Critical thinking skills, Why it is important and How it can promote academic achievement.

1. Critical Thinking Skills
and Academic
Achievement
By: Jerri Gayles
SOE 115 Psy of Teaching & Learning
Kendall College

2. In a statement clarified by Scriven, M. & Paul, R. (1987) Critical thinking is
the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered
from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is
based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions:
clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good
reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.

3. From a Vygotskian perspective critical thinking skills are taught through speech interactions
between teacher and student. Two assumptions central to Vygotskian theory are the role of
inner speech in self-regulation and how teaching creates the zone of proximal development.
Inner speech allows humans to consciously direct their thought processes. Critical thinking is a
psychological system that involves the collaboration of several higher mental functions including
memory, conceptual thought, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and even imagination. Written
texts and peer tutors can be used to teach additional critical thinking skills, but alone they are
not sufficient--the teacher-student interaction is the key.

4. The Piaget stages of development is a blueprint in cognitive development that describes the
stages of normal intellectual development, from infancy through adulthood. This includes
thought, judgment, and knowledge. These stages were named after psychologist and
developmental biologist Jean Piaget, who recorded the intellectual development and abilities of
infants, children, and teens.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited
and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. This stage of Cognitive
Development has a fragment of four distinct stages in children: sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete, and formal. Jul 22, 2014

5. Critical thinking has been an important issue in education, and has become quite the buzzword
around schools. The Common Core State Standards specifically emphasize a thinking
curriculum and thereby requires teachers to elevate their students’ mental workflow beyond just
memorization—which is a really good step forward. Critical thinking is a skill that young minds
will undeniably need and exercise well beyond their school years. Experts agree that in keeping
up with the ever-changing technological advances, students will need to obtain, understand,
and analyze information on a much more efficient scale. It is our job as educators to equip our
students with the strategies and skills they need to think critically in order to cope with these
tech problems and obstacles they face elsewhere.

6. As I reflect on my research, I’ve come to the understanding that
critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which
attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded
way. In my findings, I’ve learned that critical thinking began to
developed at birth and can expand as long as a person challenge
normal reasoning. People who think critically consistently attempt
to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware
of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left
unchecked. Critical thinkers strive to diminish the power of their
egocentric and sociogenic tendencies. They use the intellectual
tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that
enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. Critical
thinkers work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of
intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility,
intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence
in reason. This why it has been adopted as education’s Common
Core Value because being able to teach a child learned
information is one thing but to be able for that child to go out into
the world and use that knowledge and become successful is
highly rewarding not only to that child but that child’s future.

7. According to an overview of the text Educational
Psychology by Anita Woolfolk, critical thinking is an
important issue in education today. The movement to the
information age has focused attention on good thinking
as an important element of life success (Huitt, 1995;
Thomas & Smoot, 1994). These changing conditions
require new outcomes, such as critical thinking, to be
included as a focus of schooling. Old standards of simply
being able to score well on a standardized test of basic
skills, though still appropriate, cannot be the sole means
by which we judge the academic success or failure of our
students. It is important for you to be able demonstrate to
your instructor, your peers, and your academic
community that you are not only able to learn information
but to use it to create new research/ideas/hypothesis and
so on to contribute a forever evolving world.

8. Critical thinking includes a number of different skills that
help your child learn to make decisions. It is the ability to
evaluate information to determine whether it is right or
wrong. To think critically about an issue or a problem
means to be open-minded and consider alternative ways
of looking at solutions. As children grow into pre-
adolescents and teenagers, their critical thinking skills
will help them make judgments independently of parents.
To be good at thinking, children must believe that
thinking is fun and want to be good at it. Parents can
make thinking fun throughout the academic year as well
as during the summer and on vacations. Good thinkers
practice thinking just like they practice basketball or
soccer.

9. Conclusion
• As I conclude my presentation I believe that being a critical thinker is a very
valuable skill to have. Throughout all the articles, texts, and videos that I have
researched it has been confirmed that assessing and reflecting can build on
ideas which allows you to gain more knowledge. I believe being a critical
thinker is also a valuable part of human survival. Without being able to
critically evaluate a situation it may be hard to solve problem, make decisions,
or choices that can be very important or even life threating. This is why I
believe critical thinking can promote a students achievement not only
through school but through out life as well.

10. Defining Critical Thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-
critical-thinking/766
ERIC - A Vygotskian Perspective on Critical Thinking., 1989-Nov-29. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED314770
Teaching Strategies to Promote Critical Thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from
http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-promote-critical-thinking
Piaget Stages of Development. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-
of-development#1
Educational Psychology Interactive: Critical thinking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2017, from
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/critthnk.html
References