critical thinking exercises for chemistry

Inquiry-based curriculum and case studies promote learning-by-doing and focusing on real-world problems & applications while improving problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Highly interactive lessons include graphically-rich simulations and activities to help learners explore and understand threshold and complex concepts.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Smart Sparrow a grant to develop Critical Chemistry. It is low-cost, can be paired with OpenStax, and integrates with the LMS.

Critical Chemistry Curriculum

Critical Chemistry is a next-generation textbook replacement, what we call a Smart Course, for non-majors introductory or conceptual chemistry. It can be used fully online, blended, or face-to-face. The course takes an inquiry-based approach to its curriculum and promotes learning-by-doing, presenting content as case studies focused on real-world problems and applications. Students stay motivated because their learning is contextualized and the journey sparks curiosity while improving scientific literacy.

The purpose of this course is to use chemistry to help solve problems in the world. Quite often, doing so requires a firm grasp of key mathematical concepts. In this unit, you will build the math skills needed to apply the chemistry you learn to investigate and solve issues in the community around you.

Topics covered: Algebraic equation, dimensional analysis, logarithms

Unit 1: Fighting Disease

Affecting people regardless of income, race, and geographic location, cancer has quickly risen to the top of public health officials and citizens alike. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, “cancer is the second most common cause of death in the U.S. and accounts for nearly one in four deaths.” Moreover, one in eight deaths globally is due to cancer. Most people could probably think of someone in their lives who has had cancer, whether it be a family member, friend, or acquaintance. This unit explores the public health crisis that is cancer. You will take an active role in exploring treatments and understanding how, at the molecular level, certain interventions can stifle the progression of tumors within the human body.

Topics covered: Atomic structure, nuclear chemistry, electron configuration

Unit 2: Opioid Crisis Intervention

According to the National Institute of Health, more than ninety Americans die each day from opioid abuse. Prescription medication, heroin, and synthetic opioids are now more prevalent than ever before, and that has significantly impacted the social and economic well-being of entire communities around this country. Such effects have given rise to a state of emergency in the country, with the government taking action to curb what is being called the Opioid Crisis. In this unit, you’ll take on the case of Jack, a college senior addicted to prescription medication. Not only will you explore the underlying chemistry behind his addiction, but you will use it to devise ways to curb his addiction and save him from overdosing.

Topics covered: Lewis Structure, Molecular Geometry, Intermolecular Forces

Unit 3: Safeguarding Water Supplies

Water is a critical resource for all life around our planet. We rely on water to fuel our bodies, to grow food, and for sanitation purposes. When water sources become contaminated, whether by accident or negligence, its effect can be wide ranging—killing wildlife or permanently poisoning an unsuspecting community. In this unit, you will learn the chemistry behind how to detect and save lives affected by contaminated water.

Topics covered: Aqueous Solvation, Concentration, Limiting Reactant

Unit 4: Poisons

In this unit, you will get the chance to explore poisons and how they interact with the human body. More specifically, you’ll dive into the chemical reactions behind these poisons and what makes them so deadly. Along this journey, you will develop key skills such as identifying different kinds of chemical reactions and balancing chemical equations. By the end of this unit, you’ll be ready to walk in the footsteps of a forensic chemist and identify a potential poison left at the scene of a crime.

Topics covered: Balancing Chemical Reactions, Types of Reactions, Empirical and Molecular Formulas

Unit 5: Developing Healthy Diets

They say “you are what you eat”; however, knowing exactly what you’re eating is becoming a greater mystery each day. In this unit, you will take on the question of what food is made of. You’ll explore what a calorie is and decipher how many calories are in the foods we eat. In addition to addressing topics in thermodynamics via the energy stored in food, you’ll also explore the effects of food on the human body through learning about pH. Finally, special attention is given to the effects of the obesity epidemic, how it affects the human body, and ways gas chemistry is involved in treating patients suffering from obesity-related diseases.

Topics covered: Acids and Bases, Gas Laws, Thermochemistry

Independent evaluator SRI Education has shown Inspark Science Network Smart Courses can increase student performance of up to half a letter grade compared to traditional textbooks. SRI Education, the independent evaluator for the Gates Foundation-funded Next-Generation Courseware Challenge, estimated the impact on students’ end of course grades, for 1,800 students at 4 institutions, of the BioBeyond Smart Course (19 sections) compared to business as usual instruction (BAU; 8 sections). Results, based on analysis of course grades and controlling for prior cumulative college GPA, and other demographic and administrative variables, show a statistically significant positive impact on grades for three of the four institutions (p The statistically significant improvements were roughly half a letter grade (+0.42 and +0.46 on a 0–4 scale with 4.0 being an A) for Arizona State University (fully online) and Miami Dade College respectively (blended/hybrid), and +0.26 for Mohave Community College (blended/hybrid).

The Inspark Science Network in partnership with Smart Sparrow and Arizona State University's Center for Education Through Exploration is reimagining science education by providing you Smart Courses that allow you to effectively teach with rich interactive and adaptive learning experiences that improve scientific reasoning and spark curiosity.

• DOI: 10.1177/1469787400001002005
• Corpus ID: 144415150

Critical thinking exercises for chemists

• John Garratt , T. Overton , +1 author D. Clow
• Published 1 December 2000
• Chemistry, Education
• Active Learning in Higher Education

15 Citations

Critical thinking skills in adult learners., a conceptual framework for empowering students’ critical thinking through problem based learning in chemistry, development and validation of an instrument to measure undergraduate chemistry students’ critical thinking skills, impact of peer-led team learning and the science writing and workshop template on the critical thinking skills of first-year chemistry students, designing a flashcard with knowledge pills for learning to solve chemistry exercises, critical thinking among pharmacy students: do age, sex and academic variants matter, chemistry aspect of covid-19 issues: evaluation of high school students’ critical thinking skills, trying to be motivated: perspectives on learning from younger students accessing higher education, effectiveness of learning based problem solving with aspect ontology, epistemology, axiology to increase critical thinking ability and understanding thermochemical concept of students, professional competence enhancement via postgraduate post-experience learning and, 5 references, the logic of real arguments: philosophical assumptions, critical thinking: an introduction to reasoning, teaching thinking skills: theory and practice, the five day course in thinking, related papers.

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• Josh Kenney's blog

Activities to Promote Higher-Order Thinking in Virtual Asynchronous Chemistry Learning

The 2020 global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 forced millions of teachers to switch from in-person to online instruction. With minimal training in online teaching, many substandard learning environments (including my own online chemistry class) were quickly rolled out. After realizing that my asynchronous virtual chemistry course did not offer an optimal learning experience, I sought out activities and methods to incorporate higher-order thinking.

In this post,

I will explain asynchronous learning and some of its challenges

Describe why higher-order thinking may be the key to this type of learning environment

Detail two high-order thinking activities that are easy to embed in an online course

What is Asynchronous Learning?

