Ratgeber für MicroUnternehmen

Thinking Skills

There different levels of thinking that involve increasingly complex skills. These skills can be taught in a systematic way. Through writing and social studies reading, you can teach and practice these building block tools for higher levels of problem solving and include the materials throughout the curriculum.

Standardized test frequently evaluate students thinking skills as implied by types of questions and answers. Critical thinking is a life skill, to help students make decisions throughout their careers. Your desire to train to be teachers of these thinking shows you already understand their importance.

Discover whole and the parts. Deciding what is the major category and what falls within each category.
Finding similar items. Finding different categories or opposites. This skill of finding what is similar and what is contrasting is the object of many reading and social studies tests. What were the similarities between two presidents, two wars, and so on.

Through class discussion, lead the students to practice the skill over and over. What were the most popular cars during the 1930's. Define how you are going to use the word 'popular' for this problem. Let the students discover that popular can have many connotations. Settle on a standard for popular and then set out to research the answer.

Finding similarities and dissimilarities: compare and contrast thinking is more difficult thinking process. Comparisons are not only finding groupings but seeing how they are alike and different in a few respects. So the student has to sort the categories then make an assessment to evaluate them for a defined purpose. Compare the policies on immigration between Governor Romney and President Obama. Draw some conclusions from your data. Making judgments is a higher level thinkings than sorting.

Problem solving skills are more difficult thinking operations. You give students moral or difficult situations where they have to take the problem apart and try to address the separate issues. What are the potential solutions to explain dark holes in science?

Formulating a hypothesis and proving it is what students do to qualify for advanced degrees in their thesis. You find a problem such discovering a solution to energy consumption is an example where there are many possible hypotheses. What constitutes a proof?

There is no experience more important to teach your students than the processes of critical thinking. It has a lasting effect.

Mat21