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Fostering Critical Thinking in the Classroom


With so many media outlets, and each with its own “spin” on the content presented, it has become imperative that we cultivate critical thinking skills in our students.  
The fifth, but not least significant, “look for” listed on the @gcouros list for eight things to look for in an innovative classroom has become an essential skill in a world full of fake and real news.  Determining the truth is an actual skill, and it requires a level of efficiency when answering  “who’s telling you the truth” so that you can continue to work and solve problems.


So what does this mean to us in the classroom?   At the high school level, stepping up the teacher’s and the student’s questioning skills is probably the most powerful way to foster thinking skills in your classroom.  Questioning is the foundation for thinking, and there’s nothing like a thought-provoking Essential Question or Socratic Circle exercise to get the student's mental workflow going.  When using questioning and discussion techniques, make sure that your students have the necessary background knowledge to have a more in-depth conversation.  If not, you will need to provide this to them. 

Tied to “good questioning” is the ability to search for the correct answer, and crucial to this is the teacher’s capacity to build up a student’s “Information Fluency.” Knowing when to pursue or discard information can be critical in writing a paper or preparing an argument for debate or just moving forward with a project.  It also promotes student efficacy and lifelong learning.  Great project-based learning activities that foster information fluency typically include students building something with the information they have learned on a topic.  In this way, the student is no longer just a consumer of information, but more so a creator of knowledge. 
There are many teaching strategies to promote critical thinking.  Click on the link to see a few more, and good luck with your attempts to infuse its development into your classroom.      

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