Table of Contents
Introduction: Cognitive Mastery & Critical Thinking
Our students must be comfortable using critical thinking skills in their everyday lives, so regular effort to improve these skills is essential to helping them achieve their academic goals. By developing their critical thinking, they will notice the progression toward their ability to think outside the box and achieve their overarching goals.
When students make critical thinking a strategy that becomes a regular part of their lives, they will acquire the habit, which can develop over time through more use. By becoming better at utilizing critical thinking skills over time, the skill will help them progressively through their transitions from secondary school to university and their future workplace.
Before learning how to utilize essential critical thinking abilities, students need to understand them to learn how to utilize and implement them confidently. Students can also regularly exercise them to improve their ability to use them confidently throughout their educational endeavours. Before we discover the seven key critical thinking abilities, let's first discuss critical reading skills to aid us in further understanding how critical reading skills can be applied to reading for cognitive mastery.
What are critical reading skills?
Critical reading skills are the ability to discover a deep understanding of their non-fiction or fiction reading materials. If students have strong critical reading skills, they can analyze and evaluate what they are reading as they move through the text and reflect on what they are reading.
5 Critical Reading Techniques that will help students improve
By improving a student's comprehension, they become more encouraged as they receive better academic outcomes. By improving reading comprehension through key reading strategies, they will find effective ways to apply their new methods in their assignments and projects at school.
By knowing the five critical reading techniques and how to apply them, students can become more efficient learners and obtain progressively stronger results.
Critical Reading Techniques
Survey.
What it is:
Surveying is an essential critical reading technique for students to acquire. If students are aware of the type of information they are reading and know what to make note of, they can become more comprehensive of the reading material.
What to teach:
Students can build their "survey" critical reading skills by;
becoming familiar with the preface or introduction,
learning how to browse headings, subheadings, or the table of contents,
embarking on critical thinking strategies to assist in their understanding,
learning how to collect and reflect on what they read,
knowing how to read and respond to discussion questions or formulate an essay, and
becoming familiar with the main idea, topic or subject, and overall message.
What the benefits are:
Learning how to survey the reading material helps students understand and analyze it better, enabling them to perform at school more successfully. When students can apply critical reading strategies as a habit, they are better equipped to understand the reading materials they encounter and soon discover their progressively improving academic outcomes.
Ask questions.
What it is:
Another critical reading technique is asking questions, integral to students' understanding of their assigned reading materials. Asking questions and active listening help students discover more about the reading materials, analyze their reading, apply critical thought, and perform better in completing relevant reading responses or assignments.
What to teach:
Students can build their "ask questions" critical reading skills by;
formulating questions they have for the content discussed in the reading,
focusing on gathering responses to their questions using skimming and scanning,
knowing how to utilize paraphrasing techniques and critical thinking skill sets,
learning how to analyze material to reflect on the text beyond understanding and
practicing how to note key phrases and summarize the content of the reading.
What the benefits are:
Encouraging students to practice critical reading skills will assist them in moving beyond comprehension to discuss the possible implications of a particular perspective, which will become increasingly important. Critical reading strategies become more important as they progress in their educational endeavours. Inspiring students to explore new dimensions and reframing thoughts will become paramount for academic success. Teaching students to explore their readings and formulate an analysis of what they read will become a skill they can apply to many subjects in their futures.
Read actively.
What it is:
Through active reading, we teach students to engage with critical reading strategies for a text, which guides them toward reading skills beyond reading comprehension. Helping students understand how the ideas of a text are formulated will assist them in strengthening their skills as critical readers so they can explore the context of the fiction or nonfiction text.
What to teach:
Students can build their "read actively" critical reading skills by;
practicing beyond traditional critical reading exercises,
moving beyond close readings and summarizing,
becoming interested in aspects of a reading that were not included in the reading,
considering more from the text by studying inferences and
developing reflective thinking about any missing information.
