Teaching Critical Thinking
A college education is more than just accumulating knowledge or memorize facts. Students must learn to get into the deeper levels of understanding or gaining “insight” to develop the critical thinking skills. However, many college teachers are focusing more on covering all materials in a course to make sure that they complete the textbooks rather than helping students to develop the critical thinking and deeper learning skills.
Today many students go to college but only learn the “superficial thinking” which is incomplete, full of prejudices, and they cannot make the right judgment but let others influence their thinking. This type of “narrow knowledge” also destroys their creativity and innovation as they cannot apply their knowledge to anything. When students memorize facts and cram before the exam, they do not understand much, but store “whatever materials” into their short-term memory and try to recall them during the exam. Because they can not think deep enough, they cannot apply, create, or innovate, but “blindly” copy something as their own.
Critical thinking requires students to “think deep” by understanding, analyzing, reviewing, and questioning the materials until they gain the “insight knowledge.” Students who can think critically will be able to apply their knowledge rationally, reasonably, and empathically. To help students developing this skills, I use a simple technique as follows:
In my class, each week students must read some technical articles and industry news BEFORE they come to class. During class time, they must participate in the discussion, where students express their understanding which may be different views about the materials. By listening to other views, they have to analyze, re-evaluate, and synthesize them into a deeper understanding of the materials.
Following the discussion, I always ask all students to prepare to answer three simple questions ‘What did I learn?’ ‘What does it mean for me?’ And ‘What can I do with what I have learned? It is a simple technique, but it always makes students think careful and critically before they answer. By listening to their answers, I can evaluate whether they understand or not, and correct their mistakes and guide them toward the results that I want them to learn.
Each week, I ask myself what do I want students to learn this week and how do I make them gain the “insight knowledge” through the class discussion? After knowing the outcomes, I always prepare a set of questions to challenge them to learn more. During the actual discussion, I try to provide a balanced view and guide them toward higher levels of complexity of thinking, analyzing, and reasoning until they get into a much deeper learning and understanding.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