An asynchronous learning environment offers students the opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere. In general, students access information, participate in discussion forums, and complete assignments according to their own schedule. With popular online learning management platforms like Canvas and Blackboard, instructors can easily manage content and facilitate conversations. The method is especially suited for the virtual learning environments necessary to restrict in-person gatherings due to COVID-19 since students can learn at home on schedules that work within all the complications that arise during life in a global pandemic.

What are Challenges Associated with Asynchronous Learning?

Online asynchronous learning has numerous advantages. For example, it is convenient, it can be more cost-effective than in-person classes, and it can promote a rich collaborative environment; however, successful students must also possess specialized learning skills and learn autonomously. In a 2015 review of research exploring the relationship between autonomous learning and academic achievement, specific higher-order thinking skills positively correlated with academic success during online learning, including metacognition, critical thinking, time management, and effort regulation. On the other hand, lower-level skills, like learning by repetition (repeatedly listening to the same lecture or reading the same textbook section) do not seem beneficial for self-regulated learning. 1

What is higher-order thinking?

Higher-order thinking is a reference to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's taxonomy is traditionally represented with a pyramid; the bottom of the pyramid are lower cognitive functions, and the top are the higher functions. In 2001, the taxonomy was revised to include additional dimensions of knowledge for each order (Figure 1). 2 The revision suggests that the lower orders are still essential and necessary -- students should learn how to remember and understand -- but those lower-orders are engaged with varying degrees of rigor. Ideally, students participate in metacognition at each of the orders.

Figure 1: 2001 revised Bloom's taxonomy - adapted from Foreman, 2005 2

For the proceeding activities, we'll simplify the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to focus on two attributes of higher-order thinkers that are key to success in an asynchronous learning environment: (1) they are aware of their cognition (metacognition), and (2) they can reflect on their learning progress (self-regulation). 3,4  These skills are complicated, and students are often deficient; however, as with any difficult skill, higher-order thinking skills are easier to learn with adequate support. Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal development implies that learners require developmentally appropriate assistance when encountering uncomfortable tasks, and without help, they will tend towards lower-level skills. 5  So, enriching an online learning environment with higher-order thinking activities should result in a superior educational experience.

The following three activities are modifications of "normal" chemistry teaching strategies designed to encourage higher-order thinking, mainly metacognition.

Video Think Alouds

Problem-solving, a fundamental skill in chemistry, can be enhanced with metacognitive activities like The Think Aloud. The Think Aloud method, where students verbalize problem-solving steps, has long been used to support science and math learning. Think aloud activities are social endeavors, where all involved parties benefit when students share their thinking with their instructor and peers. The individual performing the thinking aloud benefits from the enhanced metacognition prompted by the activity. Additionally, peers benefit from listening to and evaluating the problem-solving method, and finally, the instructor is more aware of the student's internal knowledge, and misconceptions are more easily rectified. 6

Although cooperative activities seem tailored for in-person learning, they are increasingly suited for virtual learning environments with the development of new educational apps. FlipGrid , a video-based educational, social networking app, is a fantastic tool for virtual think alouds. Students in my virtual chemistry course use FlipGrid to post a video of themselves describing their thinking as they solve a chemistry problem. With FlipGrid, other students can watch and react to the videos by liking it or recording another video response. Additionally, as the instructor, I can assign a points value to their performance and provide feedback via text or a video response. The video responses are stored in sequence so that it is easy to trace and participate in the dialogue. This metacognitive activity is described in more depth in a previous ChemEd X post .

Thinking aloud may be an unfamiliar process for students, so I record a sample Think Aloud following a template (Image 1) based on the metacognitive knowledge and skillfulness described by Cooper and Sandi-Urena. Metacognitive knowledge includes "three different levels: declarative (knowing about things), procedural (knowing about how to do things), and conditional (knowing when and why to do things)" Metacognitive skillfulness, on the other hand, refers to regulatory steps in problem-solving that include: planning, monitoring, and evaluating. 7

thinkaloud.png

Image 1: Think Aloud Template

Video think alouds have allowed me to connect on a more personal level with each student. Struggling students become apparent, and I can quickly correct misconceptions with individualized video responses. Moreover, by watching the other videos, struggling students are continually exposed to problem-solving skills and techniques.

Self Quizzing When Learning New Content

In virtual learning environments, teachers usually provide instruction via short video tutorials; however, there are a couple of challenges associated with this type of instruction. For one, since students watch videos remotely, teachers cannot easily assess the initial level of understanding of the material. Furthermore, teachers can't help students regulate their learning and reinforce areas of weakness. 

Learning from videos in this fashion requires higher-order thinking skills, particularly metacognition, but students don't engage in metacognitive practices on their own. For instance, self-quizzing is one of the best metacognitive strategies for remote learning; however, a 2009 study found that self-quizzing is pretty rare among students. On the other hand, trivial strategies, like re-reading notes, are more common in these learning situations .8  With this in mind, I embed short 5-question quizzes into new content so that students can check their understanding before moving to a new topic.

Self-assessments can look like quizzes; however, they should be low-stakes, possibly even ungraded, so that students don't confuse them with a traditional test. In my virtual chemistry course on Canvas, I insert short 5-question quizzes after short video tutorials that test students' understanding of new content. Although I record the scores in the grade book, I keep them low stakes by allowing multiple attempts and only recording the highest score.

Self-quizzing is a higher-order metacognitive skill that may be unfamiliar for students. Ideally, individuals know to revisit concepts if they fail their self-test; however, few students practice this behavior. For this reason, after an incorrect answer, I prompt students to explore the content again before making another attempt (image 2). With this activity, students learn the material more thoroughly, but they also practice and experience the benefit of the indispensable study skill of self-quizzing.

Image 2: Prompt to review content after an incorrect response.

By embedding these two activities into an online course, students develop more transferable knowledge and discover valuable self-regulation and metacognition learning strategies in the process.

References    

Broadbent, J., & Poon, W. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1-13.

Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom's taxonomy: Original and revised. Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology, 8.

Dinsmore, D. L., Alexander, P. A., & Loughlin, S. M. (2008). Focusing the conceptual lens on metacognition, self-regulation, and self-regulated learning. Educational Psychology Review , 20(4), 391-409.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice , 41(4), 212-218.

Vygotsky, L. (1933). Play and its role in the mental development of the child.

Van Someren, M. W., Barnard, Y. F., & Sandberg, J. A. C. (1994). The think aloud method: a practical approach to modelling cognitive. London: AcademicPress .

Cooper, M. M., & Sandi-Urena, S. (2009). Design and validation of an instrument to assess metacognitive skillfulness in chemistry problem solving. Journal of Chemical Education , 86(2), 240.

Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger III, H. L. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: do students practise retrieval when they study on their own?  Memory , 17(4), 471-479.

All comments must abide by the ChemEd X Comment Policy , are subject to review, and may be edited. Please allow one business day for your comment to be posted, if it is accepted.

Valuable feedback.

Thanks for sharing this. It's a great reminder for teachers that even in a virtual or asynchronous learning environment, it is possible to build relationships with students and give them (ungraded) feedback that can help to strengthen understanding and critical thinking. I also like the idea of having students get directly involved with evaluating their own performance, so that it's not always about the student asking the teacher, "Did I do this right?" or "Is this the correct answer?"

