A Passion for Critical Thinking
Stardate: 97274.72
I remember my first round of grad school and being asked by one of my instructors, Dr. Hank Morine, what I was interested in for my Master’s studies. His question was met by my rather prolonged silence. He then responded, “What are you most passionate about for your students to learn?”
Oh, I thought, that’s easy!
“Critical thinking and metacognition!” I blurted out without hesitation.
Dr. Morine smiled and said simply, “Let’s get started.”
I chose education as a vocation because it was something I truly believed could change a person’s life for the better. It was the only thing I could “sell,” that’s how much I believed in it. My Master’s work changed my emphasis to critical thinking primarily because as an instructor I felt I was not adequately reaching my underserved students as effectively as I needed to in my instruction. During my two years of grad school, I acquired the research-based knowledge to further my instructional practices in how to effectively teach these students the critical thinking process. Along the way, I studied Pogrow and his higher order thinking skills program. I studied the various models of teaching that engaged critical thinking and became fluent in Gardner’s work and a variety of classroom techniques such as cooperative learning, instructional modalities, the writing process, and metacognition.
With metacognition, thinking about thinking, as the key, my underserved students began to understand that answers did not magically appear (outside of simple memorization), but that there was a process they could employ to help them get to the solution to the problem (whatever that problem would be).
I emphasized the importance of developing an idea by making a plan and delineating steps to refine a good idea or to reach a goal. As my instructional practices improved, my underserved students began to achieve. Many of my students who were provided my critical thinking-based instruction and curriculum design saw their scores on standardized tests significantly improve a couple years later just like the research on critical thinking demonstrated. It was an incredibly rewarding time for me as a teacher.
Looking back now, I realize that I benefitted from my father’s own metacognitive practices when I was a child. When my father was outside working to fix something like the car, fixing the wash machine or building something for the yard (a homemade basketball backboard or designing and constructing the covered patio in the backyard), I would be out there to “help” as best a 10-year-old could assist. I would watch him as he problem-solved because he would “think out loud.”
Sometimes my father would hold up the objects of his frustration and move them around as he stated, “Now, this thing goes into here and causes the pin to turn which then. . . .”
Other times, he would raise his hand in the air, extend his index finger and draw out some imaginary diagram. When the diagram became too busy, he would ask me to fetch a pencil and paper, so he could draw it out. Then, he would explain it all to me.
I thought he explained things to me so that way I knew what he was doing and I could help him, but now I see how that in explaining it to me he was double-checking his own thinking and clarifying for himself that this solution was the best.
I started doing that “thinking out loud” with my students whenever we were working on problem solving, no matter the discipline. I also required them to explain their thinking to their fellow students.
So, how does that metacognition and critical thinking play out in my life now?
Well, I am much more resilient when it comes to solving problems from software SNAFUs to fixing things around the house. I am, also, a great planner from special events to vacations to project management. Also, I love having a game night with my friends, not so much trivia-type games, but games that require strategy, cooperation and critical thinking to excel. I love figuring out word puzzles and ciphers in the daily newspaper. And, now, I have turned my friends on to Escape Rooms—the ultimate in problem solving and deciphering! Our friends usually take one game night and meet at one of the Escape Rooms available in the area. After an hour there, we then go out for dinner and discuss where we got bogged down or fell into a rabbit hole or simply ran with a red herring in our brains for too long. When we are in San Diego, I take my nieces and nephews out to an Escape Room and thoroughly enjoy working together with them to solve the various puzzles in order to open the lock on the door to escape the room!
So, after all this time, I still have a passion for metacognition and critical thinking— a passion I love to share with my family and my friends!
Read, think and enjoy the mystery!
SC
