Critical and Creative Thinking - Bloom's Taxonomy

What are critical thinking and creative thinking? What's Bloom's taxonomy and how is it helpful in project planning? How are the domains of learning reflected in technology-rich projects? Benjamin Bloom (1956) developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior in learning. This taxonomy contained three overlapping domains: the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Within the cognitive domain, he identified six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These domains and levels are still useful today as you develop the critical thinking skills of your students.

Critical Thinking
Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hypothesizing, and critiquing. Creative thinking involves creating something new or original. It involves the skills of flexibility, originality, fluency, elaboration, brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical thinking, forced relationships. The aim of creative thinking is to stimulate curiosity and promote divergence. While critical thinking can be thought of as more left-brain and creative thinking more right brain, they both involve "thinking." When we talk about HOTS "higher-order thinking skills" we're concentrating on the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge
collect describe identify list show define examine label name retell enumerate match read record reproduce Examples: dates, events, places, vocabulary, key ideas, parts of diagram, 5Ws tell state copy tabulate quote select

Comprehension
associate compare distinguish extend interpret predict differentiate contrast describe discuss estimate group summarize order cite convert explain paraphrase restate trace Examples: find meaning, transfer, interpret facts, infer cause & consequence, examples

Application
apply calculate relate collect classify complete discover compute change solve act construct illustrate modify administer determine solve show articulate develop demonstrate experiment chart establish

prepare produce report teach Examples: use information in new situations, solve problems

transfer

use

Analysis
analyze arrange connect divide infer classify compare contrast explain select breakdown correlate diagram discriminate focus infer outline prioritize subdivide points out Examples: recognize and explain patterns and meaning, see parts and wholes separate order illustrate prioritize

Synthesis
combine compose generalize modify invent plan create formulate integrate rearrange design speculate adapt anticipate collaborate compile devise express reinforce structure substitute intervene negotiate reorganize Examples: discuss "what if" situations, create new ideas, predict and draw conclusions substitute rewrite facilitate validate

Evaluation
assess compare decide discriminate measure rank convince conclude explain grade judge summarize appraise criticize defend persuade justify reframe Examples: make recommendations, assess value and make choices, critique ideas test support

Affective Domain
Domain Attributes: interpersonal relations, emotions, attitudes, appreciations, and values id accepts attempts challenges defends disputes joins contributes praises questions shares supports volunteers judges

Introduction "WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?" The term "Critical Thinking" is intimidating! It is often perceived as an esoteric exercise of the mind, an intangible pursuit, reserved for the likes of Socrates, Aristotle and Einstein. However, for me, critical thinking is best defined simply as "what you generate, you know." Only those who can reconceptualize content for themselves have truly learned it. Critical thinking*** is not just one more thing you tack on to your Science curriculum. It is the fundamental approach you use to address that curriculum. Critical thinking is disciplined, self-directed thinking. It requires thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking more clear, more accurate and more defensible. Indeed, scientists do this already every time they use the scientific method. They ask questions, gather and assess relevant information, come to well-reasoned conclusions/solutions, and they communicate effectively when they write up results. The traits*** of a good scientist ARE the traits of a well-cultivated critical thinker. The ultimate goal of using critical thinking instruction in a science course is to get students to think like a scientist thinks.

Getting started in Critical Thinking Early in my teaching career, I happened upon a magazine in the teachers lounge entitled "Critical Thinking: Shaping the Mind of the 21st Century". The first article I encountered addressed the fundamental need for more critical thinking in the classroom. The issues raised by the article were the very same issues I was dealing with in my own classroom. This piqued my interest, so I immediately signed up for a workshop*** which was advertised in the magazine. At the workshop, I learned how to redesign my existing lessons in order to incorporate critical thinking strategies. The workshop also taught me how to: Cover content*** in such a way that students grasp and retain more Engage the students in thinking deeply about the content Motivate students to take more responsibility*** for their own learning Teach students to read*** for themselves, actively and analytically Focus on fundamental and powerful concepts with high generalizability as tools for the solutions to real-world problems Regularly question*** students Socratically*** distinguishing between categories of questions*** Use concrete examples Illustrate abstract concepts Spell out explicitly the intellectual standards*** used in grading.

Critical Thinking in the Classroom Upon my return home, I used the strategies I had learned at the workshop to restructure everything I did in the classroom. I learned that three things must come together in the classroom: One, students must reason (a bridge from their present thinking to the new thinking you are looking for); Two, students must reason about the content (the new way you want them to think); and Three, there must be a "hook" (recognition of students present thinking) so that students will be willing to do the first two. In Richard Pauls words, "When your students are learning well, they are employing the logic of their own thinking as a tool in learning. They are reasoning their way into the logic of the content. They are getting their minds into the logic of a somewhat new system, a somewhat new way of thinking, so you need to give them

assignments and design activities that help them to bridge between these two, their old thinking and the new." My first post-workshop lesson redesign was about bacteria. Instead of the didactic approach I had previously used, I "hooked" the students interest by posing shocking questions that addressed the major concepts I wished to cover such as: "Is it better to kiss your girlfriend on the lips or lick her armpit?" (pathogenicity) "Why don't you have to plow your way through road kill to get to school?" (decomposition) "Where does your breakfast come from?" (nitrogen cycle/primary producers) "What do a bottle of wine, cheese and a compost heap have in common?" (fermentation) "Bacteria live WHERE?!" (digestion & symbiosis) "What do diabetics and bacteria have in common?" (genetic engineering)

I put the students into six groups and assigned each group one of these questions. The group researched their question and presented the answer to the rest of the class. I also taught the students how to reason by using the "Elements of Reason"*** as a structure for examining the content. I had the students go through each of the elements, determining how that element applied to the situation they had been given. Since the questions they had been asked had already piqued their interest, they were engaged enough to go to some effort to find out the answers. Because they had learned a process for reasoning, they were able to analyze the questions just as a scientist would, and to determine a conclusion based on information, rather than just their first impression. They discovered it WAS better to lick their girlfriend's armpit, and in the process retained the reason why.

In Summary Over the years, I have refined this embryonic notion to create a more complete approach that was more suited to ME. I found that I, like the students, do much better when I personally generate the techniques. This clearly is not the only way to do critical thinking, it is simply one of my approaches. Critical thinking has become an integral part of my teaching. I infuse it on three levels: to plan daily lessons and course-wide objectives, by modeling good critical thinking practices in front of my students and by creating activities that foster critical thinking in the students themselves. I make it become second nature.