27 June 2024

27 June 2024 - Critical Thinking

That wonderful questioning style of young children “What?” “How?” “Why?” I know it can get a bit much, especially when you are trying to get somewhere or concentrate! We often talk about this wonder and curiosity children arrive at school with - no question too wild! 

As they grow and become more aware of the thoughts and presence of ‘others’ sadly for many this intense wondering seems to dissipate. Maybe they can access the answers with a tool now or maybe… maybe… the questions quieten down.

But teaching our children to ask good questions is in fact what we are wanting, for we know that questions have so many benefits for growing brains:

Cognitive Development: For example children learn to analyse situations, make connections, and think creatively as they seek answers to their inquiries.

Curiosity and Exploration: It motivates them to explore their environment, seek new information, and develop a deeper understanding of the world around them.

Language Development: Formulating questions requires vocabulary expansion, sentence structure understanding, and communication skills

Problem-Solving Skills: When children ask questions, they are essentially identifying problems or gaps in their knowledge. They develop problem-solving strategies, and increase their agency in their learning 

Critical Thinking and Analysis: Questions prompt children to analyse situations, evaluate information, and draw conclusions. 

Confidence and Empowerment: Encouraging children to ask questions empowers them to take an active role in their learning.

Curriculum Connection: Questioning promotes deeper engagement with learning across the curriculum 

Social and Emotional Growth: Questioning fosters social interaction and emotional intelligence and wellbeing

I think we can confidently say it’s a good thing and something we need to nurture - even if we have 100 other things to do. I for one will try and be more present the next time I’m asked one of those big questions at an inconvenient time! 

Breathe-pause-respond!

Recently Wellington Principals had a session with Asif Quazi, Analyst for the NZ Police. I found it fascinating and have thought about some of Asif’s messages a lot since.

One that sticks with me is the huge need for schools to actively be teaching critical thinking… which goes with questioning.

With so much ‘news’ being located on social media platforms the fake news and the truth can become confused. Without the skills to inquire and think critically into what you are listening to or reading the results can be rather disturbing.

At Worser Bay we need to keep prioritising these life long skills. We can integrate questioning and critical thinking with ease throughout our learning areas and the Philosophy for Children sessions for example are terrific opportunities for developing these skills. It’s funny, in my first year at University we had to do a compulsory course titled ‘garbage detecting’. It took me a while to click into the why? of the class. We basically analysed newspaper articles...  but now I totally get it.

Even though it can take longer to answer a question or point out alternatives rather than a ‘just do it!’ (which has it’s place too at times!!) that’s what we endeavour to do MOST of the time!

Enjoy Matariki.