Tools of Critical thinking.
Critical thinking is the analysis of facts to form a judgment. The subject is complex, and several different
definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of
factual evidence.
The Best Critical Thinking Tools Aligned With Bloom's Taxonomy .
Thinking tools use technology to allow students to convey and exchange ideas, actively construct
knowledge, solve problems, and create nonlinguistic representations of what they have learned. During
a course of study, students modify these representations to show their growth in understanding over
time.
Learning encompasses a series of specific tasks, sometimes in order, but most often not. The elements
of authentic learning are in Bloom's Taxonomy and online tech tools can help today’s digital students to
navigate through the elements collaboratively.
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy outlines critical thinking skills through the lens of Digital Natives. The levels of
this taxonomy are:
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating
Creating
Remembering :is recognizing, Listing, Describing, Identifying, Retrieving, Naming, Locating,
Finding, Bullet-Pointing, Highlighting, Bookmarking, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Favouriting,
Local Bookmarking, Searching, Googling.
Understanding : is interpreting, Exemplifying, Summarizing, Inferring, Paraphrasing, Classifying,
Comparing, Explaining, Advanced Searches, Boolean Searches, Blog Journalling, Tweeting, Categorizing
And Tagging, Commenting, Annotating, Subscribing.
Applying : is implementing, Carrying Out, Using, Executing, Running, Loading, Playing, Operating,
Hacking, Uploading, Sharing, Editing, Wiki Editing.
Analysing: is comparing, Organising, Deconstructing, Attributing, Outlining, Structuring, Integrating,
Linking, Reverse-Engineering, Cracking, Mind-Mapping, Validating and Calculating.
Evaluating : is checking, Hypothesizing
Critiquing, Experimenting, Judging, Testing, Detecting,
Monitoring, Blog Commenting, Reviewing, Posting, Moderating, Collaborating, Networking, Reflecting
and Alpha Beta Testing.
Creating : is designing, Constructing, Planning, Producing, Inventing, Devising, Making, Building,
Programming, Filming, Animating, Blogging, Video Blogging, Mixing, Remixing, Wiki-ing, Publishing,
Videocasting, Podcasting, Directing and Producing.
With so many different project ideas out there as well as apps to foster critical thinking skills, it’s easy to
get caught up in taking too much time to find the right tool. The challenge is to go from traditional uses
of the taxonomy to best digital practices that is, as a Global Digital Learner.
Benefits of Critical thinking.
There is much that has been said throughout the centuries in praise of critical thinking. The
methodology named after Greek philosopher Socrates—the Socratic method—is one of the earliest
critical thinking instruction tools known to man. Centuries later, Roman Emperor Marcus “The
Philosopher” Aurelius would warn in his meditations that, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact;
everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
Fast forward past Galileo, W. E. B. Du Bois, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King Jr., and
countless others, and we discover that the practice of extolling the benefits of critical thinking is literally
thousands of years old. So what is it that makes it such an honoured skill set? In what ways does critical
thinking truly benefit us?
Though this list can be expanded considerably, we believe these 10 merits are among the most
significant.
It Encourages Curiosity;
Curiosity exists to help us gain a deeper understanding of not only the world surrounding us but the
things that matter within our experience of that world. This extends to the topics we teach in school,
and also the ones that we find relevant in our daily lives.
Effective critical thinkers remain curious about a wide range of topics and generally have broad interests.
They retain inquisitiveness about the world and about people and have an understanding of and
appreciation for the cultures, beliefs, and views that are a shared quality of our humanity. This is also
part of what makes them lifelong learners.
Because critical thinkers are curious by nature, opportunities to apply critical thinking skills are all
around them every moment. They are always alert for chances to apply their best thinking habits to any
situation. A desire to think critically about even the simplest of issues and tasks indicates a desire for
constructive outcomes.
Effective critical thinkers don't take anything at face value, either. They never stop asking questions and
enjoy exploring all sides of an issue and the deeper facts hiding within all modes of data.
It Enhances Creativity;
In our travels, we've asked educators all over the world about the most important skills kids need to
thrive beyond school. It's pleasing to see that nurturing student creativity is very high on that list. In fact,
it's number 2, directly below problem-solving. There's no question that effective critical thinkers are also
largely creative thinkers. Creativity has unquestionably defined itself as a requisite skill for having in the
collaborative modern workforce.A desire to think critically about even the simplest of issues and tasks
indicates a desire for constructive outcomes.
