Welcome to: Asking Critical Thinking Questions in the Kindergarten Classroom Presentation name Presenter Name and Date 1

Marwa Al Samsam Oxford University Press Educational Consultant Presentation name Presenter Name and Date 2

Asking Critical Thinking Questions in the Kindergarten Classroom Presentation name Presenter Name and Date 3

1- Critical Thinking skills are learned and can be improved. 2- Classroom resources are essential in developing thinking skills. 3- Raising students’ awareness of their thinking helps them become better learners. 4- The six thinking hats activity in the classroom. Session Objectives:

Dollar Bill Dice Tricycle Four Leaf Clover Hand Six-Pack Seven-Up Octopus Cat Lives Bowling Pins Football Team Dozen Eggs Unlucky Friday Valentine’s Day Quarter Hour

Professional Development 6 Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction

Harold Brown The feature of cognitive agents that they exhibit when they adopt beliefs on the basis of appropriate reasons... Following rules is not always required [for reasoned thinking],since one task of rational assessment is to determine which rules should be followed in a particular situation... Mindlessly applying rules just because they are logically correct is foolish.

which box might contain the bow?

Which is the smallest box that the bow could fit in?”

Which is the smallest box that the bow could fit in—assuming that we didn’t scrunch up the bow?”

Helping Young Children Think Critically 14

American Federation of Teachers. The processes of thinking are intertwined with the content of thought (that is, domain knowledge).Thus, if you remind a student to ‘look at an issue from multiple perspectives’ often enough, he will learn that he ought to do so, but if he doesn’t know much about an issue, he can’t think about it from multiple perspectives. You can teach students maxims about how they ought to think,but without background knowledge and practice, they probably will not be able to implement the advice they memorize. (Willingham, 2007)

Bring Thinking to Visual Level

repetition discussion variety of activities dialogue Soak it in

Critically By Having Them Put on their Thinking Hats

Professional Development 22 Show and Tell The animals – Read with Me pages:  Fifi is a young sensible fox. She is kind, thoughtful and intelligent. Good at problem solving.  Benny is big and lovable, but also a little clumsy and accident prone.  Prickly is a cute little hedgehog. She is a bit shy and often needs help from the others.

Lets Think Hats Raising Young Children’ s Awareness about Their Own Thinking

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