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From Dr. Rochelle R. Brunson, Chair Dept. of Management Development

Ideas from the Green How to Improve Student Learning Guide

*Encourage students to think about their thinking - p.31

*Use engaged lecture - p. 12

*Routinely ask questions that probe student understanding of the content, 
questions such as: - pp. 37 & 38

*Bring intellectual standards into daily use - p. 42

*Systematically question students using a Socratic approach - pp. 44 & 45

*Use tactics that encourage active learning - p. 36

STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING

1. Take a key concept and ask students to think about that concept (democracy, 
freedom, communism, management)

2. Question the students on what they just said/did. "Socratic method"

3. Having students reiterate what other students just said and then ask the other 
student if that's what they meant.

4. Is there a question you have about that? What is the main question you have in 
the back of your mind right now?

5. Tell them to "analyze" it and not to tell you how they feel/believe about it.

*6. Before someone wants to disagree with someone else, tell them they have to first 
interpret (summarize) what that person's viewpoints are and then tell why they 
disagree with them.

7. Work with the students to work on their own thinking to see that they are 
"handicapped" in their way of thinking so that they can begin to transform their 
own minds.

They need to have an understanding of the intellectual virtues. We need to model 
these intellectual traits in the classroom.

Intellectual Traits: p. 13 & 14 - blue mini guide 

8. Try to remove as much of the "time-based" criteria as possible and give them as 
much time as possible to complete tasks/assignments.

9. At the end of class, before they leave they need to tell you at least one concept 
they learned that day in class.

*10. Don't believe every e-mail you read! Look up "questionable" ones at the 
following sites:

www.truthorfiction.com
www.snopes.com
www.truthminers.com (Christian)
www.factcheck.org (political)

(Some of these ideas taken from sessions at the International Critical Thinking Conferences.)