4 Best Practices — Critical Thinking Exercise for Parents & Students
Over the last decade, teachers and students alike have enjoyed the tremendous acceleration of information sharing thanks to the luxurious tools and tricks born of modern innovation. However, it’s not uncommon to think that efficiency equals effectiveness, particularly when Googling for the definition of the word teach, the immediate result is defined as “show or explain to (someone) how to do something.” (Oxford Languages Dictionary) In a world where Google Search, Alexa, and Youtube have accelerated the supply, demand, and access to the global internet library, exposure to misleading information is a guarantee for any regular internet participant.
Countless criminals, viruses, scams, and misleading narratives thrive on the internet ecosystem & target vulnerable and impressionable viewers using deceptive rhetorical appeals on platforms like reddit & currency to attract naive youth down abusive paths. Unfortunately, rabbit holes exist around every twist & turn, and isolated curiosity can lead to disruptive, dangerous, and deceitful communities.
Considering the challenges of the information age, students need much more than the ability to give a correct answer — they need to understand why the solution works. They must learn to withhold judgment when interpreting information, to develop a firm foundation of first principles for critically evaluating ideas, and to express logical, meaningful ideas with empirical evidence using one’s own choice of words.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
- Derek Bok
Critical thinking is our human superpower for solving complex problems, and like any learned strength or skill, the less we use it — the more we’ll lose it’s power. Not a single one of the 7+ billion humans on earth think in the exact same way. Our perceptual lives are built upon our fundamental concept of the world, and from the womb to the tomb, our understanding will be hammered, refined, and molded by the tools of critical thinking. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a fancy private class to encourage critical thinking; it can be nurtured and developed through reading, writing, constructive criticisms, and engaging with complex activities.
The precursor to critical thinking is a fundamental curiosity about “Why” something is. We’ve all seen (and probably been) the kid that won’t stop asking “Why?” after every explanation of a cause and effect. It’s as if they are so curious, so deeply invested in discovering the reason for things being, that unless they’ve somehow switched focus — they will persevere for a reason why every next answer is what it is.
It’s like having a conversation with a skeptic whose only belief is disbelief itself and where no amount of reasoning is sufficient — this experience can feel infinitely monotonous and annoying. Into adolescence, this innocent inquisitive behavior seems to evaporate with time — particularly with their parents, in all too many cases.
While it may be bothersome, moments like these are tests of your patience and limitations as a parent. Understand that they are taking a risk when asking an open-ended question and sounding ignorant or foolish (which many won’t care for until they reach school age), and that engaging a child with unbounded curiosity is both an opportunity for growth and your responsibility to guide them in the right direction.
Children will model the world after your behaviors and your answers, which is key to keep in mind. By rejecting sincere questions, we are essentially telling them to shut up and stop pursuing the right answer. Avoiding or discouraging their expressions of interest isn’t a fair response; not only are they left in the dark with no answer — you’re ditching them with no flashlight to find the solution for themselves. Give them the right tools & they’ll figure it out for themselves.
In this article, I’ve outlined four simple strategies to advance critical thinking skills in both ourselves and our children.
1. Quiz them on what they’ve just learned
Ask them the same exact questions you already gave answers to — but using their own words & analogies. Better yet, ask them if they can summarize the principles or laws of nature to frame their explanation. If they’re not building concepts into long term memory, then answering thousands of one-dimensional yes-no questions won’t bring them any closer to building a solid understanding of the world. However, a complex, multidimensional question like “How do you know you’re right?” leaves room for exploring alternative perspectives en route to understanding.
Teaching your child to reflect on their own memory and curiosity will encourage honest self-reflection and accurate recall. Quizzing their progress can put an ease to the barrage of repetitive questions while challenging them to synthesize disparate facts to form meaningful concepts. Memory is the operating system of the brain, a flashlight to see in the dark, the search engine to be optimized within the mind’s archive; however, memories themselves are insignificant — it’s by critical thinking that those memories synthesize in a meaningful way.
2. Practice and Preach Patience
After giving a hundred follow-up answers about the nature of ladybugs and still hearing “Why aren’t ladybugs bigger?” or “Why don’t you know more about ladybugs?” or “Why can’t you figure it out?”, it’s not unusual to feel too exhausted to keep trying anymore. While it may seem harmless to take a break and have some peace, the way you choose to react in these moments will set the stage for future conversations. When this happens, ask yourself
“What kind of example am I setting by saying no?”
