As an educator, I firmly believe that nurturing the critical thinking skills of the students is one of the most important aspects of what teachers do. Critical thinking has been cited as allowing individuals to think independently and become more effective problem solvers while also reducing cognitive bias and improving communication skills.
Notably, critical thinking skills can dramatically improve students’ capabilities as collaborators, helping them become more open to diverse perspectives and more empathetic to others’ experiences. As they gain the ability to have more constructive discussions, including with those whom they disagree with, they learn to find win-win solutions or change their own perspective when needed.
At the same time, however, there is growing concern that students are gradually losing their critical thinking abilities. Globally, half of students perform at the two lowest levels of critical thinking. Clearly, educators need to take steps to better nurture critical thinking to create better future collaborators.
Expose Students To Diverse Viewpoints
One of the best ways to encourage critical thinking is to expose students to diverse viewpoints — an area where education can sometimes fall short. Educators often run to extremes of imposing their viewpoints on their students, or trying to completely avoid anything that could be controversial.
As award-winning educator and author Debbie Silver explains in an interview with AMLE, “It is possible to teach about biased reporting, inaccurate statistics and fact checking without taking a stand on issues, and we should definitely do that. Our job is not to teach kids what to think, but rather how to think. Passion for issues can be illustrated through literature and movies, but we must be careful to present a balanced view. I believe we need to promote peaceful dissension and uphold American values such as freedom of religion, speech and other rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution.”
Such an approach isn’t just applicable to political topics. Diverse viewpoints exist on subjects in many fields, and educators should consider how to properly expose students to these views in a way that fosters exploration and critical thinking opportunities.
Encourage Interdisciplinary Instruction
It isn’t unusual for college students to get almost completely locked into their major, where they only take classes that are directly related to what they hope to get a degree in. While this approach is certainly understandable, it can also create a major missed opportunity for developing critical thinking skills.
In reality, exposure to learning experiences outside one’s core discipline can improve knowledge and critical thinking skills in a student’s core area of focus. For example, MindChamps, a global early-learning organization headquartered in Singapore, has developed a patented program which focuses on connecting fundamental concepts in numeracy, language and social skills through an interdisciplinary, music-literacy approach. In-depth research on this program revealed this method helped students outperform their peers in both language and math literacy, as well as musical literacy.
This included a 5.3% increase in accuracy on the Test of Early Mathematical Ability. Over a two-year period, students who participated in MindChamps’ interdisciplinary program achieved significantly higher learning outcomes, even with otherwise identical materials, instructional methods, teacher training and curriculum as the control group.
College students may not necessarily have access to these types of specialty interdisciplinary programs, but they can still experience similar outcomes when they are encouraged to engage in classes outside their major. Classes that require different skills or different types of thinking can deepen students’ abilities and help them deepen their understanding in ways that will benefit them in their primary classes.
Provide Collaborative, Inquiry-Based Learning
One of the best ways to nurture critical thinking skills among students is to give them more collaborative, inquiry-based learning experiences that allow them to take a deep dive into the material. Regardless of the subject matter, students are always going to get more out of a hands-on experience than sitting through a lecture. And the experience can be even more valuable for them when they are required to work with their peers.
As the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University explains, “Properly structured, group projects can reinforce skills that are relevant to both group and individual work, including the ability to: Break complex tasks into parts and steps, plan and manage time, refine understanding through discussion, give and receive feedback on performance, challenge assumptions [and] develop stronger communication skills. Group projects can also help students develop skills specific to collaborative efforts, allowing students to tackle more complex problems than they could on their own, delegate roles and responsibilities, share diverse perspectives [and] pool knowledge and skills.”
As students take on complex tasks in a collaborative environment, they develop critical thinking skills not only while directly trying to find the answer to their research questions, but also as they complete related tasks like delegating assignments and giving feedback to other group members.
Learning to balance the group dynamic as part of their experiential learning gives students firsthand experience at what it is like to collaborate with others so they can develop skills that will help them in their future career.
Making Critical Thinking Central To Learning
At the end of the day, students must ultimately take responsibility for engaging with their instructors and the materials and developing their own critical thinking skills. But instructors must also be mindful of how they teach and whether they are providing opportunities to develop those critical thinking skills in the first place. By ensuring that the learning environment nurtures critical thinking, educators can better equip students to become successful in their future endeavors.