critical thinking assessment for high school students

A Model for the National Assessment of Higher Order Thinking
International Critical Thinking Essay Test
Online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts Test
Online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts Sample Test

Consequential Validity: Using Assessment to Drive Instruction

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critical thinking assessment for high school students

Critical Thinking Testing and Assessment

The purpose of assessment in instruction is improvement. The purpose of assessing instruction for critical thinking is improving the teaching of discipline-based thinking (historical, biological, sociological, mathematical, etc.) It is to improve students’ abilities to think their way through content using disciplined skill in reasoning. The more particular we can be about what we want students to learn about critical thinking, the better we can devise instruction with that particular end in view.

The Foundation for Critical Thinking offers assessment instruments which share in the same general goal: to enable educators to gather evidence relevant to determining the extent to which instruction is teaching students to think critically (in the process of learning content). To this end, the Fellows of the Foundation recommend:

that academic institutions and units establish an oversight committee for critical thinking, and

that this oversight committee utilizes a combination of assessment instruments (the more the better) to generate incentives for faculty, by providing them with as much evidence as feasible of the actual state of instruction for critical thinking.

The following instruments are available to generate evidence relevant to critical thinking teaching and learning:

Course Evaluation Form : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students perceive faculty as fostering critical thinking in instruction (course by course). Machine-scoreable.

Online Critical Thinking Basic Concepts Test : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students understand the fundamental concepts embedded in critical thinking (and hence tests student readiness to think critically). Machine-scoreable.

Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students can read closely and write substantively (and hence tests students' abilities to read and write critically). Short-answer.

International Critical Thinking Essay Test : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students are able to analyze and assess excerpts from textbooks or professional writing. Short-answer.

Commission Study Protocol for Interviewing Faculty Regarding Critical Thinking : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, critical thinking is being taught at a college or university. Can be adapted for high school. Based on the California Commission Study . Short-answer.

Protocol for Interviewing Faculty Regarding Critical Thinking : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, critical thinking is being taught at a college or university. Can be adapted for high school. Short-answer.

Protocol for Interviewing Students Regarding Critical Thinking : Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students are learning to think critically at a college or university. Can be adapted for high school). Short-answer.

Criteria for Critical Thinking Assignments : Can be used by faculty in designing classroom assignments, or by administrators in assessing the extent to which faculty are fostering critical thinking.

Rubrics for Assessing Student Reasoning Abilities : A useful tool in assessing the extent to which students are reasoning well through course content.

All of the above assessment instruments can be used as part of pre- and post-assessment strategies to gauge development over various time periods.

Consequential Validity

All of the above assessment instruments, when used appropriately and graded accurately, should lead to a high degree of consequential validity. In other words, the use of the instruments should cause teachers to teach in such a way as to foster critical thinking in their various subjects. In this light, for students to perform well on the various instruments, teachers will need to design instruction so that students can perform well on them. Students cannot become skilled in critical thinking without learning (first) the concepts and principles that underlie critical thinking and (second) applying them in a variety of forms of thinking: historical thinking, sociological thinking, biological thinking, etc. Students cannot become skilled in analyzing and assessing reasoning without practicing it. However, when they have routine practice in paraphrasing, summarizing, analyzing, and assessing, they will develop skills of mind requisite to the art of thinking well within any subject or discipline, not to mention thinking well within the various domains of human life.

For full copies of this and many other critical thinking articles, books, videos, and more, join us at the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online - the world's leading online community dedicated to critical thinking! Also featuring interactive learning activities, study groups, and even a social media component, this learning platform will change your conception of intellectual development.

40 Critical Thinking Questions for High School Students

How is electricity being produced from rainwater or do aliens exist if there are so many discoveries about them? High school students are certain to come across queries that question reality, everyday rules, general human existence, or anything out of nowhere!

Young minds are filled with an amazing potential to explore beyond their capabilities and hidden qualities. While high school students might question the existing realities of life, some students might not be aware of their imagination and thinking capacities. That is why it is important to nurture these growing minds with opportunities to question, understand, analyze, find evidence, and arrive at solutions.

In this case, critical thinking questions act as a helpful way to offer an opportunity to broaden their minds to unlimited knowledge and endless possibilities. When students are given a chance to think beyond the ordinary, they experience a sense of freedom in thinking and expressing their views.

Through critical thinking questions, they receive a wonderful chance to analyze, decode the information, and present their views without being right or wrong. Hence, the below-mentioned questions are drafted in a way to initiate abstract and informative conversations thereby boosting critical thinking.

Brain teasing critical thinking questions for high schoolers

Critical thinking skills are essential for measuring the imagination and creativity of students. High school students are likely to use the new age information and influence of others when processing their thoughts. Hence, the below-mentioned questions are a great way to channel their thoughts in a more positively empowered learning environment.

Do you think it is okay to give up your life if you had to save someone?
If you could go to your past, what would you change?
What is the joy of giving for you?
What is better – giving or receiving? Why?
If you can change some rules of the school, which ones would you change and why?
What if you know your future? What does it look like from your perspective?
What if you are dragged into a situation where you disagree with others?
What would you do if you are given a task against your willingness to complete it?
Would you like to do – go to your past or get to know your future? Why?
What would you choose, 1 million dollars or a lifetime free education? Why?
What is more important to you, knowledge or money?
How can you leverage the benefits of social media and how?
Do you think animals should be free or kept in a zoo?
What does life look like on the Earth 100 years from now?
Imagine a world without mobile phones. What would you do?
If you could choose any profession in the world, what would you choose? Why?
Would you rather devote your life to helping others through social activities or invest in building a business?
What is the most important matter of concern that the world needs to address?
Do you think the voting of high school students matters in Government concerns? Why?
Which aspect plays a major role in the success of individuals?
If you could change any one habit of your parents, what would it be?
If you could travel to any place in the world, where would you go? Why?
Imagine the world is facing a major power cut issue. What would you do and how would you face the situation?
What is more important, offering a home to the needy or offering food to the needy on an everyday basis?
How does the number 0 change life?
Should teenagers be allowed to make major life decisions?
Are friendships real in today’s world?
Does an influential person always influence others with actions and words?
If animals could talk to you, who would you choose to talk to?
What is the difference between happiness and achievements?
Do you think success is the same as happiness?
Imagine you have only 24 hours left on Earth. How would you spend it?
What if you are given the option to reside on another planet? What would you do and how?
Would you forgive your best friend if he/she commits a crime and is found guilty?
If your mother and best friend are sinking in two different boats and you have the opportunity to save anyone, who would you choose? Why?
Imagine you are stranded on an island and have access to 5 things. Which 5 things would you choose?
Which 3 elements make a stronger nation? Why?
What are the disadvantages of growing up? How would you tackle them?
Would you be blind or deaf? Why?
What if you could donate 50% of your wealth and have free food for life? What would you do?

Critical thinking in students: Why is it crucial?

High schoolers are on their way to exploring various subjects and acquiring knowledge from around the world. In such a phase, students must have the ability to think through things and make the right decision. Critical thinking empowers the brain to analyze and understand situations with complete evidence before concluding. Here’s how critical thinking shapes the life of high schoolers.

1. Develops Problem-Solving Skills

Students are sure to come across everyday problems and issues in their academic journey or personal life. While some students may develop stress, others might ignore it. However, the essence of critical thinking helps students solve these issues with intelligence. Whether it is figuring out about the project or solving an issue between friends, thinking and analyzing the possible solutions makes it easy to tackle situations.

2. Enhances Creativity

The advertisements you see every day often talk about the problem and how a product solves it. That’s exactly why you need to develop critical thinking skills. When you can identify the core issue and arrive at solutions only then can you think out of the box. Critical thinking helps students be creative with their solutions and find a way out amidst challenges.

3. Boosts Decision-Making Skills

With every project, assignment, or topic of your thesis , you need to take many decisions in the learning process. Here, critical thinking skills play a crucial role in helping you analyze, decode and disseminate information before making any decision.

4. Builds Open-mindedness

As growing individuals, it is important to be open-minded towards various problems and their suggestions. People who think critically are more likely to understand situations from different points of view. Hence, developing critical thinking skills helps you accept different perspectives and respect the opinions of others. The skill helps a long way when you need to work in a group on your projects. It is because you become capable of thinking from various perspectives.

5. Goal Setting

Success comes with proper planning and execution of tasks. However, you cannot study history if you are weak at math. Similarly, you cannot aim for a 60% growth in your academics if you have been growing at a pace of 30% in each examination. Critical thinking enables you to think practically and map your way out to reach your goals. When you think critically and practically, you can analyze your strengths and weaknesses thereby setting goals accurately.

Critical thinking indeed plays an essential role in shaping the mindset of students and exposing them to different skills simply by developing this one. As you take advantage of the critical thinking questions, know that it is important to keep questioning students to initiate conversations.

Whether it is reflective questions or would you rather-questions , these questions enable them to think beyond their imagination and dive into a world of possibilities. Apart from this, you may also involve students in interactive discussions that boost critical thinking skills.

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

Helping Students Hone Their Critical Thinking Skills

Used consistently, these strategies can help middle and high school teachers guide students to improve much-needed skills.

Middle school students involved in a classroom discussion

Critical thinking skills are important in every discipline, at and beyond school. From managing money to choosing which candidates to vote for in elections to making difficult career choices, students need to be prepared to take in, synthesize, and act on new information in a world that is constantly changing.

While critical thinking might seem like an abstract idea that is tough to directly instruct, there are many engaging ways to help students strengthen these skills through active learning.

Make Time for Metacognitive Reflection

Create space for students to both reflect on their ideas and discuss the power of doing so. Show students how they can push back on their own thinking to analyze and question their assumptions. Students might ask themselves, “Why is this the best answer? What information supports my answer? What might someone with a counterargument say?”

Through this reflection, students and teachers (who can model reflecting on their own thinking) gain deeper understandings of their ideas and do a better job articulating their beliefs. In a world that is go-go-go, it is important to help students understand that it is OK to take a breath and think about their ideas before putting them out into the world. And taking time for reflection helps us more thoughtfully consider others’ ideas, too.

Teach Reasoning Skills

Reasoning skills are another key component of critical thinking, involving the abilities to think logically, evaluate evidence, identify assumptions, and analyze arguments. Students who learn how to use reasoning skills will be better equipped to make informed decisions, form and defend opinions, and solve problems.

One way to teach reasoning is to use problem-solving activities that require students to apply their skills to practical contexts. For example, give students a real problem to solve, and ask them to use reasoning skills to develop a solution. They can then present their solution and defend their reasoning to the class and engage in discussion about whether and how their thinking changed when listening to peers’ perspectives.

A great example I have seen involved students identifying an underutilized part of their school and creating a presentation about one way to redesign it. This project allowed students to feel a sense of connection to the problem and come up with creative solutions that could help others at school. For more examples, you might visit PBS’s Design Squad , a resource that brings to life real-world problem-solving.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Moving beyond the repetition of facts, critical thinking requires students to take positions and explain their beliefs through research, evidence, and explanations of credibility.

When we pose open-ended questions, we create space for classroom discourse inclusive of diverse, perhaps opposing, ideas—grounds for rich exchanges that support deep thinking and analysis.

For example, “How would you approach the problem?” and “Where might you look to find resources to address this issue?” are two open-ended questions that position students to think less about the “right” answer and more about the variety of solutions that might already exist.

Journaling, whether digitally or physically in a notebook, is another great way to have students answer these open-ended prompts—giving them time to think and organize their thoughts before contributing to a conversation, which can ensure that more voices are heard.

Once students process in their journal, small group or whole class conversations help bring their ideas to life. Discovering similarities between answers helps reveal to students that they are not alone, which can encourage future participation in constructive civil discourse.

Teach Information Literacy

Education has moved far past the idea of “Be careful of what is on Wikipedia, because it might not be true.” With AI innovations making their way into classrooms, teachers know that informed readers must question everything.

Understanding what is and is not a reliable source and knowing how to vet information are important skills for students to build and utilize when making informed decisions. You might start by introducing the idea of bias: Articles, ads, memes, videos, and every other form of media can push an agenda that students may not see on the surface. Discuss credibility, subjectivity, and objectivity, and look at examples and nonexamples of trusted information to prepare students to be well-informed members of a democracy.

One of my favorite lessons is about the Pacific Northwest tree octopus . This project asks students to explore what appears to be a very real website that provides information on this supposedly endangered animal. It is a wonderful, albeit over-the-top, example of how something might look official even when untrue, revealing that we need critical thinking to break down “facts” and determine the validity of the information we consume.

A fun extension is to have students come up with their own website or newsletter about something going on in school that is untrue. Perhaps a change in dress code that requires everyone to wear their clothes inside out or a change to the lunch menu that will require students to eat brussels sprouts every day.

Giving students the ability to create their own falsified information can help them better identify it in other contexts. Understanding that information can be “too good to be true” can help them identify future falsehoods.

Provide Diverse Perspectives

Consider how to keep the classroom from becoming an echo chamber. If students come from the same community, they may have similar perspectives. And those who have differing perspectives may not feel comfortable sharing them in the face of an opposing majority.

