Critical Thinking in Teaching Curriculum and Enhancing Students’ Motivation

critical-thinking

Preparation:

Support information and detailed program will be provided to all participants along with a list of materials and websites connected to the topic of the course. Moreover, a questionnaire will be sent to participants via email so that they can express their interests towards the topic of the course, their requirements and expectations in terms of professional development. Participants are free to bring, if they want, a PPT presentation about their institution, teaching realities and educational systems in their countries. 

Course description

The course is structured into training modules and each module focuses on a particular aspect of critical thinking in educational institutions: what critical thinking is; when and how to use it with students of all ages and in every subject field; steps in redesigning lessons and activities based on critical thinking; advantages and consequences of using this method in classroom; how to form groups and guide students’ teams to work together in complex activities based on critical thinking; how to encourage students to ask questions, to investigate and find answers. Each module provides knowledge, methodology, insights, skills and practical approaches to better explain what critical thinking is and how it can be applied in the classroom with maximum benefits. The course offers guidance on how to use critical thinking due to a wide range of practical activities and challenging workshops. It also focuses on internal strategies in order to make critical thinking operational for those who want to apply it in their work and personal lives, thus, the course contributes to the empowerment of teachers as users of modern teaching techniques in their institutions.

 Methodology:

Methodological approach involves:

  • Ice-breaking sessions
  • Self-motivation sessions
  • Questionnaires
  • Team building sessions
  • Team work
  • Questioning
  • Planning and structuring
  • Decision-making sessions
  • Negotiation
  • Brainstorming
  • Goal-setting sessions
  • Inquiry-based activities
  • Problem-solving activities
  • Debates
  • Individual reflection
  • Group discussions
  • Pyramid-discussions
  • Practical activities

 
Objectives

 At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
  • Understand the importance of critical thinking for people’s education and personality development
  • Explain what critical thinking is, concepts and patterns
  • Identify advantages of using critical thinking with their students
  • Identify relevant resources for developing and using critical thinking
  • Identify teaching techniques and materials to incorporate critical thinking in teaching and learning
  • Describe steps in developing students’ critical thinking skills
  • Analyze the consequences of using critical thinking in the classroom
  • Apply critical thinking to classroom teaching and materials development
  • Redesign instructional units and lesson plans with activities that require critical thinking
  • Create activities based on critical thinking for the lessons and subjects they teach to be implemented and developed back home
  • Plan a course of action to systematically develop critical thinking in personal and professional life
  • Implement critical thinking in teaching curriculum no matter the subject field
  • Achieve self-confidence, motivation and determination to apply critical thinking in their teaching
  • Develop abilities in implementing critical thinking through workshops and challenging activities
  • Exercise practical approaches on how to educate students to work in groups effectively beyond conflicts and lack of interest
  • Guide their colleagues and students on how to use critical thinking as a teaching technique due to a wide range of practical activities and challenging workshops throughout the course
  • Create internal strategies to make critical thinking operational not only in their teaching, but in their lives too
  • Improve teaching and communication skills

Modules

  • General considerations about critical thinking
  • A historical overview on critical thinking
  • What is critical thinking?
  • Advantages and disadvantages of using critical thinking in classroom
  • When and how can critical thinking be used?
  • Components of critical thinking and their use with students
  • Elements of thought and their importance for critical thinkers
  • Affective dimensions or intellectual traits
  • Intellectual standards and their importance for critical thinkers’ lives and careers
  • Role of Socratic questioning in critical thinking
  • 35 instructional strategies of critical thinking for integrating it in lessons
  • Remodeling lesson plans to develop critical thinking                                      
  • Critical thinking in education
  • Bloom’s (revised) taxonomy and critical thinking instruction
  • Redesigning lessons to introduce elements of critical thinking
  • Practical approach of critical thinking with elementary students
  • How to make thinking visible in classroom
  • Types of critical thinkers 

Learning Outcomes

  • Increased confidence in teaching and using critical thinking in the classroom
  • Encourage students to question as a tool of learning, to build more collaborative work relationships and to be good examples for their peers.
  • Use of teaching skills in forming groups, boosting team dynamics and increasing effective team work management during activities based on critical thinking
  • Mastery of teaching skills based on critical thinking in the classroom 
  • Reinforcement of critical thinking as a method and technique to increase students’ self-confidence, motivation and interest in their own education
  • Acquisition of critical thinking skills, practical language, new transferable teaching techniques, soft skills, emotional intelligence to be used in the classroom
  • Improved ability to deal with conflict situations and to solve problems that may arise in  students’ teams while taking part in group activities based on critical thinking
  • Use of critical thinking with students as a technique for innovative problem-solving and for increasing students’ motivation to study and become actively involved in their groups
  • Encourage students to practice collaborative work and find responses to problems which are global in nature and which foster interests in the outside world
  • Develop the ability to deal with complex activities based on critical thinking
  • Interaction with teachers from various European countries
  • Development of language and communication skills
  • Increased capacity to cooperate on international level with representatives from different educational systems
  • Exchange of practical ideas and examples of good practice with the participants for applying them in classroom
  • Enhanced linguistic and intercultural awareness, tolerance, flexibility, open-mindedness and availability to work in international teams
  • Increased level of internationalisation of their own institutions back home
  • Broader understanding of practices, policies and systems of education after analyzing similarities and differences of realities they come from
  • Encouragement to share best practices, ideas and materials among colleagues within the EU
  • Improved abilities to use innovative and student-centered pedagogical approaches and to develop appropriate teaching and assessment methods, based on learning outcomes


Follow-up

Participants will be given hand outs during workshops and activities and self-evaluation materials will be provided as well. At the end of the course, they will receive a questionnaire to offer their feedback regarding the effectiveness of the training event and also soft copies of all PPT materials which will have been presented at the course in order to be shown to their colleagues in their own institutions to generate interest in critical thinking. There will be a group formed on a social network which will act as a platform allowing participants and trainers to keep in touch after the end of the course and to exchange impressions and opinions on how they apply critical thinking in their work.

Programme of training activities day-by-day:

Day 1 – MONDAY

  • Ice-breaking activities
  • General considerations about critical thinking


Day 2 – TUESDAY

  • A historical overview on critical thinking
  • What is critical thinking?
  • Advantages and disadvantages of using critical thinking in classroom


Day 3 – WENDESDAY

  • When and how can critical thinking be used?
  • Components of critical thinking and their use with students
  • Elements of thought and their importance for critical thinkers


Day 4 – THURSDAY

  • Affective dimensions or intellectual traits
  • Intellectual standards and their importance for critical thinkers’ lives and careers


Day 5 – FRIDAY

  • Role of Socratic questioning in critical thinking
  • 35 instructional strategies of critical thinking for integrating it in lessons
  • Remodeling lesson plans to develop critical thinking


Days 6/7 – SATURDAY and SUNDAY Workshops and Cultural/Sightseeing Activities

Day 8 – Monday

  • Critical thinking in education
  • Bloom’s (revised) taxonomy and critical thinking instruction
  • Redesigning lessons to introduce elements of critical thinking 

 
Day 9 – Tuesday

  • Practical approach of critical thinking with elementary students
  • How to make thinking visible in classroom
  • Critical thinking in practice

Day 10 – Wednesday

  • Types of critical thinkers
  • Master classes (presentations of students’ projects on how they will use what they have learned on leadership in their work)
  • Feedback and evaluation
  • Certificate of attendance awarding

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