Critical thinking is important for students and teachers to develop. It involves pursuing questions through self-directed learning, recognizing that knowledge is open to debate, and supporting arguments with evidence. However, many graduates struggle with critical thinking after school because teachers often just provide simplified explanations rather than encouraging independent thought. To improve critical thinking, teachers should use questioning techniques, engage students actively with materials, use visual aids to prompt analysis, and assess students' critical thinking skills through summarization and creative projects. Developing critical thinking requires curiosity, confidence, and perseverance in addition to memory and intellectual ability. It is important to teach critical thinking methods in schools to produce graduates who can identify and address real-world problems.
1 of 4
Download to read offline
More Related Content
NANDUTU JULIET MULAK O ENGLISH COMPOSITION 11
1. Critical thinking across the curriculum process over output
From the passage or article of Claudette Thompson, he is addressing the importance of critical
thinking for both students and teachers at school and after school. Factors that contribute to
critical thinking, reasons why many people fail to identify the problems, solutions to the
problems, and ways of teaching or improving critical thinking in institutions or schools.
From the article researchers have defined critical thinking as being able to pursue ones
question through self-directed search and interrogation of knowledge, a sense that knowledge is
contestable, and being able to present evidence to support ones argument(Pithers & soden
2000,p.239). Therefore, it is true that critical thinking is an approach that helps scholars to
identify problems, such as finding the ways to improve on the economy. For example,
technology for the development of the economy, making of the energy that will be used in the
nation (shah,2010), and also enables to identify the differences in different places like working
place, through argument, advice, and ways of handling things/problems in different areas.
From the article, the reasons why the scholars after graduation or their universities get problems
in solving the problems that require critical thinking are presented. Also shown are plans to bring
changes and solutions to the problems available, due to many factors such as; self-effectiveness
of the teachers to help the scholars, wrong interpretation of the critical thinking of the teachers in
schools and colleges that cause all these problems to the graduates. Yet, it is true that many
teachers only give theories to students and simplified things without giving them time to think,
reason, and come up with solutions of their own. Teachers simplify by giving in the way they
have interpreted the work hence students graduate without knowledge of solving problems in the
real world. Many teachers or lecturers believe in the duplication of the work they have given to
the candidates exactly and think they have helped, not knowing that they are worsening the
2. situation whereby the students will graduate with the idea of depending on only the ideas given
to them by their professors/lecturers in their colleges.
However, here are the ways of improving or teaching critical thinking in schools or colleges to
students in order to produce good people who are capable to identify, and solve problems
existing in the area they are found. The suggested ways of solving/improving critical thinking
are; questioning method; it promotes/encourages students to interpret, analyze, synthesis,
critique, and reflect on what has been given/taught to them which is very important to students to
think and be able to apply to the questions asked to them, for example research about what is
taking place in the country and this will help them to think critically. Secondly, student
engagement (ikuenoba 2001) teachers forcing their duties like giving students articles to read or
textbooks to read and write the hypothesis, and write the conclusion of the textbooks or articles
about. This will help in improving the critical thinking of the students, and even after their
graduation they can be able to identify the problems, and have possible solutions to them.
Thirdly, using illustrations to take out information such as giving students visuals to go home
to find out the meanings of the things and their symbols like De Bono(1991) in his work six, had
different hats with different colors, and symbols that had varieties of analyses such as
emotions ,objectivity critique, problem solving, and creativity for example, white meant
objective thinking about facts, and figures, Red meant intuitive feelings, and emotions, Yellow
meant viability of suggestions, Black meant feasibility of a plan, Green meant exploring
alternate ideas, and Blue meant alerting thinkers to develop an action plan, therefore such work
help students or scholars to think, and come up with solutions hence improving their critical
thinking. Lastly, the final way of teaching critical thinking in colleges/institutions is through
assessing critical thinking (education) of students on what they have learnt in class such as after a
3. topic give them work to summarize, and outline the major points learnt in lecture/class, and also
come up with things like plays/drama plays from the same topic and later give notes to them.
And this will help them to compare their work, and for the teacher/lecturer hence improving, and
developing their critical thinking in colleges/universities. For example teaching about the death
of Amin Idi Dada in Uganda and this can make students/scholars to think and read more.
From his article, he believes that critical thinking is due to psychology(the memory of a person
that is to say, the long term ,and short term memory that enables a person to remember, store
information, recall, and apply in the field which is not true even though its, but not the only
factor that applies to critical thinking, such as the nursing department involves curriculum
design, and integrations learning activities such as foundation concepts from simple to complex,
case studies, and also care maps this enables the nurses to think, and apply in the field, and also
help in the clinical judgment by the nurses, hence other factors considered not this alone and
they are as follows;
Curiosity/interest plays a big role in the critical thinking in order to identify problems not only
the brain that a person have to store information/data, confidence, and perservance or personal
characteristics also plays a big role in critical thinking such as a person may store the
information, recall but if not confident in what he/she is doing to solve the problem that have
been raised is hard hence impractical. Therefore, it is significant to note that the good memory to
store information, intellectual, curiosity, and confident in a person helps a lot to identify and
solve the problems found hence work together/hand in hand.
4. In conclusion it is important to teach critical thinking in order to produce scholars who are able
or capable to identify, and solve problems discovered. And lecturers learn to think than copying
theories.