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Critical Thinking

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Friday is not the day to talk about thinking. I think a lot of people in general and students in particular are looking to stop thinking right about now. But critical thinking skills are something I feel is really important so when I learned today that Microsoft has a bunch of resources for teaching critical thinking including a free e-book it seemed worth a blog post of its own. (Note that this is only the latest of a series of Teacher Guides for use in the classroom from Microsoft Education)

[Microsoft] developed this critical thinking and web research curriculum with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Lesson plans include prerequisites, rationale, essential concepts, and descriptions of related National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and are designed for beginner, intermediate, or advanced levels, aimed at middle school and secondary students.

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Students have more information at their fingertips than ever before, yet the challenge remains for them to find, evaluate, and apply the information they discover in the classroom and beyond.

Applying critical thinking skills through web research can help students:

  • Improve search skills.
  • Evaluate the information they find.
  • Incorporate them in their work.

Explore the ready-to-use curriculum below, including detailed lesson plans, student worksheets, and class demonstrations on:

  • Mechanics of searching
  • Validity and reliability
  • Plagiarism
  • Citing web sources
  • Civil discourse

Download the Critical Thinking e-book

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2010
    We do need to start showing kids computer science earlier. Bill Gates started in middle school and while that was only an option for the rich back then it needs to be an option for everyone today.

  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2010
    How many elementary teachers are qualfied to teach CS/Programming?  Does anyone know of an Elementary Ed program at any university that includes a CS methods course?  (No, business apps does not count as CS.)

  • Anonymous
    June 21, 2010
    The lack not only of trained CS teachers but a lack of programs to train them is a huge stumbling block. It's a Catch 22  problem in some respects. No certification program for such teachers because there is not training program and no training program because there is no certification that requires it.