Critical thinking exercises for chemists

John Garratt , T. Overton , J. Tomlinson + 1 more authors

Dec 1, 2000

Influential Citations

Active Learning in Higher Education

Key takeaway

Critical thinking exercises for chemists can effectively develop essential thinking skills through group discussions in a chemistry-based classroom environment..

Important thinking skills for professional chemists include ‘analysing and evaluating arguments’,‘making judgements’, ‘retrieving information’ and ‘experimenting’. A considerable literature provides evidence that these skills can be learned (and therefore taught).We have devised specific exercises to help students to develop these skills. Our exercises are grounded in chemistry and designed to be addressed by students working in groups in a classroom environment (sometimes in a computer classroom). The type of exercise and the classroom environment promote vigorous discussion which involves critical thinking and leads to effective learning. This article describes the exercises and argues that, while the specific examples are subject-specific, the approach used with all the types of exercise could be adapted to create subject-specific exercises for any discipline.

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A question of chemistry : creative problems for critical thinkers

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• 1. About This Book. 2. The Problems: Understanding The Argument. 3. Constructing the Argument. 4. Critical Reading. 5. Making Judgements: Solvents & Solubility. 6. Safety. 7. Reactions. 8. Purity. 9. Yield. 10. Atoms & Molecules. 11. Accuracy & Precision. 12. Analysis. 13. Equilibria. 14. Estimations. 15. Reference Trails: Exercises. 16. Commentaries. 17. Commentaries on
• Section 1. 18. Commentaries on
• Section 2. 19. Commentaries on
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• Section 4. 21. Commentaries on
• Section 5. Index.
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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the chemistry of critical thinking: the pursuit to do both better.

Improving Classroom Engagement and International Development Programs: International Perspectives on Humanizing Higher Education

ISBN : 978-1-83909-473-6 , eISBN : 978-1-83909-472-9

Publication date: 28 August 2020

This chapter presents a qualitative investigation of lecturers’ perceptions of critical thinking and how this influenced how they taught. All of the participants taught the same first-year university chemistry course. This case study provides insights about how there may need to be fundamental shifts in lecturers’ perceptions about learning and the development of critical thinking skills so that they can enhance knowledge and understanding of chemistry as well as advance the students’ critical thinking. Recommendations are made for professional learning for lecturers and for changing the “chemistry” of the design of learning experiences through valuing critical thinking in assessments and making critical thinking more explicit throughout the course. The authors argue that critical thinking must be treated as a developmental phenomenon.

• Critical thinking
• Teaching strategy
• Teaching activities
• Effective teaching
• Barriers and obstacles

Conner, L. and Kolajo, Y. (2020), "The Chemistry of Critical Thinking: The Pursuit to do Both Better", Sengupta, E. , Blessinger, P. and Makhanya, M. (Ed.) Improving Classroom Engagement and International Development Programs: International Perspectives on Humanizing Higher Education ( Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 27 ), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 93-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000027009

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• MyU : For Students, Faculty, and Staff

hUMNs of Chemistry #16

She/her/hers Associate Professor

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

I first came to the U in the fall of 2006 as a chemistry graduate student, worked in Christy Haynes' group, and received my PhD in 2011. After a postdoc, I joined the chemistry department at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) as an assistant professor in 2014. During my time at VMI I realized I really enjoyed teaching and running teaching labs. My partner and I also missed living in the Twin Cities. I came back to the U in the Fall of 2017 as the term assistant professor for analytical chemistry.

What courses do you teach? What can students expect to get out of your course?

I teach introductory analytical chemistry lecture and lab, modern methods of instrumental chemistry lab, general chemistry I and general chemistry II. In all of the courses I teach students work on their critical thinking skills and how errors effect the accuracy and precision of their experiments.

Tell us about an important mentor in your academic life?

I can't choose just one, but the chemistry professors at my undergrad, Cornell College, were amazing. They had high expectations, but were always supportive and kind. They made learning tough topics approachable and were amazing role models. I try to be as good of a professor as they were and are each day.

What do you do outside of the classroom/lab/office for fun?

I enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. I like walking with my spouse and dogs, running with my running group, biking, and cross-country skiing. I read cozy mystery novels and travel during breaks in the academic year.

What’s your favorite piece of chemistry/science pop culture media? Why do you love it?

I still love the cheesy 1980's movie Real Genius. The idea of blowing up a giant jiffy pop popcorn bag with a military grade laser to destroy the evil professor's house is still hilarious. 

What was your very first job?

I worked as a fry cook at my undergraduate college's snack cafe. I worked the flat top, fryer, and made milkshakes.

Where is your favorite spot in the Twin Cities?

I love the trailhead @ Theodore Wirth Park. I spend most of my winter skiing there and I love how you can be out in nature and be able to see the city skyline.

Tell us about who makes up your household (including pets).

I live with my husband and two golden retrievers, Pepper(11) and Grey(2).

Arceus Pogany

They/Them/Theirs Senior Laboratory Technician

Please give a brief description of your role within the UMN Chemistry department.

I work with Patrick Schildt and Laura Kundel in the stockroom to support various teaching labs. Getting/creating materials, cleaning spaces and equipment, helping with safety and more to have successful classes.

I graduated from Macalester college and found it to be the best time of my life. Working in academia was a career goal, since an environment of learning is exactly what I like the best. I had a couple roles in commercial laboratories before ending up at the East Bank. I hope this is the start of a long career at the U!

Do you have a background in or like chemistry? Tell us about it!

My background is in biology, but that's because it was the most broad science major to pick. I have the problem of liking too many different things to pick just one, so that's why I majored in biology. I've always been interested in organic chemistry, since my father was an avid gardener and he had his compost heap down to a science to ensure the right ratio of nitrogen and carbon to get rich soil for his vegetables.

What professional successes are most important to you?

Improving myself every day. Be it with learning a new skill, mastering an old one, or staying informed about scientific discoveries, I like to feel like I go to bed a better person than when I woke up.

What do you hope to contribute to the chemistry community at the University?

Enthusiasm, accuracy, and a cheerful greeting everyday.

The Magic School Bus. I refused to play with dolls, but Ms. Frizzle was my one exception when mom bought a Ms. Frizzle doll from a Scholastic book fair when I was in elementary school. I loved her so much I almost tore her head off, and mom had to meticulously match the thread color with the fabric and stitch it back together. Someday I'll probably buy the whole series on disc if I can find it.

I worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington as a Youth Conservation Corps member. I did all sorts of things, like painting park buildings, catching and banding birds, clearing trails, cutting down invasive species, educating visitors, and wildlife surveys to name just some of the fun things I was able to do. I really loved the job!

I like to go hiking in the state parks with my DSLR camera. I will usually have quite a few pictures of fungus, moss, birds, and interesting tree bark by the time I'm finished.

What non-chemistry interest or activity of yours might surprise department members?

I started foraging for mushrooms a few years ago and it's been very fun! A giant puffball even popped up in the front yard that I was able to harvest for stir fry. It really is just like tofu for cooking.

