The Goal: If we approach students as thinkers, assign activities that require thinking, model the thinking we expect, and teach students how to assess and improve their own thinking, they will become better thinkers, students, and persons in a fast-paced and changing world.

What is Critical Thinking?

Skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment.
Relies on (a) thinking criteria, (b) self-correcting, and (c) sensitivity to context.
It is the ability & disposition to improve one\u2019s thinking by systematically subjecting it to intellectual self-assessment.

How can teachers use Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking teaches students to assume an active role in their learning (e.g.: to think historically as a student in history, to think mathematically in geometry class, etc.).
Critical thinking provides ways students can determine content through internalizing (e.g.: state, elaborate, exemplify, and illustrate the thinking, the content, the problem).
Teachers learn to design activities that allow slow and fast students to learn together.

How can students use Critical Thinking?

Students work solo or collaboratively through a series of criteria (e.g.: intellectual traits & virtues, intellectual standards, elements of reasoning and thinking).
Students learn to hold themselves accountable for their thinking.
Students come to realize the connection between everyday life and subject content and classroom activities.

How can the whole school use Critical Thinking?

Students and teachers realize their own thinking in concert with all levels of the learning community.
Students and teachers re-assess their respective roles in the school.
For example: Intellectual fair-mindedness or empathy, when practiced, link to common learning goals and applications.

Cognitive research supports:

Explicit instruction over implicit instruction.
Intense, frequent instruction focuses on basic concepts & principles over extensive but shallow coverage (e.g.: using a random approach to questioning in the classroom).

How does ASCL offer Critical Thinking methods of instruction to the school?

ASCL will work with faculty, administration, and students to introduce basic methods to the classroom by providing workshops and in-class modeling for teachers and students so that they may become practiced in successful instructional and learning methods.
Frequency and length of workshops are determined in part by each school\u2019s circumstance. For example: a successful introduction with feedback and peer-coaching sessions as well as classroom role-modeling would see ASCL team members working over a minimum of two years.