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Week 1

Instructional Notes

CT700:  Critical Thinking for Instruction and Learning
 
Welcome to CT700.  This course is concerned with giving teachers the tools to help their students think critically.  Critical thinking is different from other thinking because it requires the thinker to think within a systematic integrated network of components that make up higher level thought.  These components include elements, principles, standards and values that the student can learn to apply to academic learning as well as all facets of his or her life.   These components and how to integrate them into your instruction will be covered in depth in this course.
 
 Critical thinking is based on the assumption that the quality of our thinking affects the quality of our lives (both in and out of school) and that anyone can improve the quality of his or her thinking.  For us as teachers the greatest benefit we can do to our students is to teach them how to learn through critical thinking, teaching them not what to think, but how to think.
 
 Many important questions will be addressed in this course including the following:
  • What is thinking?
  • What is critical thinking?
  • Why is it important to teach critical thinking skills to students?
  • Does thinking have parts?
  • At what age can children start to learn about critical thinking?
  • How do we begin to “teach” critical thinking?
  • How can we teach “ethics” without “indoctrination?”
  • Is critical thinking for everyone or just the “smart” kids?
  • How can we “remodel” standard lessons (found in Teacher Manuals and online, etc.) to infuse critical thinking?



Week 1 Journal Assignment

For your Journal Assignment I would like you to think about the following two questions and write your thoughts about each.  Please take some time and think deeply about the questions.  Write a half page response to each question.   
 
1.  What is thinking?  If you were to explain “thinking” to your students, how would you do it?  In this case we are referring to “focused” thinking in which an individual is trying to solve a problem, analyze something, or just plain figure something out.  (This excludes “daydreaming” or “associational thinking”)  What structures are inherent to the act of thinking – what are the consistent “moves of the mind” when we think in a focused way?  Another way of phrasing it is, what elements of thought are active when we are in the process of “figuring something out”?
 
2.  Secondly, how do you currently teach “critical thinking” to your students or how would you teach critical thinking to a class if you have not already done so?   What tools do you give your students to “evaluate” their own thinking so they can improve on it?



This course is completely online.   Each week runs from Tuesday night at  11:55 p.m. to the following Tuesday night at 11:55 p.m.  Therefore, the work assigned on Tuesday will be due the following Tuesday.  It is very important that you keep up with the work in this course as the course builds progressively.  There are two textbooks for this course, the first is Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World by Richard Paul, Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1995.  The second text is a Critical Thinking Handbook that you should have chosen according to the grade level you teach (i.e., Critical Thinking Handbooks K-3, 4-6, 6-9, or High School).  If you are teaching at the college or university level, you should have received the high school handbook.  You should have received these text books by now as they were sent to you upon receipt of your registration for the course. In addition, you should have received a set of “Thinkers (Mini) Guides”.
 
This week you have two assignments, a Journal Assignment and a Discussion Assignment. 



Week 1 Discussion Assignment

For your Discussion Assignment I would like you to introduce yourself to the rest of the class.  Please include the following:
  • Your name and what subject and age level you teach
  • A description of your educational goals and why you decided to take these courses
  • A description of your professional goals.
  • Any other information you would like to share (such as interests, associations you belong to, family, hobbies, etc.).
Make an initial entry on the discussion board and respond to at least 2 other people.
 
To summarize this week’s assignment:   
  • Read the “Instructional Notes”
  • Write the Journal Assignment
  • Write the Discussion Assignment and respond to at least two of your classmates’ Discussion entries