A Fast-Paced Guide to Teaching Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and Formative Assessments: Increasing Rigor in Your Classroom
by Betsy Moore and Todd Stanley
(Eye on Education, 2010)

Reviewed by Vicky Gilpin
High School English and Drama (IL)
Teacher Leaders Network
   
A constant theme in education is the concept of critical thinking. Researchers extol the virtues of critical thinking skills while encouraging teachers to develop strategies to assess them. However, teaching critical thinking skills effectively can challenge educators. This 2010 book by Betsy Moore and Todd Stanley emphasizes methods to guide teachers in teaching students to become critical thinkers.
   
The introduction explains the importance of critical thinking beyond a mere commonly touted phrase of educational jargon. It creates a clear rationale for the investigation of teaching methods created to develop critical thinking skills as well as the creation of an environment in which those skills can be developed within the classroom. Teachers cannot expect students to walk into their classrooms with the capacity to access higher-level abilities; we have to guide them through the process and provide repeated opportunities for higher-level thinking.
   
The organization of the book gently directs the reader from a careful reiteration and investigation of Bloom’s Taxonomy to an in-depth discussion of strategies that develop critical thinking skills. Early chapters create a foundation of information to provide a context for the information to follow. Concepts are developed through the lens of Bloom’s Taxonomy, with the goal of increasing rigor by developing activities and strategies that establish and amplify students’ critical thinking skills. At the end of each chapter, the authors highlight the “critical” aspect of each topic to reiterate the topic’s connection to the purpose of exploring critical thinking and helping students become critical thinkers. The topics of the chapters include

•Bloom’s Taxonomy 101
•Lower-Level Thinking and Higher-Level Thinking
•How Do Critical Thinking Skills Enhance Student Achievement?
•How to Write Lower-Level Questions
•How to Write Higher-Level Thinking Questions
•Writing Formative Assessments with Critical Thinking Questions
•Analyzing the Data from Critical Thinking Questions
•Instructional Strategies to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom

Each chapter offers examples and anecdotes aimed toward teachers as leaders in their profession and teachers as lifelong learners, emphasizing the importance of teachers’ own critical thinking skills, higher-level questioning, and professional rigor. The authors stress that teachers have to use higher-level techniques of critical thinking in order to develop those skills within their students.
   
Two sections readers might find beneficial include the debunking of the belief that “rigor” has to equal “difficult” and the explanation of the correlation between critical thinking skills and student achievement.

Too often, teachers equate difficulty with rigor and are either reticent to increase the rigor in their classrooms or develop activities that go beyond their students’ current skill-set. To increase a course’s rigor, one must create steps from lower-level activities to higher-level ones. The authors remind readers that rigor and higher-level reasoning do not refer to difficulty but to complexity. The complexity involved in activities that encourage and develop higher-level thinking skills can increase student achievement in multiple areas, not just the subject area taught by the teacher focusing on building critical thinking skills.

Obviously, if more teachers decide to implement strategies that increase rigor and create opportunities for students to practice using critical thinking, the students will derive more benefit from the activities. However, student achievement on standardized tests, within the classroom, and in real-world application has been linked to critical thinking skills. The discussion of the link between critical thinking and student achievement gives encouragement and validation for teachers who must balance the often seemingly opposing requirements of NCLB and AYP with the desire to provide long-term benefits for students.
   
Multiple aspects of this fast-paced guide provide access points to developing students’ critical thinking skills. The work might remind one of an excellent conference session: user-friendly, well-organized, and composed of numerous “take-homes” for immediate use.

As well as the excellent “unpacking” of Bloom’s Taxonomy, suggestions for practical application in the classroom, and examples of application in multiple disciplines, the vast number of blueprints within the work (available for download) make this book a jewel for the experienced as well as novice teacher.

Vicky Gilpin is an English teacher at Cerro Gordo High School and Richland Community College, in Illinois, and was chosen as a Phi Delta Kappa national Emerging Leader in 2009. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership.