The issue is how teachers can teach critical thinking skills and still learn substantive material. The issue of critical thinking will be reviewed at all levels of education to include secondary and higher education. Specific focus will go to researching the efforts that most teachers place on critical thinking skills and how the No Child Left Behind Act fits into critical thinking skills
The first article that I want to highlight is "The Socratic Method" in the Stanford University Center for Teaching Journal. The article summarizes the idea and concept of the Socratic Method. The idea of Socratic inquiry is to engage the students in critical thinking skills. It is really more guidance than teaching.
Through critical and probing questions, the teacher leads the student to the proper answer or merely into the proper thought process. Instead of a true right answer, the goal of the Socratic Method is to engage the student in the proper thought process. Often, the teacher will play devil's advocate to an idea or answer. This forces the students to back up their answers or critically think about another solution.
There should be no pre-determined goal in the Socratic Method. The teacher is making a mistake if it seems as if they are just "testing" their students to get the teacher's handbook answer. The goal is open-ended inquiry. Students at the secondary level are not often introduced to the Socratic Method so there is a bit of a learning curve and adjustment.
[...] The students must work as a group to come up with their best theory and way forward. Sezer, R (2008).Integration of critical thinking skills into teacher education courses. Education 349-362. This article attempts to define critical thinking in terms of teaching and why it should be important to teachers. It attempts to gather existing research and judgments on teacher education and critical thinking. The article attempts to refute the claim by some in education that critical thinking requires higher order thinking. This higher order thinking may be too high level for some secondary students. [...]
[...] Journal of Information Systems Education 12-19. McIlveen, H. (1997) Involving students in teaching and learning: a necessary evil?. Quality Assurance in Education Mordechai, M (2004).The good professor as perceived by university instructors. Higher Education 211-215. Cook, H (2002).Written communication skills for the 21st century. Techniques Connor, P (2003). The socratic method. The Stanford University Center Teaching Newsletter Retrieved April Vattano, F (2007). Foster Critical Thinking. Institute For Teaching and Learning, Colorado State University, Retrieved April 2008, from http://tilt.colostate.edu/mti/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=53 Hansen, D (1998). [...]
[...] Science and Children In this article, the author attempts to reinforce the idea of teaching with analogies to teachers at all levels. The author wants to emphasize that teachers do this naturally and it is happening with them even realizing it. It is an effective way to get secondary students to relate to their classwork. The author uses a specific science lesson to demonstrate how to use analogies in the class. The specific lesson comes from a student question that asks, “What are we made Before getting to the actual science of the answer, the teacher explains to the students how “lego toys” work together to build certain shapes or things. [...]
[...] The article concluded with evidence that inclusion of critical thinking in even one teacher education course can have a positive impact on student abilities and attention. In addition, the author explains how creative thinking can be used in all classes, even math. Several examples are given such as the well-know dilemma of a boat with little space that must ferry animals across the water. MOD 5 SLP Felder R. (2007) The Case for Inductive Teaching. ASEE Prism This article challenges the idea that students cannot solve problems in a specific discipline without first mastering the underlying principles of that discipline. [...]
[...] examples and results of its use in corrective education. The article is very informative and even includes several fascinating Socratic dialogues. One example has the teacher asking inmates what they think justice is? When one answers, standing up for what you believe in, the teacher replies, what if you believe in weird stuff. The article states that this is one of very few articles that cover Socratic Method in corrective education. If nothing else, the author states that Socratic dialogue can be a welcome change from typical instruction. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
