How Did You Arrive At The Correct Answer?
Higher Order Thinking Skills
May, 2005, by The Critical Thinking Co.™ Staff
 

It is a simple but sad fact that the public school system in the United States has been stuck in the doldrums for many years and lacks the power to make the drastic changes necessary for better student learning. This leaves parents with only two other options. Those who can afford it may enroll their children in typically expensive private schools while those that have the time can homeschool their children.

 

Parents with neither the time nor the money must insist that public schools place a stronger emphasis on teaching higher order thinking skills. Until the federal and state mandates change, it is up to individual parents and educators to produce this change. The Critical Thinking Co. has been helping schools make these changes for over 30 years with comprehensive packages of educational games and materials that foster critical thinking in students.

 

Critical thinking education puts an emphasis on how students arrive at the correct answers, not simply on how well students can memorize them. By teaching students to think for themselves, students become more engaged in their own education and learning becomes something they want to do. When students are so engaged, their grades improve and they perform better on the standardized tests that have been linked to public school funding. Thus everyone wins.

 

The Critical Thinking Co. has developed tools for teaching higher order thinking skills to students from preschool through high school and beyond. After a recent round of testing, Newsweek compiled a list of the top high schools in the U.S. based on the test results, and over three-fourths of the top 100 schools had utilized tools from The Critical Thinking Co. A stronger endorsement cannot be made.