EFT Lesson 10: How do we promote critical thinking?

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1. How can you include critical thinking in class?
2. What types of critical thinking activities would work best for your students?
3. Imagine that another teacher has asked you for advice about including more critical thinking in class. What advice will you give this teacher?

Post your ideas in a reply below and comment on other teachers’ ideas.

 

[Steven Herder]

As with most things, awareness is the first step. Students must be aware of critical thinking and what it is. These days, with the idea of fake news so prevalent, it is quite easy to use that term to introduce and explain the concept of critical thinking. This is an easy and persuasive image to introduce the idea that “just because it is on the Internet doesn’t make it true.”

I teach students that you must develop digital literacy, an understanding of how to determine whether something you see online is true or false. For lower-level students, I start with the 5 Ws and 1 H questions. Simply ask a number of these questions to find out if you are seeing/hearing fake news.

There are tons of examples, articles, and lesson plans online about critical thinking. Google search “critical thinking EFL students” and you will find more than you can ever use.

[Vhanessa Barbosa]

When I include games and thinking activities in my discussion, I feel the curiousity of the kids. This helped me come up that kids love solving problems. This won’t just make the learning technique interesting, but it will help them think critically without their awareness that they are analyzing the provided details desperately and keenly.

Bottomline, by having a bit of complex activities may promote critical thinking.

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