Critical Thinking and the Brain

Our Students' Brains are Ready now!

According to Dr. Judy Willis (2016), the executive skills which would allow students to engage in the critical thinking needed to promote healthy news/information literacy practices are not full developed until early adulthood. Thus giving students ample practice at critical thinking activities is important! We will not see them progress to the highest levels of critical thinking, but we can ensure they are aware of the steps needed to approach a task involving these skills. 

 

While the majority of teachers recognize that critical thinking is an important skill set, Marin and Halpern (2011) cite research suggesting that regular ed classes (as opposed to honors or AP courses) simply do not engage students in critical thinking activities as often, putting the majority of students at a disadvantage. Additionally, their research points to clear advantages of using explicit critical thinking instruction often in the classroom. 

 

Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction involves bringing awareness to students about their thinking regardless of content. They should regularly 

• be given real-life situations to analyze 
• think about their own thinking including 
  • biases
  • flaws
  • errors
  • sequencing/processes
• understand the needed necessary information to solve a given problem
• recognize the different thinking approaches when faced with different types of problems (math, social, etc.)