Teach your students a life-changing ability: critical thinking
Thomas Courtley
Education Specialist
Young people are used to living in a global world where information circulates in the blink of an eye, and is rapidly spread through likes and shares. It is very important for them to develop solid critical thinking skills to not blindly believe everything they see. LessonUp is an online teaching platform that can help you encourage critical thinking.
3 reasons why students profit from thinking critically
1. Academic success
The core of critical thinking is questioning facts and opinions instead of just accepting what we are told. Students who are used to do so become able to explore and word their own thoughts on any topic. In the long run, critical thinking creates independent thinkers who have the tools and the ability to also analyse their own work in order to create something new and valuable.
2. Empathy
Students who learn to think critically get used to looking at a situation from different points of view. They start to understand how other people might come to form certain decisions. By doing so they amplify their insights into different types of people, becoming more open-minded. Open-minded people have more opportunities to learn from others, and to build on their strengths.
3. Creativity
Critical thinking nurtures creativity as it pushes us to ask “how?”, “why not?”, “what if?”, and other constructive questions. It encourages students to find different ways to approach information, by creating more complex brain connections. It brings them to a deeper understanding of reality.
Promote critical thinking in your classroom
Critical thinking can be defined as clear, rational, logical, and independent thinking.
It stimulates us to become mindful of the way we instinctively think about the world around us, and label things. Once we are aware of it, we can modify the way we think by analysing situations or events as rationally and objectively as possible.
"It's important to recognise that critical thinking is not just something that takes place in the classroom or in the workplace, it's something that takes place — and should take place — in our daily lives," says William T. Gormley, a university professor, and author of several books.
As a teacher, you can guide your students to become aware of their thinking process. Together, you can analyse a piece of news, or a picture linked to current events, and try to steer your students away from running to conclusions, or from reporting what they read on social media. Give them the tools to think rationally, logically, and independently. There is nothing more important you could teach them, no matter what you teach!
Interested in interactive ways of promoting critical thinking in your classroom?
