Critical thinking about critical thinking

1. Critical thinking about critical thinking Paula Owens and John Hopkin Workshop description Based on two practical activities, this workshop will explore what critical thinking means in the context of geography, apply it to some examples and consider how to apply it in the classroom We will reference further support on the GA website and through the British Council Connecting Classrooms programme

2. What is critical thinking? Critical thinking • is widely regarded as a ‘good thing’, for pupils’ current learning and future lives (e.g. as citizens and workers) • is useful for learning about material which is complex (e.g. has many meanings and explanations) controversial (involves different views and values) and easy to misrepresent (e.g. stereotyping places and people) But it s not always well defined: • what does ‘critical’ mean? is there a difference between ‘critical thinking’ and broader thinking skills? • what approaches / pedagogies might help pupils’ think critically? • can critical thinking can be taught alone?

3. Focus on critical questions • Review the questions bank ‘Questions for Critical Thinking’ • Choose a resource then select /apply useful questions from the bank; • Discuss how you could use/amend the questions bank (see reverse side); • Discuss which questions are more or less ‘critical’, or if there is progression within the questions.

4. Three ways of thinking about critical thinking… • Choosing/deciding the value of information and sources • Evaluating data and evidence • Problem solving. • Evaluating arguments and reasoning • The significance of ideas • Fact and opinion • Identifying and exploring points of view • Identifying bias. • Asking good questions • Organising questions • Metacognition

5. Activities for Critical Thinking carousel Three activities A, B and C with prompt resources and recording resources

6. Role cards: empathic geographyCritical thinking: considering other viewpoints TASK A Working alone or in groups use the role cards to explore the immediate surroundings. Imagine yourself in a given role and think about whether the immediate environment supports your particular needs. Use the grid to make notes about particular positives or negatives and suggest areas for improvement. How would you develop this to use in your school grounds or local area? Can places be all things to all people? Should they be? Can you think of an example of a place where certain groups of people might feel excluded or alienated ? What have you learn about critical thinking from this activity and its value in fieldwork? Refer back to the earlier given definitions or create some new ones of your own.

7. Explore the immediate environment ‘in role’ and consider how easy it is to use and navigate the space. Can places be all things to all people? Should places be more inclusive? A

8. A

9. Migration : which are the best questions to ask? TASK B Look at these two sets of ‘facts’ from different sources. Read and discuss them with a partner and decide if you can select statements that are ‘factual’ and accurate. What don’t these statements tell you? Which ones might be considered ‘opinion’? Using this information, discuss with your partner and write down the best five questions you can come up with that will help you learn more about the facts. Share your questions with other pairs on your table and decide on the best five questions between you. Which questions will you keep and which will you drop? What have you learnt about asking questions and using different sources of evidence? What have you learnt about critical thinking?

10. B 10 Migration ‘facts’ Sheet 1 • The current scale of migration to the UK, 330,000 a year, of which roughly half is from the EU, is completely unsustainable. • As a result of this mass immigration our population is projected to rise by half a million every year – the equivalent of a city the size of Liverpool – for as long as immigration is permitted on the present scale. • England is already twice as crowded as Germany and 3.5 times as crowded as France. • The additional population growth makes congestion worse and adds to the pressures on public services. This comes at a time when public spending is being reduced. • One in four children born in England and Wales is to a foreign born mother. The rise in the number of births has put pressure on NHS maternity services. • It has also led to a shortage of school places. 60% of local authorities will have a shortage of primary school places by 2018. • The UK has a serious housing crisis. Mass immigration is the main reason for the additional demand. We must build a new home every six minutes for the next 20 years to accommodate the additional demand for housing from new migrants. • Population growth on this scale renders integration of newcomers virtually impossible • Three quarters of the public want to see immigration reduced and half of them want it cut by a lot. • To stop the rapid rise in the UK’s population size, net migration would have to be reduced to well below 100,000 a year. It is currently at over 300,000. 31 March, 2016 http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/377

11. B 10 Migration ‘facts’ Sheet 2 • Refugees and other migrants make a significant contribution to the UK economy, paying proportionately more into the public purse than their UK born counterparts. • If Polish people and other E8 migrants went home it would cost the UK £22bn. • EU migrants pay in 34% more than they take out in services. • Non-EU migrants do not have recourse to public funds until they have been resident in the UK for 5 years, so benefits alone are not realistic as the primary motivation for non-EU migrants to travel to the UK. • Less than 5% of EU migrants are claiming jobseekers allowance, while less than 10% are claiming other DWP working age benefits. (Migration observatory. Commentary. Costs and Benefits: Benefits tourism, what does it mean? Published 21/02/2014). • 300,000 British nationals are registered in Spain - true figure (in Spain) likely to be 1 million. • British migrants cost Spanish health services 300million Euros a year. • Older people tend to migrate to Spain; younger, fitter migrants tend to come to the UK. • In 2014 there were just under 60million (59.5m) displaced people in the world, including 19.5m refugees and 18m asylum seekers (UNHCR Global Trends Report 2014). • Most refugees – 86% – are hosted in developing countries; Turkey (1.59m), Pakistan (1.51m), Lebanon (1.15m) (UNHCR Global Trends Report 2014). https://sheffield.cityofsanctuary.org 2016