What the benefits are:
Encouraging students to conduct active reading for a text helps them move beyond reading comprehension skills, whereby they can understand the ideas beyond what is presented. With more active reading, students can gather many essential aspects from a reading that will strengthen their critical reading development. Therefore, students must have the reading skills that will assist them in applying critical thoughts or insight about the thoughts or ideas shared by an author.
Create questions.
What it is:
Assisting students in creating questions to respond to helps them develop their creative thinking skills, which is essential to lead students toward further critical thinking development. When students are encouraged to become critical readers by generating questions they can work to respond to after reading a text, they are encouraged to think beyond the comprehension aspect of reading.
What to teach:
Students can build their "create questions" critical reading skills by;
helping students to draw more conclusions about what they are reading,
assisting students to gain more from a text than merely understanding,
encouraging students to make connections between different pieces of evidence shared and
learning how to note the different perspectives of authors concerning the topic.
What the benefits are:
Developing questions will assist students in regularly applying their logical reasoning skills to what they read in the future. Encouraging students to become stronger critical readers will assist them in attaining their academic goals with more confidence. Therefore, supporting students in learning to create questions for what they read will assist them in applying this strategy to their reading and writing assignments, projects, or examinations at school.
Record key concepts.
What it is:
Encouraging students to become stronger critical readers is an essential milestone in their academic development. Recording key concepts is another helpful strategy for achieving critical reading proficiency. Students can learn to record key concepts by identifying themes or significant ideas, making inferences, and assessing the argument or main point from reading materials.
What to teach:
Students can build their "record key concepts" critical reading skills by;
practicing writing down key concepts after reading a text or passage,
gaining clarity in their thought processes to enrich their critical reading skills,
taking notes to help them integrate new ideas into their previous understanding of the topic,
comparing insights from different readings to form creative linkages among texts and
identifying similar arguments across readings and combining them to form a critical analysis.
What the benefits are:
Recording key concepts is essential to being a sound critical reader, which assists students in sharpening their critical thinking process from what they read. Some critical reading techniques will be considered a challenge for students at first, but developing them will help students consider these strategies second nature with practice. Therefore, the benefits of developing critical reading skills for better critical thinking development are essential for students to gain confidence in writing responses and essays so that it will be well worth the effort.
What are the 7 critical thinking skills?
Critical thinking encompasses knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, asking questions, and evaluation. When students implement these critical thinking skills into their everyday educational endeavours, they become more confident in applying these principles to obtain better academic results.
The 7 Critical Thinking Skills in Detail:
Knowledge: Identification and recall of information.
The ability to hone the skill of acquiring knowledge through identifying and recalling information becomes essential when they need to apply that strategy for their school assignments, projects, or examinations. Therefore, knowledge is essential for students to develop by learning to identify and recall the presented information. Many subjects require strong reading and writing skills, so encouraging students to acquire knowledge through identification and recall will assist them in ultimate achievement in their educational endeavours.
Learning to identify specific words, phrases, and definitions will assist students in comprehending and analyzing what they read so they can write better paragraphs or essays for their academic achievement. Helping students recall specific information will be instrumental in helping them confidently respond to discussions or long-form questions on examinations, thereby sharing their understanding with their school teachers.
Strategy:
A strategy to encourage your students or children to develop critical thinking skills is to teach them how to create specific questions about what they read or study. The method for helping students create specific questions is to ask them to start developing them by using the following words as prompts for each question: who, what, where, when, how, describe, and what is.
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Comprehension: Organization and selection of facts and ideas.
Guiding students in organizing information for improved note-taking skills is an essential strategy for teaching them to improve their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. Since comprehension is essential to their critical thinking skill development, students will be better prepared to comprehend what they are reading and apply the note-taking strategy.
Since note-taking is an essential strategy for students to know how to implement, parents and tutors can help students develop the skill of note-taking so they can organize information to work with for their school subjects. By providing students with the skills and strategies of note-taking from what they read, they will be assisted further with applying their critical thinking skills in preparation for any written reflections or essay writing assignments assigned to them at a later date.
