Critical Thinking and Blooms Taxonomy, Study Notes, Material

Definition of Critical Thinking:

The process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. Thus, we can say that critical thinking is a self-directed process through which we take deliberative steps to think at the highest level of quality.

Characteristics of Critical Thinking:

Rationality: critical thinking considers both merit and demerits of particular issues/topics. This makes the judgment rational.

Develops scientific view: critical thinking helps a learner to develop cause and effect relationships about a particular problem which results in a scientific view of a learner.

Relevancy: critical thinking helps in the teaching-learning process by selecting the most appropriate ideology of teaching. It appreciates students in the class to do arguments and adopt the most relevant ideology.

Benefits of Critical thinking:

Various benefits of critical thinking:

1. Critical thinking helps a learner to build concepts, and applications, and expand ideas.

2. Critical thinking helps in the development of language skills, thinking skills as well as cooperative learning skills.

3. Critical thinking helps in understanding and evaluating the arguments of the learners

4. Critical thinking helps in understanding and evaluating the beliefs of the learner.

5. It helps the learner to make good or rational decisions and reject incorrect ones.

6. It helps a learner avoid foolish decisions in their daily life.

Teachers’ Strategy to promote critical thinking in learners:

Various teacher’s strategies to promote critical thinking in the students:

1. A teacher should create more and more opportunities to develop critical thinking among the learners.

2. A teacher should organize the discussion, debate, creative writing, field trips, surveys, etc.

3. A teacher should also provide opportunities for learners to do arguments.

4. After arguments, a teacher should guide the learners to solve the problems.

5. A teacher in the classroom should always try to maintain diversity and multiplicity.

Activities to develop critical thinking in the students:

Various activities that help in developing critical thinking among the students:

1. The teacher should employ multiple examples for developing multiple viewpoints among the learners.

2. A teacher should develop a feeling of taking a risk. This makes the learner self-aware so that if there is a possibility of failure in implementing or employing an idea, concept, solution, etc. and also a teacher should boost them up on the failure and motivate them to re-do it.

3. A teacher should focus on the observation method of teaching rather than methods based on logic.

4. A teacher should provide raw data to students for practice and developing their solutions then students are allowed to work on theory etc.

Bloom’s taxonomy:

Bloom’s taxonomy was named after psychologist Benjamin Bloom. He developed a set of three hierarchical models for the classification of learning objectives.

According to him the three domains of educational learning objectives are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.

Cognitive Domains: Cognitive domain consists of mental skills. According to this domain, individuals proceeds from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills. The six levels of cognitive domains are:

1. Knowledge

2. Comprehension

3. Application

4. Analysis

5. Evaluation

6. Creating

Here, knowledge is the lowest level of thinking whereas evaluation is the highest level of thinking.

Affective Domain: This domain is based on emotions, attitudes, and feelings. This domain focuses on how people react emotionally and their ability to feel the pain or joy of other living organisms. The five levels of this domain from the lowest level to the highest level of processes are:

1. Receiving

2. Responding

3. Valuing

4. Organizing

5. Characterizing

Here receiving is the lowest level of processes and characterizing is the highest level of processes of emotions of an individual.

Psychomotor domain: this domain of learning is based on actions. Psychomotor domain objectives focus on change and development in behaviour or skills. The levels of a psychomotor domain are:

1. Perception

2. Set

3. Guided response

4. Mechanism

5. Complex overt response

6. Adaptation

7. Origination

This article tends to be beneficial for the following exams – REET, UPTET, CTET, Super TET, DSSSB, KVS etc.

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