Creativity and Critical Thinking
Different Students, schools and classes
In the first two minutes of this clip Diana Laufenberg talks about how one of the biggest changes to schools, classrooms and students in the past 15-20 years is access to information. For several centuries schools have stayed the same; schools were where books and teachers were and the teachers and books held the knowledge to be learned. But with the creation and increased access to the internet, schools and education has morphed into something else. There is a limitless amount of information at your fingertips and anyone with a computer and internet connection can research any topic or learn any skill they may want. With this new arrangement of knowledge students no longer need to go to schools to access information it can be accessed from anywhere.
What does this mean for teachers and students?
Students need to learn how to develop their critical thinking skills and understand that just because they read it online it does not mean it is true. They need to understand where to get reliable information and how to organize information to form bigger ideas and concepts. How do we teach students to recognize internet as valid or insufficient, to use technology efficiently, to think critically and research skills?
1) Use communication software and media site like edmodo,
2) Teach students to question information that they find online and the reason the person wrote it. What are their motives?
3) A great place to start is to get students to critically question information they have taken for granted . Have students reexamine information they have know their whole lives and to critically think about the motives and meaning behind them .
In the first two minutes of this clip Diana Laufenberg talks about how one of the biggest changes to schools, classrooms and students in the past 15-20 years is access to information. For several centuries schools have stayed the same; schools were where books and teachers were and the teachers and books held the knowledge to be learned. But with the creation and increased access to the internet, schools and education has morphed into something else. There is a limitless amount of information at your fingertips and anyone with a computer and internet connection can research any topic or learn any skill they may want. With this new arrangement of knowledge students no longer need to go to schools to access information it can be accessed from anywhere.
What does this mean for teachers and students?
Students need to learn how to develop their critical thinking skills and understand that just because they read it online it does not mean it is true. They need to understand where to get reliable information and how to organize information to form bigger ideas and concepts. How do we teach students to recognize internet as valid or insufficient, to use technology efficiently, to think critically and research skills?
1) Use communication software and media site like edmodo,
2) Teach students to question information that they find online and the reason the person wrote it. What are their motives?
3) A great place to start is to get students to critically question information they have taken for granted . Have students reexamine information they have know their whole lives and to critically think about the motives and meaning behind them .
Now to quote Virginia Woolf who wrote "I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in." For many teachers the idea of leaving a child locked out (or academically behind) is a terrifying possibility. However, locking children in so they confined in the way they think and are unable to think for themselves should be an equally as terrifying concern. In this ever changing world we need to encourage students ability to think for themselves, organize information and form their own informed and critical opinions. By encouraging creativity in students we can reach the children that are at risk of being locked out and prevent the rest from being locked in.By encouraging creativity in your classroom you can generate critical thinking in your students.
