Working in a field where critical thinking can be a decision between life or death and now teaching the importance of it can definitely be trying at times. Creating a space with problem based learning(PBL) where the students have to work together to solve problems and understand especially in health care there is never one right answer to a situation. Combining learning tools to engage the students like letting them be the expert through role playing and giving them activities where they have to assess their peers and themselves I find is very helpful.
Critical thinking skills are critical to a person's long-term success in many fields and many students have poorly developed critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking is an invetable result of active learning through strategies such as collaborative learning, self-relfection, group-learning, and problem-based learning. The instructor facilitates learning and students takes more control of their learning.
Whether teaching online on f2f, education must be engaging to the point of making learning fun. When education is fun, it is easier for the student to remember what was taught. When they retain the information, they are more likely to teach it to someone else.
Cooperative learning and problem based learning are important active learning models to help develop critical thinking skills. It is important to find a balance between traditional lecture and active learning to ensure students develop the necessary skills to identify and sold real world problems in their chosen field.
Laying out ground rules for students to follow is key to successful collaborative learning. Honestly, I think clear instruction is important for all activities, and what we are doing in class/why we are doing it should not be a mystery.
There should be a variety of methods to induce critical thinking. Discussions are the first, and most used, method for critical thinking, but it is surprisingly limited. Just like there are different ways people learn, there are different ways people best engage and provide feedback. You can write a well-developed response to a discussion post that uses minimal critical thinking if you know how to write well. You can also write a poorly-developed response to a post even though maximum critical thinking effort was made if you are not a good writer.
Critical thinking skills is a difficult skill to obtain which requires higher order thinking skills. As an instructor, it is what we strive for the students. Employers are always looking for employees who possess these skills. Group activities such as collaborative activities such as role playing, case studies, group projects can help broaden the student's critical thinking skills. This is what I would use to help students with critical thinking skills.
Using the virtual meeting places and tools for my students can be very beneficial to my students learning experience. Creating virtual environmental learning spaces which are designed to help the student be successful as they move forward in their educational experience can provide knowledge that can be help them succeed, learn and apply what they have learn in a creative manner.
Use group activities to promote critical thinking and problem solving.
Critical thinking may be easy and hard on students. Explaining or having the students collab together will make them work a little harder and think harder to find answers. Prepare them to the real world
Here, I learned that successful learning is both student-centered and instructor-driven, and that the instructor should have a well-designed learning plan for the students for learning to be best facilitated.
Instructors can facilitate critical thinking by:
Encouraging students to find relationships between pieces of information;
Asking students a question and let them mull over their ideas and responses for a few days;
Asking students to justify and explain their positions;
Encouraging exploration of new ideas and materials to share with the class; and
Asking open-ended questions instead of closed-ended questions like yes/no.
As the course and comfort with the instructor/peers/materials progresses, the instructor should include more critical thinking activities.
Fostering critical thinking through discussions and other group activities that are designed to engage the students in their learning.
I like the idea of using real world problems to develop critical thinking skills. Group work can be good for developing skills that will help students in the real world too.
Assigning students to use mobile devices can teach them that these devices are learning tools and offset the distraction that can come from their presence
I learned about the different learning techniques. Most of the techniques involve some type of group learning. What I hope to use the problem based learning by applying current events to the lesson we are studying.
Collaborative assignments are a great way to build classroom culture and promote student engagement. Oftentimes, students are more comfortable working with peers in shared activities and gain much from each other.
Critical thinking involves applying knowledge and experiences to look deeper into information. Critical thinking can be enhanced with problem-based learning since students will work to solve the problem presented,
Critical thinking skills need to be developed in the classroom using group/collaborative assignments.