To support varying viewpoints, bring diverse voices into the classroom as much as possible, especially when discussing current events. Use primary sources: videos from YouTube, essays and articles written by people who experienced current events firsthand, documentaries that dive deeply into topics that require some nuance, and any other resources that provide a varied look at topics.

I like to use the Smithsonian “OurStory” page , which shares a wide variety of stories from people in the United States. The page on Japanese American internment camps is very powerful because of its first-person perspectives.

Practice Makes Perfect

To make the above strategies and thinking routines a consistent part of your classroom, spread them out—and build upon them—over the course of the school year. You might challenge students with information and/or examples that require them to use their critical thinking skills; work these skills explicitly into lessons, projects, rubrics, and self-assessments; or have students practice identifying misinformation or unsupported arguments.

Critical thinking is not learned in isolation. It needs to be explored in English language arts, social studies, science, physical education, math. Every discipline requires students to take a careful look at something and find the best solution. Often, these skills are taken for granted, viewed as a by-product of a good education, but true critical thinking doesn’t just happen. It requires consistency and commitment.

In a moment when information and misinformation abound, and students must parse reams of information, it is imperative that we support and model critical thinking in the classroom to support the development of well-informed citizens.

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking

(This is the first post in a three-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?

This three-part series will explore what critical thinking is, if it can be specifically taught and, if so, how can teachers do so in their classrooms.

Today’s guests are Dara Laws Savage, Patrick Brown, Meg Riordan, Ph.D., and Dr. PJ Caposey. Dara, Patrick, and Meg were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also be interested in The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom .

Current Events

Dara Laws Savage is an English teacher at the Early College High School at Delaware State University, where she serves as a teacher and instructional coach and lead mentor. Dara has been teaching for 25 years (career preparation, English, photography, yearbook, newspaper, and graphic design) and has presented nationally on project-based learning and technology integration:

There is so much going on right now and there is an overload of information for us to process. Did you ever stop to think how our students are processing current events? They see news feeds, hear news reports, and scan photos and posts, but are they truly thinking about what they are hearing and seeing?

I tell my students that my job is not to give them answers but to teach them how to think about what they read and hear. So what is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom? There are just as many definitions of critical thinking as there are people trying to define it. However, the Critical Think Consortium focuses on the tools to create a thinking-based classroom rather than a definition: “Shape the climate to support thinking, create opportunities for thinking, build capacity to think, provide guidance to inform thinking.” Using these four criteria and pairing them with current events, teachers easily create learning spaces that thrive on thinking and keep students engaged.

One successful technique I use is the FIRE Write. Students are given a quote, a paragraph, an excerpt, or a photo from the headlines. Students are asked to F ocus and respond to the selection for three minutes. Next, students are asked to I dentify a phrase or section of the photo and write for two minutes. Third, students are asked to R eframe their response around a specific word, phrase, or section within their previous selection. Finally, students E xchange their thoughts with a classmate. Within the exchange, students also talk about how the selection connects to what we are covering in class.

There was a controversial Pepsi ad in 2017 involving Kylie Jenner and a protest with a police presence. The imagery in the photo was strikingly similar to a photo that went viral with a young lady standing opposite a police line. Using that image from a current event engaged my students and gave them the opportunity to critically think about events of the time.

Here are the two photos and a student response:

F - Focus on both photos and respond for three minutes

In the first picture, you see a strong and courageous black female, bravely standing in front of two officers in protest. She is risking her life to do so. Iesha Evans is simply proving to the world she does NOT mean less because she is black … and yet officers are there to stop her. She did not step down. In the picture below, you see Kendall Jenner handing a police officer a Pepsi. Maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal, except this was Pepsi’s weak, pathetic, and outrageous excuse of a commercial that belittles the whole movement of people fighting for their lives.

I - Identify a word or phrase, underline it, then write about it for two minutes

A white, privileged female in place of a fighting black woman was asking for trouble. A struggle we are continuously fighting every day, and they make a mockery of it. “I know what will work! Here Mr. Police Officer! Drink some Pepsi!” As if. Pepsi made a fool of themselves, and now their already dwindling fan base continues to ever shrink smaller.

R - Reframe your thoughts by choosing a different word, then write about that for one minute

You don’t know privilege until it’s gone. You don’t know privilege while it’s there—but you can and will be made accountable and aware. Don’t use it for evil. You are not stupid. Use it to do something. Kendall could’ve NOT done the commercial. Kendall could’ve released another commercial standing behind a black woman. Anything!

Exchange - Remember to discuss how this connects to our school song project and our previous discussions?

This connects two ways - 1) We want to convey a strong message. Be powerful. Show who we are. And Pepsi definitely tried. … Which leads to the second connection. 2) Not mess up and offend anyone, as had the one alma mater had been linked to black minstrels. We want to be amazing, but we have to be smart and careful and make sure we include everyone who goes to our school and everyone who may go to our school.

As a final step, students read and annotate the full article and compare it to their initial response.

Using current events and critical-thinking strategies like FIRE writing helps create a learning space where thinking is the goal rather than a score on a multiple-choice assessment. Critical-thinking skills can cross over to any of students’ other courses and into life outside the classroom. After all, we as teachers want to help the whole student be successful, and critical thinking is an important part of navigating life after they leave our classrooms.

‘Before-Explore-Explain’

Patrick Brown is the executive director of STEM and CTE for the Fort Zumwalt school district in Missouri and an experienced educator and author :

Planning for critical thinking focuses on teaching the most crucial science concepts, practices, and logical-thinking skills as well as the best use of instructional time. One way to ensure that lessons maintain a focus on critical thinking is to focus on the instructional sequence used to teach.

Explore-before-explain teaching is all about promoting critical thinking for learners to better prepare students for the reality of their world. What having an explore-before-explain mindset means is that in our planning, we prioritize giving students firsthand experiences with data, allow students to construct evidence-based claims that focus on conceptual understanding, and challenge students to discuss and think about the why behind phenomena.

Just think of the critical thinking that has to occur for students to construct a scientific claim. 1) They need the opportunity to collect data, analyze it, and determine how to make sense of what the data may mean. 2) With data in hand, students can begin thinking about the validity and reliability of their experience and information collected. 3) They can consider what differences, if any, they might have if they completed the investigation again. 4) They can scrutinize outlying data points for they may be an artifact of a true difference that merits further exploration of a misstep in the procedure, measuring device, or measurement. All of these intellectual activities help them form more robust understanding and are evidence of their critical thinking.

In explore-before-explain teaching, all of these hard critical-thinking tasks come before teacher explanations of content. Whether we use discovery experiences, problem-based learning, and or inquiry-based activities, strategies that are geared toward helping students construct understanding promote critical thinking because students learn content by doing the practices valued in the field to generate knowledge.

An Issue of Equity

Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is the chief learning officer at The Possible Project, an out-of-school program that collaborates with youth to build entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and provides pathways to careers and long-term economic prosperity. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years as a middle and high school teacher, school coach, college professor, regional director of N.Y.C. Outward Bound Schools, and director of external research with EL Education:

Although critical thinking often defies straightforward definition, most in the education field agree it consists of several components: reasoning, problem-solving, and decisionmaking, plus analysis and evaluation of information, such that multiple sides of an issue can be explored. It also includes dispositions and “the willingness to apply critical-thinking principles, rather than fall back on existing unexamined beliefs, or simply believe what you’re told by authority figures.”

Despite variation in definitions, critical thinking is nonetheless promoted as an essential outcome of students’ learning—we want to see students and adults demonstrate it across all fields, professions, and in their personal lives. Yet there is simultaneously a rationing of opportunities in schools for students of color, students from under-resourced communities, and other historically marginalized groups to deeply learn and practice critical thinking.

For example, many of our most underserved students often spend class time filling out worksheets, promoting high compliance but low engagement, inquiry, critical thinking, or creation of new ideas. At a time in our world when college and careers are critical for participation in society and the global, knowledge-based economy, far too many students struggle within classrooms and schools that reinforce low-expectations and inequity.

If educators aim to prepare all students for an ever-evolving marketplace and develop skills that will be valued no matter what tomorrow’s jobs are, then we must move critical thinking to the forefront of classroom experiences. And educators must design learning to cultivate it.

So, what does that really look like?

Unpack and define critical thinking

To understand critical thinking, educators need to first unpack and define its components. What exactly are we looking for when we speak about reasoning or exploring multiple perspectives on an issue? How does problem-solving show up in English, math, science, art, or other disciplines—and how is it assessed? At Two Rivers, an EL Education school, the faculty identified five constructs of critical thinking, defined each, and created rubrics to generate a shared picture of quality for teachers and students. The rubrics were then adapted across grade levels to indicate students’ learning progressions.

At Avenues World School, critical thinking is one of the Avenues World Elements and is an enduring outcome embedded in students’ early experiences through 12th grade. For instance, a kindergarten student may be expected to “identify cause and effect in familiar contexts,” while an 8th grader should demonstrate the ability to “seek out sufficient evidence before accepting a claim as true,” “identify bias in claims and evidence,” and “reconsider strongly held points of view in light of new evidence.”

When faculty and students embrace a common vision of what critical thinking looks and sounds like and how it is assessed, educators can then explicitly design learning experiences that call for students to employ critical-thinking skills. This kind of work must occur across all schools and programs, especially those serving large numbers of students of color. As Linda Darling-Hammond asserts , “Schools that serve large numbers of students of color are least likely to offer the kind of curriculum needed to ... help students attain the [critical-thinking] skills needed in a knowledge work economy. ”

So, what can it look like to create those kinds of learning experiences?

Designing experiences for critical thinking

After defining a shared understanding of “what” critical thinking is and “how” it shows up across multiple disciplines and grade levels, it is essential to create learning experiences that impel students to cultivate, practice, and apply these skills. There are several levers that offer pathways for teachers to promote critical thinking in lessons:

1.Choose Compelling Topics: Keep it relevant

A key Common Core State Standard asks for students to “write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.” That might not sound exciting or culturally relevant. But a learning experience designed for a 12th grade humanities class engaged learners in a compelling topic— policing in America —to analyze and evaluate multiple texts (including primary sources) and share the reasoning for their perspectives through discussion and writing. Students grappled with ideas and their beliefs and employed deep critical-thinking skills to develop arguments for their claims. Embedding critical-thinking skills in curriculum that students care about and connect with can ignite powerful learning experiences.

2. Make Local Connections: Keep it real

At The Possible Project , an out-of-school-time program designed to promote entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, students in a recent summer online program (modified from in-person due to COVID-19) explored the impact of COVID-19 on their communities and local BIPOC-owned businesses. They learned interviewing skills through a partnership with Everyday Boston , conducted virtual interviews with entrepreneurs, evaluated information from their interviews and local data, and examined their previously held beliefs. They created blog posts and videos to reflect on their learning and consider how their mindsets had changed as a result of the experience. In this way, we can design powerful community-based learning and invite students into productive struggle with multiple perspectives.

3. Create Authentic Projects: Keep it rigorous

At Big Picture Learning schools, students engage in internship-based learning experiences as a central part of their schooling. Their school-based adviser and internship-based mentor support them in developing real-world projects that promote deeper learning and critical-thinking skills. Such authentic experiences teach “young people to be thinkers, to be curious, to get from curiosity to creation … and it helps students design a learning experience that answers their questions, [providing an] opportunity to communicate it to a larger audience—a major indicator of postsecondary success.” Even in a remote environment, we can design projects that ask more of students than rote memorization and that spark critical thinking.

Our call to action is this: As educators, we need to make opportunities for critical thinking available not only to the affluent or those fortunate enough to be placed in advanced courses. The tools are available, let’s use them. Let’s interrogate our current curriculum and design learning experiences that engage all students in real, relevant, and rigorous experiences that require critical thinking and prepare them for promising postsecondary pathways.

Critical Thinking & Student Engagement

Dr. PJ Caposey is an award-winning educator, keynote speaker, consultant, and author of seven books who currently serves as the superintendent of schools for the award-winning Meridian CUSD 223 in northwest Illinois. You can find PJ on most social-media platforms as MCUSDSupe:

When I start my keynote on student engagement, I invite two people up on stage and give them each five paper balls to shoot at a garbage can also conveniently placed on stage. Contestant One shoots their shot, and the audience gives approval. Four out of 5 is a heckuva score. Then just before Contestant Two shoots, I blindfold them and start moving the garbage can back and forth. I usually try to ensure that they can at least make one of their shots. Nobody is successful in this unfair environment.

I thank them and send them back to their seats and then explain that this little activity was akin to student engagement. While we all know we want student engagement, we are shooting at different targets. More importantly, for teachers, it is near impossible for them to hit a target that is moving and that they cannot see.

Within the world of education and particularly as educational leaders, we have failed to simplify what student engagement looks like, and it is impossible to define or articulate what student engagement looks like if we cannot clearly articulate what critical thinking is and looks like in a classroom. Because, simply, without critical thought, there is no engagement.