12. How easy is it to categorise the statements using this grid? B

13. B

14. Critical thinking: using sources C TASK C Look first JUST at the image of lights on Earth as seen from space. What’s wrong with the image? Why isn’t it a true image? If the image shows lights at night what does it tell you about the world? Write down five facts that you can deduce from the evidence. What does it tell you about energy use around the world? Now use the other sources of information provided and add to or adapt your original deductions. Try to have a list of things you are sure are factual and a list of things you think you may be true but are not certain about. Which of these information resources is most useful and which is least useful? Say why. Finally, write some powerful enquiry questions to help you research further.

15. 20% of the world’s population use 80% of the energy (www.create.org.uk) C 80% 20% ENERGY

16. http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/55000/55167/earth_lights_lrg.jpghttp://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/55000/55167/earth_lights_lrg.jpg C

17. World territory proportional to world fuel usage Territory size is proportional to the percentage of world fuel usage that occurs there. C See full technical notes http://www.worldmapper.org/technotes.php?selected=119

18. C

19. C

20. What do you know? What do you think you know? What would you like to know? What is wrong or missing from the information provided C

21. Earth Visible Light: information The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe with China and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centres. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the centre of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region. Even more than 100 years after the invention of the electric light, some regions remain thinly populated and unlit. Antarctica is entirely dark. The interior jungles of Africa and South America are mostly dark, but lights are beginning to appear there. Deserts in Africa, Arabia, Australia, Mongolia, and the United States are poorly lit as well (except along the coast), along with the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, and the great mountains of the Himalaya http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/55000/55167/earth_lights_lrg.jpg and see http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.shtml C

22. Worldmapper Information: fuel usage Each year the fuel equivalent of 11 567 000 000 000 kilograms of oil is used around the world. Fuel includes gas, coal, oil, nuclear, wood, and other materials. As one kilogram of these materials produces a different amount of energy, more useful comparisons can be drawn by comparing power. This is done by measuring power as what one kilogram of oil could produce, which is 4 kilowatt hours. Worldwide fuel consumption averages 1853 kilograms of oil equivalent per person per year. The highest per person fuel users (in Luxembourg) use almost a hundred times more fuel per person than the lowest fuel users (in Bangladesh). C http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=119

23. With or without critical thinking? • For example, in geography: learning about globalisation and interdependence; fair trade • without critical thinking: lessons that focus on the merits of fair trade, leading pupils to the conclusion that buying fair trade goods is the right thing to do; • with critical thinking: lessons that investigate fair trade in the context of different kinds of trade, building understanding of the processes and links involved; so that pupils can examine each on merit, consider different views and, decide whether to buy fair trade goods or not. • Pupils might go further, for example comparing how evidence is presented by proponents of fair trade and free trade, considering who benefits most from fair trade, or considering the ethical issues involved in making such decisions.

24. With or without critical thinking? • For example, in geography: Developing countries; classifying countries • without critical thinking: lessons that teach pupils a singular view of developing countries, e.g. that countries can be classified in certain ways, for example rich/poor, North/South, MEDC/LEDC, and that countries in each group have particular characteristics; • with critical thinking: lessons that investigate a range of evidence about development in different parts of the world, consider different ways to view and classify countries and debate the best way to do so. • Pupils might go further, for example asking questions about differences within countries, or about how the evidence they examined was produced and selected, and by whom.

25. Structures to support critical thinking 1. Questions for critical thinking: use this to help structure pupils’ questions (e.g. to move towards deeper or more complex questions, beyond the 5Ws to ) 2. Oxfam’s Why Why Why chain: use this to test for deeper reasons and reasoning, and issues tree: use this to look deeper for the roots of an issue or problem, and how it might be solved 3. Development compass rose from TIDE: use this to structure and explore a range of possible questions 4. Simple/complex argumentation maps: use these to break down more complex text or arguments, promote clarity and rigour in thinking and deeper understanding.

26. Support • Critical thinking is integral to the Global Learning Programme in England and Wales and linked to many geography resources • Developing GA critical thinking site here http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/critical-thinking-in-geography linked to: • British Council Connecting Classrooms programme: free ‘core skills’ CPD in critical thinking and problem solving, linked to international practice. • Participating schools’ projects on GA site shortly. Critical thinking is: self-directed thinking that produces new and innovative ideas and solves problems. Reflecting critically on learning experiences and processes and making effective decisions (British Council)

27. Key sources Teaching Geography Summer 2015

28. Thinking critically about critical thinking • A key aspect of critical thinking in my view is … • Critical thinking means to me… • When critical thinking is effective it… • Critical thinking is not… • With regard to critical thinking, in my school … • Critical thinking is a particularly useful attribute in global learning because… • When critical thinking is handled poorly …