Strategy:
Students can better improve their reading comprehension skills for critical thinking application by organizing and selecting specific facts and information by practicing their communication skills to specific questions, such as:
How would you retell this information in your own words?
What are the main ideas mentioned in the text?
What differences exist between both ideas?
Can you write a brief outline of the presented information?
Application: Use of facts, rules, and principles.
Application is an essential aspect of critical thinking skill development so students can better understand how to use the facts, rules, and principles outlined in the passage or text to complete their assignments and projects at school.
By improving their ability to apply the information they've learned through reading materials, students are more equipped to use the presented information to satisfy the academic requirements of each assignment. Students can improve their academic outcomes through more successful results in each assignment or project they are challenged with with more independence and confidence.
Strategy:
One way for students to improve their skill strategies in the application of facts, rules, and principles of a text is to ask themselves the following questions when studying the reading material by their schools:
How is this information an example of the topic?
How is this information related to the theme or topic we are studying at school?
Why is this information significant to our course subject and the topic we are studying at school?
Is there another instance where this situation or information is relevant or useful?
Could this situation have happened in another context?
What other context could have caused this situation to happen?
Analysis: Separating a whole into parts.
Having the skill of separating a whole text into individual parts is an essential strategy for students so they can better analyze, classify, compare, note-take, diagram, infer, or specify certain aspects of the information for their academic improvement.
For specific projects and assignments at school, students need to be able to analyze the material they read to be more equipped to respond successfully to essential aspects of their assignments and projects to meet successful academic results.
Strategy:
Students can ask themselves specific questions to assist or guide them in being able to perform an analysis of what they are reading:
What are the individual parts or features of the information presented in the text?
Classify the information according to specific subheadings or section titles.
Develop an outline, diagram, or mind map of the information presented in the text.
How does the information about the topic compare or contrast with other information?
What evidence can you present for the shared information?
Synthesis: Combining ideas to form a new whole.
It is beneficial for students to learn how to combine ideas to form a new whole of information and combine them into an overall construct to analyze the content. When students learn how to formulate an overall, or bigger picture, concept, they can think more critically in their analysis to produce more thoughtful written work in their writing assignments and projects for school.
Strategy:
One method students can work to improve their ability to synthesize information from reading materials would be to ask specific guidance questions for themselves:
What would you predict/infer from the text or passage?
What ideas can you add to the shared information in the reading?
How would you create/design a visual of the information to reconstruct it into an overall picture?
What solutions would you suggest to solve the problem or resolve the situation?
What might happen if you combined the information with another similar reading into a writing?
Asking Questions: formulate questions to develop critical thoughts.
Students must learn to formulate discussion questions that do not limit thoughts and ideas to yes or no responses for reflection. When students practice developing questions about the ideas included in their assigned reading materials, they are better prepared to develop deeper analytical insights. These insights help students reach well-developed critical insights they can use to generate more thoughtful and well-developed written responses or essays for school assignments, projects, and long-form examination questions.
Strategy:
Students can ask themselves the following open-ended questions to assist them in their analytical responses:
What did the __ propose?
Who supported the __?
When did the situation or event occur?
What events influenced the event or situation?
Identify, define, list, or explain the topic, situation, or event.
In your own words, define __.
Summarize the presented information.
How do you know __ happened or occurred?
Interpret or paraphrase the presented information.
Describe how __ is relevant to modern times or current events in the world today.
Demonstrate your understanding in a paragraph.
What caused the situation or event to occur?
Why is this situation or topic essential or relevant to the studied subject?
Which method, procedure, or solution is better for this topic mentioned in the reading?
Which approach would you choose to solve the more significant problem or matter discussed in the reading?
What recommendation would you suggest for readers of this material to encourage them to support change or development for this matter mentioned in the reading?
Strategy:
Here are some more examples of questions that students could ask themselves to facilitate more thinking analysis for their brainstorming to prepare their written responses to the discussed information through the reading materials assigned by school subjects:
What hypothesis would you make?