Do you value being a consistently patient role model more than telling your kid to shut their mouths because of your need for silence? If so, then give them your most critically thoughtful solution, even if that means explaining your frustrations and the limitations of your knowledge. Perhaps the solution is to say, “I don’t know, why don’t we go figure it out?” Or maybe it’s to say “I wish I had the answer, but I’m still working on it. Can you help me with this problem?”
Patience is a key virtue, and practicing patience is an essential behavior worth demonstrating in every situation. With patience, children learn critical behaviors — to delay gratification and to value reflection as a precursor to decision-making.
“Impatience with actions, patience with results”
Naval Ravikant
3. Challenge them to Seek Alternative Solutions
Invite them to come up with an answer of their own — just make sure they have the tools required to do so, whether that’s a dictionary, a pen and paper, a calculator, the internet, or all of them combined. Not only is it more effective when they must focus on a single question for longer than it takes for you to give an answer, this exercise will force them to think critically & creatively to solve problems independently.
Guiding them to seek answers will expose them to variant points of view. If & when they find answers that contradict your own, you’d best be ready to either reason why you’re right or to simply acknowledge that you were wrong. Besides, children shouldn’t see you as an all-knowing God nor a perfected almanac of human knowledge. You were once the same age, curious of the same ideas; the main difference now is that you’ve learned to give better answers.
4. Demonstrate Your Problem-Solving Process
A powerful method of teaching critical analysis is by demonstrating your own personal step-by-step process for arriving at a conclusion in real-time. This will give them a functional framework for developing their own stream of thought, abstraction, and reasoning. Illustrate your rationale, what perspectives and interpretations come to mind & where they stem from, how you weigh each consideration, and how your values, personality, and the context ultimately lead to a conclusion. This way, the student can observe just how “the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it” (The Critical Thinking Foundation). Teaching our children to think critically is to give them the power to make smart decisions and to equip them with the tools to define and solve problems on their own.
The earlier that students can think critically, the sooner they will begin to
- Observe, identify, and entertain a novel predicament with enthusiasm and curiosity — and most importantly, an opportunity to solve a challenge.
- Immediately begin intellectually discerning the perplexity & nuance of the predicament, evaluating the various perspectives, and coming to an abstract understanding of the given variables at play.
- Propose clear and concise questions to fill knowledge gaps and progress closer to a feasible solution
- Develop a humble self-awareness of one’s personal biases, energy limitations, values, and limited understanding of the world.
- Identify, observe, and seek to understand the impetus, ideas, leaders, and principles that guide religions, academic institutions, school boards, social movements, militant groups, political parties, corporations, charities, financial institutions, internet service providers, technology companies, online communities, clubs, bureaucracies, alliances, global unicorns, etc. etc.
Miss Aimee Q., 7EDU’s Head English Instructor, has created & continues to innovate 7EDU’s state-of-the-art Critical Reading and Writing Skills series & English foundation building series; over the last year, she has designed numerous critically challenging curriculum for building fundamental thinking principles as early as Pre-K.
Like myself, Aimee believes
“…it is not enough to teach students to regurgitate information or passive reading; students need to actively engage with texts, evaluate information, and critically synthesize sources to form their own individual perspectives.”
- Aimee Q.
I couldn’t agree more and I have no doubt that countless more students will appreciate Aimee’s wisdom in years to come. We believe that students need more than just the ability to recall and recite information — they need to be able to examine their thoughts, carefully choose their words, and apply their unique perspectives to say something meaningful. To hear Aimee discuss her critical thinking philosophy & statistical concerns, feel free to check out her open class presentation for parents aiming to teach Critical thinking skills!
7EDU Impact Academy’s educators believe that empowering students to be critically thoughtful — through reading, writing, and engaging with complex work — is the key focus for educating the youth. It is upon this premise that our six level “Critical Reading & Writing” series was designed by 7EDU’s Head English instructor, Miss Aimee Q. Teachers, like parents, are responsible for equipping their students with indispensable tools for navigating through life’s problems. Critical Reading & Writing (CRW) is a long-term series of foundational courses designed to confront students with critically thoughtful material, challenging (but not overwhelming) opportunities for growth, and teacher-driven analytical tools to optimize personal progress.
“…if I’m giving my students the tools to know how to read accurately, how to write well, and how to analyze information, they should then be able to apply those skills to a variety of other things including standardized tests, essays, or even just writing for fun or for publications.”
- Aimee Q.
What are your thoughts and methods about the importance of nurturing Critical Thinking in our youth?