Posts Tagged ‘critical thinking skills’
November 30 - Teaching Critical Thinking: Are We Clear?
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
I’ve been thinking about critical thinking. I just finished reading Stephen Brookfield’s new book on the topic, Teaching for Critical Thinking. (Side note: Stephen is a prolific author, writing on a variety of teaching-learning topics and his work has generated a number of classics including The Skillful Teacher, Discussion as a Way of Teaching, co-authored with Stephen Preskill, and Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. If you don’t know his work, by all means add it to your reading list). My recent journal reading contained a couple of interesting articles on critical thinking as well.
September 6 - An Innovative Way of Analyzing Critical Thinking Skills
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
The goal of most majors is to develop the kind of critical thinking skills students will need to address the not clearly defined and conceptually complicated problems that most professionals regularly face. Faculty in the Finance Department at Seattle University wondered if they were preparing their majors to solve these kinds of problems.
May 12 - How Can I Help Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills?
By: Mary Bart in 20 Minute Mentor, Teaching & Learning
How Can I Help Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills? Program includes a CD with the video presentation, plus supplemental materials, PowerPoint slides, and complete transcript • $99 A meaningful education is measured not by the facts a student accumulates, but by what he or she is able to do with those facts. Developing critical thinking
May 12 - Learning Skills: Necessary but not Taught
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
Here are some survey results worth mulling over. A group of life sciences faculty were asked about teaching students “science process skills”—identified as data interpretation, problem solving, experimental design, scientific writing, oral communication, collaborative work, and critical analysis of primary literature.
March 10 - The Facts on Higher Order Thinking
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
I just read a study that pretty much blew my socks off. An article highlighting the details will appear in the March issue of The Teaching Professor. I’ll give you the nutshell version here. The researchers were interested in finding out if there was empirical evidence to support the frequent criticism that introductory courses are fact filled with little content that challenges higher order thinking. Beyond anecdotal evidence, this research team didn’t find much empirical documentation so, being biologists, they decided to look at introductory-level biology courses.
October 22 - A New Way to Help Students Learn Course Vocabulary
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies
Most college students struggle with the vocabulary of our disciplines. In their various electronic exchanges, they do not use a lot of multisyllabic, difficult-to-pronounce words. And virtually all college courses are vocabulary rich—unfamiliar words abound. Most students know that the new vocabulary in a course is important. They use flash cards and other methods to help them memorize the words and their meanings for their exams. Two days later, the words and their meanings are gone.
July 2 - Tips for Improving Student Thinking and Learning
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Here’s a list of some practical suggestions taken from a neat, “miniature guide for those who teach on how to improve student learning.” (reference below) The guide was prepared by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, both well-known experts on critical thinking. “Focus on fundamental and powerful concepts with high generalizability. Don’t cover more than 50
April 16 - Learning Goals: Faculty and Students Don’t Agree
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
The findings of a recent study documenting differences between the priorities that faculty and students give to various learning goals will not come as a surprise to many. Those differences are an undercurrent that flow through most classes.
March 2 - Guiding Student Reflection
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
When learners reflect, they thoughtfully consider (or reconsider) an experience. If the reflection is critical, it challenges the customary ways of understanding or explaining an experience. Critical reflection questions meanings and looks at assumptions. The opportunity to reflect on experiences develops critical thinking skills and helps students to learn things for themselves.
April 1 - Survey of College Faculty Reveals Increases in Student-Centered Teaching and Evaluation Methods
By: Mary Bart in Teaching and Learning, Trends in Higher Education
Helping students develop critical-thinking skills and discipline-specific knowledge remain at the forefront of faculty goals for undergraduate education, with 99.6 percent of faculty indicating that critical-thinking skills are “very important” or “essential” and 95.1 percent saying the same of discipline-specific knowledge. Other top goals include helping students to evaluate the quality and reliability of information (97.2 percent) and promoting the ability to write more effectively (96.4 percent).
