Deputy Principal – Strategy and Innovation
Deep Learning – Critical Thinking
Last time I wrote about one of the 6 Global Competencies of Deep Learning – Collaboration. This week I will focus on Critical Thinking. This can be defined as “critically evaluating information and arguments, seeing patterns and connections, constructing meaningful knowledge, and applying and assessing it in the real world.” This is one learning competency that most of us would be able to remember from when we were at school. I am sure that we would all hope that students would be able to evaluate information and arguments. We need to realise, though, that students learn how to do this as they grow. I am sure that you might know an adult that is still learning how to do this.
The table below shows where students might be found at different points on the learning journey. With effective learning experiences, students can improve over time and move from demonstrating limited evidence through to emerging, developing, accelerating and finally become proficient at critical thinking. Different students could also start the journey at different points on this continuum. Deep learning seeks to help student understand how to learn with this competency.
At Shellharbour we are seeking to help our learners understand where they might be at the moment on this continuum and then develop their critical thinking skills further. A great way to do this would be to get students to self reflect on where they might be at the start of a learning experience, and then again at the end to see how they have developed.
Were do you think you fit on this continuum? Are you able to adapt, extend, or customize your new knowledge for new, specific situations/contexts, and apply what you have learned to real-world challenges or situations? If so, you are developing in this area. I can’t wait until our students understand this language of learning and can see where they currently fit, and then how they can move forward in this dimension of critical thinking.
See you out the back.
