Why Teach Critical Thinking?

For years people have underestimated the importance of critical thinking. Instead placing emphasis on memorization of facts which doesn't encourage students to make connections and apply their own knowledge but instead asks them to regurgitate items they have been told are true. However, in the recent years it has been discovered that critical thinking skills are not only important but essential for day to day life. This is especially true in a world that is full of so much false information (Rastegari, 2018).

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Critical thinking occurs when children analyze new information and determine where it fits in the knowledge that they already possess (Beavers et al., 2017). The Hanen Centre (2016) describes that young children begin to develop critical thinking skills at a very early age as they participate in serve and return interactions with the adults in their lives. Similarly, Rymanowicz, (2016) explains that children's natural curiosity acts as a foundation from which critical thinking can occur. However, in order to develop higher level thinking it's important that these skills are nurtured early on (Beavers et al., 2017). Therefore, as teachers our goal is not to pressure students to be curious about the topics we choose but instead help them harness the curiosity that they already possess. Yip (2019) explains that we can help children practise these higher level skills by encouraging them to take a deeper look at everything they encounter. Through this we can teach them how to analyze, compare, contrast and make sense of the world around them.

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This knowledge about the importance of teaching students to think was the foundation from which I built my critical inquiry project. I decided to explore what makes the best playground after hearing several of our students talking about playgrounds they liked and what they thought made a playground fun. After hearing the input in this conversation I knew that this was a topic that students were already interested in. Therefore, I could do my best to help them investigate a topic that they were already curious about. Throughout this exploration, I introduced students to a variety of thinking routines which encouraged them to dive deeper into their thoughts on the topic. Thus allowing students to be champions of their own learning experience. Furthermore, Salmon (2010) describes that an effective teacher is one who provides an environment for thinking to occur which allows a child's natural curiosity to be illuminated.