The Critical Thinker

920 Words4 Pages
The Critical Thinker (1) In teaching and learning, critical thinking is the one element that makes the difference and yet is not as wide-ranging as school management would wish. A teacher, whose practice is driven by the skill of critical thinking, empowers their students in a manner that they eventually become independent learners. Learners, who have developed the art of critical thinking will ask questions and employ a variety of methods to solve problems. Hence it doesn’t surprise me that critical thinking is integrated in the SHS English curricula that I have scrutinized and those that I have taught like the IGCSE and the IB Diploma. The IB Diploma Program which has Theory of Knowledge at the centre of its hexagon of subjects, for me epitomizes the practice of getting 17 and 18 year olds to think. In that program part of what they learn is to distinguish fact from opinion and to make cross curricular references to buoy up their arguments. Indeed we are all thinking beings but the invitation to think critically suggests that our thought processes can be biased and misinformed, narrowed and even muddled at times. For those of us who belong to the school community, the processes of examining the structure of arguments in detail or of conducting experiments on phenomena around us in order to respond to a task means that critical thinking is a habit to cultivate. For those in the corporate world, their search for critical thinkers is equally legitimate. They need a team which can read between the lines and see beyond the obvious, synthesize many variables and act to win in their fast-paced and competitive industries. Developing the Skill If critical thinking plays a pivotal role in the workplace and in schools which prepare students for life, ideally it should come as a matter of course. Like mathematical formulae, it should be learnt and when needed, the
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