Problem Solving Skills Live your life. Create your destiny. Teaching Strategies Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Lesson outcome: Use teaching practice information to apply critical thinking skills in problem solving situations

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day Give a man the skills to catch a fish and he will never go hungry

Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies State true or false Critical thinking(CT) is the active systematic process of understanding and evaluating arguments Blooms’ taxonomy: analysis, synthesis and evaluation forms part of critical thinking CT is a complex activity and one method of instruction will be sufficient

State true and false continue Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies State true and false continue 4.Creative thinking is finding the best possible solution for a problem 5.Non- critical thinking is not habitual thinking and is based on future practices with considering current data 6.CT and Creative thinking should be combined to solve problems

Higher Order Skills: Critical Thinking Primary Photograph or Graph Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Higher Order Skills: Critical Thinking Primary Photograph or Graph

What are critical thinking skills? Faculty/Department name here 18pt Arial What are critical thinking skills? Critical thinking skills are problem solving skills Different approaches to solve a problem Ways of thinking creatively

Critical Thinking

What is creative thinking Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies What is creative thinking To create something new and original through: brainstorming, flexibility, originality, modification etc. Photograph or graph

Raise and formulates a problem Gather, analyse and assess info Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Characteristics of critical thinkers Raise and formulates a problem Gather, analyse and assess info Formulates conclusions Curiosity Open minded Communicates effectively with others

Characteristics of non- critical thinkers Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Characteristics of non- critical thinkers Unwilling to listen Reluctant to question Rush conclusions Indicates intellectual laziness Lack of respect for evidence Lack reasoning skills Use invalid evidence to solve problems

Primary Photograph or Graph Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Primary Photograph or Graph

Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies

Implications of thinking Points of view Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Problem solving Purpose/goal Question Information Inferences Concepts Assumptions Implications of thinking Points of view

Group Activity Divide in groups of six. Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Group Activity Divide in groups of six. Use your teaching practice journal What is the most urgent problem in the school? What should be done to solve the problem (p65) Identify one frequent problem in your group. Brainstorm, use your info and the problem solving steps to find a solution to the problem (20minutes) Group leaders give feed back on possible solutions

Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Individual feedback In not more than two paragraphs answer the following two questions: Which concepts are still not clear to you in this lesson? What new concepts did you learn from the lesson?

Faculty:Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Summary Thinking, analysing, comparing, questioning and evaluating allows one to learn new content. Critical thinking is a problem solving skill. Non-critical thinkers rely on info from the teacher and internet. Critical thinkers analyse info before making a decision.

Individual activity (Homework) Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Individual activity (Homework) Use your teaching practice observations And complete the following question. Do teachers develop learners’ critical thinking skills? If the answer is “yes”. Give examples of activities that teachers use in the classroom. If the answer is “no”. Why do you say so? What methods do they use?

References Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies Bloom, B., Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl,D.1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook: Cognitive Domain. New York: Longmans Green. Ennis, R. 1992. Critical thinking: What is it? Proceedings of the forty-Eighth Annual meeting of the Philosophy of Education Society Denver, Colorado, March 27-30. Retrieved 16/10/2010, from http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/PES/92 docs/Ennis.HTM Gallagher,J.J. 1975.Teaching the Gifted Child. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Huitt, W. 1992. Problem solving and decision making: Consideration of individual differences using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Journal of Psychological Type, 24, 33-44. Thomas,R. & Smoot, G. 1994. Critical thinking: A vital work skill. Trust for Educational Leadership, 23, 34-38. Raths, L.E., Jonas, A., Rothstein, A. & Wassermann, S.1967.Teaching for Thinking, Theory and Application. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.