The good news here is that critical thought has been defined and placed into taxonomies for decades already. This is not something new and not something that needs to be redefined. I am a Bloom’s person, but there is nothing wrong with DOK or some of the other taxonomies, either. To be precise, I am a huge fan of Daggett’s Rigor and Relevance Framework. I have used that as a core element of my practice for years, and it has shaped who I am as an instructional leader.

So, in order to explain critical thought, a teacher or a leader must familiarize themselves with these tried and true taxonomies. Easy, right? Yes, sort of. The issue is not understanding what critical thought is; it is the ability to integrate it into the classrooms. In order to do so, there are a four key steps every educator must take.

Integrating critical thought/rigor into a lesson does not happen by chance, it happens by design. Planning for critical thought and engagement is much different from planning for a traditional lesson. In order to plan for kids to think critically, you have to provide a base of knowledge and excellent prompts to allow them to explore their own thinking in order to analyze, evaluate, or synthesize information.
SIDE NOTE – Bloom’s verbs are a great way to start when writing objectives, but true planning will take you deeper than this.

QUESTIONING

If the questions and prompts given in a classroom have correct answers or if the teacher ends up answering their own questions, the lesson will lack critical thought and rigor.
Script five questions forcing higher-order thought prior to every lesson. Experienced teachers may not feel they need this, but it helps to create an effective habit.
If lessons are rigorous and assessments are not, students will do well on their assessments, and that may not be an accurate representation of the knowledge and skills they have mastered. If lessons are easy and assessments are rigorous, the exact opposite will happen. When deciding to increase critical thought, it must happen in all three phases of the game: planning, instruction, and assessment.

TALK TIME / CONTROL

To increase rigor, the teacher must DO LESS. This feels counterintuitive but is accurate. Rigorous lessons involving tons of critical thought must allow for students to work on their own, collaborate with peers, and connect their ideas. This cannot happen in a silent room except for the teacher talking. In order to increase rigor, decrease talk time and become comfortable with less control. Asking questions and giving prompts that lead to no true correct answer also means less control. This is a tough ask for some teachers. Explained differently, if you assign one assignment and get 30 very similar products, you have most likely assigned a low-rigor recipe. If you assign one assignment and get multiple varied products, then the students have had a chance to think deeply, and you have successfully integrated critical thought into your classroom.

Thanks to Dara, Patrick, Meg, and PJ for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

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You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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Home » Blog » General » Developing Critical Thinking Skills in High School Students: A Guide for Educators

Developing Critical Thinking Skills in High School Students: A Guide for Educators

As educators, we play a crucial role in preparing high school students for their future success. One essential skill that students need to thrive in the modern world is critical thinking. By developing critical thinking skills, we empower students to analyze information, solve problems, and make informed decisions. In this guide, we will explore the importance of critical thinking skills in high school students and provide strategies for educators to effectively teach and nurture these skills.

Understanding Critical Thinking

Before diving into strategies, let’s first define critical thinking. Critical thinking is the ability to objectively analyze and evaluate information, ideas, and arguments. It involves logical reasoning, evidence-based decision-making, and the ability to consider multiple perspectives. Key components of critical thinking include:

Logical reasoning
Evidence evaluation
Problem-solving
Analysis and synthesis
Effective communication

Developing critical thinking skills in high school students has numerous benefits. It enhances their academic performance, prepares them for higher education and future careers, and equips them with the ability to navigate complex societal issues. Critical thinking also fosters creativity, independence, and a lifelong love for learning.

Strategies to Teach Critical Thinking

Now that we understand the importance of critical thinking, let’s explore effective strategies to teach this skill to high school students:

Encouraging Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions promote critical thinking by encouraging students to think deeply and provide thoughtful responses. These questions do not have a single correct answer and require students to analyze, evaluate, and justify their thinking. Examples of open-ended questions for high school students include:

What are the ethical implications of [current issue]?
How does [historical event] impact society today?
What are the potential consequences of [scientific discovery]?

Promoting Active Listening and Effective Communication

Active listening and effective communication are essential skills for critical thinking. By actively listening to others’ perspectives and articulating their own thoughts clearly, students can engage in meaningful discussions and evaluate different viewpoints. Techniques to enhance active listening skills include:

Maintaining eye contact
Asking clarifying questions
Summarizing others’ viewpoints

Effective communication is crucial for expressing ideas, presenting arguments, and engaging in debates. By teaching students how to communicate their thoughts effectively, we empower them to engage in critical thinking.

Engaging Students in Problem-Solving Activities

Problem-solving activities provide students with real-world scenarios that require critical thinking skills. These activities encourage students to analyze information, identify possible solutions, and evaluate the most effective course of action. Benefits of problem-solving activities include:

Developing analytical skills
Promoting creativity
Encouraging collaboration

Examples of problem-solving activities for high school students include:

Designing a sustainable solution for a local environmental issue
Creating a business plan for a social entrepreneurship project
Developing a strategy to address a community problem

Incorporating Real-World Scenarios and Debates

Real-world application is a powerful tool for developing critical thinking skills. By incorporating real-world scenarios and debates into the curriculum, educators can provide students with opportunities to analyze complex issues, evaluate evidence, and form well-reasoned arguments. Ways to introduce debates and discussions in the classroom include:

Assigning controversial topics for research and debate
Organizing mock trials or model United Nations debates
Encouraging students to analyze current events and their implications

Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

In addition to specific teaching strategies, creating a supportive learning environment is crucial for nurturing critical thinking skills in high school students:

Fostering a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, practice, and perseverance. By fostering a growth mindset, educators can empower students to embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and persist in their pursuit of knowledge. Strategies to promote a growth mindset in high school students include:

Encouraging a positive attitude towards mistakes and failures
Providing opportunities for reflection and growth
Highlighting the importance of effort and perseverance

Encouraging Collaboration and Teamwork

Collaborative learning promotes critical thinking by allowing students to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and learn from each other. By encouraging collaboration and teamwork, educators create an environment that fosters critical thinking skills. Techniques to foster collaboration and teamwork include:

Assigning group projects and activities
Facilitating discussions and debates in small groups
Encouraging students to provide constructive feedback to their peers

Providing Constructive Feedback

Constructive feedback is essential for students to improve their critical thinking skills. By providing specific, actionable feedback, educators can guide students towards deeper analysis, better reasoning, and effective communication. Tips for giving effective feedback to high school students include:

Focus on specific areas for improvement
Offer suggestions for further exploration or research
Encourage students to reflect on their thinking process

Assessing and Evaluating Critical Thinking Skills

Assessment is an integral part of teaching critical thinking skills. By utilizing rubrics, checklists, and self-reflection, educators can evaluate students’ progress and provide targeted support:

Utilizing Rubrics and Checklists

Rubrics and checklists provide clear criteria for evaluating critical thinking skills. They help educators assess students’ ability to analyze information, evaluate evidence, and communicate their thoughts effectively. Benefits of using rubrics and checklists for assessment include:

Objective evaluation
Clear expectations for students
Opportunities for self-assessment

Examples of rubrics and checklists for evaluating critical thinking skills can be found in resources such as EverydaySpeech, which offers comprehensive tools for educators.

Incorporating Self-Reflection and Self-Assessment

Self-reflection and self-assessment are powerful tools for students to monitor their own thinking and learning process. By encouraging students to reflect on their critical thinking skills, educators promote metacognition and empower students to take ownership of their learning. Strategies to encourage self-assessment in high school students include:

Journaling about their thinking process
Setting personal goals for improvement
Engaging in peer feedback and self-evaluation

In conclusion, developing critical thinking skills in high school students is essential for their academic success and future endeavors. By incorporating strategies such as encouraging open-ended questions, promoting active listening and effective communication, engaging students in problem-solving activities, and incorporating real-world scenarios and debates, educators can foster critical thinking skills in their students. Creating a supportive learning environment through fostering a growth mindset, encouraging collaboration and teamwork, and providing constructive feedback further enhances students’ critical thinking abilities. Assessing and evaluating critical thinking skills through rubrics, checklists, and self-reflection ensures continuous growth and improvement. As educators, let’s prioritize teaching critical thinking skills to empower our high school students for a successful future.

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Critical Thinking Resources for High School Teachers

Developing critical thinking abilities is a necessary skill for all high school students but teaching these skills is not the easiest task for high school teachers. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information online to provide teachers the resources needed for creating critical thinking lesson plans.

These online resources provide lessons plans, videos, and small but helpful tips that can be used everyday in the classroom to reinforce lessons and ideas. Below are some of the top resources for teaching critical thinking to high school students.

A site devoted to all things related to critical thinking

The Critical Thinking Community, from the Center for Critical Thinking, provides one of the best sites for critical thinking resources and has a special section aimed at helping high school teachers prepare appropriate lesson plans: Critical Thinking Community for High School Teachers .

“Critical thinking is essential if we are to get to the root of our problems and develop reasonable solutions,” reads the site’s About Us page. “After all, the quality of everything we do is determined by the quality of our thinking.”

Therefore it’s no surprise that the site provides many free online resources for high school teachers, as well as other materials that can be ordered online for a small fee.

One example of an online resource for critical thinking for high school students is the article “How to Study and Learn (Part One)”. This introductory article lays the ground work for the importance of thinking critically, illustrated by the following passage:

“To study well and learn any subject is to learn how to think with discipline within that subject. It is to learn to think within its logic, to:

raise vital questions and problems within it, formulating them clearly and precisely
gather and assess information, using ideas to interpret that information insightfully
come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards
adopt the point of view of the discipline, recognizing and assessing, as needs be, its assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
communicate effectively with others using the language of the discipline and that of educated public discourse
relate what one is learning in the subject to other subjects and to what is significant in human life”

State critical thinking resources

Additionally, many states offer free online critical thinking resources, such as the handbook compiled by faculty members of Prince George’s Community College and put on Maryland’s official website: Handbook of Critical Thinking Resources .

In addition to providing a wealth of outside information resources, the handbook details how thinking critically can help students while they are in high school and in the future:

“Improving students’ critical thinking skills will help students:

improve their thinking about their course work
use sound thinking on tests, assignments, and projects in their courses
have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they transfer to another college
have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they transition to the workplace”

Keeping up to date on current trends

Other sites, such as Edutopia.org, are constantly updated with new information to provide teachers with the most current information possible. The site, which is part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is divided by grade level and has a special section focused on producing critical thinking high school students: Grades 9-12 High School .

The site describes three fundamental skills it believes necessary for students to become lifelong learners in the 21 st Century:

how to find information
how to assess the quality of information
how to creatively and effectively use information to accomplish a goal

The site combines original articles and instructional videos with other valuable critical thinking resources from around the globe. The site is set up like a blog and puts the most recent articles at the forefront, and also includes a community forum for both students and teachers to use.

100+ Critical Thinking Questions for Students To Ask About Anything

Critical thinkers question everything.

In an age of “fake news” claims and constant argument about pretty much any issue, critical thinking skills are key. Teach your students that it’s vital to ask questions about everything, but that it’s also important to ask the right sorts of questions. Students can use these critical thinking questions with fiction or nonfiction texts. They’re also useful when discussing important issues or trying to understand others’ motivations in general.

“Who” Critical Thinking Questions

Questions like these help students ponder who’s involved in a story and how the actions affect them. They’ll also consider who’s telling the tale and how reliable that narrator might be.

Is the protagonist?
Is the antagonist?
Caused harm?
Is harmed as a result?
Was the most important character?

Is responsible?
Is most directly affected?
Should have won?
Will benefit?
Would be affected by this?

Makes the decisions?

“What” Critical Thinking Questions

Ask questions that explore issues more deeply, including those that might not be directly answered in the text.

Background information do I know or need to know?
Is the main message?
Are the defining characteristics?

Questions or concerns do I have?
Don’t I understand?
Evidence supports the author’s conclusion?
Would it be like if … ?
Could happen if … ?
Other outcomes might have happened?
Questions would you have asked?
Would you ask the author about … ?
Was the point of … ?
Should have happened instead?
Is that character’s motive?
Else could have changed the whole story?

Can you conclude?
Would your position have been in that situation?
Would happen if … ?
Makes your position stronger?
Was the turning point?
Is the point of the question?
Did it mean when … ?
Is the other side of this argument?
Was the purpose of … ?
Does ______ mean?
Is the problem you are trying to solve?
Does the evidence say?
Assumptions are you making?
Is a better alternative?
Are the strengths of the argument?

Are the weaknesses of the argument?
Is the difference between _______ and _______?

“Where” Critical Thinking Questions

Think about where the story is set and how it affects the actions. Plus, consider where and how you can learn more.

Would this issue be a major problem?
Are areas for improvement?
Did the story change?
Would you most often find this problem?

Are there similar situations?
Would you go to get answers to this problem?
Can this be improved?
Can you get more information?
Will this idea take us?

“When” Critical Thinking Questions

Think about timing and the effect it has on the characters or people involved.

Is this acceptable?
Is this unacceptable?

Does this become a problem?
Is the best time to take action?
Will we be able to tell if it worked?
Is it time to reassess?
Should we ask for help?
Is the best time to start?
Is it time to stop?
Would this benefit society?

Has this happened before?

