Hi Curtis,
What a great way to test students skills. If the student can do this hands-on exercise, they understand the concept.
Patricia Scales
I give the student a rim and tire and tell him to install the tire on the rim correctly whith only the year and make of the mortorcycle.
Hi Harold,
Students really do love this type of learning. They get to dig deep and get really involved. Students learn a lot from active learning and from each other as well.
Patricia Scales
I conduct a course that has multiple topics, one of the topics is Irregular warfare. This topic is conducted in 4 one hour sessions. The first two sessions are lecture with question and answer throughout. The third hour the students are broken down into 4 groups and given a case study to read and answer predetermined questions. The fourth hour each group is represented usually by one student to read their answers. Then we discuss how they arrived with the ideas. The students love it, in their critiques they always ask for more of these type sessions.
Hi William,
Wow! This is awesome. This exercise certainly makes students put on their thinking cap, while at the same time they are getting prepared for the real world.
Patricia Scales
Critical/analytical thinking
Evaluate an existing Theater Campaign plan and make recommednation and determine the priority of the recommendations. Billy
Hi Jennifer,
Great way to tie in critical thinking. Students really enjoy active learning. This gets the students started off in the right direction.
Patricia Scales
I teach for a veterinary technology program. And I am in charge of all of the disease and drug coursework. I've struggled with ways to cover this material and keep it interactive. One of the ideas I've come up with and am hoping to implement is to give the students a list of the drugs the week before I teach so they can review it for the weekend. Then when we cover the diseases instead of me telling them we use this drug for this and that drug for that I would present the disease information and then the students would work in groups to tell me what drugs they would use to treat the problem. We'd then review as a class why they picked the drugs and if indeed that is what we use.
Hi William,
I can see how this exercise promotes critical thinking. It is amazing what students can come up with on the PowerPoint presentation.
Patricia Scales
We have computer lab where we construct power points for speech presentations. Student follow a pattern of how to select pictures, place them in order and save their projects.
Hi Gregory,
Planning is definitely important when trying to problem solve. A lot of our students simply do not know how to go about planning. They need us to help with the planning stages in order to solve problems.
Patricia Scales
I teach planning. Before beginning detailed planning to solve a complex problem, planners must understand the nature of the problem or set or problems, which typically involves complex interactions of different actors with interests in one or more domains--political, economic, social, and others. Our prejudices, tendency to make conclusions prematurely, and eagerness to find solutions, limit our abilities to be objective in trying to identify the true nature of the problem or problem set. We talk about the importance of critical thinking, which enables individuals to recognize these tendencies and seek to be objective in looking at problems from different perspectives and understanding their nature; in short determining what problem(s) needs to be solved before jumping into solutions. We seek to reinforce that their planning process may be outstanding, but if they are solving the wrong problem, it will not lead to success.
Hi Donna,
I love it! This type of learning really prepares the students for the real world. Students are using their analytical thinking skills as well.
Patricia Scales
I teach nursing so when in the classroom, I try to involve students in critical thinking by giving them senarios to work with. They must apply what was discussed in class and work their way through resolving the issues. If one student gets stuck, another can jump in to help. It is also good for team building......
I teach Electrical Theory to aspiring electricians so typical analytical questions I present to students look like: Volts push Amps through Resistance, which of these values "drops" during this process. Usually students understand to some extent, that amps do not change throughout a line, and that resistance is independent of circuit activity or it raises during circuit activity, so through elimination students should arrive at voltage being the value that drops. Different circuit caluculation are then used to demonstrate this mathematically, and other questions are asked, such as, if the power source is considered a voltage raise, what do the voltage values mean when we look at them in individual points in a circuit?
I think Critical Thinking Activities are extremely important.
I've had success with having students create a sample test as a review before I give an exam or quiz. Often the students will then take each other's tests but the real learning comes in creating the questions which most certainly requires critical thinking skills in numerous ways. It usually is a successful task. The students often do find it time consuming but they mostly agree that it does help them and that it is a valuable way to review.
Hi Jonathan,
I love this type of role playing to promote critical thinking. Students really do learn a lot from this activity.
Patricia Scales
When discussing proper phone etiquette I place students back to back in chairs and give one student a call-in problem and the other possible replies. At the conclusion of their conversation the class is asked to evaluate.
Hi Michael,
Scenarios are great! Scenarios really reflect those type of things that will happen in the real world. Students love it when we make learning apply to the real world.
Patricia Scales
I will give my students a scenario that challenges their own personal bias while critically thinking through a decision. Often they have to pause and really think through it. we usually end up in a very productive discussion.
