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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. Critical Thinking

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. Faculty: Humanities. Department: Educational Studies

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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?

17. 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.

18. 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?

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