Critical Thinking - Standards for Thinking

I felt a strong desire to keep these video's very accessible as I will revisit them, I'm sure many times, in the future.  Dr Richard Paul discusses intellectual Standards for Thinking and desirable attributes for thinking.  He breaks down 5 attributes within the Standards for Thinking and offers examples of questions to ask to entice high level thinking and answers.  

Intellectual Standards for Thinking:  

• Clarity - clear thoughts (Can you elaborate? / Can you give an example?)
• Precision - detail, specifying (relevant to context)
• Accuracy - is this accurate (How can we test this?) 
• Relevance - is the answer relevant to the question
• Depth- is the  level of depth appropriate when answering a complex question

Paul, R,.  

Critical Thinking - Standards of Thought - Part 1

Critical Thinking - Standards of Thought - Part 2

Clearly Outside the Box

 I love how this graphic (provided thru our discussions in the PIDP 3250 forums) shows clear and relevant examples of questions which develop and expand a students critical and creative thinking skills. 

There seems to be a lot more ideas on how to develop critical thinking than creative.  In my searches I came across a superb article Think Outside your Caged Imagination by Michael Michalko.  He explains how the brain develops pathways for thinking, making shortcuts and overtime these limit our regard to alternatives.

 "Habits, thinking patterns and routines with which we approach life gradually accumulate until they significantly reduce our awareness of other possibilities. It’s as if a cage is built up around our imagination over time and its effects slowly become obvious."

Towards the end provides a workable technique he calls BLUEPRINT which can be used to build new creative thinking pathways in our brain. 

Call to Mind

To follow on my previous post on the topic of Visible Learning and John Hattie's 8 Mindframes.  

I believe all 8 points are essential for teachers to Know thy Impact of our teaching on the students.  Moving forward I will develop my thinking and embrace these mindframes by regularly analyzing, evaluating and adjusting my teaching to maximize the teaching and learning process. 
The mind frames that resonate most with me are numbers 1, 2, 4 and 7. 
#1 and 2, - these are about me taking action and actively checking the productiveness of my teaching and making the necessary adjustments when required. 
#4 - assessments indicate my impact on the class, not the student performance.
#7 - treating all participants with kindness and respect  fosters a positive environment for all people.  I hope my authentic passion for Esthetics, will encourage students to be curious and find me approachable.

Hattie’s 8 Mind Frames

1. My fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of my teaching on students’ learning and achievement.
2. The success and failure of my students’ learning is about what I do or don’t do. I am a change agent.
3. I want to talk more about learning than teaching.
4. Assessment is about my impact.
5. I teach through dialogue not monologue.
6. I enjoy the challenge and never retreat to “doing my best”.
7. It’s my role to develop positive relationships in class and staffrooms.
8. I inform all about the language of learning.