notes from 4/30/08 meeting

Conclusion:

In our opinion, students have a difficult time structuring their own learning opportunities. They seem most comfortable when information is presented to them procedurally. Students seem to lack motivation/desire to lead themselves to the point of self-discovery in learning.

Through our study, we have learned that critical thinking skills take time to develop. One of the shortcomings of our study was the amount of time we had to work with our students on critical thinking skills. This could be compounded by the fact that children are not given the opportunity to think critically in many areas of their lives, including most educational settings. A quote from Debra McCutcheon, a teacher in Andover, NY sums it up "As a child, he(her father) grew up developing a creative mind where he had to think independently to do simple things like "playing". ...... Today, students' home life is quite different." As educators we need to find a way to fill that gap and give students more opportunity to think critically.

notes from 4/23/08 meeting

We discussed the results of the modified lessons:

High School Level Science:

Two different science lab classes participated in the activity. One class had 8 students in it and the other class had 9. For both groups there was a general class discussion centering around the idea that cooling rate influences crystal size in rocks and minerals. Students were then told that they would do an activity to determine if what we had talked about in theory actually occurred. One class of students was given a step by step set of instructions for the lab. Another class of students was given a more open ended set of instructions. They were told what materials they were allowed to use, told the general purpose of the activity, and then asked to design the procedure themselves. This approach was used to determine if having students critically think about the design and purpose of an experiment would allow them to better understand the concepts of the activity.

There seemed to be no real difference in the quality of the responses of the two groups. Both groups seemed to understand the general concept that as cooling rate increases, crystal size decreases. Both groups also had difficulty completing the lab without teacher input, although the group with the more open ended lab had significantly more problems completing the lab than the other group. Students in the open ended group seemed unable to critically think about what it was that they were to find out and design an activity that would allow them to answer the question. They seemed to need or want guidance in the set up and completion of the lab. They frequently needed reassurance that they were proceeding correctly or were doing things right. Although the group which followed the written instructions displayed some of the same insecurities, it was not to the extent or degree of the more open ended lab.

There were no significant differences in the two groups responses to the five analysis questions. The major difference between the two groups was their ability to carry out the experiment. This could be due to the fact that this was one of the first times this year that students have been asked to devise their own experiment. Previous activities have always involved a written set of procedures which were explained in advance by the teacher. More exposure to designing and implementing experiments is needed for students at this level.

Middle Level Science:

At the conclusion of my lesson, students were asked to complete a questionnaire that included questions based on observations and questions based on inferences. Based on my assessments those that completed the procedural lesson scored an average of 72.3% as compared to those that completed the lesson designed for critical thinking scored 77.7%. Each group that participated in the study were fairly equal in terms of ability. Ironically, the students that were following the procedural lesson struggled more with the steps of the activity than those that completed the open-ended activity.


Middle Level Math:
All Math 8 classes participated in the slope activity. The first part of the activity was done individually by each student. The portion of the activity asked the students to make 2 - 3 observations of 3 graphs of parallel lines and 3 graphs of perpendicular lines. The second portion of the activity involved plotting two sets of points on a coordinate axis, finding the slope, y-intercept, and writing the equation of each of the lines. The two lines on each of the graphs were grouped by parallel lines and perpendicular lines. The students were then asked to examine each set of lines and make 2 - 3 conclusions about these sets of lines.

I compared the conclusions the students made about the sets of lines that were grouped by parallel lines or perpendicular lines, the slopes of the lines, and the equations of the lines. I found that number of correct conclusions made by students in the class that "exercised" their brain by working on critical thinking problems each school day for 2 weeks did not vary from any of the other classes.





Each class struggled with critically thinking about the similarities/differences of the graphs, slopes and equations. Many of their conclusions were actually observations of the graphs. A few students were able to take the observations about the sets of graphs. Then, with use of their prior knowledge of slopes and equations, these students were able to make logical/correct conclusions about parallel and perpendicular lines.

Notes from 3/28/08 meeting

The group discussed what would be included in a lesson focusing on critical thinking.


We decided that when incorporating critical thinking into the lesson, the majority of the questions should be open-ended. In addition, the lesson will allow students to learn from mistakes and give them time for reflection and time to process the problem and/or topic.

The group modified three existing lessons to include critical thinking ideas.




Modified High School Science Lesson:

One of the lessons modified an existing science experiment which attempted to determine the affect of temperature on crystal growth. In this lesson one group of students was given a step by step set of instructions to follow to complete the activity. Another group of students was given a list of available materials and was told to design an experiment that would determine the affect that temperature had on crystal growth. Each group of students performed the experiment and then were given the same set of questions about the experiment. Student answers to the questions were then analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the two types of lessons.


Modified Middle Level Science Lesson:




Two eighth grade classes participated in this study. One group completed a procedural lesson and the other an open-ended lesson. The lesson was completed during one class period. The objective was to check students comprehemsion of the difference between an observation and an inference. Students were then assessed on their knowledge of observations and inferences gained from the procedural or open-ended lessons.





Modified Middle Level Math Lesson:

Prior to this lesson, one class was given a different critical thinking problem to work on for approximately 5 minutes each day for 2 weeks. The reason for this was to test an idea that the brain needs to be "exercised" in the area of critical thinking. This "exercise" for 5 minutes per day for 2 weeks was to be tested by reveiwing the results of an activity given to all of the math classes. The hypothesis was the class that "exercised" would have more insight into the critical thinking portion of the activity.

Notes from meeting on 3/12/08

We discussed the following quote from the American Educator- summer 2007- page 11.
"From the cognitive scientists' point of view, the mental activities that are typically called critical thinking are actually a subset of three types of thinking: reasoning, making judgements and decisions, and problem solving."

We also discussed the article, "The Art of Redesigning Instruction. " This article was modified from a chapter in Paul. (1995). Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World. Dillon Beach, CA.

The group decided how each team member was going to implement critical thinking strategies into their classroom. Each member began to modify an existing lesson to incorporate critical thinking ideas into a lesson.

Notes from 2/14/08 meeting

We discussed the following quote from the American Educator- Summer 2007, page 8.

"In layperson's terms, critical thinking consists of seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconforms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth."

Our discussion centered on the ideas that students need practice solving problelms and need to acquire different problem solving skills. Students often have limited conditioning to think deeper than the surface of the problem. Often they lack perserverence in solving problems and have little confidence to take risks in solving problems or in looking at problems in new and creative ways. In addition, students' need for immediate gratification sometimes affects their ability to think critically about a problem. An over-reliance on technology may also negatively affect students' critical thinking skills.

Action Plan

• We will accomplish our goals through scheduled meetings, discussions, and by testing our theories in an experimental design.

• Evidence that our goal has been attained by gaining increased awareness of how critical thinking skills can be implemented in the classroom.

• In order to evaluate the success of this project we will incorporate more critical thinking skills in our lessons/more ideas. Evaluation will take place over a period years.

• We will share our work with colleagues by posting on our blog.

• Articles and books will be resources used in the study group.