How would you solve the problem mentioned in the reading?
What inference would you make about the main idea of the reading?
What would happen if people involved in this matter acted to __?
What is the most significant part of the situation or matter discussed in the reading?
What are the two main factors influencing this topic, situation, or event discussed in the reading?
What events led to the situation or event that occurred or mentioned in the reading?
What is the process or one of the main processes mentioned in the reading?
How would you summarize it?
What possibilities are there to consider as solutions?
How did this case or problem contribute to your understanding of the topic and presented subject by the reading?
Evaluation: Developing opinions, judgments, and decisions.
Through developing their evaluation skills, students are better prepared to develop their opinions, judgments, or decisions about the topic and presented subject by the reading materials assigned at school. Students will be more equipped to develop their critical thinking process, reading comprehension, and reading analysis skills so they can proceed with their school work and assignments with more thoughtfulness and develop more thoughtful written responses and essays.
When students are better prepared with skills and strategies they've become accustomed to utilizing as a part of their study strategy, they receive more confidence through their academic achievements.
Students can ask themselves specific questions when studying or reading specific texts, passages, and reading materials for school.
Strategy:
Some questions students can ask themselves (independent thinking) to evaluate better the information they are studying are;
Do you agree with the topic, solution, or opinion of the subject discussed in the reading? Explain.
What do you think about the topic, subject, event, or situation mentioned in the reading material?
What is the most essential aspect of the topic and subject presented by the text or reading passage?
How would you decide your opinion or a solution based on the presented information in the reading?
What criteria would you use to assess the situation or event discussed in the reading?
How Practicing Critical Reading Skills Assist Critical Thinking Development:
When we assisted a student in preparing for her university entrance paper, we had to develop her critical thoughts and insights, reflecting on her experiences that have led her to follow her goals in university so she could develop a thoughtful and well-developed essay that best represented herself as a student.
Our student was assigned to reflect on how her dancing experience best reflected her as a student who had strong characteristics and values due to that experience. To be able to think critically about what characteristics and values her dancing experience helped to develop within her that she utilized as qualities in her education, we ensured to ask critical thinking questions to assist her in outlining these findings.
Strategy:
The questions we developed to assist us in framing her critical insights about her experiences and her characteristics as a strong student were:
How did your dancing experience inspire you?
What did your dancing experience influence you to start doing?
How did dancing encourage your value for consistent improvement?
What did dancing challenge you to work on in other aspects of your education?
After responding to these questions, we concluded that she was inspired to work hard and noticed the work ethic of others when she observed other talented dancers. She learned to step out of her comfort zone throughout her educational experiences by becoming more expressive with her words and actions rather than limiting her physical expression in front of large audiences.
Additionally, she honed the value of consistent improvement in all aspects of her educational experiences since she became accustomed to what it takes to continue to accomplish each goal and achieve positive results from her efforts.
She also became accustomed to challenging her social skills and improving her communication strategies by regularly participating in dance classes and interacting with her dance community.
Conclusion
Understanding information and learning experiences is integral for students to think critically, develop analytically, and reflect thoughtfully for further development and academic achievement.
Therefore, it is vital to support students in their critical thinking development so that they can better understand what they are learning and reframe and generate well-developed written responses. These often occur throughout their educational experiences as assignments, projects, and examinations at school, and they need to be produced thoughtfully for positive academic results and achievements for their academic goals.
Next Steps:
Start by identifying one critical thinking skill your child or student would benefit from developing, such as problem-solving, decision-making, or logical reasoning.
Introduce activities or puzzles that specifically target this skill, providing guidance and support as needed.
Please encourage them to practice regularly and reflect on their progress, fostering a growth mindset towards critical thinking abilities.
As they gain confidence in this skill, they gradually introduce new challenges to enhance their cognitive mastery further.
New here? Welcome! I’m Natasha, and I’m here to help students gain confidence in their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills so they can progressively reach optimal academic success in their humanities coursework by using their newly acquired skills.
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