Lake of the Isles. Mom and I love to walk, bike, or kayak around it. I keep a keen eye out for the birds, as we've seen kingfishers, egrets, loons, herons, and all sorts of migrating songbirds around it.

I live with my mom, Gillian and one-and-a-half year old cat, Matey. I also have numerous houseplants and a bioluminescent dinoflagellate (Pyrocystis fusiformis) colony!

Are there any family or cultural traditions you want to share with our community?

I have native white sage growing in the boulevard that we harvest and put into campfires to make wishes and share gratitude for what we have.

Daneasha Zackery

She/her/hers Graduate Student, Douglas Group

One day, as an undergraduate, one of my professors approached me about a great opportunity. She had told me about the Chemnext program hosted by the University of Minnesota. She said if I was interested in graduate school, then I should apply immediately (as the deadline was only two days away). I applied, and luckily, I was chosen to come and experience this community that I have come to appreciate dearly. It was during the Chemnext experience that I realized UofM was somewhere I wanted to be.

Are you involved in any student groups? What inspired you to get involved?

I am a member of NoBCChE. I was inspired to connect with other Black scientists along this journey in higher education to extend my sense of community.

What advice do you have for incoming chemistry students?

This journey is not linear, and will most likely be quite difficult at points, but always remember to celebrate your achievements. No matter how small they may seem in comparison to the overarching goal you have in graduate school, they are the things that will compel you to keep going and keep pursuing your dreams.

Dr. Eric Crumpler was my first chemistry professor and mentor. He is the person who made me realize that I could pursue chemistry as a career, and his teaching and mentorship taught me the value of "people first" as a way to approach being a scientist. We hold a social obligation to use our knowledge and findings to better the lives of the whole.

I am a big foodie and a snack enthusiast!

Related news releases

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CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF CHEMISTRY EDUCATION STUDENTS IN TEAM PROJECT-BASED STEM-METACOGNITIVE SKILLS LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Universitas Tadulako (Indonesia)

Received April 20 2 2

Accepted May 20 2 2

Critical thinking skills has to be sharpened particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This circumstance leads to the lack of student’s passion to apply their thinking skills in doing something necessary. Therefore, it requires a learning improving critical thinking skills. This study aims to describe the critical thinking skills of chemistry education students taking part in the lecture of Team Project Based STEM-metacognitive skills. The method utilized is a Pre-Experimental Design One-Shot Case Study consists of 130 chemistry education students taking part in 3rd and 5th semester. The 3rd semester students attend lectures on the development of chemistry learning programs (P3K) and the 5th semester students attend lectures on the basics of analytical chemistry (DDKA). The instruments utilized in this research are learning scenarios, worksheets, critical thinking test instruments, critical thinking skill assessment rubrics, and project implementation feasibility observation sheets. There are three critical thinking skills very well demonstrated by students in P3K and DDKA subjects, consist of (1) strategies and tactics, (2) providing simple explanations, and (3) providing further explanations. Two other skills, namely concluding and building basic skills shown by students in the good category. The results of this study contribute to chemistry learning in the future, thus efforts are inevitably required to train critical thinking skills for prospective chemistry teachers in order to produce teachers having good thinking skills.

Keywords – Covid-19 pandemic era, C ritical thinking skills, Team p roject b ased-STEM, M etacognitive skills .

To cite this article:

1. I ntroduction

The Covid-19 pandemic that has occurred in Indonesia since 2020 has caused changes in all aspects of people’s lives. As well as in the field of education. To prevent the spread of covid-19, the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia issued an order regarding learning to be carried out online and working from home (Kemdikbud, 2020). Students are not allowed to go to campus and lectures are conducted online (Kompas, 2020). This condition affects the critical thinking ability of students who have to adapt to attending lectures with the new system to continue to follow all learning.

Critical thinking skills can be applied, trained, and developed through learning process and assessment. Critical thinking skills are defined as an intellectual disciplinary process that reflects consistency in thinking and doing (Davies & Barnett, 2015). Critical thinking aims to achieve a logical and reflective assessment of what should be believed, accepted, or done (Astleitner, 2002). In a learning process, there are needs for pedagogy activities which will enable all students to become critical and creative thinkers (Larkin, 2016). Teachers who serve as a mediator and facilitator, should design and apply certain methods, models, or strategies that can train and develop students’ critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are important not only for students to have a good performance at schools, but also for people in general in the workplace as well as in social and interpersonal contexts in which right decisions should be made care-fully and independently on a daily basis (Ku, 2009). In some countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, critical thinking is one of the main skills to be developed and assessed in higher education (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2005; Australian Council for Educational Research, 2002). In addition to some Western countries, Asian countries including Hong Kong and Japan, have also encouraged the development of critical thinking skills. Similarly, in Indonesia, it is highly recommended to develop critical thinking skills through learning and to include these skills in the school curriculum (K-13). Therefore, it is crucial to identify students’ critical thinking skills in a learning that stimulates students’ thinking skills.

Team Project-Based STEM-metacognitive skills learning is a project-oriented learning that is performed in groups in which metacognitive skills are used and integrated in STEM. This learning is based on several studies (Guo, Saab, Post & Admiraal , 2020), showing that a project-based learning model can improve the quality of learning in higher education. This learning model offers an opportunity to students to participate in real problem solving and knowledge construction which require students to deal with real problems and questions that are relevant to the learning topic (Milentijevic, Ciric & Vojinovic , 2008). The results of another study (Cifrian, Andrés, Galán & Viguri , 2020) showed that during learning, students who work on a project are able to perform self-monitoring and self-management effectively. In addition, it is possible to independently create active communication between students or between students and lecturers, as well as to create a conducive learning atmosphere (Requies, Agirre, Barrio & Graells , 2018). Involving students in real-life projects could train students to actively learn as well as demonstrate critical thinking, science process skill, problem-solving skills, increase students’ interests, experiences, and participation in learning, and boost motivation and problem-solving skills (Apriwanda, Mahanan, Ibrahim, Surif, Osman & Bunyamin , 2021; Chiang & Lee, 2016; Rambocas & Sastry, 2017; Uziak, 2016).

STEM was first coined by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1990 as an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, but the concept started to gain popularity in 2003 (Yllana-Prieto, Jeong & González-Gómez , 2021). Science is the systematic study of the nature and behavior of material and physical universe, based on observations, experiments, and measurements, and the formulation of laws to describe facts in general (White, 2014). Technology is as human innovations that are utilized to modify the nature in a way that it can meet human needs and desires. Engineering is defined as the knowledge and skills to acquire and apply scientific knowledge. Meanwhile, mathematics is a group of related sciences, including algebra, geometry, calculus, numbers, size, shape, and space as well as their correlation using special notations. Several previous studies have revealed that learning using STEM approaches can improve academic learning processes and outcomes, problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, collaborative thinking skills, and integrity (Perignat & Katz-Buonincontro, 2019). Besides, STEM can also promote students’ understanding, creativity, and problem-solving skills, foster creative thinking, creative skills, creative processes, innovation, and developing both hard and soft skills (Bequette & Bequette, 2012; Glass & Wilson, 2016; Herro & Quigley, 2016; Preciado-Babb, Takeuchi, Yáñez, Francis, Gereluk & Friesen , 2016; Sharapan, 2012; Yakman & Lee, 2012).

