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Critical Thinking Skills

 

 

The development of critical thinking skills can be carefully guided by teachers in a science classroom.  Students view images, interprete media, print resources and online sources as part of daily life, but also for their student research.  An activity that is relevant to youth, based on the scientific process, is to have students critical analysis of an advertisement.

 

Practicing Skills With A Relevant Assignment

The purpose of doing a critical analysis of an advertisement is to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the use and effectiveness of the following factors:

  • control groups

  • population sampling differences

  • random sampling

  • controlling for variables

  • critical evaluation of data

  • reproducible data

  • statistically significantly differences

  • anecdotal data

  • peer review in science


The following flowsheet is modified from the student assignment by Rutledge.

Once students identify and then justify the importance of each step,  they can make a critical judgement on the advertisement.  Some examples of justification may be that anecdotal evidence have limitations or that the manner in which subjects are assigned to a study group may affect the validity of the study.  Rutledge reports that their students often noted that critial aspects of an advertisement's research design or data analysis were "flawed" or "absent".   

 

 

Developing Critical Thinking With Peers

"The purpose of inquiry and research is to encourage high levels of critical thinking so that processes and resources are appropriate, conclusions are based on supporting evidence, and problems are solved and decisions made that will extend learning for a lifetime." (Ontario Curriculum)

 

Educators should not assume that students who arrive in their classroom possess critical thinking skills.  Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) was developed in 1993 as an integrated method that promoted discourse and creative problem solving in chemistry at the City College of New York (Quitadamo, et. al.).  By incorporating time for students to explore and develop creative solutions to problems, students may collaboratively build their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding.  

 

Key elements to the success of a collaborative approach to critical thinking is to provide structure that encourages questioning, analysis, discussion and debate among group members. This begins with students accepting people may not always agree when discussing topics. 

 

Provide students with generic sentence starters to support the development of discussion and debate. The following is based on the work of Fulton and Poeltler.

To continue the process students should be encourage to apply these critical thinking skills to everyday conversation,  social media and information from various sources to extend their critical thinking beyond the classroom.

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Fulton, Lori, and Emily Poeltler. 2013. DEVELOPING A SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT. Science and Children 50, (9) (Summer): 30-35, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1401105886?accountid=15115

 

The Ontario Curriculum Grades 11 and 12 (2008, Revised).

 

Quitadamo, I. J., Brahler, C. J., & Crouch, G. J. (2009). Peer-led team learning: A prospective method for increasing critical thinking in undergraduate science courses. Science Educator, 18(1), 29-39. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/228783607?accountid=15115

 

Rutledge, M. L. (2005). Making the nature of science RELEVANT: Effectiveness of an activity that stresses critical thinking skills. The American Biology Teacher, 67(6), 329-333. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/219048695?accountid=15115

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