Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to kids and young adults
June 12, 2007 4:01 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for educational programs/curricula/methodologies that focus on teaching critical thinking skills in elementary school and high school, know any? Also are there any educational charities that focus specifically on improving critical and scientific thinking in children and young adults?
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years and Diploma programmes are the first ones that spring to my mind.
posted by atropos at 4:33 PM on June 12, 2007
posted by atropos at 4:33 PM on June 12, 2007
If you don't know about Rethinking Schools already, check them out. Very effective and important group.
posted by Miko at 9:02 PM on June 12, 2007
posted by Miko at 9:02 PM on June 12, 2007
I'm familiar with "information literacy" as used by a lot of educators to talk about the critical thinking skills needed for problem solving via information location and evaluation. (Without the jargony-standards-speak: what you need to effectively find, evaluate, and use information.)
I work in higher ed, so I'm not terribly familiar with information literacy in K-12, but the American Association of School Librarians has developed standards for K-12. AASL also has a supporting toolkit. A lot of that stuff is librarian-focused, but supposed to be used in partnership with classroom teachers. (I'm a librarian, so these implementations are the ones I've heard the most about.)
A lot of other educational organizations do work with the concept of "information literacy", too. Big6 is one, also focused on K-12, but aimed more at teachers. You could also look for "information and communication technology" or "information fluency". A Google search for "science information literacy" finds the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy 21st Century Information Fluency Project. Clunky name, but perhaps on topic for you, re: fostering critical thinking skills in science.
posted by lillygog at 7:24 AM on June 13, 2007
I work in higher ed, so I'm not terribly familiar with information literacy in K-12, but the American Association of School Librarians has developed standards for K-12. AASL also has a supporting toolkit. A lot of that stuff is librarian-focused, but supposed to be used in partnership with classroom teachers. (I'm a librarian, so these implementations are the ones I've heard the most about.)
A lot of other educational organizations do work with the concept of "information literacy", too. Big6 is one, also focused on K-12, but aimed more at teachers. You could also look for "information and communication technology" or "information fluency". A Google search for "science information literacy" finds the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy 21st Century Information Fluency Project. Clunky name, but perhaps on topic for you, re: fostering critical thinking skills in science.
posted by lillygog at 7:24 AM on June 13, 2007
I taught a critical thinking course at Georgia Tech and relied quite a bit on the book The Craft of Research. (There's a related book called The Craft of Argument by the same authors.). Our course was extremely specific, so the curriculum wouldn't necessarily help you, but the book(s) are great examples of the sorts of questions and thought processes needed, for research, writing, or any communication, really.
posted by mdiskin at 5:02 PM on June 14, 2007
posted by mdiskin at 5:02 PM on June 14, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by unknowncommand at 4:10 PM on June 12, 2007