Using an inquiry model of learning was helpful in discovering ways to turn theory and personal teaching philosophies into practices that can work for my classroom. In essence, it was a way for me to link theory to practice. During my practicum, I plan to implement many small activities and discussions that encourage students to think critically, without explicitly introducing the lesson goals as such. Halpern (1998) suggests that one requirement for students to learn critical thinking is to develop a disposition to willingly learn better thinking skills. I hope that through our lessons that students can begin to think about their thinking processes. As a beginning teacher in the near future, I hope to design my units and lessons focusing on scaffolding for future critical thinking activities. Ultimately I hope to have students think and answer questions at the creating, evaluating, and analyzing level on Bloom’s Taxonomy, as an example of my end goal as a teacher. This will require valid and reliable methods of assessments to understand what students know and areas that can be improved. For class activities, I hope to engage the class in debates and investigations into current events that they find interesting, much like a student-led inquiry project. This is a subject that may be difficult to approach by students, but with the right approach and attitude, I believe that students can develop critical thinking skills with much enthusiasm. I will, hopefully, continue to passionately model my inquiry into teaching critical thinking skills; as an educator, I am still actively learning every day, and it is my goal that students will also become avid life-long learners.
Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist,53(4), 449-455.
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