Promoting Critical

Thinking
Using Active Learning Strategies

Working Assumptions
Active learning is necessary for the teaching
of critical thinking.
Critical thinking should be integrated into
every aspect of the educational process.
Students should be made aware of the
thinking process.
Critical thinking must be taught explicitly.
Process is as important as content.
Teachers often confuse physical
attention
for mental attention.

Working Definitions
Active Learning - students involved in doing
things & thinking about the things they are doing

Critical Thinking - reasonable reflective thinking

that is focused on deciding what to do and what to
believe OR interpreting, analyzing or evaluating
information, arguments or experiences with a set of
reflective attitudes, skills, and abilities to guide our
thoughts, beliefs and actions OR examining the
thinking of others to improve our own

A List of Processes - 1
1.
2.
3.
4.

(per A. Aarons, 1985)

Consciously raising questions
Being aware of gaps in information
Distinguishing between observation &
inference; fact and conjecture.
Recognizing that words are symbols
for ideas, and not ideas themselves

A List of Processes - 2
5. Probing for assumptions
6. Appropriately drawing inferences from data
7. Performing hypothetical-deductive
reasoning
8. Discriminating between inductive and
deductive reasoning
9. Testing ones own line of reasoning
10. Being aware of ones own reasoning

Operational Procedures of
Critical Thinking - 1

Identifying key definitions

Identifying ambiguity
Identifying variables
Formulating questions
Defining issue or problem
Classifying information
Sequencing information
Recognizing patterns
Determining credibility

Distinguishing fact from

opinion
Identifying assumptions
Identifying values
Noting missing evidence
Identifying relationships
Comparing & contrasting
Cause and effect
Summarizing information
Using analogies

Operational Procedures of
Critical Thinking - 2
Predicting trends from
data
Predicting outcomes
based upon evidence
Translating between
verbal and symbolic
Identifying conclusions

Identifying errors in
reasoning such as:
Logical fallacies
Errors in statistical
reasoning
Alternative conclusions
that satisfy evidence

Promoting CT in PHY - 1
Create experimental designs:
Design an experiment to investigate the
relationship between the length of a piece of wire
and its resistance.
Design an experiment to determine the
relationship between force, mass, and
acceleration.
Design an experiment to determine the period of
a pendulum.

Promoting CT in PHY - 2
Assess measurement reliability.
The period of a pendulum is measured as a function of
length. One declares, The relationship is linear.
A team measures six data points with a significant
degree of scatter and states, The relationship is a
power function because it minimizes RMSE.
Consistent measurements are more reliable.
The values range from 0.002 to 0.005; the dependent
value is a function of the independent variable and is,
therefore, not a constant.

Promoting CT in PYH - 3
Evaluate viability of data-based claims:
The law is y=ax6+bx5+cx4+dx3+ex2+fx+g
The law is V=IR+0.032
The resistance of a wire will increase by .003
every time its length increases by 1 cm.
The minimum force required to pull an object up
an inclined plane will reach a maximum when the
angle of the plane is between 70 and 75 degrees.

Promoting CT in PHY - 4
Make situation-based predictions:
There is a lake with an iceberg floating in it. As the
iceberg melts, what will the level of the lake do?
Rise? Fall? Stay the same?
A rubber bullet and an aluminum bullet have the
same size, speed, and mass. They are fired at a
block of wood. Which is most likely to knock the
block over? Which is most likely to damage the
block?

Promoting CT in PHY - 5
Test claim viability (misconceptions):
Gravity pulls more on a heavier ball than a light
ball as evidenced by their weights. Because there
is a greater force on the heavy ball, it must fall
more rapidly than the light ball.
The seasons result from the changing earth-sun
distance. Summer occurs when we are closest;
winter occurs when we are farthest.

Promoting CT in PHY - 6
Make approximations: (Fermi problems)
How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?
Estimate the number of square inches of pizza consumed
by all the students at Illinois State University during one
semester.
When it rains, water would accumulate on the roofs of flattopped buildings if there were no drains. A heavy rain may
deposit water to a depth of an inch or more. Given that
water has a mass of about 1 g/cm 3, estimate the total weight
the roof of Moulton Hall rooms 208 and 210 would have to
support if we had an inch of rain and the roof drains were
plugged.

Critical Thinking - 1
Strongly related to developing conceptual
understanding.
Best done when students are continuously
pummeled with questions that demand a
conceptual explanation.
Approach:
Present the problem
Let students think
Socratically question

Critical Thinking - 2
Approach assumes that students know some
physics; students apply what they know.
Develop the intellectual muscle by exercising
it.
Dont let the quantitative approach supplant
the qualitative understanding - both are
critically important to physics.
Predict the answer before calculating it.

Critical Thinking Resources

Thinking Physics series by Epstein and
Hewitt, Epstein, etc.
Physics Begins with an M series by John W.
Jewett, Jr.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/
Numerous WWW resources critical thinking
physics on Google, etc.

Critical Thinking Dispositions

Trying to be well informed

Staying focused
Willing to evaluate alternatives
Taking a supportable position
Seeking precision
Proceeding in a logical and orderly manner
Being sensitive to others positions