“Why” Critical Thinking Questions

Asking “why” might be one of the most important parts of critical thinking. Exploring and understanding motivation helps develop empathy and make sense of difficult situations.

Is _________ happening?
Have we allowed this to happen?
Should people care about this issue?

Is this a problem?
Did the character say … ?
Did the character do … ?
Is this relevant?
Did the author write this?
Did the author decide to … ?
Is this important?

Did that happen?
Is it necessary?
Do you think I (he, she, they) asked that question?
Is that answer the best one?
Do we need this today?

“How” Critical Thinking Questions

Use these questions to consider how things happen and whether change is possible.

Do we know this is true?
Does the language used affect the story?
Would you solve … ?
Is this different from other situations?

Is this similar to … ?
Would you use … ?
Does the location affect the story?
Could the story have ended differently?
Does this work?
Could this be harmful?
Does this connect with what I already know?
Else could this have been handled?
Should they have responded?

Would you feel about … ?
Does this change the outcome?
Did you make that decision?
Does this benefit you/others?
Does this hurt you/others?
Could this problem be avoided?

What are your favorite critical thinking questions? Come exchange ideas on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out 10 tips for teaching kids to be awesome critical thinkers ., you might also like.

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47 Critical Thinking Questions for High School Students

Critical thinking is defined as analyzing and thinking objectively about an issue to form a judgment. Critical thinking skills are important for high school students because they encourage decision-making based on logic and reason, which will serve them well in adulthood.

In fact, it has been proven that having critical thinking skills leads to success in interpersonal, financial, and business endeavors and serves to protect against negative outcomes.

Critical thinking questions are those that encourage the development of the following skills:

Problem-solving
Communication
Open-mindedness

Let’s review some of the best questions that encourage critical thinking in high school students .

If you could make your own country, what would it look like? What rules would your citizens follow?

If you could go back in time two years and give your younger self advice, what advice would you give?

If you found out you only had 24 hours left to live, what would you decide to do with your last day on earth?

If you were offered the opportunity to get on a spaceship bound for a distant planet, and you would be one of the first colonizers, would you do it?

If a train was heading down a track without brakes and you had the switch that would turn it to either one of two tracks, and there was a baby on one track and an old woman on the other, who would you choose to let live? Why?

If everyone in the world stopped using social media, would it be a good thing or a bad thing? Defend your answer.

If your best friend was doing something dangerous that could kill them or put them in jail, would you tell someone even if it meant never speaking to them again?

Should the voting age be lowered to 16? Why or why not?

Should euthanasia be legal? Why or why not?

Question 10

Is it better to take one life in order to save 5 lives? What about 10? 20?

Question 11

If you had the power to solve one major problem on earth, what problem would you solve?

Question 12

If you could transport yourself instantly anywhere in the world, what place would you choose?

Question 13

If you were stranded on a desert island, what item would you choose to bring with you, provided you would have an endless supply of food and water?

Question 14

Should the drinking age be lowered to 18? Why or why not?

Question 15

If you could spend one day with any person on earth, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

Question 16

Is it more important to have a strong military or universal healthcare? Why or why not?

Question 17

What defines adulthood? When does adulthood begin?

Question 18

Which is more important – solving climate change or solving world hunger?

Question 19

Would you rather be blind or deaf? Why?

Question 20

How would you describe a tree without using the words green, branches, or leaves?

Question 21

If you could describe the color red to a blind person, how would you describe it? What about the color blue?

Question 22

If you had the ability to transform into any animal at any time you wanted, what animal would you choose and why?

Question 23

If you could live in any historical time period, which time period would you choose and why?

Question 24

Would you rather die by falling off a skyscraper or being buried in a landslide? Why?

Question 25

How does someone become a good person? Can a bad person change into a good person? How?

Question 26

Would you rather to never have to eat or never have to sleep? Why?

Question 27

Is it better to have 1 million dollars in the bank or donate 10 million dollars to charity? Why or why not?

Question 28

How would you describe an airplane to someone who had never seen or heard of one?

Question 29

Is it better to be ignored or gossiped about? Why?

Question 30

What makes humans more important than animals?

Question 31

Is murder every justifiable? Why or why not?

Question 32

Is the death penalty immoral? Why or not?

Question 33

What characteristics make a good leader?

Question 34

If ignorance ever an excuse for breaking the law? Why or why not?

Question 35

What is more important in life: love, health, or money?

Question 36

Is it better to be feared or loved? Why?

Question 37

If you had the chance to travel through time and change one historical event, what event would you change and why? How would you change it?

Question 38

If you suddenly had a life expectancy of 500 years, would you change the way you live your life? What about if your life expectancy dropped 10 years?

Question 39

Think about the birth order with you and your siblings, if you have any. Would you rather change your birth order or remain where you are?

Question 40

If you had five minutes to defend the human race against an alien civilization who were going to destroy humanity, what would you say?

Question 41

Would you want to live forever? Why or why not?

Question 42

Is it the responsibility of wealthy countries to help impoverished countries? Why or why not?

Question 43

If you could change one rule in your family, what rule would it be and why?

Question 44

Do someone’s actions impact their value as a person, such as serial killers?

Question 45

How do you define evil?

Question 46

Is it the government’s job to ban harmful substances like drugs or alcohol, or is it the citizens’ responsibility to look after their own health?

Question 47

Should people be required to take a test before having a baby? Why or why not?

https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-critical-thinking-important/

https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/how-to-develop-critical-thinking-skills/0/steps/335512#:~:text=We%20develop%20specific%20techniques%20that,%2C%20independently%2C%20and%20effectively.%E2%80%9D

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Reimagining Assessment Assessing the Transfer of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

Jeff Heyck-Williams (He, His, Him) Director of the Two Rivers Learning Institute in Washington, DC

Educators are rethinking the purposes, forms, and nature of assessment. Beyond testing mastery of traditional content knowledge—an essential task, but not nearly sufficient—educators are designing assessment for learning as an integral part of the learning process.

Two Rivers embarked on a multi-year project to define and assess critical thinking and problem solving in project-based learning expeditions.

Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., is a network of EL Education schools serving over 700 students in preschool through 8th grade. Throughout our twelve-year history, we have continued to champion the importance of embracing a broader definition of student success than what has been handed to us by state and national policy. While we believe that it is essential for all students to be proficient in math, literacy, and the sciences, we believe that that is not enough. Students also need a rich set of social and cognitive skills that span beyond any given discipline.

Furthermore, we believe that we can best teach students these skills through hands-on interdisciplinary project-based learning. As EL Education schools, our projects are defined as expeditions lasting 10 to 12 weeks in which students tackle messy, real world problems that don’t have easy paths to solutions nor do they have one clear right answer. Through intentional design of these projects, teachers address the core content and basic skills defined by literacy and content standards; the social skills of collaboration and communication; the intrapersonal skills defined by character; and the broadly applicable cognitive skills of critical thinking and problem solving.

In the life of our schools, we have seen the powerful way that our students through project-based learning have embraced deeper learning outcomes, and exhibited the habits of effective critical thinking, collaboration, and personal character. However, our evidence that this is working is only found in anecdotes and in the quality of student work. We have been unable to demonstrate neither the degree to which students are developing these skills within projects nor their ability to transfer the skills beyond the context of the current project.

Focusing just on the dimensions of critical thinking and problem solving, our teachers expressed frustration at not knowing in concrete terms what those cognitive skills looked like when students exhibited them. Building on our understanding of the essential role that assessment for learning plays in the learning process and the very practical consideration of how we help teachers and students define and work towards developing these skills, we have embarked on a multi-year project to define and assess critical thinking and problem solving.

Critical thinking and problem solving, as we define it, are the set of non-discipline specific cognitive skills people use to analyze vast amounts of information and creatively solve problems. We have broken those skills down into these five core components:

Schema Development: The ability to learn vast amounts of information and organize it in ways that are useful for understanding
Metacognition and Evaluation: The ability to think critically about what one is doing and evaluate many potential choices
Effective Reasoning: The ability to create claims and support them with logical evidence
Problem Solving: The ability to identify the key questions in a problem, develop possible paths to a solution, and follow through with a solution
Creativity and Innovation: The ability to formulate new ideas that are useful within a particular context

Our project is working to create learning progressions in each of these core components with accompanying rubrics. The progressions of learning and rubrics will both help define for students and teachers the skills that all students should be developing as well as function as evaluative tools to provide a picture where each student sits in the development of these skills and what are the next steps for further learning.

However, we believe it is not enough for students to be able to develop these skills within the highly scaffolded context of our expeditions. If they have truly learned the skills, they should have the ability to transfer them. With this in mind, we are working to create short content-neutral performance tasks that will give teachers and students valuable information about each of the five core components listed above. Our hypothesis is that through having students tackle short novel tasks, we will be able to draw clear conclusions about their learning of critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Through the course of this work, we hope that our process will be useful to other educators interested in achieving deeper learning outcomes for their students. We realize that deeper learning will not become a reality in most schools until teachers and leaders have a clear vision for what it looks like on a day-to-day basis and how we can clearly demonstrate student growth in these essential skills. We hope that our work will help to inform how to make deeper learning a concrete reality. It is a work in progress, and we invite you to share your thoughts and follow our progress at our website https://learn.tworiverspcs.org .

Learn more about Two Rivers' Assessment for Learning Project on their grantee page .

Jeff Heyck-Williams (He, His, Him)

Director of the two rivers learning institute.

Jeff Heyck-Williams is the director of the Two Rivers Learning Institute and a founder of Two Rivers Public Charter School. He has led work around creating school-wide cultures of mathematics, developing assessments of critical thinking and problem-solving, and supporting project-based learning.

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11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

52 Critical Thinking Flashcards for Problem Solving

Critical thinking activities encourage individuals to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to develop informed opinions and make reasoned decisions. Engaging in such exercises cultivates intellectual agility, fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues and honing problem-solving skills for navigating an increasingly intricate world. Through critical thinking, individuals empower themselves to challenge assumptions, uncover biases, and constructively contribute to discourse, thereby enriching both personal growth and societal progress.

Critical thinking serves as the cornerstone of effective problem-solving, enabling individuals to dissect challenges, explore diverse perspectives, and devise innovative solutions grounded in logic and evidence. For engaging problem solving activities, read our article problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a 21st-century skill that enables a person to think rationally and logically in order to reach a plausible conclusion. A critical thinker assesses facts and figures and data objectively and determines what to believe and what not to believe. Critical thinking skills empower a person to decipher complex problems and make impartial and better decisions based on effective information.

Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

Acquiring critical thinking skills was never as valuable as it is today because of the prevalence of the modern knowledge economy. Today, information and technology are the driving forces behind the global economy. To keep pace with ever-changing technology and new inventions, one has to be flexible enough to embrace changes swiftly.

Read our article: How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples

Today critical thinking skills are one of the most sought-after skills by the companies. In fact, critical thinking skills are paramount not only for active learning and academic achievement but also for the professional career of the students. The lack of critical thinking skills catalyzes memorization of the topics without a deeper insight, egocentrism, closed-mindedness, reduced student interest in the classroom and not being able to make timely and better decisions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking Skills in Education

Certain strategies are more eloquent than others in teaching students how to think critically. Encouraging critical thinking in the class is indispensable for the learning and growth of the students. In this way, we can raise a generation of innovators and thinkers rather than followers. Some of the benefits offered by thinking critically in the classroom are given below:

It allows a student to decipher problems and think through the situations in a disciplined and systematic manner
Through a critical thinking ability, a student can comprehend the logical correlation between distinct ideas
The student is able to rethink and re-justify his beliefs and ideas based on facts and figures
Critical thinking skills make the students curious about things around them
A student who is a critical thinker is creative and always strives to come up with out of the box solutions to intricate problems
Critical thinking skills assist in the enhanced student learning experience in the classroom and prepares the students for lifelong learning and success
The critical thinking process is the foundation of new discoveries and inventions in the world of science and technology
The ability to think critically allows the students to think intellectually and enhances their presentation skills, hence they can convey their ideas and thoughts in a logical and convincing manner
Critical thinking skills make students a terrific communicator because they have logical reasons behind their ideas

Critical Thinking Lessons and Activities

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

We have compiled a list of 11 activities that will facilitate you to promote critical thinking abilities in the students. We have also covered problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest in our another article. Click here to read it.

1. Worst Case Scenario

Divide students into teams and introduce each team with a hypothetical challenging scenario. Allocate minimum resources and time to each team and ask them to reach a viable conclusion using those resources. The scenarios can include situations like stranded on an island or stuck in a forest. Students will come up with creative solutions to come out from the imaginary problematic situation they are encountering. Besides encouraging students to think critically, this activity will enhance teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills of the students.

Read our article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

2. If You Build It

It is a very flexible game that allows students to think creatively. To start this activity, divide students into groups. Give each group a limited amount of resources such as pipe cleaners, blocks, and marshmallows etc. Every group is supposed to use these resources and construct a certain item such as building, tower or a bridge in a limited time. You can use a variety of materials in the classroom to challenge the students. This activity is helpful in promoting teamwork and creative skills among the students.

