How Parents and Teachers Can Help Teach Critical Thinking Skills
Today’s students have difficulty solving real world problems. During the 90’s the focus was on hardwiring our children up until age three or younger to become geniuses. Parents began force feeding infants and toddlers special DVDs and flashcards in the hopes of their child becoming the next einstein. But in pursuing the development of rote memory, we have forgotten the ability to implement in our kids the ability to critically think, reason and problem solve. This is becoming more obvious with our students that have graduated from that period.
We need to be able to teach our children to be able to make the best informed decisions and analyze real world problems in the best way possible. Children need to be trained in how to think expediently. This can only be achieved through giving the next generation the skills to be able to assess situations independently and critically!
Teaching critical thinking skills raises IQs and may boost inventiveness. What exactly is covered under critical thinking skills one may say? It covers hypothesis, testing, basic logic and the evaluation of complex arguments, decision making and other topics.
In their book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roska, the two studied 2400 college students at twenty four different universities over a four year period. They reported that critical thinking and other skills such as writing were no longer progressing as was once accepted to be with prior generations. Why is this concerning you might say? Arum points out that these findings are due to the fact that students are just spending less time studying for their academic subjects. This led to students not improving their critical thinking skills even after four years of college. This is concerning especially since these skills are needed in the global economic system that we are living in now.
There are a few tips that we as parents and educators can do to help our kids develop thinking skills. Start with kids early enough. Preschoolers have the capacity to really think for themselves and be opinionated. Our children may not be ready for lessons in formal logic however, we can get them to give reasons for their conclusions. We can also get them to evaluate certain situations. Don’t force belief systems or other dogma, if we want them to do something in a particular manner, make sure you explain why.
Encourage kids to ask questions. Kids need their curiosities developed. They can ask questions if they find a concept difficult to understand.
Consider asking kids to give alternative explanations and solutions for problems they come up with. Give them flexibility in their understanding. Allow them multiple solutions.
Get kids to clarify what they mean. Get them into the habit of rewording what they mean to allow for maximum communication. They should practice putting things in their own words. Also, allow them to talk abut their biases and how it influences judgements or motives developed on a daily basis. These are just a few suggestions that can help these inquisitive minds learn these skills.
If you have any other suggestions, please share them with us by posting it under comments.
