Solving problems with Critical Thinking Skills
Which critical thinking skills are MS students using to solve problems?
General topic of interest
Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make an informed judgment. It involves evaluating sources such as data, facts, observable phenomena and research. Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information and discriminate between useful and less useful details for solving problems or making decisions.
Critical Thinking Skills to solve problems
Participants
MS Students (Year 6 - 9)
Data collecting approach
MS students will be introduced to the definition of Critical Thinking Skills and then will answer a survey about how do they use some of the critical thinking skills to approach a problem.
Data collecting example
Emerging results
To this research, I considered that Critical Thinking skills refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. Considering that Critical Thinking is a key competence to be developed in Humanities lessons and during Middle School, I collected data from my students about their perception on what skills they feel that they use the most to solve a problem in their lives. I've considered the following skills: Analysis, Communication, Creativity, Open-Mindedness and Decision Making.
The survey was responded by students from 6th to 9th grade and results showed me that in average, students feel that the most used Critical Thinking Skills for solving a problem are Open-Mindedness and Communication, while the Critical Thinking Skill less used, in average, is Decision Making.
Reflections
This was the first step to map which Critical Thinking skills MS students are developing. This survey is statistical low relevant as it should be compared with different data collected in various surveys. It would be useful to contrast students against teacher perceptions. Also, it would be important to validate student's perceptions with some real problems in which they would have to show how much they are using the selected skills.
Next steps
To continue and make this research more relevant and apply the results on my practice, the next steps are to validate data and get data from teachers.
