Critical thinking has many definitions. According to The Foundation for Critical Thinking, critical thinkers use "self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair minded way. ... They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking" (Elder, as quoted in The Foundation, 2007). Beyond simply thinking, it entails evaluating information with an informed, curious, open-minded, rational, reflective, and persistent mindset (Sakai-Miller, 2016).
Critical thinking is the most challenging of the 4Cs to incorporate with careful consideration into the design of instruction, and teach to students. Encouraging students to develop confidence to think independently and open minded, to analyze information, make associations and connections, and form opinions or evaluations based on given information without a foundation or professional development requires careful and specific design. My first attempts stayed close to my comfort zone in the art content area: visual literacy. For several years I have been teaching students to observe, analyze parts, synthesize them, and evaluate. As a natural extension of this exercise, students began asking questions and engaging in dialogue, and it became clear that students wanted choices to communicate which led to collaborating. Through Students as Creators, I have a better understanding of how to structure open-ended, active and project based learning that begins with an essential question or a problem solving to encourage independent thinking, idea generation, creativity, communication and collaboration.
In reflection, certain instructional strategies with a critical thinking element have not been entirely successful in some of my projects. One obvious reason is the element of time which begs the question, is this project one that can allow for development of deep knowledge? Curriculum goals and student contact per quarter play an influential role in content decisions. Students need time for natural flow of inquiry, idea development, exploration, experimentation, and revision, especially in collaboration, to successfully acquire deeper knowledge. Student choice, voice, resource variety, and the ability to work with others have not been included in some projects which I believe are significant reasons for lack of critical thinking. Entry events that link the essential question to student curiosity is another area I will need to strengthen for engagement and motivation for critical thinking projects. One accessible example is the 3D ocean theme clay project used for Project #2 Artist Statement reflections on learning. Though not completely open ended, I asked my self: Did I allow time for students to research ideas? Did students have time to explore clay tools to use with innovation? Did I provide an Essential Question or Entry Activity? How can I improve creative and critical thinking processes?
On the other hand, I have experienced mini success with a few projects that allowed exploration, choice, collaboration, and creative freedom in project images below. One 4th grade class voted to create a paper mache surf board, and experimented with a prototype using a paper plate, scissors and tape. Students sketched design ideas, painted with bright acrylics, and photographed themselves surfing to attach to surf board. The 2nd grade explored National Geographic Kids and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute on chromebooks to answer What do we need to know about jellyfish in order to draw and paint them? This inquiry led to our discovery of bio luminescence and how to illustrate pulses of light in our artwork. My favorite example, from 4th grade, is a project that began with the essential question How can you use form to create a mini clay sandcastle? Our entry event used two tubs of wet sand and a variety of small plastic container forms. Fifth grade used Bubbl.us to generate ideas for their legacy project, a crucial first step of the project that laid the foundation for creative and critical thinking.
I decided Critical Thinking will be a progressively developed skill in art and began this week to introduce some key elements to kindergarteners. Students were paired to talk about what they wanted to paint with watercolors and why. The conversations were very animated and exploratory. After watercolor painting, students were asked to talk about their painting: What is it about? What were your choices? Here is an example that illustrates the first steps to thinking deeper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uwhb_3OCrUemVNWlNYdnlBNHhIaDlDMWVEbjI2aDR5WFBF/view?usp=sharingdrive.google.com/file/d/0B9uwhb_3OCrUemVNWlNYdnlBNHhIaDlDMWVEbjI2aDR5WFBF/view?usp=sharing
My limited scope of TED is now improved, given the resources in our Critical Thinking unit. I have discovered TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit global community with a mission of spreading ideas for deeper understanding and engagement (TED, n.d.).
Exploring Breakout EDU was exciting though a purchase is involved. I viewed the tutorial, several art games, and imagined the art gallery game with critical thinking questions that I have been wanting to develop (see image below).
Searching for ART in TED-Ed Lessons includes a variety of choices, many of which are not elementary level such as the Animation lessons, however I felt lucky to discover How Art Can Help You Analyze, https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-art-can-help-you-analyze-amy-e-herman. This lesson places observation, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation into perspective for students who can benefit from the visual literacy exercises we explore, and understand how to associate these skills into other professions. The lesson format is watch, think, dig deeper, discuss, all of which offered a great elementary level lesson structure. I discovered a Ted-Ed lesson on jellyfish that would have been a great third resource for my 2nd grade project (see images below).
The TED-Ed Clubs link in our Critical Thinking Module 7 resource is an introductory video about a youth and education program that utilizes a curriculum to help students gain confidence in presentation skills with critical thinking to share their passions and ideas. TED-Ed Clubs, defined in TED Blog artculates "TED-Ed Clubs are for students ages 8 to 18, and can contain up to 50 members. An educator — who gets materials and a hands-on orientation from the TED-Ed staff — leads the club through a series of 13 meetings, designed to get students to permanently wear their thinking caps. For the first three meetings, students watch TED Talks, discuss them and begin to think: what idea most captures my imagination? From there, students learn how to frame their idea and present it in a TED-style talk. In meeting 11, students give their talks in front of the club and, in the next meeting, work on editing their video. As a final step, these talks are uploaded to the TED-Ed YouTube channel — some may even be featured on the TED-Ed website" (Announcing TED-Ed Clubs, 2014). This is such a wonderful opportunity for young students to develop critical thinking skills and I am curious about the curriculum.
My challenge is to continue to develop intentional instructional strategies that promote critical thinking combined with engaging entry activities for active learning with improved resources and the integration of technology. I now keep the informative critical thinking visual from MentoriingMinds.com, pictured below, visible to help with my critical thinking instructional goals.
Elder, L. (2007). Critical Thinking: Where to Begin. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-where-to-begin/796
Sakai-Miller, S. (2016) Innovation Age Learning: Empowering Students by Empowering Teachers. Eugene, OR: ISTE.
TED. (n.d.). Our Organization. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization
TED (n.d.). Announcing Ted-Ed Clubs. Retrieved from: https://blog.ted.com/introducing-ted-ed-clubs/