Latest Thoughts

Recently, I read an article about how school districts should be preparing students for the 21st century.  The article highlighed four important concepts called the "Four Cs" that each school district should focus upon.  After reflecting upon the article for a couple of days, I believe these four "Cs" have a alot of merit.  In today;s blog I want to focus on the first one -- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving.

Clearly, the concept of Critical Thinking is one that every student should learn to do and learn to do effectively.  Critical thinking contributes to success in careers, but also in success in our students' personal lives.  Citizens in today's world must be active critical thinkers if they are going to make sensible and important decisions that will affect the future.

So, how do we teach critical thinking and problem solving in today's K-12 classroom? 

One example could include the interpretation of what music or art means to you at the K-4 level.  Does the Music or Art make you happy, sad and why?  What could the musician or artist do differently to elicit a different response?  The student could then create their own music and art to try and elicit a reaction from their classmates.

A second example could have students at the junior high level research how physical and chemical properties of different natural and human-designed materials affect their decomposition under various conditions.  The students could set-up their own experiments to determine the level of decomposition and actually see their results.  Students could also compare their results with one another and discuss how changes would affect the various stages of decomposition.

A third example of critical thinking and problem solving skills could involve a high school english or social studies class in creating a technology plan for the school.  The students could create surveys, establish student advisory teams, evaluate costs, determine the value of technology, etc...  The lessons learned from this type of assignment would be real and meaningful.

In my next blog, I will discuss the second of the four "Cs", Communication.