Open-ended quetions during lab or lecture, I believe engages the students in critical thinking thereby, leading them to many different ideas and possible solutions. Before they demonstrate a treatment intervention, they need to think (and share with others) why they chose the particular intervention for this patient? What are the changes they are trying to achieve? What is the benefit(s) to the patient? Is it short term? long term? What would be an alternative treatment choice? etc. This fosters thinking out of the box and mirrors the process that they will encounter in the clinical setting. You can often almost "see" the "synapses connecting" and that is exciting!
A question i ask my students is: If you are using a sterile marking pen, the plastic ruler that comes with the pen becomes contaminated and the surgeon ask you for a ruler, what would you do?
The answer is give the surgeon a number 3 knife handle that has the ruler already on it. This will save the patient some money and keep the circulator from having to leave the OR.
I teach Dental Assisting so I use a lot of case scenarios or role playing during the lecture and lab hours.
Hi Deborah,
Great questions to ask to help students think critically. Students learn a ton from webquests, and they enjoy the activities.
Patricia Scales
Asking questions about the topic we are learning, and how can this information be used in their field of study or personal use. In other words, how are you going to use this information in your life. I teach computer literacy and getting students to think beyond the social sites and games is a challenge. I give student webquest assignments that require them to find information and compile a short paper on what they discovered and learned while doing the webquest. I have them do parts of the computer and ethics and behavior on the Internet. Students seem to like these webquests.
Hi Frances,
I have found that scenario teaching is one of the best ways to generate critical thinking for students. Most students really think critically on scenario-based learning.
Patricia Scales
My job is to prepare the students to sit for their NCLEX. (the national exam to obtain their license for vocational nursing) So much of what I do is critical thinking. Take a scenario and with that information which is subjective and objective, come to a conclusion or educated answer. Also figuring in the potential outcome is part of our answer. Every human being is different, so we have to apply this type of thinking much of the time while nursing. It is very difficult for new students to grasp that concept, although we actually incorporate this type of thinking behavior on a daily basis without even realizing it.
Hi Chanel,
I like how you have your students to think out of the box as it pertains to their field. We have to let our students know that way more appears than what is on the surface.
Patricia Scales
In teaching the baking modules, you only think that baking perfectly is all that matters. I had my students think about the importance that math plays in cooking and why costing is relevent to coming to culinary school.
For our veterinary technology students one of the most engaging activites is a case study. We approach a specific diease (i.e.- a diabetic cat) from the point of view of what a technician needs to know rather than a doctor. The scenario is presented to the class. Sometimes they work as indviduals, sometimes in groups - both seem to work. When working in groups, each group covers a different set of relavent questions. When working as individuals, when we go over the case, I do not let students shout out answers. Instead, I walk around the room asking specific students for answers.
Hi Sandy,
Great use of visual aid. Most students get it when they can see it.
Patricia Scales
Hi Alan,
This is practical learning at its best because when they begin their career they are going to have to be able to generate critical thinking.
Patricia Scales
Hi Elizabeth,
Super way for students to understand the "why" behind the exercise.
Patricia Scales
Hi Christopher,
Awesome! What an excellent activity to get your students prepared for the work world.
Patricia Scales
I am teaching fetal circulation and I have the students come up and draw on the board fetal circulation with different color of markers so that they can see the oxygenated blood vs deoxygenated and how it passes through the chambers of the heart and how it differs once they are born and then show the potential heart defects.
As an automotive technical instructor, I am always engaging the students in critical thinking. Every scenario that I set up is having the students work their way through a problem. They have to use a step by step process and be able to explain each step and in the end fully understand what they did and the reasoning for everything done in the diagnostic process. It is a fun and challenging way for them to learn, and I will say that I also learn from them by listening to their individual reasons for what they did to come to a conclusion.
I like to take it to the next step and then discuss how the class thought that the activity went. We will then bridge the activity to the concepts that we used and how they relate to the lesson. This briefing really brings homw the relevance of the concepts.
As part of our curriculum we ask the students to take practical exams for their core program coursework. They are given a patient chart with a scenario. By the nature of the scenarios they must work through decisions that force critical thinking into the decisions they must make. To pass they must apply the information correctly. Throughtout our program we constantly give mock practicals with many scenarios. I am often surprised, although I shouldn't be, at how well they critically think and how they apply information to the scenario that the instructor's may have not accounted for.
After discussing the operation of a machine, I will generally ask questions as to why do you suppose these components work together as they do. What might make this operation more efficient? How do these components relate to each other? Often, I see the "wheels in motion"!
Hi Michele,
Great idea! I have an employer, even a staffing agency to come out and conduct mock interviews for my students. Great practice!
Patricia Scales
