Critical thinking is an intellectually disciplined process of evaluating and analyzing information to guide beliefs and actions. It involves skills like clarity, accuracy, reasoning, and sound evidence. The document discusses how critical thinking is important in education by moving away from simple memorization and towards asking questions, collaborating ideas, and engaging students in problem solving. It provides examples of how to apply critical thinking in the classroom through activities like classroom blogs, discussion boards, and group projects where students explore and discuss topics together, rather than through traditional testing. Specifically, one example given is having student groups create a blog post about important accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin and having other students comment on the posts to agree or disagree.

1. Critical Thinking in the 21st Century
by
Eric Starr, Hollie Keesee, and Kelli Hudnall

2. What is Critical Thinking?
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.

4. Importance in Education
•
Do Away With Memorization
•
Asking Why?
•
Collaborating Ideas
•
Wanting to Learn the Material

5. Application
Engage students in assignments that stray away from activities such as
testing and worksheets to promote thinking and problem solving skills
that allows students to think outside the box and explore a topic
together.

6. Example of Application
•
•
•
Classroom blogs
Discussion boards
Group projects
Rather than:
Tests
Papers
•
•

7. Detailed Example of Application
- Students create a group blog of the most important things
Ben Franklin accomplished.
- Ex. One group would mention his role in the American
Revolution rather than him creating the U.S. Postal Service.
- Other students will be asked to comment on these posts
and explain if they agree or disagree with their statements.
- This is a way for students to think critically while learning
new materials. This is overall a better option than giving
the students a test and asking them to list
dates, inventions, etc.

8. Works Cited
Glaser, Edward M. "Defining Critical Thinking." The Critical Thinking Community. Foundation for Critical Thinking. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2013
< http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 >
Kharbach, Med. “What Does Critical Thinking Mean in Education?” 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2013
<http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/critical-thinking-learning.html>
Mabe, Lisa. “The Importance of Applying Critical Thinking to Children's Learning .“ Surry Community College. Web. 4 Dec. 2013
<http://www.surry.edu/portals/0/mabe_importance.pdf>
Strategies and Tactics for Critical Thinking." CriticalThinking.NET. Ed. Robert H. Ennis. N.p., Nov. 2013. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.criticalthinking.net/howteach.html>