July 19 2011 Nishtha Pant Module 5 Research

1. July 19 2011 Nishtha Pant Module 5 Research

2. Critical Thinking Skills Why Do High School Students need them

3. [Critical thinking is a] desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. ~ Francis Bacon (1605)

4. “Appropriately focused metacognitive instruction increases practical intelligence, thus enabling students to gain greater insights into their learning strategies” (Flavell, 1979; Lambert, 2000)

6. Problem Statement Lack of Critical Thinking Skills are impeding the growth of High School Students

7. What are Thinking Skills • Skills in problem solving • Skills in making inquiries • Skills in making decisions • Skills in making judgments • Skills in organizing and managing

8. Critical Thinking Skills - • Purposeful • Should be taught • Not just subject matters

9. Benefits of Thinking Skills • Solve problems • Make decisions • Adapt • Be successful

10. President Obama’s vision Promoting world-class academic standards and a curriculum that fosters - • critical thinking, • problem solving, and • the innovative use of knowledge to prepare students for college and career

11. Foundation for Critical Thinking • Socratic teaching- give students questions, not answers • Changing one’s habits of thought is a long-range project (criticalthinking.org)

12. Research in critical thinking demonstrates • Critical Thinking is not presently being effectively taught at the high school, college and university levels, and yet • it is possible to do so.

13. Educator Research Researches done in Universities in US, UK and Indonesia point towards the importance of teaching thinking skills to students.

14. The purpose of this research is to : • examine impact of teaching critical thinking skills on standardized test scores of students in science classroom. • help Educators improve student learning by incorporating thinking skills activities in every day class

15. Significance of study • Action research done by teachers in the classrooms • Control and experimental classes • Students interested in the study • Students motivated and ready to learn

16. Results from Benchmark C L A S S P E R C E N T I L E S

17. Conclusion • Benchmark test results showed marked improvement in scores • TAKS test results slightly better in “Nature of Science” problems than the control group

18. Bibliography • Joseph, N. (2010). Metacognition Needed: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Develop Strategic Learning Skills. [Article]. Preventing school failure, 54(2), 99-102 • Guzzetti, B. (2009).Thinking Like a Forensic Scientist: Learning With Academic and Everyday Texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(3),192-203 • Sampson, V & Gleim, L. (2009). Argument- Driven Inquiry to Promote the Understanding of Important Concepts & Practices in Biology. The American Biology Teacher, 71(8), 465-471

19. Bibliography • Cosgrove, R (2010).Critical Thinking: Lessons from a Continuing Professional Development Initiative in a London Comprehensive Secondary School. University of Cambridge - Cambridge, UK .Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/research/index.cfm