Ideas

IDEA #2: Motivating Students to Work toward Critical Thinking

“Before our students can think critically, they need to recognize the attitudes or dispositions of a critical thinker [and…] must also be motivated to adopt them.”¹

Learning Intention

Developing critical thinking skills is hard work, both cognitively and emotionally.⁴ Instructors can help students learn critical thinking by first motivating them to invest themselves in the process. Educational research provides some useful strategies.

Overview

A key component in creating motivation for learning is getting students’ attention.⁴ Instructional design research on critical thinking provides several ideas, as well as considerations for implementing the ideas successfully.

• Task Importance: Use real-world examples to show the dangers of not thinking critically. Whether it is atrocities in history or politics, mistakes in engineering or science, or failings in business or education, pointing out the negative effects of not using critical thinking can help students see that “critical thinking is not an academic fad; it is an essential skill for living in the information age”²

• Personal Relevance: Engage students in simulations or examples that draw on their own lived experience. Ask students to reflect on or write about how course content applies to their own lives. Invite students to share situations or ask questions about the way course content connects with their daily activities. Show how statistical analysis can help them increase their success on dating apps. Let them explore how financial policies will affect their family’s actual income. Help them engineer a product that will solve a genuine need in their lives.

• Surprise: Employ a surprising demonstration with results that are unexpected. Reveal information a little bit at a time to maintain an element of mystery. Surprise helps students “consider the content in new ways.”⁵

• Disequilibrium: Gently create cognitive dissonance by pointing out discrepancies between students’ current misconceptions and scientific knowledge. When students are faced with information that conflicts with their current mindset, they become ready to employ critical thinking to resolve the conflict and avoid future disequilibrium.⁴ Use pre-tests to uncover students’ original ideas and structure lessons around clearing up those myths.

Considerations

• Create a climate of safety. “Good teachers should exploit discrepancies,”¹ but should be careful not to create too much discomfort and cause students to regress. Avoid ridiculing or dismissing students’ beliefs or ideas.3 Also see: Idea #1: Safe Spaces for Difficult Dialogue

• Update your examples and demonstrations periodically to ensure that they remain relevant and surprising.

• Solicit student feedback on what issues or questions they find interesting or important. Not only will you get some great ideas, it will show students that you are responsive to them, further increasing their motivation.

References