• Instruct students to select a U.S. president who must run again in the next presidential election. They determine which previous president would be the best choice to serve in the modern era.
• Instruct students to generate several potential thesis statements in response to an argumentative prompt; for example, ask them, “Should students be able to grade their teachers?”
• Instruct students to brainstorm ways they could investigate if vibrating materials can make sound and if sound can make materials vibrate.
Planning
Planning is the second step in the Create process. After generating the ideas, students then need to evaluate their options and select the best idea to carry out the project. Using the Evaluate level of Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), students should sort, prioritize, categorize, and choose the best option (Treffinger et al., 2013). Typically, there is more than one way to solve the task, so students’ final products should vary greatly. Revising existing ideas or throwing them out in favor of new ideas is also often part of the planning process. The following are examples of activities that use the planning cognitive process.
• After students select their presidential candidate from the past, instruct them to act as his campaign managers by proposing a plan for the candidate’s political party on what they will do to ensure success in the next election.
• After students identify the best thesis statement for their project, instruct them to create an outline with the sources and evidence they will need to support their thesis statement.
• After students select the best way to investigate vibration, instruct them to plan their experiment by detailing what tasks they need to accomplish, what materials they need, and what their budget will be.
Producing
The final step in the Create-level process, producing, is to follow through with the plan and create the product. Creativity is a tricky thing to judge, but the following three criteria are very helpful: (1) novelty (an original outcome or process), (2) resolution (outcome addresses intended need), and (3) elaboration and synthesis (level of combining diverse components into a new, well-crafted product; Treffinger et al., 2013). Use a rubric like figure 2.1 (page 20) to assess students’ level of creative-thinking dispositions. The following are examples of activities that use the producing cognitive process.
• Instruct students to pitch their campaign plan (their created product) to the class. Peers should use a rubric to select which presentation persuasively convinces the class that their candidate is the best choice.
• Instruct students to write an essay by developing their outline into full paragraphs that support the evidence they chose.
• Instruct students to perform an investigation and write up their conclusions from their experiment. Students share what they learned and how they might improve their investigation if revising.
Seeing the Big Picture
Notice that as students work at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), the associated tasks typically require more of students and will take longer for them to complete. For example, if you ask students to name the main character in the story they could respond fairly quickly (Understand level); however, if you ask them to determine if the main character is a fraud by providing several examples of textual evidence (Evaluate level), this task requires more time for thinking. Most Create-level assignments should take several days or longer to complete. So, if you ask a question and hands immediately go up in your classroom to answer the question, your question was probably a low-level one.
Source: Boyes & Watts, 2009, p. 377.
Figure 2.1: Rubric for creating, imaging, and innovating.
Hopefully, these ideas spur your thinking on integrating critical thinking to engage learners in your classroom. Often, increasing the level of critical thinking does not require eliminating current assignments; rather, with some alterations, you can ratchet up your assignments to reach higher-thinking levels. As you grow to more accurately understand Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), you can better identify ways to enhance the level of critical thinking in your classroom.
Discussion Questions
As you reflect on this chapter, consider the following five questions.
1. Consider your current teaching practices. Approximately what percentage of classroom time do your students spend working at each level? What would you want to change about those percentages and why?
2. What are some activities you use that operate at lower-thinking levels? What steps could you take to raise them to higher-level-thinking tasks?
3. What is one activity in this chapter that you could use with your students? What changes could you make to tailor it to your students and instructional content?
4. What kinds of new projects could you introduce to your students that operate at the Create level and allow your students to demonstrate semesterlong or yearlong growth in their learning?
5. What traits will you look for in your students to know when they are working and thinking at higher levels?
Take Action
Use the following four activities to put this chapter’s concepts to work in your own classroom.
1. Examine an assessment you use in your class to determine its thinking level.
2. Identify one classroom activity or assessment you use that operates at lower thinking levels and make adjustments to increase those levels.
3. Have students use an age-appropriate rubric to self-assess their level of critical thinking.
4. Have students use a debriefing matrix like the one in figure 2.2 to debrief about their project.
Source: Treffinger et al., 2013, p. 212.
Figure 2.2: Creative thinking four-part debriefing structure.
CHAPTER 3
Developing Critical-Thinking Skills and Fostering Engagement
Hope is not a strategy.
—U.S. Air Force Special Ops pilot
Educators’ understanding of effective instruction has shifted significantly, resulting in a move from teacher-directed to cognitively complex, student-directed instruction. As critical thinking is infused in student-directed tasks, students must actively apply their learning (individually and collaboratively). By establishing student-centered instructional strategies, you will challenge students