Critical Thinking in the College Classroom

To minimize the assumptions that students bring to a case, assign them cases that occurred before they were born. Have s... Read more

Concrete examples are critical for teaching abstract concepts. Both real and fictional cases can be useful, but often ne... Read more

Acknowledge to students that their opinions are understandable, given their own unique experiences. Help them understand... Read more

Ethical dilemmas occur when two "rights" oppose each other. Even coming to a common identification of an ethical problem... Read more

Martha Maas, for the UT Learning Center, discusses how spending a few minutes telling your students how to study in scie... Read more

Dr. Larry Speck discusses the importance of personalizing critical thinking and how to inspire independent thought by co... Read more

The purpose of higher education is to produce citizens who can think independently. In high school science, students of... Read more

Give students a choice between 3 or 10 extra credit points on the final exam. For every person who chooses 10, everyone ... Read more

Dr. David Laude discusses why student self-reflection is critical to inquiry. In the conversation of knowledge-creation... Read more

In a case with conflict, ask students to identify what conflicting values are in play. Having identified the values, as... Read more

Students often must be told that most problems can have more than one solution. Encourage brainstorming to extreme leng... Read more

Once students have acquired knowledge of many approaches, present them with cases for application. Add evolving features... Read more

First, let students "get their feet wet" and learn basic information literacy skills. Second, prompt them to begin work... Read more

Divide class into many groups, each with different values and needs. Require the groups come to consensus on a statement... Read more

Making an inference is drawing a conclusion from a body of information. Often this information includes many unstated a... Read more

Dr. Cassandra Delgado-Reyes discusses Eloois, the scientific method game. Eloosis is a game in which students make repe... Read more

Early in the semester, give a lecture that illustrates a well-organized argument: overtly identifying your thesis, your ... Read more

Give students exposure to several cause-effect hypotheses and the primary source data that supports those hypotheses. A... Read more

Ask students to write creatively from the point of view of someone in a situation involving concepts from your disciplin... Read more

Distinguishing correlation from causation can be quite difficult. It is important to sensitize students to this difficu... Read more