It is also one of the classics which can be used in the classroom to encourage critical thinking. Print pictures of objects, animals or concepts and start by telling a unique story about the printed picture. The next student is supposed to continue the story and pass the picture to the other student and so on.

4. Keeping it Real

In this activity, you can ask students to identify a real-world problem in their schools, community or city. After the problem is recognized, students should work in teams to come up with the best possible outcome of that problem.

5. Save the Egg

Make groups of three or four in the class. Ask them to drop an egg from a certain height and think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking. Students can come up with diverse ideas to conserve the egg like a soft-landing material or any other device. Remember that this activity can get chaotic, so select the area in the school that can be cleaned easily afterward and where there are no chances of damaging the school property.

6. Start a Debate

In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. Encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the topic. Conclude the debate with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity through brainstorming.

7. Create and Invent

This project-based learning activity is best for teaching in the engineering class. Divide students into groups. Present a problem to the students and ask them to build a model or simulate a product using computer animations or graphics that will solve the problem. After students are done with building models, each group is supposed to explain their proposed product to the rest of the class. The primary objective of this activity is to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills among the students.

8. Select from Alternatives

This activity can be used in computer science, engineering or any of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes. Introduce a variety of alternatives such as different formulas for solving the same problem, different computer codes, product designs or distinct explanations of the same topic.

Form groups in the class and ask them to select the best alternative. Each group will then explain its chosen alternative to the rest of the class with reasonable justification of its preference. During the process, the rest of the class can participate by asking questions from the group. This activity is very helpful in nurturing logical thinking and analytical skills among the students.

9. Reading and Critiquing

Present an article from a journal related to any topic that you are teaching. Ask the students to read the article critically and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the article. Students can write about what they think about the article, any misleading statement or biases of the author and critique it by using their own judgments.

In this way, students can challenge the fallacies and rationality of judgments in the article. Hence, they can use their own thinking to come up with novel ideas pertaining to the topic.

10. Think Pair Share

In this activity, students will come up with their own questions. Make pairs or groups in the class and ask the students to discuss the questions together. The activity will be useful if the teacher gives students a topic on which the question should be based.

For example, if the teacher is teaching biology, the questions of the students can be based on reverse osmosis, human heart, respiratory system and so on. This activity drives student engagement and supports higher-order thinking skills among students.

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

Silence is a great way to slow down thinking and promote deep reflection on any subject. Present a driving question to the students and divide them into groups. The students will discuss the question with their teammates and brainstorm their ideas on a big paper. After reflection and discussion, students can write their findings in silence. This is a great learning activity for students who are introverts and love to ruminate silently rather than thinking aloud.

Finally, for students with critical thinking, you can go to GS-JJ.co m to customize exclusive rewards, which not only enlivens the classroom, but also promotes the development and training of students for critical thinking.

Read our next article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Best critical thinking questions for high school students

Home » Questions » Best critical thinking questions for high school students

Developing critical thinking skills is essential for high school students as it equips them with the ability to analyze and evaluate information, solve problems, and make informed decisions. Critical thinking questions encourage students to think deeply, explore different perspectives, and challenge their own assumptions. These types of questions promote intellectual curiosity and foster a growth mindset. In this article, we have compiled a list of critical thinking questions specifically designed for high school students to encourage their analytical thinking abilities.

By asking critical thinking questions, high school students are encouraged to think beyond the surface level and delve into the underlying complexities of various subjects. These questions push students to evaluate evidence, consider different viewpoints, and develop their own informed opinions. Critical thinking questions also help students develop effective communication skills, as they learn to articulate their thoughts and reasoning clearly.

Engaging high school students in critical thinking activities not only enhances their academic performance but also equips them with essential life skills. These skills are valuable in various aspects of life, including problem-solving, decision-making, and effective communication. Now, let’s explore a variety of critical thinking questions that will challenge high school students to think critically and expand their intellectual horizons.

See these critical thinking questions for high school students

What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?
How does the media influence public opinion?
What are the ethical implications of genetic engineering?
Should school uniforms be mandatory? Why or why not?
What are the consequences of climate change?
How does technology impact our daily lives?
Is censorship ever justified?
What are the potential benefits and risks of artificial intelligence?
Should the voting age be lowered or raised?
What are the effects of globalization on local cultures?
Should the death penalty be abolished?
How does socioeconomic status affect educational opportunities?
What are the causes and consequences of income inequality?
Should animal testing be banned?
What are the implications of privacy in the digital age?
How does media portrayals affect body image?
What are the pros and cons of renewable energy sources?
What role does art play in society?
Should college education be free?
What are the impacts of social media on mental health?
How does culture influence our perception of beauty?
What are the consequences of income inequality?
Should standardized tests be the primary measure of student achievement?
What are the implications of climate change on wildlife?
How does the media influence body image?
Should the government regulate the internet?
What are the benefits and risks of nuclear power?
Should genetically modified organisms (GMOs) be labeled?
How does social media impact interpersonal relationships?
What are the consequences of cyberbullying?
Should the use of plastic bags be banned?
What are the effects of fast-food consumption on health?
How does advertising influence consumer behavior?
Should the use of cell phones be allowed in schools?
What are the implications of artificial intelligence in the job market?
How does music influence our emotions?
Should the government provide universal healthcare?
What are the impacts of deforestation on the environment?
How does social media affect political activism?
Should the legal drinking age be lowered or raised?
What are the consequences of bullying?
How does cultural diversity contribute to society?
Should athletes be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs?
What are the effects of income inequality on society?

Engaging high school students in critical thinking questions not only enhances their cognitive abilities but also helps them become well-rounded individuals capable of navigating complex issues. Encourage students to explore these questions, challenge their assumptions, and develop their own perspectives. By fostering critical thinking skills, we empower the future generation to become effective problem solvers and informed decision-makers.

best-college-questions-for-high-school-students

Supplement to Critical Thinking

How can one assess, for purposes of instruction or research, the degree to which a person possesses the dispositions, skills and knowledge of a critical thinker?

In psychometrics, assessment instruments are judged according to their validity and reliability.

Roughly speaking, an instrument is valid if it measures accurately what it purports to measure, given standard conditions. More precisely, the degree of validity is “the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores for proposed uses of tests” (American Educational Research Association 2014: 11). In other words, a test is not valid or invalid in itself. Rather, validity is a property of an interpretation of a given score on a given test for a specified use. Determining the degree of validity of such an interpretation requires collection and integration of the relevant evidence, which may be based on test content, test takers’ response processes, a test’s internal structure, relationship of test scores to other variables, and consequences of the interpretation (American Educational Research Association 2014: 13–21). Criterion-related evidence consists of correlations between scores on the test and performance on another test of the same construct; its weight depends on how well supported is the assumption that the other test can be used as a criterion. Content-related evidence is evidence that the test covers the full range of abilities that it claims to test. Construct-related evidence is evidence that a correct answer reflects good performance of the kind being measured and an incorrect answer reflects poor performance.

An instrument is reliable if it consistently produces the same result, whether across different forms of the same test (parallel-forms reliability), across different items (internal consistency), across different administrations to the same person (test-retest reliability), or across ratings of the same answer by different people (inter-rater reliability). Internal consistency should be expected only if the instrument purports to measure a single undifferentiated construct, and thus should not be expected of a test that measures a suite of critical thinking dispositions or critical thinking abilities, assuming that some people are better in some of the respects measured than in others (for example, very willing to inquire but rather closed-minded). Otherwise, reliability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of validity; a standard example of a reliable instrument that is not valid is a bathroom scale that consistently under-reports a person’s weight.

Assessing dispositions is difficult if one uses a multiple-choice format with known adverse consequences of a low score. It is pretty easy to tell what answer to the question “How open-minded are you?” will get the highest score and to give that answer, even if one knows that the answer is incorrect. If an item probes less directly for a critical thinking disposition, for example by asking how often the test taker pays close attention to views with which the test taker disagrees, the answer may differ from reality because of self-deception or simple lack of awareness of one’s personal thinking style, and its interpretation is problematic, even if factor analysis enables one to identify a distinct factor measured by a group of questions that includes this one (Ennis 1996). Nevertheless, Facione, Sánchez, and Facione (1994) used this approach to develop the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). They began with 225 statements expressive of a disposition towards or away from critical thinking (using the long list of dispositions in Facione 1990a), validated the statements with talk-aloud and conversational strategies in focus groups to determine whether people in the target population understood the items in the way intended, administered a pilot version of the test with 150 items, and eliminated items that failed to discriminate among test takers or were inversely correlated with overall results or added little refinement to overall scores (Facione 2000). They used item analysis and factor analysis to group the measured dispositions into seven broad constructs: open-mindedness, analyticity, cognitive maturity, truth-seeking, systematicity, inquisitiveness, and self-confidence (Facione, Sánchez, and Facione 1994). The resulting test consists of 75 agree-disagree statements and takes 20 minutes to administer. A repeated disturbing finding is that North American students taking the test tend to score low on the truth-seeking sub-scale (on which a low score results from agreeing to such statements as the following: “To get people to agree with me I would give any reason that worked”. “Everyone always argues from their own self-interest, including me”. “If there are four reasons in favor and one against, I’ll go with the four”.) Development of the CCTDI made it possible to test whether good critical thinking abilities and good critical thinking dispositions go together, in which case it might be enough to teach one without the other. Facione (2000) reports that administration of the CCTDI and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) to almost 8,000 post-secondary students in the United States revealed a statistically significant but weak correlation between total scores on the two tests, and also between paired sub-scores from the two tests. The implication is that both abilities and dispositions need to be taught, that one cannot expect improvement in one to bring with it improvement in the other.

A more direct way of assessing critical thinking dispositions would be to see what people do when put in a situation where the dispositions would reveal themselves. Ennis (1996) reports promising initial work with guided open-ended opportunities to give evidence of dispositions, but no standardized test seems to have emerged from this work. There are however standardized aspect-specific tests of critical thinking dispositions. The Critical Problem Solving Scale (Berman et al. 2001: 518) takes as a measure of the disposition to suspend judgment the number of distinct good aspects attributed to an option judged to be the worst among those generated by the test taker. Stanovich, West and Toplak (2011: 800–810) list tests developed by cognitive psychologists of the following dispositions: resistance to miserly information processing, resistance to myside thinking, absence of irrelevant context effects in decision-making, actively open-minded thinking, valuing reason and truth, tendency to seek information, objective reasoning style, tendency to seek consistency, sense of self-efficacy, prudent discounting of the future, self-control skills, and emotional regulation.

It is easier to measure critical thinking skills or abilities than to measure dispositions. The following eight currently available standardized tests purport to measure them: the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests Level X and Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test (Ennis & Weir 1985), the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (Halpern 2016), the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (Center for Assessment & Improvement of Learning 2017), the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017), the HEIghten Critical Thinking Assessment (https://territorium.com/heighten/), and a suite of critical thinking assessments for different groups and purposes offered by Insight Assessment (https://www.insightassessment.com/products). The Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) is unique among them in being designed for use by college faculty to help them improve their development of students’ critical thinking skills (Haynes et al. 2015; Haynes & Stein 2021). Also, for some years the United Kingdom body OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) awarded AS and A Level certificates in critical thinking on the basis of an examination (OCR 2011). Many of these standardized tests have received scholarly evaluations at the hands of, among others, Ennis (1958), McPeck (1981), Norris and Ennis (1989), Fisher and Scriven (1997), Possin (2008, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c, 2014, 2020) and Hatcher and Possin (2021). Their evaluations provide a useful set of criteria that such tests ideally should meet, as does the description by Ennis (1984) of problems in testing for competence in critical thinking: the soundness of multiple-choice items, the clarity and soundness of instructions to test takers, the information and mental processing used in selecting an answer to a multiple-choice item, the role of background beliefs and ideological commitments in selecting an answer to a multiple-choice item, the tenability of a test’s underlying conception of critical thinking and its component abilities, the set of abilities that the test manual claims are covered by the test, the extent to which the test actually covers these abilities, the appropriateness of the weighting given to various abilities in the scoring system, the accuracy and intellectual honesty of the test manual, the interest of the test to the target population of test takers, the scope for guessing, the scope for choosing a keyed answer by being test-wise, precautions against cheating in the administration of the test, clarity and soundness of materials for training essay graders, inter-rater reliability in grading essays, and clarity and soundness of advance guidance to test takers on what is required in an essay. Rear (2019) has challenged the use of standardized tests of critical thinking as a way to measure educational outcomes, on the grounds that they (1) fail to take into account disputes about conceptions of critical thinking, (2) are not completely valid or reliable, and (3) fail to evaluate skills used in real academic tasks. He proposes instead assessments based on discipline-specific content.