Metacognitive skills are the skills of a person that control his/her ability to organize, monitor, and re-examine his/her understanding and actions in problem solving (Ijirana & Supriadi, 2018). In relation to metacognitive skills, there are three regulation skills that play an important role in organizing the problem-solving learning process of students, namely planning, monitoring, and evaluation skills (Schraw, 2001). Planning skills are related to selecting appropriate strategies and resource allocation that may affect the performance of a person. Performance management and monitoring skills direct students to an awareness of understanding the tasks that they should deal with. Several studies have shown the relationship between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills, showing that there is a relationship between metacognitive skills with critical thinking skills (Magno, 2010; Malahayati, Corebima & Zubaidah , 2015), and that metacognitive skills can develop students’ independent learning and critical thinking (Shabani & Mohammadian, 2014), and that people with good critical thinking skills are engaged in many metacognitive activities, especially high-level planning and high-level evaluation strategies (Ku & Ho, 2010). Based on the abovementioned results of previous studies, there is a relationship between team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning with critical thinking skills. Thus, it is crucial to conduct a study that answers questions regarding students’ critical thinking skills in team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning

2. Method Research

This was a Pre-Experimental study with One-Shot Case Study design. All the sample groups were given the same treatment and the results were observed. The treatment was in the form of team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning as the independent variable and critical thinking skills as the dependent variable (Creswell, 2014). The subjects consisted of 130 chemistry education students at Tadulako University, in which 63 of them were third semester students and the remaining 67 were fifth semester students. Thus, the number of the samples was the same as the number of the population. These students were taught using the same learning model in different courses, namely the basics of analytical chemistry (DDKA) and chemistry learning development (P3K) courses. The research flowchart is shown in Figure 1.

The project was implemented by giving structured assignments in groups and one semester independent learning. The Team Project-Based STEM-Metacognitive Skills Learning was done in four main steps, namely: 1) reflection, 2) research, 3) discovery, 4) application and communication. The detailed learning activities of the Team Project-Based STEM-Metacognitive Skills learning can be seen in Table 1.

Figure 1. Research flow

Table 1. Team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning activities

The instruments used in this research consisted of learning scenarios, worksheets, critical thinking skills test instruments, critical thinking skills assessment rubrics, assessment sheets of the feasibility of the project implementation results that were observed through video because learning was done online due to the covid-19 pandemic, and student questionnaires which contain questions and statements on both courses. All the research instruments were validated by several experts from the university and from other universities. Valid instruments were then used for the data collection. The critical thinking skills assessment rubrics for each indicator can be seen in Table 2, while the critical thinking skills were calculated using the following formula:

The data obtained were then analyzed descriptively quantitatively using the rubrics and criteria as shown in Table 2 and Table 3. Meanwhile, the data obtained from the student questionnaires were analyzed descriptively qualitatively.

Table 2. Assessment crit eria (Linn & Gronlund, 1995)

Table 3. Critical thinking skills assessment rubric in team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills lea rning (Ennis & Weir, 1985)

3. Results and Discussion

Team Project-Based STEM-Metacognitive Skills Learning was done in four main steps, namely: 1) reflection, 2) research, 3) discovery, 4) application and communication  (Laboy-Rush, 2010). In the first step, the lecturer gave a project theme to each group, for those taking the P3K course, the theme was the design of innovative learning instrument by integrating TPACK and HOTS, according to the basic competencies in each class based on the 2013 high school curriculum. Meanwhile, the theme for the DDKA course was a qualitative analysis of elements, ions, and compounds in a sample. The two courses were taught by different lecturers, and the themes of the project were given in the student worksheet. The projects developed by students in the P3K course are high school learning instruments in the form of documents of lesson plans, worksheets, teaching materials, learning media, and assessment instruments. Each group was given different projects. Meanwhile, the projects developed by the students taking the DDKA course were designing, implementing, and reporting the data based on the results of flame tests, cation tests, anion tests, as well as experiment on preservatives and dyes using materials that could be found in the surrounding environment. In this step, the students started to explore some ideas relevant to the projects. In the second step, each of the students in the groups searched the literature to help them gain more understanding about their projects, determined the learning context in which they started to understand the given tasks, and made observations of the surrounding environment to look for materials and tools that could be used for the completion of the projects. The results obtained were then discussed in the groups to determine the next steps to complete the project. In the third step, students make plans, develop learning tools done by students in P3K courses, make experimental designs done by students in DDKA courses, and conduct asynchronous group discussions. Finally, in the fourth step, the activities consisted of monitoring the design results through synchronous class discussions, giving recommendations on the design results, applying the design results, documenting its implementation in the form of a video uploaded on YouTube, and conducting synchronous evaluation. One of the project results reported by students in the form of a video is on the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XfkPR-Q45MrZtyCI0vxVOoG92VhmcmdZ/view?usp=sharing     for DDKA courses and https://youtu.be/tFObwCKRbSc for P3K courses and is shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2. Results of projects done by students in groups for P3K Course

Figure 3. Results of projects done by students in groups for DDKA Course

There were two reasons behind the implementation of this activity. First, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the lecturers were unable to directly see the implementation of the project activities. The lecturers were only able to make assessments through the video displayed. Second, due to the need to train students to improve their technology skills. Based on the results of the assessment, another class discussion was held to give feedback, direction, and rewards.

3.1. Assessment of Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

The critical thinking skills of the chemistry education students who took the P3K course and the DDKA course were assessed using the Team Project-Based STEM-Metacognitive Skills learning. The students’ critical thinking skills were assessed based on the assessment rubrics as shown in Table 2. The assessment results are presented in Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4. Students’ critical thinking skills in chemistry learning development (P3K) course

Table 5. Students’ critical thinking skills in basics of analytical chemistry course

Based on the data shown in Tables 4 and 5, the following is the results of the statistical tests to determine whether there was a significant difference in the critical thinking skills of the students who took the P3K and DDKA courses, using the following hypotheses.

H 0 : there is no difference in the critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in classes A and B

H 1 : there is a difference in the critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in class A and B

The results of the statistical tests using SPSS are presented in Table 7 for P3K and Table 9 for DDKA, while the results of the normality tests are shown in Tables 6 and 8.

