Question

What is thinking critically, and why is it important? What role does critical thinking play in learning? How might you promote critical thinking among your students? React to the Teachers’ Casebook Uncritical Thinking please write 250 words

Answer 1

Critical thinking is the way one presents evidence for their ideas and the ability to analyze one's thoughts. Critical thinking is a type of self-monitored way of thinking which is also self-corrective. It involves the ability to think rationally and be able to reason your thoughts.

Critical thinking us very important for different reasons and it plays a vital role in life. Some of the reasons for this are:

- Critical thinking enhances creativity. This is because critical thinking does not only involves analysing thoughts but also involves generating new thoughts.

- Critical thinking is beneficial for evaluating one's own self. Being able to analyze what you are thinking will eventually help to understand your own thought processes.

- Encouraging critical thinking within students from an early age will eventually help them become better citizens later.

- Thinking critically would help students to take better decisions in life. These decisions may pertain to them or towards the community.

There are many ways in which critical thinking can be promoted among students. Some of the ways are:

- Encouraging group discussion helps to think critically on any topic. When people come up with different views on the same topic, all the members in the group can think about these ideas and may accept some while discard other ideas through reasoning.

- Self-reflection or introspection is a good way to enhance critical thinking. When students are given the opportunity to think about their own ideas and thoughts, they are better able to refine these ideas.

- Brainstorming and problem solving activities can also help to encourage critical thinking in students. When students are put in such situations their analytical skills are tested and thus they are motivated to think about the different solutions to a problem.

- Students should be taught to question their assumptions. Sometimes students may make assumptions in absence of enough evidence for something. Thus if they are frequently made to critically analyse their own assumptions then they can make better decisions.

- Also thinking about situations from different perspectives can help. Sometimes thinking becomes so rigid that students may see processes only in one direction. Making them understand that there is always different perspectives on situations, will help them to view a problem from different angles.

Hope this answer helps!