Promoting Critical Promoting Critical ThinkingThinking

Promoting Critical Promoting Critical ThinkingThinking

Using Active Learning StrategiesUsing Active Learning Strategies

Working Assumptions• Active learning is necessary for the teaching

of critical thinking.• Critical thinking should be integrated into

every aspect of the educational process.• Students should be made aware of the

thinking process.• Critical thinking must be taught explicitly.• Process is as important as content.

•Teachers often confuse physical attention for mental attention.

Working Definitions• Active Learning - “students involved in doing

things & thinking about the things they are doing”

• Critical Thinking - “reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to do and what to believe” OR “interpreting, analyzing or evaluating information, arguments or experiences with a set of reflective attitudes, skills, and abilities to guide our thoughts, beliefs and actions” OR “examining the thinking of others to improve our own”

A List of Processes - 1(per A. Aarons, 1985)

1. Consciously raising questions2. Being aware of gaps in information3. Distinguishing between observation &

inference; fact and conjecture.4. Recognizing that words are symbols

for ideas, and not ideas themselves

A List of Processes - 25. Probing for assumptions6. Appropriately drawing inferences from data7. Performing hypothetical-deductive

reasoning8. Discriminating between inductive and

deductive reasoning9. Testing one’s own line of reasoning10. Being aware of one’s own reasoning

Operational Procedures of Critical Thinking - 1

• Identifying key definitions• Identifying ambiguity• Identifying variables• Formulating questions• Defining issue or problem• Classifying information• Sequencing information• Recognizing patterns• Determining credibility

• Distinguishing fact from opinion

• Identifying assumptions• Identifying values• Noting missing evidence• Identifying relationships

– Comparing & contrasting– Cause and effect

• Summarizing information• Using analogies

Operational Procedures of Critical Thinking - 2

• Predicting trends from data

• Predicting outcomes based upon evidence

• Translating between verbal and symbolic

• Identifying conclusions

• Identifying errors in reasoning such as:– Logical fallacies– Errors in statistical

reasoning– Alternative conclusions

that satisfy evidence

Promoting CT in PHY - 1• Create experimental designs:

– Design an experiment to investigate the relationship between the length of a piece of wire and its resistance.

– Design an experiment to determine the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration.

– Design an experiment to determine the period of a pendulum.

Promoting CT in PHY - 2• Assess measurement reliability.

– The period of a pendulum is measured as a function of length. One declares, “The relationship is linear.”

– A team measures six data points with a significant degree of scatter and states, “The relationship is a power function because it minimizes RMSE.

– “Consistent measurements are more reliable.”– “The values range from 0.002 to 0.005; the

dependent value is a function of the independent variable and is, therefore, not a constant.”

Promoting CT in PYH - 3• Evaluate viability of data-based claims:

– The law is y=ax6+bx5+cx4+dx3+ex2+fx+g– The law is V=IR+0.032– The resistance of a wire will increase by .003

every time its length increases by 1 cm. – The minimum force required to pull an object up

an inclined plane will reach a maximum when the angle of the plane is between 70 and 75 degrees.

Promoting CT in PHY - 4• Make situation-based predictions:

– There is a lake with an iceberg floating in it. As the iceberg melts, what will the level of the lake do? Rise? Fall? Stay the same?

– A rubber bullet and an aluminum bullet have the same size, speed, and mass. They are fired at a block of wood. Which is most likely to knock the block over? Which is most likely to damage the block?

Promoting CT in PHY - 5• Test claim viability (misconceptions):

– “Gravity pulls more on a heavier ball than a light ball as evidenced by their weights. Because there is a greater force on the heavy ball, it must fall more rapidly than the light ball.”

– The seasons result from the changing earth-sun distance. Summer occurs when we are closest; winter occurs when we are farthest.

Promoting CT in PHY - 6• Make approximations: (Fermi problems)

• How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?• Estimate the number of square inches of pizza consumed

by all the students at Illinois State University during one semester.

• When it rains, water would accumulate on the roofs of flat-topped buildings if there were no drains. A heavy rain may deposit water to a depth of an inch or more. Given that water has a mass of about 1 g/cm3, estimate the total weight the roof of Moulton Hall rooms 208 and 210 would have to support if we had an inch of rain and the roof drains were plugged.

Critical Thinking - 1• Strongly related to developing conceptual

understanding.• Best done when students are continuously

pummeled with questions that demand a conceptual explanation.

• Approach:– Present the problem– Let students think– Socratically question

Critical Thinking - 2• Approach assumes that students know some

physics; students apply what they know.• Develop the intellectual muscle by exercising

it.• Don’t let the quantitative approach supplant

the qualitative understanding - both are critically important to physics.

• Predict the answer before calculating it.

Critical Thinking Resources• Thinking Physics series by Epstein and

Hewitt, Epstein, etc.• Physics Begins with an M series by John W.

Jewett, Jr.• http://www.criticalthinking.org/ • Numerous WWW resources “critical thinking

physics” on Google, etc.

Critical Thinking Dispositions• Trying to be well informed• Staying focused• Willing to evaluate alternatives• Taking a supportable position• Seeking precision• Proceeding in a logical and orderly manner• Being sensitive to others’ positions