Table 6. Results of data normality test on critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in class A and B of P3K course

Table 7. T-test result of critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in class A and B of P3K course

Table 8. Results of data normality test on critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in class A and B of DDKA course

Table 9. T-test result of critical thinking skills of chemistry education students in class A and B of DDKA course

Based on the results shown in Tables 6 and 8, the data of the critical thinking skills of the students who took the P3K and DDKA courses were normal, so t-test was conducted with a significance (p) > 0.05. Based on the results of the statistical tests, both class A and class B of the P3K and DDKA courses had the same critical thinking skills in the team project-based stem-metacognitive skills learning. In addition, the data in Table 4 and 5 show that the critical thinking skills of the students in the P3K and DDKA courses based on the critical thinking indicators fell in the excellent and good categories. On average, the students were excellent at formulating strategies and tactics as well as giving elementary and advanced clarifications, and they were good at developing basic skills and inferring. In general, findings in this research indicate that learning with the Team Project-Based STEM-Metacognitive Skills applied asynchronously via https://lms.fkip.untad.ac.id and synchronously via zoom during the covid-19 pandemic can improve students’ critical thinking skills. Because students can access subject matter widely and discuss it with lecturers and other students in their groups through LMS. Students complete the assignments in groups but are self-reliant, so it forces them to develop strategies, tactics, and skills to make decisions in problem-solving. These findings are relatively the same as other previous studies (Ariawan, 2020) that revealed blended learning during the pandemic is good in accommodating students’ critical thinking. Because students can freely access study materials that are available online, and discuss them with teachers and other students outside of class hours.

3.2. Ability to F ormulate S trategies and T actics

For this indicator, the results showed that the students were categorized as good in terms of formulating strategies and tactics for problem solving. In fact, 60% of the students who took the P3K course and 90% of those who took the DDKA course were good at formulating tactics and strategies. This means that most chemistry education students had the ability to identify problems as well as decide on appropriate actions and logical solutions to problems in both class A and class B when they were given the problems, i.e., chemistry learning at schools for the students taking the P3K course and problems related to flame test, cation test, anion test, preservatives, and dyes for those taking the DDKA course. On the other hand, in terms of the ability to make inference, only a small number of students had this ability. Based on the data, it can be said that the students’ ability to identify problem is an initial step after an analysis of the problem statement. This ability serves as the basis for students to be able to determine which action should be taken if they find a problem and how to solve it. This finding is supported as stated in (Ku, 2009) that analysis skills are the skills of breaking down a structure into components to help a person know the organization of the structure. This aims to enable this person to understand a global concept by describing or breaking down the global concept into more detailed components.

Several opinions that are in line with this finding were given by, as stated in (Sosu, 2013) critical thinking skills dimension implies the ability to understand problems and develop solutions to the problem, such as analysis, interpretation, and drawing conclusions (Chan, 2019). The dispositional dimension refers to the willingness to apply these skills when encountering a problem and finding a solution to it or when faced with decision making (Álvarez-Huerta, Muela& Larrea , 2022). Ref (Sosu, 2013) also argued that there are two dispositional dimensions of critical thinking, namely critical openness and reflective skepticism. Critical openness is a reflection of the tendency to be open to new ideas, to critically assess them, and to be prepared to change someone’s views. This study also found that the students demonstrated a tendency to openness to new ideas by providing an alternative action and the best solution to chemistry learning problems.

3.3. Ability to P rovide E lementary C larification and A dvanced C larification

The data in Tables 4 and 5 also show that, in general, the students who learned using the team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning demonstrated excellent ability in providing elementary and advanced clarifications in both P3K and DDKA courses. A total of 60% of the chemistry education students who took the P3K course had the ability to provide elementary clarification with an average score of 82.8 and 90% of them had the ability to give advanced clarification with an average score of 80.3. In the DDKA course, 77% of the students had the ability to provide elementary clarification with an average score of 82.5 and 87% of them had the ability to provide advanced clarification with an average score of 76.5. This implies that the students who took the course had the ability for assumption-based decision making and the ability to determine appropriate learning media and methods, but they did not have the ability to assess and give a satisfying explanation of the media or methods used. Similarly, in terms of the ability to formulate tactics and strategies, the students who had the ability to decide on actions and solutions to a problem also had an excellent ability for decision making related to the selection of learning methods. This way, it can be said that a person with critical thinking will train him/herself to be creative and productive to properly direct his/her mind. In other words, a person who has critical thinking skills has an awareness of making the right decision whenever encountering a problem. Critical thinking is a higher order thinking which includes having awareness, having inquiry skills, making judgments, conducting evaluation, being open minded, and having the ability to use oral and written language effectively (İşlek & Hürsen, 2014). Critical thinking also serves as a self-regulatory assessment to produce interpretations, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as clarifications of evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations that helps students have initiative in thinking, make self-evaluation based on the assessments of learned knowledge, accuracy, processes, theories, methods, backgrounds, and arguments, resulting in logical decision-making about what they do and what they believe (Hart, Da Costa, D’Souza, Kimpton & Ljbusic , 2021; Qing, Ni & Hong , 2010). Therefore, it is crucial to develop these skills continuously through this learning.

3.4. Ability to D evelop B asic S kills and M ake I nferences

In fact, 38% of the students who took the P3K course had the ability to develop basic skills and 37% of them had the ability to make inference, while among the chemistry education students who took the DDKA course, only 47% of them had the ability to develop basic skills and 25% had the ability to make inference through the team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning. This indicates that only a small number of students had the ability to write down problems in the form of questions, make authentic assessments, formulate problem-solving strategies, and make inference on the problem-solving although they were taught using the team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning model. This study supports the findings of (Niu, Behar-Horenstein & Garvan , 2013) that there is an effect of critical thinking learning on students, but the effect is insignificant, i.e., only around 0.20 standard deviation of score improvement using a standard critical thinking test. In other words, a particular treatment given to develop students’ critical thinking skills does not always have the same effect for all the critical thinking skills indicators. Similarly, other previous studies (Qing et al., 2010) on the effect of the application of task-based learning on critical thinking skills also showed the same results. Such teaching approaches provide an effective way for teachers to develop students’ critical thinking disposition, but students do not achieve higher order thinking, making it not significantly different in terms of the sub-scales of systematicity, open-mindedness, truth-seeking, analyticity, inquisitiveness, and maturity. However, another study (Nugraha, Suyitno & Susilaningsih , 2017) revealed that critical thinking skills are significantly related to science process skills and student learning motivation, and this was done in a study that applied SjBL learning to measure students’ critical and creative thinking skills (Rusmini, Suyono & Agustini , 2021). Therefore, it is important to conduct further research to analyze the development of critical and creative thinking skills using a problem-solving-based learning with a project problem-solving approach in advanced chemistry learning.

4. Conclusion

The regulation of the Indonesia Minister of Education and Culture concerning emphasizing team project-based learning in higher education serves as the basis of conducting this study. This study aims to describe the critical thinking skills of students in the chemistry education program in Team Project-Based STEM-metacognitive skills learning. This study found that, in chemistry learning including the field of pure chemistry and chemistry education, it is beneficial to apply STEM-based project that is done in groups. Because these two fields are one of the graduate learning outcomes of the chemistry education program, especially at Tadulako University, i.e., mastering both pure chemistry and chemistry education to be a qualified prospective chemistry school teacher. Although this learning was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic and carried out online by combining asynchronous and synchronous, it turned out to help students develop their critical thinking skills in completing projects. In addition, developing critical thinking skills is also a goal of education in Indonesia in general. The critical thinking skills indicators which fell in the excellent category are student’s ability to formulate strategies and tactics as well as provide elementary and advanced clarifications, while the indicators with a good category are the ability to develop basic skills and to make inferences. One of the limitations in applying this learning model is that the learning is all done online, which potentially prevents achieving optimal learning, which then affects the results. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a study using team project-based STEM-metacognitive skills learning by Blended-Flipped Learning. In addition, it is also very compelling to test students’ self-regulation using this learning because it is closely related to metacognitive skills and it is also a goal of the Indonesian Law concerning National Education System.

