How teachers and educators can help their students to develop essential critical thinking skills inside the classroom.

1. ways to implement
the skills of Critical
Thinking in the
Classroom

2. Like most soft skills, critical thinking needs lots of
practice to develop. We have identified 5 simple
activities that you can easily integrate into classes to
ensure your students are developing this essential
skill. Read more on our blog.

3. Trigger their curiosity and
motivate them to research
and explore

4. INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING
Inquiry-based Learning promotes a
framework that encourages students
to ask more questions, collaboratively
understand an issue and exercise their
freedom in selecting the topics of
interest. Here, the process is equally
important as the end result, as they
navigate topics collaboratively
amongst fellow students.

5. Offer practice in
analysing arguments

6. EDWARD DE BONO'S SIX
THINKING HATS
A tool such as Edward De Bono's Six
Thinking Hats is a parallel thinking
process which ensures students
embrace different and unfamiliar ways
of thinking. Here, they are offered
different roles to take on to discuss a
predetermined topic. Roles are then
rotated so they can adapt their opinion
to personify a different individual
accordingly.
Read more at etonx.com/blog

7. Offer practice in supporting
fallacies & faulty evidence

8. EXAMPLES OF FLAWED LOGIC
Arguments like "You should take Miss
Clarke's class because it's really easy. I
know three people who took her class
and all passed" are common place but
logically flawed. Understanding these
fallacies and the danger of using
sweeping statements will help students
be on the look out for them in the
future.

9. Expose students to
information manipulation

10. EXAMINE CAMPAIGNS AND
FAKE NEWS
Regularly discuss with students
examples of what's in the news,
assessing the way data is presented,
photos are doctored, or how statistics
or language used is taken out of
context. In doing this, not only are
they developing strong digital literacy
skills, but students are also being
made aware of strategies employed to
influence their opinions and
judgements.
Read more at etonx.com/blog

11. Encourage reflection

12. THE CRITICAL INCIDENT
TECHNIQUE
The Critical Incident Technique presents
students with a mini case study where a
conflict exists. In groups they then
discuss the incident to propose how
they would go about dealing with the
situation. Through this process, they
discover new perspectives and solutions
and can often trigger memories of
similar situations they themselves have
encountered, which they can reflect on
and share.

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