I think critical thinking should be taught in grade school. To many kids don't know how to problem solve, they only know how to follow directions that they have been given that match a situation. What happens if they find themselves in a unique situation? They won't have any idea how to think it through, or even that the answer might be outside the box.
I have a daughter in grade school. She asks me questions all day long, where I have to have the answer. It's not that I'm frustrated, it's that she doesn't even consider that she can think it through on her own. We were at the beach last weekend (a family trip to San Diego) and she came running up to me "Mommy I need water to rinse off my mask!" My response was along the lines of "Well, where is there some water?" I thought that she'd figure it out, but what I got back was "I don't know...and I need it." I have to admit I got a little frustrated, and pointed to the ocean and said "what do you call that? Maple Syrup?" It didn't even occur to her that there was water in the ocean, or even in the restroom, just that she needed water and I had to get it because she couldn't find it. She thought it had to come out of a bottle or faucet. BTW, she's 10. Interestingly enough, she had the problem solving ability to figure where to find help when her bus stop was changed and parents weren't notified (they dropped her off a block from where I worked and she figured since it's another school it would be a safe place to go).
Schools are beginning to debate teaching these skills, and I think that it can only enhance education. Where would science be if no one thought to question and reason and discover? It takes thinking skills to wonder how to survive on the moon, under the water, or even in the Amazon. No one solved a problem by thinking inside the box. Critical thinking skills teach people to look outside the box for other options. The most obvious potion is not always the right one, just the easiest to find. However, the schools are going with the easiest method, testing to see if students have the skills before they promote them. http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8470
Here's an example; a math problem that tends to stump people on the first try.
Take 30, divide it by one half, then add 10. What's the answer?
Most people take 30, divide it in half to make 15, then add 10 to get 25-and they're wrong. Why are they wrong? It's the most obvious answer in many ways...until you read carefully and think it through. Take a minute and do it over.....
Take 30, divide it by one half (multiply the reciprocal) and get 60, then add 10. The answer is 70. It wasn't that simple, was it? How did you reason it out? Did you go back and think through old math classes? How did you get it?
Another of my daughters is in 8th grade. She came to me tonight with a math problem that had her really frustrated and upset. She had a fraction that she had to divide by another fraction to get the solution, but it was set up as a complex fraction. She knew how to do the problem, but she could not reason out the way to solve it. She didn't even think to set it up as a regular division problem until I told her she could. She was stumped. If she had better reasoning skills she might have saved herself a lot of headaches, and now the point of the little math quiz has emerged. Did you think that it might, or just write it off?
Reasoning is a skill that will help kids do better in school too. If they don't know the answers by rote, there would be the possibility that they could reason it out. If they don't understand the way a teacher explains a math procedure, they might be able to think it through. Also, kids might actually enjoy school more if they were able to think things through rather than write rote answers that teachers have provided. Is it more fun to figure out a puzzle, or to have someone show you how?
Kids are receptive to learning these skills, if video games are any indication. My ten-year-old plays games where she has to figure out what to do next, and how to use her tools and game possesions to accomplish her goals. In one game, her hat is also a boat. She had to figure out which of the things she had could be used that way. It's her favorite game on that system.
Of course, it helps if you have teachers that know how to reason, and many adults don't. http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?PageID=603&CategoryID=69
When the adults around them can't reason, how can we expect kids too? This is another reason why critical thinking skill need to begins in grade school-so that parents and teachers have the skill and use it out of habit. Many people look at the critical thinking requirements for a degree and groan, they don't even see the value. People who don't go to college don't even get the chance to decide if it has value.
People need these skills more than even in this economy too. Finding ways to keep things working, stretch money further, adapt things to do other jobs, all require thinking skills that people don't have much of the time.
Critical thinking skills are needed in grade school for various reasons, not limited to a better education for our kids, and better functioning adults. People who can think accomplish great things, and why should they be limited to what it takes to do those great things by how old they are?
No comments:
Post a Comment