Declaration of Conflicting Interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The research was supported by DIPA research funding in 2021, Tadulako University, Indonesia.

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Yllana-Prieto, F., Jeong, J.S., & González-Gómez, D. (2021). Virtual escape room and STEM content: Effects on the affective domain on teacher trainess. Journal of Technology and Science Education , 11 (2), 331. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.1163

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Journal of Technology and Science Education, 2011-2024

Online ISSN: 2013-6374; Print ISSN: 2014-5349; DL: B-2000-2012

Publisher: OmniaScience

Critical thinking puzzles for adults (with answers)

Critical thinking can help to better navigate the information-dense and complex world we live in. By thinking critically we can better identify priorities, take a sensible approach to problem-solving and reach conclusions logically in line with evidence. Puzzles are an excellent way both to learn and practice critical thinking skills.

If you’d like to learn more about critical thinking or simply practice your skills with some puzzles, then this is the article for you. Read a little bit more about critical thinking skills and how to apply them first, or just skip straight to the puzzles and see how you get on.

What is critical thinking?

Data and theory evaluation:

– application of all the skills and competences above in order to come to a rational conclusion.

The aMAZEing PuzzleBox

Eight critical thinking puzzles – with answers, puzzle 1 – letter puzzles.

Answer: All of these words begin with a vowel. This type of puzzle may send your mind off in the wrong direction, thinking about the objects or concepts described by the words, and the properties they might share. In fact, the solution lies in a far more simple consideration of the alphabet. Puzzle 1 is a simple example of a common type of letter or word puzzle.

Puzzle 2 – Commonalities and differences

What do the following items have in common and which is the odd one out?

Puzzle 3 – Falling on his feet

A man who lives in a high-rise building decides to exit through the window one morning rather than using the door. Somehow he survives the fall without a scratch and walks away to work. How did this happen?

Puzzle 4 – Walk this way

A group of five people enter a windowless meeting room together. An hour later when the meeting ends, four walk out of the door, leaving the room empty. What has happened to the fifth member of the group?

Puzzle 5 – Shapes and symbols

When lying on my side, I am everything, but when cut in half, I am nothing. What am I?

Puzzle 6 – Three hard options

The hero is escaping the lair of an evil super-villain and is faced with three possible exits:

Puzzle 7 – The bus driver’s eyes

At the fourth stop, two people get off the bus and one gets on. The bus is traveling at an average speed of 30mph and its tires are new.  What color are the bus driver’s eyes?

Puzzle 8 – Losing weight

A final word….

We hope you’ve enjoyed our critical thinking puzzles for adults and that your critical thinking skills are feeling refreshed and sharpened after reading our article. Whether at school, in the workplace, or in general life, critical thinking can be a valuable tool for success and anyone can learn to use it.

20 Challenging Lateral Thinking Puzzles That Are Harder Than They Seem

You may also like

Fun critical thinking activities, the fundamentals of scientific thinking and critical analysis: a comprehensive guide, how to teach critical thinking in the digital age: effective strategies and techniques, how to evaluate sources using critical thinking: a concise guide to informed research, download this free ebook.

Educationise

11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

Ignite your child’s curiosity with our exclusive “Learning Adventures Activity Workbook for Kids” a perfect blend of education and adventure!

Critical thinking activities encourage individuals to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to develop informed opinions and make reasoned decisions. Engaging in such exercises cultivates intellectual agility, fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues and honing problem-solving skills for navigating an increasingly intricate world. Through critical thinking, individuals empower themselves to challenge assumptions, uncover biases, and constructively contribute to discourse, thereby enriching both personal growth and societal progress.

Critical thinking serves as the cornerstone of effective problem-solving, enabling individuals to dissect challenges, explore diverse perspectives, and devise innovative solutions grounded in logic and evidence. For engaging problem solving activities, read our article problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest.

52 Critical Thinking Flashcards for Problem Solving

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a 21st-century skill that enables a person to think rationally and logically in order to reach a plausible conclusion. A critical thinker assesses facts and figures and data objectively and determines what to believe and what not to believe. Critical thinking skills empower a person to decipher complex problems and make impartial and better decisions based on effective information.

More Articles from Educationise

• 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom
• How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples
• 9 Must-Have AI Tools for Teachers to Create Interactive Learning Materials
• The Future of Education: 8 Predictions for the Next Decade
• The Latest in EdTech: 5 Innovative Tools and Technologies for the Classroom
• 8 Free Math Problem Solving Websites and Applications

Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills cultivate habits of mind such as strategic thinking, skepticism, discerning fallacy from the facts, asking good questions and probing deep into the issues to find the truth. Acquiring critical thinking skills was never as valuable as it is today because of the prevalence of the modern knowledge economy. Today, information and technology are the driving forces behind the global economy. To keep pace with ever-changing technology and new inventions, one has to be flexible enough to embrace changes swiftly.

Today critical thinking skills are one of the most sought-after skills by the companies. In fact, critical thinking skills are paramount not only for active learning and academic achievement but also for the professional career of the students. The lack of critical thinking skills catalyzes memorization of the topics without a deeper insight, egocentrism, closed-mindedness, reduced student interest in the classroom and not being able to make timely and better decisions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking Skills in Education

Certain strategies are more eloquent than others in teaching students how to think critically. Encouraging critical thinking in the class is indispensable for the learning and growth of the students. In this way, we can raise a generation of innovators and thinkers rather than followers. Some of the benefits offered by thinking critically in the classroom are given below:

• It allows a student to decipher problems and think through the situations in a disciplined and systematic manner
• Through a critical thinking ability, a student can comprehend the logical correlation between distinct ideas
• The student is able to rethink and re-justify his beliefs and ideas based on facts and figures
• Critical thinking skills make the students curious about things around them
• A student who is a critical thinker is creative and always strives to come up with out of the box solutions to intricate problems

Read our article: How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples

• Critical thinking skills assist in the enhanced student learning experience in the classroom and prepares the students for lifelong learning and success
• The critical thinking process is the foundation of new discoveries and inventions in the world of science and technology
• The ability to think critically allows the students to think intellectually and enhances their presentation skills, hence they can convey their ideas and thoughts in a logical and convincing manner
• Critical thinking skills make students a terrific communicator because they have logical reasons behind their ideas

Critical Thinking Lessons and Activities

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

We have compiled a list of 11 activities that will facilitate you to promote critical thinking abilities in the students. We have also covered problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest in our another article. Click here to read it.

