Teach Thinking!

[Havarland]

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[Neanderthaland]

Returning to the original topic:
I'm pretty sure you're in a catch-22 Nerv.

My feeling - and I don't claim to be authoritative on this - is that the entire experience of childhood sort of acts against thinking. Ideally, children have a very structured life where most major decisions are made for them, and they look to the wisdom of more experienced authorities. Paradoxically, the better they are at operating within this structure, the less cause they have really ask themselves hard questions. And if they're smart often they can intuit the tasks that are set up to challenge them, rather then really thoughtfully explore the topics. Or at least, that's what I remember it being like.

"Thinking" requires an absence of direct guidance. And is a skill usually acquired in early adulthood or in university, where adults stop holding your hands, and thinks get a bit more Darwinian.

[USS Monitor]

We can't give you advice on that if we don't know the age group or anything like that.

Who said anything about wanting advice? Nobody except you thinks this is a thread about Nervun needing advice.

[Annihitor the Incred]

Complete with removal of borders and free Lamburgounies for all for the great achievement of existing. My as.

No one is saying that. Take down that strawman hey? It's OK to be wrong and it's OK to admit you don't know about something, it is in fact kind of important to realise if you do want to learn.

Ooh, edgy boi her. You have to take responsibility for your positions. Your fundamental assumptions are very mush these, which is the only way to think of ideologi.

[Risottia]

That's false.

No, it's not. Only a very small minority have what it takes for high achievement. The rest gravitate to indolence and simplicity.
Egalitarian ideology is dandy and all, but reality goes against that. The stupidity of basing policy on fantasies makes my ass erect.

Students must be given equal opportunities in education.
Then there are the consequences of the students' choices. Those are their responsibility.

[Risottia]

1. I think maths should be more fun and more realistic.

Maths cannot be "realistic". If it were it couldn't be applied to so many different fields. It must be abstract to have a general scope.
"Realism" in maths kicks in when you do physics.

[Neanderthaland]

1. I think maths should be more fun and more realistic.

Maths cannot be "realistic". If it were it couldn't be applied to so many different fields. It must be abstract to have a general scope.
"Realism" in maths kicks in when you do physics.

By a certain definition of "realism" anyway.

"assuming a perfectly elastic, spherical cow of uniform density were falling in a vacuum…"

[Risottia]

Maths cannot be "realistic". If it were it couldn't be applied to so many different fields. It must be abstract to have a general scope.
"Realism" in maths kicks in when you do physics.

By a certain definition of "realism" anyway.

"assuming a perfectly elastic, spherical cow of uniform density were falling in a vacuum…"

"accelerated by a perfectly uniform and constant central force field..."

[United Dependencies]

I agree that a lot of complaints are levied at teachers for rote material with little creativity, and I think that it is hard to format a curriculum that teaches something as abstract as critical thinking and logical reasoning.

I think the difficulty is that its hard to assign a number to reasoning skills. You can test math problems, historical facts, and (to some extent) reading comprehension. However that runs into the issue of just teaching for a test.

Ultimately, based on my college and graduate experience, I think the best bet is to offer some sort of classes that involve research and creating a final writing project. Anything that has students collecting their own facts, drawing their own inferences, and presenting those in a easy to read format that argues for a specific conclusion would build those kinds of skills.

However, I will admit that such a class favors students who prefer English and Social Sciences over other fields. It's also probably biased by my law school experience.

[Pope Joan]

Ask open ended questions, not multiple choice or true/false.
Don't just ask "so how do you FEEL about this?"
Don't ask questions from the text, students will just crib them
don't ask the same questions next term, students will just dig them up online and cheat
Ask one student to reflect on a response given by another. What struck you? What questions does this response raise in your mind?
Reward active thinkers with links to books and sites they might enjoy for further study (not assigned, it is just a gift)
Relate something one student says to something another student has said, even if that other student said it in a paper. Encourage them to talk together

[Ifreann]

Teach the history of western math and science. Show how discoveries build upon each other and stand together in an logical and orderly fashion. Teach geometry, theroms and again show how they build on each other. Truth tables. Teach epistemology, how do we know things, how do we know, how do we infer. Critical thinking is something that should be taught from grade 1 through graduate school.

But only if it's Western. None of these Arabic numerals or nonsense like the concept of zero.

[Valrifell]

Teach the history of western math and science. Show how discoveries build upon each other and stand together in an logical and orderly fashion. Teach geometry, theroms and again show how they build on each other. Truth tables. Teach epistemology, how do we know things, how do we know, how do we infer. Critical thinking is something that should be taught from grade 1 through graduate school.

But only if it's Western. None of these Arabic numerals or nonsense like the concept of zero.

A good change, I always struggled with algebra in grade school.

[Technocratic Uganda]

Certain people will think and certain people will not think. Giving people a methodical process for something very fluid and abstract will create parrots out of both. Prussian schooling was a mistake.

[Hammer Britannia]

Public Schools purely exist to prove the state does something about education and nothing more. Hence why they use an outdated system from the 1800s rather than something that encourages a survival of the fittest for the smart yet helps the unintelligent, thus achieving a balance of both worlds.

So, to expect them to teach how to critically and creatively think is laughable at best.

[Ethel mermania]

Teach the history of western math and science. Show how discoveries build upon each other and stand together in an logical and orderly fashion. Teach geometry, theroms and again show how they build on each other. Truth tables. Teach epistemology, how do we know things, how do we know, how do we infer. Critical thinking is something that should be taught from grade 1 through graduate school.

But only if it's Western. None of these Arabic numerals or nonsense like the concept of zero.

We stole them fair and square. Good thing those heathens didnt understand copyright protection and didnt hire Disney's IP attorneys to enforce their rights

[Chestaan]

Teaching students to think isn't what's needed as such, but to give them the space to think. Teachers aren't the problem (although obviously a few bad ones get through) and neither are schools. The problem, in my country at least, is the examination system which rewards rote learning and not necessarily understanding. Concepts need to be taught, not just the end results learned off because if you teach to an exam a lot of the knowledge will be forgotten after the exam.

For the record I am an economics tutor/lecturer. Because I work in a university I have more scope to explain rather than just instruct people to learn things off. But many of the students who have been taught, say differentiation, forget it by the time they are in my class (a year or two later). That's because they don't understand the concept and its applications.

[Republic of Penguinian Astronautia]

Ask open ended questions, not multiple choice or true/false.
Don't just ask "so how do you FEEL about this?"
Don't ask questions from the text, students will just crib them
don't ask the same questions next term, students will just dig them up online and cheat
Ask one student to reflect on a response given by another. What struck you? What questions does this response raise in your mind?
Reward active thinkers with links to books and sites they might enjoy for further study (not assigned, it is just a gift)
Relate something one student says to something another student has said, even if that other student said it in a paper. Encourage them to talk together

I agree.