There are also aspect-specific standardized tests of critical thinking abilities. Stanovich, West and Toplak (2011: 800–810) list tests of probabilistic reasoning, insights into qualitative decision theory, knowledge of scientific reasoning, knowledge of rules of logical consistency and validity, and economic thinking. They also list instruments that probe for irrational thinking, such as superstitious thinking, belief in the superiority of intuition, over-reliance on folk wisdom and folk psychology, belief in “special” expertise, financial misconceptions, overestimation of one’s introspective powers, dysfunctional beliefs, and a notion of self that encourages egocentric processing. They regard these tests along with the previously mentioned tests of critical thinking dispositions as the building blocks for a comprehensive test of rationality, whose development (they write) may be logistically difficult and would require millions of dollars.

A superb example of assessment of an aspect of critical thinking ability is the Test on Appraising Observations (Norris & King 1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b), which was designed for classroom administration to senior high school students. The test focuses entirely on the ability to appraise observation statements and in particular on the ability to determine in a specified context which of two statements there is more reason to believe. According to the test manual (Norris & King 1985, 1990b), a person’s score on the multiple-choice version of the test, which is the number of items that are answered correctly, can justifiably be given either a criterion-referenced or a norm-referenced interpretation.

On a criterion-referenced interpretation, those who do well on the test have a firm grasp of the principles for appraising observation statements, and those who do poorly have a weak grasp of them. This interpretation can be justified by the content of the test and the way it was developed, which incorporated a method of controlling for background beliefs articulated and defended by Norris (1985). Norris and King synthesized from judicial practice, psychological research and common-sense psychology 31 principles for appraising observation statements, in the form of empirical generalizations about tendencies, such as the principle that observation statements tend to be more believable than inferences based on them (Norris & King 1984). They constructed items in which exactly one of the 31 principles determined which of two statements was more believable. Using a carefully constructed protocol, they interviewed about 100 students who responded to these items in order to determine the thinking that led them to choose the answers they did (Norris & King 1984). In several iterations of the test, they adjusted items so that selection of the correct answer generally reflected good thinking and selection of an incorrect answer reflected poor thinking. Thus they have good evidence that good performance on the test is due to good thinking about observation statements and that poor performance is due to poor thinking about observation statements. Collectively, the 50 items on the final version of the test require application of 29 of the 31 principles for appraising observation statements, with 13 principles tested by one item, 12 by two items, three by three items, and one by four items. Thus there is comprehensive coverage of the principles for appraising observation statements. Fisher and Scriven (1997: 135–136) judge the items to be well worked and sound, with one exception. The test is clearly written at a grade 6 reading level, meaning that poor performance cannot be attributed to difficulties in reading comprehension by the intended adolescent test takers. The stories that frame the items are realistic, and are engaging enough to stimulate test takers’ interest. Thus the most plausible explanation of a given score on the test is that it reflects roughly the degree to which the test taker can apply principles for appraising observations in real situations. In other words, there is good justification of the proposed interpretation that those who do well on the test have a firm grasp of the principles for appraising observation statements and those who do poorly have a weak grasp of them.

To get norms for performance on the test, Norris and King arranged for seven groups of high school students in different types of communities and with different levels of academic ability to take the test. The test manual includes percentiles, means, and standard deviations for each of these seven groups. These norms allow teachers to compare the performance of their class on the test to that of a similar group of students.

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Critical Thinking Skills Profile of High School Students in AP Chemistry Learning

Open Access
First Online: 11 May 2023

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Gilan Raslan 12

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 320))

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From classrooms to workplaces, educators and policy makers have emphasized the necessity of graduating students who are strong critical thinkers for nearly 50 years and more (Forawi 2016). Critical thinking skills are a vital pillar skill to tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Critical thinking is defined as a set of fundamental skills that must be mastered before one may progress to more complicated thinking. Aiming to obtain more insight into the aspects of critical thinking, the present study particularly examines quantitively the critical thinking skills level of grade 12 students in a scientific learning context. Over a 35-min test, based on Danczak DOT criteria, data was collected and analyzed. The study’s findings revealed that the students’ critical thinking abilities are in medium range. However, other implications regarding curriculum modifications, educational teaching strategies and teachers’ readiness are needed to foster students’ critical thinking skills.

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Is Critical Thinking a Skill or a Way to Develop Skills? An Overview in Engineering Education

Enhancing Scientific Thinking Through the Development of Critical Thinking in Higher Education

Fostering scientific literacy and critical thinking in elementary science education.

Critical thinking
Scientific learning
Teachers’ readiness

1 Introduction

Skills matter, and poor skills severely hinder access to better-paying and more gratifying professions, according to a recent study conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2016, 2018). Unsurprisingly, critical thinking skills, or CTS, have become a fundamental educational focus in recent decades (OECD 2016; Forawi 2020 ; Starichkova, Moskovskaya and Kalinovskaya 2022). Because CTS acts as a catalyst, students are able to go beyond simply gathering knowledge to developing a deep grasp of the information offered to them (Amin and Adiansyah 2018 ; Setyawan and Mustadi 2020 ). As a result, its most significant contribution is to promote good decision-making and problem-solving in real-world settings (Perez 2019; Forawi 2020 ).

Critical thinking CT is a reflective decision-making process that includes critical analysis based on relevant and accountable evidence and justifications (Hasan et al. 2020 ). Critical thinking is not the same as just thinking. It’s metacognitive, meaning it includes thinking about your own thoughts (Mai 2019).

According to Hidayati and Sinaga ( 2019 ), critical thinking necessitates logical and interpretative cohesiveness in order to detect prejudices and incorrect reasoning, and it is essential that students learn it.

Learning in the twenty-first century requires a shift in learning orientation, meaning mastering the content of knowledge, skills, expertise (Miterianifa et al. 2021 ). Students must also have thinking ability, action, and living skills in order to learn in the twenty-first century. One of the life skills is the ability to think critically, and students must have this ability in the twenty-first century, according to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Saleh 2019 ). In addition, students at the postsecondary level and in the workplace require learning assessment and critical thinking abilities in the 21 st century (Forawi 2020 ).

The major interest of future-oriented scientific, current, and chemical education is to develop students’ potential to think critically in all aspects of life (Sadhu et al. 2019). Critical thinking is also important because it allows students to successfully deal with problems and make a tangible contribution to society. It is one of the most important and well-known skills because it is required of everyone in the workplace of different fields such as leadership, and professions that require making decisions and clinical judgment. As a result, critical thinking is an important talent to be taught and educated (Abazar 2020).

In 1955, College Board established the Advanced Placement (AP) program as a non-profit organization that allows willing and academically qualified students to seek studies in the college-level while still in high school, with the chance of obtaining college credit, advanced placement, or both. Through AP classes in 38 disciplines, students learn to think critically, build good arguments, and understand different sides of a problem, all of which culminate in a hard test. These are abilities that will help them succeed in college and beyond (Conger et al. 2021 ). The AP Chemistry course gives students a college-level foundation in chemistry that will help them succeed in advanced chemistry courses in the future (College Board 2020 ; Conger et al. 2021 ). Students learn about chemistry through inquiry-based inquiries that cover topics including the structure of atoms, interactions and bonding between molecules, chemical reactions, reaction rates and thermodynamics equivalent of a college course (College Board 2020 ). The AP Chemistry course is meant to be a substitute for the general chemistry course that most students take their freshman year of college. Science practices are essential components of the course framework. These practices are; (1) models and representations, (2) question and method, (3) representing data and phenomena, 4) model analysis, (5) mathematical routines, and (6) argumentation; and they explain what a student should be able to do while discovering course concepts (College Board 2020 , p. 13–15). Practices are divided into skills, which serve as the foundation for the AP exam’s tasks (College Board 2020 ).

However, the extent to which those science practice skills help in improving the critical thinking skills of the students, not only to comprehend course and to pass the AP exam, but also for them to spot difficulties, solve those problems, and solve problems in everyday life, is still a question to be answered.

Therefore, the research has a purpose to examine the profile of critical thinking skills of high school students studying AP Chemistry course adopted in an American curriculum school in Dubai, using Danczak-Overton-Thompson Chemistry Critical Thinking Test or DOT test.

The study attempts to answer the following question:

To what extent do the AP Chemistry course foster the development of 12th grade students’ critical thinking skills?

2 Theoretical Framework

2.1 bloom’s taxonomy theory of learning.

Bloom’s Taxonomy and critical thinking go hand in hand (see Fig. 1 ). Bloom’s taxonomy walks students through the process of evaluating material or knowledge critically (Wilson 2016 ).

A six-step pyramid illustration of Bloom's taxonomy for thinking. 1. Knowledge, recall. 2. Comprehension with understanding. 3. Application using knowledge in new situations. 4. Analysis by breaking things down through critical thinking. 5. Synthesis, putting things together creative thinking. 6. Evaluation, judgment.

(Adopted from: https://bcc-cuny.libguides.com/c.php?g=824903&p=5897590 )

Interconnection between Critical Thinking and Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s taxonomy begins with knowledge or memory and progresses through a series of levels of questions and keywords that encourage the learner to act. Education and meta-cognition which is the master level of thinking, require both critical thinking and Bloom’s taxonomy (Wilson 2016 ). Critical thinkers can dissect their own reasoning, draw inferences from available data or apply their understanding of a concept in a variety of ways. They can rephrase questions, divide down tasks into parts, apply information, and generate new data. This is a set of skills that can be taught and learned (Arievitch 2020 ). Critical thinking, according to Paul, is thinking about one’s thinking while he/she is already thinking in order to improve your his/ her thinking.

2.2 Critical Thinking and ZPD

Cognitive psychologists were particularly interested in deep thinking and the internal understanding process.

Critical thinking is a cognitive activity that involves the use of the intellect. The ability to transfer knowledge from one discipline to another is referred to as critical thinking. Critical thinking has been linked to the development of individual pondering skills such as logical reasoning and personal judgment, as well as the support of suspicious thoughts (Santos 2017 ). According to Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory, cognitive skills like critical thinking are socially guided and produced (Stetsenko and Selau 2018 ). The zone of proximal development (ZPD) by Vygotsky, often known as scaffolding, is a concept used in schools to help students learn new skills. The expert gradually withdraws help as the learner achieves competency, until the student is capable of doing the activity on his or her own. This used to be accomplished by offering the student some suggestions and tips to help him solve the problem, while the teacher remained mute until the solver came up with his own hypothesis after properly understanding the problem. Close observation and reason-guide tests would be followed by hypothesis modifications as essential CT phases (Shah and Rashid 2018 ).

2.3 Guided Inquiry Model

The guided inquiry learning model is a teaching approach that can be used to help students build problem-solving skills through experience (Nisa et al. 2017 ). This paradigm has been found to be useful in training and guiding students in their grasp of concrete topics as well as their capacity to create higher-order thinking patterns (Seranica et al. 2018 ). The goal of inquiry-based learning is to educate learners how to research and explain an event. Orientation, formulation of the problem, formulation of hypotheses, data collection, hypothesis testing, and formulation of conclusions, are the guided inquiry learning phases (Putra et al. 2018 ) which go along with the CT aspects to be assessed in this study (see Table 1 ) (Hasan and Pri 2020 ).

3 Literature Review

3.1 defining critical thinking.

‘Critical,’ ‘Criticicism’, and ‘Critic’ are all derivatives of the ancient Greek term ‘Kritikos’, which means ‘able to authorise, perceive, or decide’. In modern English, a ‘critic’ is someone whose job it is to pass judgment on things like movies, novels, music, and food. It entails expressing an objective and unprejudiced view about anything (Padmanabha 2021 ).

Philosophy, cognitive psychology, and educational research are the three domains that dominate the debate over the meaning of critical thinking (see Table 2 ). The philosophy literature focuses on the generation of an argument or opinion (Hitchcock 2018 ). The critical thinking process is found to encourage problem solving and deciding what to do, according to the literature in psychology (Sternberg and Halpern 2020 ). While the majority of education research concentrates on observing behaviors. Critical thinking, according to these experts, is defined as “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations on which that judgment is based” (Danczak 2018 ).

3.2 Development of Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills are developed at a young age, and the effectiveness of educational strategies for enhancing these skills does not vary by grade level (Abrami et al. 2015).

This conclusion is startling from the perspective of Piaget, which considers young children’s cognitive processes to be underdeveloped in comparison to those of older people. Thinking is dependent on experience,” Piaget says. “Intelligence is the result of an individual’s natural potential interacting with their surroundings,” he says, adding that small children know more than he can express. The term “development” refers to the general mechanics of action and thought. However, research reveals that there is no specific age at which a child is cognitively equipped to learn more complicated strategies of thinking (Silva 2008), which is in line with both sociocultural and cognitive learning theories. Social connection, according to Vygotsky, is crucial in the cognitive development process (Padmanabha 2021 ).

3.3 Approaches for Teaching Critical Thinking

Many studies have found that the best teaching effects occur when students’ critical thinking skills are explicitly taught and developed over the course of their studies rather than in a single course or semester (Haber 2020 ). At K-12 education institutions, pedagogical techniques to developing critical thinking range from writing exercises, inquiry-based projects, flipped lectures, and open-ended practical to gamification and work integrated learning WIL (Danczak 2018 ). Chemical learning necessitates a thorough grasp of concepts, which serves as a basis for grasping later topics (Taber 2019 ). Students’ knowledge is built based on their learning experiences and is linked to their developmental stage as well as the influence of their surroundings. Linking existing understandings with new insights is one strategy to achieve learning success. The constructivist approach is concerned with this process, which focuses on the learners, fostering inventive thinking and allowing them to reach their full potential (Yezierski 2018 ).

