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.