Critical thinking. How do you define it? The ability to think rationally? Engage in independent thinking? Understand the logical connection between concepts? Solve problems systematically? Regardless of how you explain it, critical thinking is not just the matter of accumulating information; a critical thinker will be able to make use of information to solve problems and seek quality sources of information as needed.
Regardless of whether our students work in business, the legal field, education, nursing, or whatever, the ability to think well and solve problems is a skill essential to any career. In our global economy, decision making is driven by technology, information sharing, and the ability of those involved in decisions to analyze data. Top Fortune 500 company CEOs desire employees that exhibit strong critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.
Although most would agree that critical thinking is important, many do not know how to improve their thinking skills or engage in metacognition. In 1990, Dr. Peter Facione wrote a paper entitled “Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction;” in it, he wrote, “The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fairminded in evaluation….” He wrote that the development of critical thinking skills was the basis of, “rational and democratic society.”
Consider your students. If we want them to be able to apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, reflect, and so forth, how can we make that happen in the context of a mathematics classroom? Critical thinking in the classroom is the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and explanations of information as it relates to the evidence in a problem or scenario. I warn my statistics students on day one of class that they will never look at the news the same again. If they learn anything in my class, it’s that they should ask the 5W questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why) about information they hear.
“In Math, critical thinking usually comes when students ask why, rather than taking what we learn at face value,” says Graham Johnson, Math Department Head -Okanagan Mission Secondary & Instructional Designer at the Thinkable Institute. If you can incorporate problems that get your students to not simply complete procedures but think about concepts, then you are opening the door to critical thinking. In MyMathLab, when you are designing or modifying assignments, look for concept questions (CQL below) in your text, find the Application Problems in each section, or use learning guides and the supplemental questions in the appendix as available.
Maybe you need some “new” word problems to liven up your course? Or perhaps you want to link a neat video from Khan Academy to your homework? In your Assignment Manager, you can easily switch to other textbooks to browse and import questions into your course; you can import up to 20 questions from other texts into one assignment.
You can also embed media into your homework from external sources.
These little things we do in our math class can enhance our students’ experience, and begin to train their minds to think.
