Critical Thinking

Non-teacher to now

Action Research

Thinking

• Philosophy
• Questions
• Dream Big
• Lifelong Learners

AR Vision: Investigate critical thinking performance achievement outcomes when the objectives are defined by the students to meet teacher/school expectations and instruction is individualized to meet the needs of each student.

Theory of Action

• Direct instruction of Critical Thinking Skills
• Individualized
• Student defined performance outcomes
• Question generation
• Reflective evaluation

Theory of Action

• Direct instruction of Critical Thinking Skills
• Individualized
• Student defined performance outcomes
• Question generation
• Reflective evaluation

Data Analysis

Untitled Slide

• Students able to ask CT questions
• Students defined CT outcomes
• Students felt their CT skills went down (?!); the more we know the less we know
• Teacher rated CT ability increased
• Are they better thinkers?

Thinking Happened

• Knowing literature well enough to disprove its theories (Ishmael)
• Threading CT questions through projects, writing, discourse
• Students teaching peers
• Critiques using CT skills
• "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" Nietzsche

“It was kind of nice to be in this role. Unlike with most things, I have a scale or idea of how well I’ve improved over the year. I’ve improved from the start of the quarter by being more open to working with people in this role than I would have been as a peer. Projects got done, which counts. Proud of AY’s presentation, her presenting, her coherency. This is a sign of improved CT; very glad I worked with her. That was a good experience. The goal was ‘how can I be an available resource without doing the work for people?’

The CT part was the harder part. I’m still struggling with how I can analyze my own thinking and information in that part of CT, and also within philosophy. Hard to wrap head around, hard to help others while I’m still struggling. The wheel helped, but is still just examples. Elements present in student work. Working with certain students on CT questions was easy- they just started asking questions when prompted to. Instead of focusing on the whole CT process, I helped focus in on analysis with each person’s work. Not sure it stretched my personal thinking, but having to have running conversations or threads of so many different topics at once definitely improved executive function.

Limitations

• Size of study
• Thinking leading to critical self-reflection
• Improved identification of CT descriptors

New Questions

• What if Critical Thinking instruction was applied to other content areas?
• How can individualized learning be the platform for CT in education?
• What lens could be used to better highlight the student successes?

How have I improved my teaching practice?

In gratitude to my students...