Critical Thinking Skills example essay topic

Shelly Smith COM/515 Instructor: Jeanne Wilson July 14, 2003 Critical-Thinking 1 Raising Children's Critical Thinking Skills Introduction This paper will discuss how technology can and has helped develop students' critical-thinking skills through the use of Bloom's Taxonomy, which when achieved, enables higher-order thinking skills. Body When writing a paper on critical-thinking skills, you must first understand the mix levels of learning according to Bloom's Taxonomy. Benjamin Bloom (Compu times (Malaysia), 2001), created this taxonomy for categorizing levels of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize test questions. These levels are: 1.

Knowledge, observation and recall of basic facts. 2. Comprehension, the ability to understand the main idea (like a plot of a book). 3.

Application, applying knowledge to the real world experience and determining the appropriate problem-solving process to use. 4. Analysis, the ability to compare and contrast, differentiating between objective data and variables. 5. Synthesis, the ability to think independently and creatively to produce a plan or quail- ta tively improve a product process. 6.

Evaluation, the ability to use criteria (quantitative and qualitative) to make a judgment about something for the purpose of further improvement (lifelong learners). How are these critical-thinking skills applied? These critical-thinking skills are applied with the emphasizes on the student as the lifelong learner and teaches them how Critical-Thinking 2 to be producers in life and not just consumers of information. This article also encourages hands-on work to create something real and tangible and to continually improve on that work. What is the ultimate goal?

Finally, the ultimate goal is for all students to solve problems, make decisions, participate in planning, demonstrate analytical skills and to be productive in the work force. Conclusion Critical-thinking is a complex, and hard task to both teach and apply. As an educator, I see that technology is playing a huge role in the development of higher- order thinking skills in our schools and on our jobs. Instead of forcing on the level a child is on, we as educators and parents should bring them up to a higher-order way of thinking.

This can be achieved through problem- solving, manipulative and technology based lessons. These higher-order thinking skills should enable students' to enter the universities, vocational training programs, and workforce with a smooth transition into life.