Critical thinking lapses seem to be at a crisis level. When I was teaching 6th grade a few years ago, I regularly changed my seating arrangement. My room was small, the kids were big, and so, changing the furniture around was simply a matter of keeping everyone from cabin fever with the bi-product bonus of good classroom management and fresh groupings of students. Initially, I do the moving while they are home. As time moves on, I give them the responsibility of developing the arrangements and seating charts. At the midpoint of the year, where I put the arrangement and chart on the board, and they have to make it happen, I noticed that there were a large segment of kids who couldn’t get things in the right places, and there were other kids who began directing them in frustration. One student tried to move his desk in a straight line to the desired spot (which made him have to go through other people and desks that were in the way.) He couldn’t determine that the other items needed to move first. It wasn’t just the desks. It was many simple tasks. “Take one, pass it down” is a phrase many people know well. Not this group of kids. They would get the pile and send one paper at a time down the row. As I continued to observe, I noticed that many prerequisite skills 6th graders used to exhibit were now extinct and needed to be taught.
During the summer, my other hat is the director of the Summer camp at my school. It’s a fun job, and a chance to work with my colleagues creating a great summer for the kids. We create things and discover things every day as part of our program. Jokingly, I have said, “Hey, these are the kids who will make honor roll next school year.” But, honestly, we have a very large percentage of campers who earn academic awards every quarter. Then, I started tracking it. Turns out my joke was right on the money.
I attribute their success to their ability to think critically. This is borne out of using those skills that many are missing that enable one to solve problems. As a math teacher, I am constantly looking for ways to have students think about problem solving while using their actual brain! Many shut down as soon as they see the words. Yes, we can make it engaging and real world, but there is still a large degree of shut down. (You can flavor nasty tasting medicine, but the grape and bubble gum don’t eradicate the nasty taste. It is underlying. Story problems are the same. The problems are flavored a little better, but the underlying resistance to solving the nasty problem remains evident to kids.) Yet, when I see students whose parents take them camping regularly, or those whose parents have them help with different types of work around the house, or those whose parents have encouraged them to create things, I find students who generally will think through the problem to its completion.
Even something as simple as the right amount of glue for a job of a cut and paste activity in a primary grade can be helpful toward critical thinking development. Right now, my class has been playing “Bounce Off” during our expanded critical thinking session. We are playing as two teams. They have to strategize together and they have to use good spatial awareness. It was hard for them, but they kept at it. I know as I keep working at things, my students will have many opportunities to develop skills that will help them think critically.
We all know these are digital natives we are teaching, whose parents may not have the time or opportunity to provide those experiences. Don’t be afraid to dedicate a little class time to helping kids develop their critical thinking skills by giving them a little Scouting, Camping, Crafting, Cooking type of experience. That trial and error they employ will pay off
First published August 31, 2019
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