It centers on building students’ skills and their thinking processes (see table 1.1). It is a path to deeper learning, which is a high-leverage strategy to propel learning as students engage in complex tasks. This all begs the question of what thinking is in the context of learning. To be sure, thinking covers a variety of categories and cognitive levels from information analysis to problem-solving and effective collaboration skills. Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl,2001) is a key part of all this, and we’ll cover those connections in detail in chapter 2 (page 11), but in this chapter, we start with a focus on two broad-based concepts that succinctly establish the core aspects of the thinking-based classroom-critical thinking and cognitive engagement.
Table 1.1: Transmission Model Versus Thinking Model
Transmission Model
- Teacher-centered classrooms
- One right way to answer a problem
- Focus on grades
- Testing culture
- Students not allowed to talk
- Speedy answers encouraged
- Thinking Model
- Learning-centered classrooms
- Divergent ways to solve a problem
- Focus on the learning process
- Learning culture
- Student discussions of diverse ideas and solutions
- Authentic, intellectually demanding work
Source: Adapted from Ritchhart, 2015.
The question becomes, How do you emphasize critical thinking in your own instructional practices? Education author Bonnie Potts (1994) identifies four areas important for teaching critical thinking that remain resonant as a core rule set for establishing critical thinking practices in your classroom.
- Learning with others in a group setting
- Posing open-ended questions that are ill-defined and challenge students to think creatively
- Providing wait time for students to develop their thinking by asking questions, discussing with others, and refining their thinking before responding
- Practicing critical-thinking skills in various contexts to ensure students apply the skill in new situations.