The guided inquiry learning methodology outperforms traditional learning in terms of critical thinking skills, according to many studies (Mulyana et al. 2018 and Seranica et al. 2018 ). Students will be engaged in learning and will be taught how to tackle environmental problems through guided inquiry. They claim that students’ critical thinking abilities develop step by step in inquiry-based learning, including the processes of recognizing and defining issues, generating hypotheses, designing and performing experiments, and formulating conclusions based on the experimental data. Guided inquiry promotes students to develop scientific thinking habits (see Fig. 2 ) by encouraging them to be more receptive to new ideas in the group and by teaching them critical thinking skills when teachers engage in question-and-answer sessions and guide students in formulating relevant facts. Students consider the entire process rather than simply the final result (Suardana et al. 2019 and Rambe et al. 2020 ).

(Adopted from: Crockett, L. 2018)

Scientific thinking habits

Moreover, cooperative Learning is a set of teaching/learning approaches for assisting students in developing critical thinking skills. Students work together to acquire and practice subject matter aspects and achieve common learning objectives. It entails much more than simply grouping students and hoping for the best. These strategies necessitate greater teacher control. Students are asked to discuss a specific topic or participate in brainstorming exercises. Cooperative Learning is a very formal manner of organizing activities in a learning environment that contains specific features aimed at increasing the participants’ ability to learn richly and deeply. Examples of these strategies: Think-Pair-Share, Circle-the-Sage, Timed-Pair-Share, Agree-Disagree Line-ups and Rally Coach (Macpherson 2019).

3.4 Importance of Critical Thinking

Is it necessary for us to develop critical thinking skills? What about knowing how to acquire knowledge? In fact, acquiring information is a harmful habit that stands in the way of any discovery. Because, as de Bono puts it, “the illusion of knowledge” will imprison people in what they think they know and prevent them from being open to new ideas (Abazar 2020).

Developing our thoughts is an important element of being educated; it is crucial to a person’s development, and every human being has the right to do so. To grow as a well-educated person, our minds must think critically and creatively (Forawi 2020 ).

Solving complex problems and complicated life issues that necessitate quick and effective solutions is a feature of the 21 st century (Hidayati and Sinaga 2019 ). The development of students’ abilities and competences is in high demand all around the world. Major concerns concerning the capacities of the next generation are regularly acknowledged among educators. Critical thinking, communication, and teamwork abilities are especially important. Schools are obligated to give students with relevant learning opportunities in order for them to develop the skills and competences necessary to succeed in the workplace (Carson 2017 ).

One of the UAE’s main challenges is guaranteeing that its system of education equips students with the skills that the country’s developing private market requires, consequently assisting in the diversification of the country’s industries and correcting the country’s manpower population imbalance. In an innovative economy, the circumstances demonstrate how critical it is for the government to have highly skilled Emirati laborers with significant skill sets available (Forawi 2020 ). As a result, students’ critical thinking skills should be practiced as soon as possible. Junior high school children, with an average age of 11–13 years, are included in the concrete operational cognitive stage, according to Piaget’s (1927–1980) cognitive development theory. The idea is that youngsters of that age have been able to use their cognitive skills to identify tangible objects but have not been able to identify abstract objects (Ibda 2015). As a result, kids can begin practicing critical thinking abilities as soon as they enter high school (Hasanah et al. 2020 ).

3.5 The Assessment of Critical Thinking

According to certain research findings around the world, students’ CT skills are still in the poor category (Fadhlullah et al. 2017; OECD 2019; Haber 2020 ).

The critical thinking assessment is critical because there are various objectives to be met, particularly in science education. Because grasping science information necessitates additional reasoning, CT abilities are required. The importance of critical thinking assessment, according to Ennis, is diagnosing students’ CT skills, providing constructive feedback and encouraging students to improve their ability to think critically, as well as inspiring teachers about the suitable teaching strategies needed to teach students CT skills (Hidayati 2019).

The significance of developing students’ critical thinking skills at higher education institutions can be seen in its inclusion as a graduate criterion for universities. In addition, research emphasizes the importance of exhibiting critical thinking skills to employers, instructors, and students (Danczak 2018 ).

The learning outcome can be used to assess the effectiveness of a learning process (Panter and Williford 2017). Critical thinking is difficult to assess. There are features of critical thinking that are both domain-specific and generic (Rashel and Kinya 2021).

The main point of contention in the assessment of CT is whether it is best taught in broad or in specialized disciplines such as history, medicine, law, and education. Critical thinking has been considered as a global, general skill that can be used to any practice of teaching by the ‘generalists’. The ‘specialists’, on the other hand, perceive critical thinking as a skill unique to a certain context and specialty. The discussion over this long-running topic is vital for gaining an insight into the nature of human thought; yet, taking one side or the other is not required. The idea of combining the two approaches has a lot of support. The authors endorse the idea of preparing students for ‘multifaceted critical thinking’ and the concept of CT that strikes a chord with the pioneers of ‘infusion’. (Hidayati and Sinaga 2019 ).

At universities, critical thinking skills are rarely directly assessed. There are infomercial CT assessments available, which are frequently broad in nature. However, research suggests that evaluations that use a context appropriate to the students’ CT skills quite effectively represent their abilities (Chevalier et al. 2020 ; Wei et al. 2021 ).

A variety of commercial tools that evaluate critical thinking are available (AssessmentDay Ltd. 2015; Ennis and Weir 1985; Insight Assessment 2013; The Critical Thinking Co. 2015). The setting of these examinations is generally broad or abstract, and they are created for recruitment purposes. When students, on the other hand, assign meaning to the test environment, a more reliable reflection of students’ critical thinking can be derived (Bhutta et al. 2019 ).

Therefore, for the context of this study, a critical thinking evaluation that tests critical thinking especially from chemistry study is required. According to Suwandi (2011), attainment of advanced thinking skills should not be isolated from assessment, and must be conducted as an integral component of the learning environment to identify students’ cognitive growth and learning outcomes, as well as to improve the learning process (Nurfatihah et al. 2021 ).

4 Methodology

4.1 design and methods.

This study is quantitative in nature, and aims to examine the critical thinking abilities of class 12 students.

Quantitative research involves the collection of numerical data, and the use of statistics. (Bhandari 2020 ).

Reflecting on the research question, which focuses on fostering students’ critical thinking skills, an assessment tool is used to collect data quantitatively from the students’ test results. Then, the test results are analyzed into percentages to measure the causal relation between the quality of the science practice skills implemented in AP Chemistry course and the development of CT skills of high school students.

The paradigm of the study, which is the philosophy that underpins it, is post positivism. Only “fact based” information obtained through using the senses to observe and monitor, including measurement, is considered reliable by this philosophy (Bloomfield and Fisher 2019 ). In the context of this study, the DOT test results of students are the measurement on which the study’s outcomes rely on. In positivism studies, the researcher’s role is confined to gather data and analyze it objectively. In other words, while conducting research, the researcher acts as an unbiased analyst who disconnects himself or herself from personal preferences (Bloomfield and Fisher 2019 ).

4.2 Participants and Ethical Considerations

The participants in this study are 30 twelfth grade students from an American curriculum school in Dubai, adopting American curriculum and AP courses.

Participants were informed that participating in the study was completely voluntary, anonymous, and would have no bearing on their academic records, and that they had the option to withdraw at any moment. All students have been acknowledged with the informed consent. In addition, all techniques were authorized and acknowledged by the school principal.

4.3 Data Collection Instrument

The tool used in this study in a test designed using Google Forms. The test’s questions are constructed based on the Danczak-Overton-Thompson Chemistry Critical Thinking Skills Test (Danczak 2018 ), which is a tool that can be used to assess a student’s CT ability at any point during their study of Chemistry. Within a range of quantitative and qualitative reliability and validity testing phases, the DOT test was developed and evaluated throughout three versions. According to the studies, (Li et al. 2020 , Salirawati et al. 2021 ; Susetyo et al. 2021 and Helix et al. 2021 ) the final version of the DOT test has good internal reliability, strong test–retest reliability, moderate convergent validity, and is independent of past academic success and university of study (Danczak et al. 2016 ).

The DOT test consists of multiple-choice questions in Chemistry topics to assess five main aspects of CT including: (1) making assumptions: 7 questions (2) analyzing arguments: 7 questions (3) developing hypotheses: 6 questions (4) testing hypotheses: 5 questions (5) drawing conclusions: 5 questions.

A debriefed and revised form of DOT is used in this study, including 15 questions to examine the five critical thinking indicators with three questions for each indicator.

5 Data Analysis and Results

This section depicts the results derived from the DOT examination of student responses.

Data is gathered by including each student’s responses to each of the five aspects of the DOT Test.

The students’ grades in each of the five key areas are subsequently transformed into percentages (Fig. 3 ).

A bar chart represents the following data in percentages. Students making assumptions, 38.80. developing hypotheses, 56.60. Testing hypothesis, 54.4. drawing the conclusion, 46.60. analyzing arguments, 36.60

Percentage of the students’ CT skills aspects in DOT-Test

The students’ critical thinking percentage score is then transformed into qualitative values (categories) based on the following (see Table 3 ).

The graph (see Fig. 3 ) below shows the results of students’ critical thinking skills exam, which reveal that three components categorized as medium score including ‘Developing Hypotheses’ (56,6%), ‘Testing Hypothesis’ (54.4%), and ‘Drawing Conclusion’ (46.6%), while two components receive scores categorized as low, including ‘Making Assumptions’ (38.8%) and ‘Analyzing Arguments’ (36.6%).

The graph displays the average proportion of students’ CT skills from the five components, which is 46.6% which is considered medium. According to the findings, the average outcomes of 12th grade students’ critical thinking abilities exams are medium, at 46.6%. This is not in accordance with other studies, which claim that high school students’ CT skills are poor (Fadhlullah et al. 2017; Haber 2020 ).

In the aspects of developing and testing hypothesis of the DOT test, the students demonstrated the ability to predict what will happen in a specific context of interest based on existing evidence and reasoning, then seeking information to confirm or refute this prediction, and lastly drawing a conclusion.

On the other hand, students struggled a bit to postulate and decide the validity of an argument in the aspects of making assumptions and analyzing arguments.

6 Discussion

In discussing the results of the study, three keys with high order abilities were determined to be the greatest in the results of the DOT test: developing hypothesis, testing hypothesis, and drawing conclusion.

Critical thinking skills in the ‘Developing Hypotheses’ component of students were rated at [49%].

In scientific reasoning, scientists make conclusions based on data, observations, and assumed facts while developing hypotheses. To make a connection or find the intended meaning, an inference is employed to fill in the gaps. These conclusions are not certain, but the hypothesis being constructed has a high level of confidence based on the evidence supplied (Danczak 2018 ).

The results of the tests suggest that this element is medium, which indicates that students are trained to design a hypothesis through applying the guided inquiry teaching technique as discussed in the literature review.

Results obtained in the section of ‘Testing Hypothesis’, reflect the same analysis as in the ‘Developing Hypothesis’ section. With a score of 54.4%, students were able to decide if the idea presented in the passage was supported by the evidence presented, or the deduction had nothing to do with the hypothesis, and there wasn’t enough data to back it up.

In a guided inquiry approach, experiments are carried out to test hypotheses (Putra et al. 2018 ).

Students start with a theory or assertion that they believe is correct and then seek information to corroborate or contradict it. As a result, a premise is formed that is thought to be correct or true (Danczak 2018 ). This area is very fundamental in science education.

By 46.6% in the area of ‘Drawing Conclusion’, these results are considered medium; however, it could be considered as ‘low’ medium. Students may struggle to formulate a conclusion due to a lack of comprehension and inability to make connections. A conclusion’s strength is defined by how well the deductions, inferences, and/or premises support it. To reach a conclusion, a scientist will combine multiple pieces of knowledge, such as deductions, inferences, or premises (Danczak 2018 ). This indicator is consistent with the constructivist approach discussed earlier in the literature review, which emphasizes learners using prior knowledge, encouraging inventive thinking, and allowing them to grow and thrive (Yezierski 2018 ).

Moreover, formulation of conclusions is one of its essential learning phases in the guided inquiry model (Putra et al. 2018 ).

The test findings revealed that the area with the lowest score, 36.6%, is ‘Analyzing Arguments’.

Students must decide whether or not an argument is valid as part of the scientific process. This necessitates distinguishing assumptions (spoken or implicit), inferences, deductions, and premises, conclusions (certain conclusions in a statement may be implied), and if the argument is relevant to the topic being addressed.

Even if there is sufficient evidence, reliable sources, and supporting material, an argument might be regarded weak if it is unimportant and unrelated to the question being presented (Danczak 2018 ).

In summary, the average of all components of critical thinking skills is 46.6%, demonstrating a medium category, according to the criteria used. Referring to this research question, this 46.6% average indicates that the science practice implemented in the AP Chemistry course can assist in fostering the CT skills of the high school students.

