to successfully navigate their way through it all, they’ll need both the skill and inclination to question what they read and hear.
Test-focused teaching can have the effect of encouraging students to accept a ‘voice of authority’ without demur, or to only question the world around them in the kind of narrow, prescribed ways that are likely to earn them good marks.
Some teachers even labour under the misapprehension that there are no such things as ‘generic skills’ – which would include critical thinking – and that training students in these is therefore a non-starter.
But we now know differently. Even cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham eventually changed his mind about that.
Critical thinking in science is going to involve some different strategies from critical thinking as applied to religious education, of course – but there is also considerable overlap between the two, as well as with numerous other subjects.
The best way of teaching critical thinking is to give students material they can think critically about, time to do that, and opportunities to share and interrogate each other’s strategies.
Here, then, are some things you can try out in the classroom to help build healthily sceptical dispositions among your cohort…
1 | Start with yourself
Encourage students to question your knowledge claims (politely and intelligently, of course). Respond with appreciation when someone says, ‘But how do we know that’s true, Miss?’ Say, “Good question. How could we check?”
2 | Critique the media
Discuss common flaws in reasoning – such as claiming a causality from a correlation – and give students articles to critique, both solo and collaboratively, that illustrate these flaws.
3 | Scrutinise the class itself
Give students guided practice in reading and critiquing each other’s draft essays or reports. Discuss criteria and rubrics with them, and sharpen their ability to give incisive, practical and respectful feedback – and to accept it as helpful, rather than hurtful.
4 | Take it online
Provide focused advice on how students can check information online. For example, don’t just check the features of a website – search for other websites that might critique the one you’re interested in.
Guy Claxton is visiting professor of education at King’s College London; his new book, The Future of Teaching: And the Myths That Hold It Back is available now, published by Routledge – save 20% when ordering from routledge.com with the discount code fot20.
For more information, visit guyclaxton.net or follow @GuyClaxton.
This piece originally appeared in ‘Learning Lab’ section of Teach Secondary magazine