Critical thinking in business, marketing, and professional alliances relies heavily on one's ability to be
creative. When businesses get creative with products and how they are advertised, they thrive in the
global marketplace. The shift in valuing creativity and its ability to increase revenue by enhancing
product value echoes in every market segment. Here are just a few examples:
Creative people question assumptions about many things. Instead of arguing for limitations, creative
minds ask "how" or"why not?" Creativity is eternal and it has limitless potential, which means we are
unlimited as creative people. If creativity is within all of us, then we are also limitless. This applies to
learners of all ages, and although the intellectual risks any critical thinker takes creatively are also
sensible, such a person never fears to step outside their creative comfort zone.
It Reinforces Problem-Solving Ability;
Those who think critically tend to be instinctual problem-solvers. This ranks as probably the most
important skill we can help our learners build upon. The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow
and will face complex challenges using critical thinking capacity to engineer imaginative solutions.
One of history’s most prolific critical thinkers, Albert Einstein, once said this: “It’s not that I’m so smart;
it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” It’s also worth noting this is the same guy who said that, when
given an hour to solve a problem, he’d likely spend 5 minutes on the solution and the other 55 minutes
defining and researching the problem. This kind of patience and commitment to truly understanding a
problem is a mark of the true critical thinker. It’s the main reason why solid critical thinking ability is
essential to being an effective problem-solver.
Developing solid critical thinking skill prepares our students to face the complex problems that matter to
the world head-on. After all, our students are inheriting such issues as:
global warming
overpopulation
pollution
the need for health care
water shortages
electronic waste management
energy crisis
As these challenges continue to change and grow as the world changes around them, the best minds
needed to solve them will be those prepared to think creatively and divergently to produce innovative
and lasting solutions. Critical thinking capacity does all that and more.
It's a Multi-Faceted Practice;
Critical thinking is known for encompassing a wide array of disciplines, and cultivating a broad range of
cognitive talents. One could indeed say that it’s a cross-curricular activity for the mind, and the mind
must be exercised just like a muscle to stay healthy.
Among many other things, critical thinking promotes the development of things like:
Reasoning skills
Analytical thinking
Evaluative skills
Logical thinking
Organizational and planning skills
Language skills
Observational skills
Open-mindedness
This list could easily be expanded to include other skills, but this gives one an idea of just what is being
developed and enhanced when we choose to think critically in our daily lives.
It Fosters Independence;
Getting our learners to begin thinking independently is one of the many goals of education. When
students think for themselves, they learn to become independent of us as well. Our job as educators, in
this sense, is to empower our students to the point at which we essentially become obsolete. This
process is repeated year after year, student after student, and moment after moment as we cultivate
independent thinking and responsibility for learning in those we teach.
Independent thinking skills are at the forefront of learning how to be not only a great thinker but a great
leader. Such skills teach our learners how to make sense of the world based on personal experience and
observation, and to make critical well-informed decisions in the same way. As such, they gain confidence
and the ability to learn from mistakes as they build successful and productive lives.
Developing solid critical thinking skill prepares our students to face the complex problems that matter to
the world head-on.
When we think critically, we think in a self-directed manner. Our thinking is disciplined and thus
becomes a self-correcting mindset. It also means that such strong proactive thinking abilities become
second nature as we continue to develop them through learning and experience.
It's a Skill for Life, Not Just Learning;
As all teachers know, what they do with passion every day prepares our learners not just for the time in
the classroom, but for success and well-being when the formative years are done. When we here at
Wabisabi Learning introduced the Essential Fluencies and the 10 Shifts of Practice to educators all over
the world, we too had these goals firmly in mind. That’s why we made sure these processes all involved
actively building independent and critical thinking mindsets, and fostered lifelong learning skills students.
Many great educators have said many great things about the importance of lifelong learning skills. John
Dewey, however, probably said it best: "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
Educators want their learners to succeed both in and out of the classroom. The idea is to make sure that
once they leave school they no longer need us. In essence, our learners must become teachers and
leaders. The point is that they never stop being learners. This is what it means to be a lifelong learner
and a critical thinker.