Hi Lori,
It means a lot to students when they learn how they can benefit from the course personally/professionally. Students need to understand how the course is going to help them.
Patricia
I like to ask students questions to get them thinking about how the subject applies to their everyday lives. I find asking this in a discussion format encourages students to expand off of each otherr ideas as well.
Hi Kyle,
Great points! When students learn how the course can benefit them, they really become interested and buy into the course.
Patricia
I can definitely agree to this. In my role as a business teacher I always have to maintain an environment where students understand that the concepts we learning are always applied to everyday life, going through things such as; their own personal finance, career development, interviewing skills, etc...
Students will always ask, why is this useful to me, and by applying concept and using critical thinking they can really get a feel for these activities and how it is important to them.
Hi Dawn,
The more real we can make it for students, the better. Students must be able to critically solve problems on the job, therefore we can have them practice this skill while in college.
Patricia
Hi Patricia,
These are enjoyable activities, and students must engage in critical thinking. Anytime we can make activites real and fun, and students are learning, we should. Having fun while learning is the perfect combination.
Patricia
Hi Jane,
Super way to generate thinking. I am certain your students enjoy this project as well. I am sure this assignment also generates some laughter about the EMPTY bottleS of wine.
Patricia
I teach a wine class, and I have an activity wher I bring in five bottles of wine (don't worry, they are empty!) and have the students design a wine list using the wines. They need to use the library to research and describe the wines, and come up with five food pairing suggestions for each wine.
In Law and Ethics class we choose topics from current events. Students are to spend time doing research and then we have a debate with students choosing to be pro or con. This allows them to consider the topic from all aspects.
Also in an office systems class students design an office from the ground up. Using a 3-D model or computer generated designs. They relate that it is the most fun they have had with a project and even come in during their off time to work on it.
I engage in role playing, breaking up the calss into groups and assigning roles or allowing the students to pick the role they wish to play and then giving them a scenario they have to act out. Then I break into the group and put a "kink" into things which makes the students critically think. It is interesting to see them think on their feet and even better when they come up with an interesting solution to the problem.
I use a lot of troubleshooting scenarios. After I present a series of utilities, I provide a scenario and ask the students to decide what steps they would take to solve the problem. Sometimes I utilize groups, other times I have them solve the problems individually.
Hi Meredith,
Students must be able to apply what they have learned in the classroom. This question tests the student to determine if they know which muscles are affected by particular symptoms.
Patricia
Hi Robin,
When you are a critical thinker, you really have to be quick on your feet so to speak. A lot of our students think after the fact.
Patricia
Getting the students to think on their toes and givinig them the opportunity to express themselves outside the box is a useful tool! THANK YOU!!
Hi Rosie,
I have seen where classroom discussion can promote great critical thinking. It amazes me to see how some students can really think out of the box.
Patricia
I like having classroom discussion this can promote critical thinking. My student do Virtual field trips as an assignments and this topic relate to the chapter that I am lecturing. So I have the student to stand in front of class and discuss what they wrote about the subject, student start asking questions so they have to be prepare to answer question so they have to have good critical thinking skills for this activity to be able to answer.
Hi Alexandra,
Scenarios are excellent for students to evaluate and bring out their best critical thinking. Scenarios give you and the student a great idea as to how a particular student would handle a situation on the job.
Patricia
Hi Jeff,
I've learned that group activities work extremely well with critical thinking. I've always been told that 2 brains are better than 1.
Patricia
What muscles would come to mind when a client complains of low back pain?
Some example of activities that involve critical thinking include group research activities and presentations on that information. Typically each studetn is assigned a section of the topic and then presents their information when the group presents the topic as a whole. Also class discussions that revolve around personal observations about the information in class that day.