1. Worst Case Scenario

Divide students into teams and introduce each team with a hypothetical challenging scenario. Allocate minimum resources and time to each team and ask them to reach a viable conclusion using those resources. The scenarios can include situations like stranded on an island or stuck in a forest. Students will come up with creative solutions to come out from the imaginary problematic situation they are encountering. Besides encouraging students to think critically, this activity will enhance teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills of the students.

Read our article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

2. If You Build It

It is a very flexible game that allows students to think creatively. To start this activity, divide students into groups. Give each group a limited amount of resources such as pipe cleaners, blocks, and marshmallows etc. Every group is supposed to use these resources and construct a certain item such as building, tower or a bridge in a limited time. You can use a variety of materials in the classroom to challenge the students. This activity is helpful in promoting teamwork and creative skills among the students.

It is also one of the classics which can be used in the classroom to encourage critical thinking. Print pictures of objects, animals or concepts and start by telling a unique story about the printed picture. The next student is supposed to continue the story and pass the picture to the other student and so on.

4. Keeping it Real

In this activity, you can ask students to identify a real-world problem in their schools, community or city. After the problem is recognized, students should work in teams to come up with the best possible outcome of that problem.

5. Save the Egg

Make groups of three or four in the class. Ask them to drop an egg from a certain height and think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking. Students can come up with diverse ideas to conserve the egg like a soft-landing material or any other device. Remember that this activity can get chaotic, so select the area in the school that can be cleaned easily afterward and where there are no chances of damaging the school property.

6. Start a Debate

In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. Encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the topic. Conclude the debate with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity through brainstorming.

7. Create and Invent

This project-based learning activity is best for teaching in the engineering class. Divide students into groups. Present a problem to the students and ask them to build a model or simulate a product using computer animations or graphics that will solve the problem. After students are done with building models, each group is supposed to explain their proposed product to the rest of the class. The primary objective of this activity is to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills among the students.

8. Select from Alternatives

This activity can be used in computer science, engineering or any of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes. Introduce a variety of alternatives such as different formulas for solving the same problem, different computer codes, product designs or distinct explanations of the same topic.

Form groups in the class and ask them to select the best alternative. Each group will then explain its chosen alternative to the rest of the class with reasonable justification of its preference. During the process, the rest of the class can participate by asking questions from the group. This activity is very helpful in nurturing logical thinking and analytical skills among the students.

9. Reading and Critiquing

Present an article from a journal related to any topic that you are teaching. Ask the students to read the article critically and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the article. Students can write about what they think about the article, any misleading statement or biases of the author and critique it by using their own judgments.

In this way, students can challenge the fallacies and rationality of judgments in the article. Hence, they can use their own thinking to come up with novel ideas pertaining to the topic.

10. Think Pair Share

In this activity, students will come up with their own questions. Make pairs or groups in the class and ask the students to discuss the questions together. The activity will be useful if the teacher gives students a topic on which the question should be based.

For example, if the teacher is teaching biology, the questions of the students can be based on reverse osmosis, human heart, respiratory system and so on. This activity drives student engagement and supports higher-order thinking skills among students.

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

Silence is a great way to slow down thinking and promote deep reflection on any subject. Present a driving question to the students and divide them into groups. The students will discuss the question with their teammates and brainstorm their ideas on a big paper. After reflection and discussion, students can write their findings in silence. This is a great learning activity for students who are introverts and love to ruminate silently rather than thinking aloud.

Finally, for students with critical thinking, you can go to GS-JJ.co m to customize exclusive rewards, which not only enlivens the classroom, but also promotes the development and training of students for critical thinking.

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Thanks for the great article! Especially with the post-pandemic learning gap, these critical thinking skills are essential! It’s also important to teach them a growth mindset. If you are interested in that, please check out The Teachers’ Blog!

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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.

Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.

However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.

People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:

• Developing technical and problem-solving skills
• Engaging in more active listening
• Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
• Seeking out more diversity of thought
• Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.

Is critical thinking useful in writing?

Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:

• What information should be included?
• Which information resources should the author look to?
• What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
• What is the most effective way to show information?
• How should the report be organized?
• How should it be designed?
• What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?

Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?

Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.

Are there any services that can help me use more critical thinking?

We understand that it's difficult to learn how to use critical thinking more effectively in just one article, but our service is here to help.

We are a team specializing in writing essays and other assignments for college students and all other types of customers who need a helping hand in its making. We cover a great range of topics, offer perfect quality work, always deliver on time and aim to leave our customers completely satisfied with what they ordered.

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June 18, 2024

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Enhancing children's understanding, critical thinking and creativity through collaborative designing of AI apps

by University of Eastern Finland

Children and young people's understanding of artificial intelligence and AI technologies improved when the basics of AI were taught in school through hands-on activities supported by new educational technology, a recent study among more than 200 Finnish 4th and 7th graders shows.

The study explored how children's understanding and explanations of AI evolved as they engaged in collaborative designing of AI apps and explored the impact and ethics of AI. The work is published in Informatics in Education and New Media & Society .

AI technologies are an integral part of our daily lives, even if we don't notice their existence. For instance, AI algorithms give us recommendations of news, music and movies that we might like, and they target personalized advertising to us. However, many schools are falling short when it comes to teaching children about where AI is used, how it works and what its impacts are.

Led by the University of Eastern Finland and involving three other universities and various other partners, the Generation AI project strives to respond to this challenge by developing research-based pedagogical models, educational technologies and curriculum materials for AI education. Spring 2023 saw the first round of AI education organized in schools in Joensuu, Finland, which also formed the basis for research.

Children were introduced to the basics of AI in three workshops. Researchers studied how children explained algorithmic bias and how these explanations evolved during the workshops. The findings show that children's data-driven explanations of the causes of algorithmic bias developed significantly during the workshops.

"Our findings suggest that the workshops enhanced children's conceptual understanding of artificial intelligence and of the ethical aspects associated with it. The workshops also taught them to critically evaluate AI technologies," Senior Researcher Henriikka Vartiainen of the University of Eastern Finland notes.

According to her, the findings highlight the importance of pedagogically sound AI education in schools, facilitated by educational technologies and curriculum activities that foster children's agency, understanding and ethical awareness in the age of AI.

"The workshops utilized concrete examples from children's everyday lives. During the first workshops, children brainstormed and created their own AI apps with the support of our new educational technology , designed for novice learners," Postdoctoral Researcher Juho Kahila of the University of Eastern Finland says.

"Using the learning tool, children made an image classifier-based app of their own by following the data-driven design workflow, and they also tested those created by others. This enhanced children's understanding of how artificial intelligence works."

The third and final workshop focused on the societal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence. For instance, children created images with generative AI, searched for algorithmic biases in them and engaged in critical reflections and discussions of societal and ethical implications of AI.

"Connecting artificial intelligence with children's daily lives and giving them the opportunity to co-design and create AI apps together with classmates made learning from and with AI meaningful and exciting for children ," Kahila notes.

Henriikka Vartiainen et al, Enhancing children's understanding of algorithmic biases in and with text-to-image generative AI, New Media & Society (2024). DOI: 10.1177/14614448241252820

Journal information: New Media & Society

Provided by University of Eastern Finland

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