Critical Thinking & Bloom’s Taxonomy

Critical thinking is the set of intellectual skills and psychological habits that you need to solve problems, discover truths and communicate clearly .

Critical thinking entails:

Solving Problems: see from multiple perspectives, recognize patterns, produce solutions, judge/evaluate solutions, etc.

Discovering Truths: make valid inferences , evaluate arguments, analyze, synthesize, imagine, recognize patterns, recognize context/bias, etc.

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Critical Thinking <https://www.globalcitizenshipfoundation.org/>

 

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchy of processes ranging from simple to the complex. To master those higher up you must first master those lower down.


Bloom on literature

Most questions will be asked in the ‘Understand’ to ‘Evaluate’ area. Have students understood the novel? Did they understand certain behaviour in the novels, or choices? Are they able to make their own judgment on the choices of characters and can they support them? But in order to answer those questions, students need to remember most of the novels (therefore they need to keep a reading journal!). The taxonomy will help the student in preparing a well-delivered comparison and their defense in answering the novel questions.

The critical thinking approach might also help students who are not really into reading literature. For them, the novels serve as an exercise to test their critical thinking skills, which are crucial during their academic career.

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