Whereas, it contradicts the results of the three-year PISA research conducted from 2009 to 2015, which revealed low scores due to students’ lack of familiarity with higher-order thinking (Hidayati and Sinaga 2019 ).

7 Recommendations and Limitations

The exam results are influenced by a number of other factors, such as the process of teaching and learning in the classroom, which is not attuned to developing CT skills in conformance with the expectations of the twenty-first century. Students’ inadequate critical thinking abilities are attributable to a lack of activity and training, as well as restricted resources and time, which limit the environment’s ability to build critical thinking skills (Fadhlullah et al. 2017).

Memorization should not be prioritized in learning activities (DuDevoir 2018 ). To solve problems and make judgments, students should be able to derive, interpret, and evaluate information. In the learning process, teamwork and collaboration are also stressed while solving difficulties (Hagemann and Kluge 2017 ). Learning must also shift from a focus on low-level thinking abilities to one that prioritizes high-level thinking skills (Hasanah et al. 2020 ).

The study’s limitations include the small sample size, making it difficult to generalize the findings and draw firm conclusions based on such a small sample size. To confirm the study results, tt is necessary to conduct a larger sample size study on a broader scope. For example, conduct the study on all grades 10, 11 and 12 students who study Chemistry.

Also, the gender factor can be included in the results and the data analysis. The study conducted by the researcher was on two sets of students, 20 students from the girls’ high school section and 10 students from the boys’ high school section. Moreover, confounding variables should have been taken into consideration (Jeske and Yao 2020 ). The environmental conditions of the exam were not identical, since another instructor teaches in the boys section. This instructor may have influenced the students’ responses.

Lastly, the study’s instrumental tool did not include all the components of the original DOT exam. These metrics may not be able to fully represent all characteristics of an instance.

In summary, the way science curricula are developed will have an impact on future science instruction. This concept is further backed by a significant requirement to incorporate critical thinking skills into science training in order to improve learning outcomes in schools and beyond.

8 Conclusion

The learning experiences that students have, have a big impact on their critical thinking skills. Students will acquire critical thinking abilities if they are frequently offered training to carry out CT activities during the learning process. As a result, future study should emphasize the significance of teaching critical thinking skills to students at an early age, and making it a main priority educational objective. Moreover, teachers should devise teaching techniques that allow students’ engagement in activities that assess in the development of critical thinking skills (Chu et al., 2017 ; Emerson 2019 ). It is the role of the institutes to keep a closer eye on actual teaching in the classrooms.

Once educated, creative and critical thinking need to be assessed (Abazar 2020). Several instruments are available to help with this, but evaluators must ensure that these instruments are used appropriately in a correct setting, because changes in testing techniques can impact the result’s accountability (Forwai 2020). In addition, a study of how science teachers integrate reasoning and critical thinking abilities into teaching and increasing students’ learning should be conducted.

Finally, we may firmly admit at the end that critical thinking in science education is the magic wand that will usher in a knowledge-actions based society. That knowledge-actions based society, whether in the United Arab Emirates or elsewhere in the world, will be able to maintain control over the present while deciding on and planning for the future with the adherence to high ethical and moral standards.

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Raslan, G. (2023). Critical Thinking Skills Profile of High School Students in AP Chemistry Learning. In: Al Marri, K., Mir, F., David, S., Aljuboori, A. (eds) BUiD Doctoral Research Conference 2022. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 320. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27462-6_8

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Smith feels that his YouTube videos—particularly one that went viral and was retweeted by Elon Musk—are the reason behind his termination. The video showcases Smith’s commitment to critical thinking in the face of baseless accusations against “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.

The alleged incident centers on a conversation that took place in class earlier this year in which Smith politely rebuked a student who called J.K. Rowling a "bigot."

The students questioned, “Do you still like [J.K. Rowling’s] work, despite her bigoted opinions?"

Smith responded, “So, let’s get specific though. Let’s define bigoted opinions. What opinions are bigoted? We’re going to treat this as a thought experiment. I’m not going to say what’s right or wrong or which way to think. The whole point is to learn how to think – not what to think.

Watch the video below:

Elon Musk, recognizing the positive effects of such an educational method, shared the video with his millions of followers, pointing out the importance of critical thinking abilities among young people.

Musk said, "Critical thinking should be the first thing taught to kids." The post was viewed 33 million times.

However, three months after the video became viral, Smith was sacked from his position.

“Seven days ago, I was fired from my school after four years of teaching. I recorded this the following day to share my perspective – honestly & in good faith – to move forward and put this experience behind me. I have no desire to cause complications or bring unwanted attention to the school, so I will not divulge anything beyond that,” Smith wrote on X.

His removal was allegedly due to a breach of trust—yet Smith asserts that he has never once divulged confidential information or overstepped any legal boundaries set by the school.

However, Smith speculated that his termination might have been precipitated by the attention his video received after Musk’s retweet.

How are netizens reacting:

"You should not have been fired. Schools need teachers like you who prioritize critical thinking over blindly affirming pre-held beliefs," commented one user.

"You are a hero that was among cowards," commented another.

Video: Teacher Loses Job For Backing J.K Rowling & Encouraging Students to Think Critically

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The benefits of critical thinking for students and how to develop it
6 Main Types of Critical Thinking Skills (With Examples)
How to promote Critical Thinking Skills
Critical Thinking Skills Chart
Tips and a free "cheat sheet" for incorporating critical thinking in
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Critical Thinking Assessment Series [Disk 2] [Part 3]
Critical Thinking Assessment Series [Disk 3] [Part 4]
Critical Thinking Assessment Series [Disk 3] [Part 5]
Critical Thinking Assessment Series [Disk 3] [Part 8]
Teacher De-Wokefies Student By Teaching Critical Thinking
Planning for Rigor: Critical Thinking, Assessment, Planning Grade 7

COMMENTS

Critical Thinking Testing and Assessment
The purpose of assessing instruction for critical thinking is improving the teaching of discipline-based thinking (historical, biological, sociological, mathematical, etc.) It is to improve students' abilities to think their way through content using disciplined skill in reasoning. The more particular we can be about what we want students to ...
Teaching, Measuring & Assessing Critical Thinking Skills
These assessments demonstrate that it is possible to capture meaningful data on students' critical thinking abilities. They are not intended to be high stakes accountability measures. Instead, they are designed to give students, teachers, and school leaders discrete formative data on hard to measure skills.
40 Critical Thinking Questions for High School Students
Here's how critical thinking shapes the life of high schoolers. 1. Develops Problem-Solving Skills. Students are sure to come across everyday problems and issues in their academic journey or personal life. While some students may develop stress, others might ignore it. However, the essence of critical thinking helps students solve these ...
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Middle and High School
Teach Reasoning Skills. Reasoning skills are another key component of critical thinking, involving the abilities to think logically, evaluate evidence, identify assumptions, and analyze arguments. Students who learn how to use reasoning skills will be better equipped to make informed decisions, form and defend opinions, and solve problems.
Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking
Students grappled with ideas and their beliefs and employed deep critical-thinking skills to develop arguments for their claims. Embedding critical-thinking skills in curriculum that students care ...
Developing Critical Thinking Skills in High School Students: A Guide
Developing critical thinking skills in high school students has numerous benefits. It enhances their academic performance, prepares them for higher education and future careers, and equips them with the ability to navigate complex societal issues. Critical thinking also fosters creativity, independence, and a lifelong love for learning.
PDF Assessing Critical Thinking among High School Students: A Systematic
thinking. In this article, we focus on assessment tools of Critical Thinking in high school students, searching 23 empirical studies during three-round checking, and see the current situation of critical thinking in high school students and hope to give some future direction for educators and researchers. 2. Literature Review 2.1.
PDF Developing the Critical Thinking Skill Test for High School Students: A
Developing the Critical Thinking Skill Test for High School Students: A Validity and Reliability Study . Ali ORHAN. 1, Şule ÇEVİKER AY. 2. 1. School of Foreign . Languages, Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey 0000-0003-1234-3919 . 2. Faculty of Education, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey. 0000-0002-9505-5105. ARTICLE INFO ...
Critical Thinking Resources for High School Teachers
Other sites, such as Edutopia.org, are constantly updated with new information to provide teachers with the most current information possible. The site, which is part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is divided by grade level and has a special section focused on producing critical thinking high school students: Grades 9-12 High School.
PDF An examination of high school students' critical thinking dispositions
The analytical thinking skills scale for high-school students, which aims. to determine high school students' analytical thinking levels, was developed by Ocak and Park (2020). This 24-item 5-point Likert scale with four sub-dimensions was developed based on data from 324 high school students.
Critical Thinking Questions: The Big List for Your Classroom
In an age of "fake news" claims and constant argument about pretty much any issue, critical thinking skills are key. Teach your students that it's vital to ask questions about everything, but that it's also important to ask the right sorts of questions. Students can use these critical thinking questions with fiction or nonfiction texts.
Fostering and assessing student critical thinking: From theory to
The OECD rubrics were designed for use in real-life teaching practices in different ways: (1) designing and revising lesson plans to support students gain opportunity to develop critical thinking skills (and creativity); (2) assessing student work and progression in the acquisition of these skills; (3) generating newly aligned rubrics adapted ...
47 Critical Thinking Questions for High School Students
Analytical. Creativity. Open-mindedness. Let's review some of the best questions that encourage critical thinking in high school students. Contents. 1 47 Critical Thinking Questions for High School Students. 1.1 Question 1. 1.2 Question 2. 1.3 Question 3.
Assessing Student Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
Critical thinking and problem solving, as we define it, are the set of non-discipline specific cognitive skills people use to analyze vast amounts of information and creatively solve problems. We have broken those skills down into these five core components: Schema Development: The ability to learn vast amounts of information and organize it in ...
11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class
6. Start a Debate. In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science.
Best critical thinking questions for high school students
Developing critical thinking skills is essential for high school students as it equips them with the ability to analyze and evaluate information, solve problems, and make informed decisions. Critical thinking questions encourage students to think deeply, explore different perspectives, and challenge their own assumptions. These types of questions promote intellectual curiosity and foster a ...
Critical Thinking > Assessment (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
A superb example of assessment of an aspect of critical thinking ability is the Test on Appraising Observations (Norris & King 1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b), which was designed for classroom administration to senior high school students. The test focuses entirely on the ability to appraise observation statements and in particular on the ability to ...
Validation of critical thinking test to senior high school students
Abstract. The purpose of the research is to examine the development of instruments for measuring the critical thinking abilities of high school students. This research is a quantitative descriptive study. Aspects of critical thinking skills used are to identify problems, reconstruct arguments, evaluate arguments, determine solutions and conclude.
Assessing Critical Thinking in Higher Education: Current State and
For example, critical thinking assessments showed moderate correlations with general cognitive assessments such as SAT® or GRE® tests (e.g., Ennis, 2005; Giancarlo, ... Junior and senior students from high school and college in California. 80 high school, 80 college. Moderate significant correlations with the Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning ...
Assessment of the High School Students' Critical Thinking Skills
The study is descriptive and done with the survey model. In order to measure the critical thinking skills of the students a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire composed of 21 questions is developed ...
Examining critical thinking aptitudes of high school students using the
This section explains the implementation of models which translate critical thinking skills and attributes into aspects to be assessed. The theoretical framework of this research (see Fig. 1) is grounded on the RED Critical Thinking Model which defines the key aspects of the critical thinking process.In addition, the section discusses commonly used tools used for critical thinking assessment.
Critical Thinking Skills Profile of High School Students in AP
According to the findings, the average outcomes of 12th grade students' critical thinking abilities exams are medium, at 46.6%. This is not in accordance with other studies, which claim that high school students' CT skills are poor (Fadhlullah et al. 2017; Haber 2020 ).
Enhance Critical Thinking in High School Students
Critical thinking is an invaluable skill, especially for high school students poised to navigate complex life and work environments. By honing this ability, students can better analyze information ...
Do IB students have higher critical thinking? A comparison of IB with
Cornell critical thinking test: Students completed the Cornell Critical Thinking Test, a 52 multiple-choice item test of critical thinking. ... Developing students for university through an international high school program in Turkey. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 16 (2) (2016), pp. 439-458. View in Scopus Google Scholar. Sala and ...
Assessment of the High School Students' Critical Thinking Skills
This study is conducted to determine the high school students' critical thinking skills. The study is descriptive and done with the survey model. In order to measure the critical thinking skills of the students a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire composed of 21 questions is developed by the researcher. The sample of the study is 722 high school ...
Video: Teacher Loses Job For Backing J.K Rowling & Encouraging Students
Warren Smith, a popular YouTuber and high school teacher known for his critical thinking-focused channel, has been fired. Smith feels that his YouTube videos—particularly one that went viral and ...
This teacher went viral after calmly and brilliantly questioning a
Back in February, high school teacher Warren Smith went viral after being asked by a student: "Do you still like [J.K. Rowling's] work, despite her bigoted opinions?" The conversation that followed was a masterclass in the Socratic method and critical thinking.