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Rodriguez
Instructor Douglas
ENG 112-01
1 February 2017
Have you ever thought about how teachers teach in school and how the students use
critical thinking in school? Teaching critical thinking in schools is a very controversial topic in
our society today and how it can affect students who take standardized tests. There have been
many articles on whether we should teach it and the different ways that it can be taught. Maricia
Clemmitt, article Teaching Critical Thinking talks about the ways the students ability to use
critical thinking can affect students, how we can make students smarter, and if the PISA test
which is a one of the few standardized tests to assess thinking skills and the ability to apply
knowledge really matter and stands for Programme for International Student Assessment. Ron
Ritchhart and David Perkins, article Making Thinking Visible challenges the idea of critical
thinking and suggests six key principles of visible thinking for students.
Marcia Clemmitt writes a very interesting article on the viable ways we can make
students smatter and discusses if the PISA test should really matter in her article which was
published in 2015. She truly writes an informational and statistic article giving many examples
which helps her get the point toward the audience. Clemmitt explains how experts can make
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certain attitudes toward thinking is a vital part of learning to think effectively, and constant
reinforcement of these attitudes is required Art Costa explains, a professor at the California
State University. Clemmitt also explains if the PISA test actually matters and whether it really
shows the quality of American schools. She continues to help the audience by organizing We
Can Make Kids Smarter and Does the PISA Test Matter into two sections. She enhances the
article by explaining to the audience by giving an example which is that in 2012 our reading and
science scores internationally was average and our math was below average. Some of the
strengths in her article are that she points out standardized testing statistics and what the PISA
tests actually measures which is a students potential for deep analytical thinking and problem
solving. Overall, she gives valid information on how experts can make kids smarter and an
argument the PISA and if the test actually matters and how it should or should not shows the
quality of American schools. She makes a strong argument on what it is and some of the
problems of the PISA test in context that it shows a supposed representation of a students
intelligence.
In Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins article Making Thinking Visible they write a very
organized and through article on what visible thinking is and methods of it they also give the
audience an example of how a teacher used a visible thinking in her classroom. They continue
with a strength in the article with giving the audience examples of what visible thinking is some
of the examples would be. Good thinking is not only a matter of skills but also a matter of
dispositions, the development of thinking requires making thinking visible, the development of
thinking is a social endeavor etc., and how they demonstrated it in the school environment. They
also discuss an example of a some of the principles in action they took a preK-12 school in
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Australia which is a school that goes from kindergarten to 12th grade and used these methods to
demonstrate these strategies in a class setting. In Ron Rithhart and Don Perkins research they
Some examples of their evidence are show the effectiveness of these methods are one, a
routine called the think-puzzle-explore method which enabled the teachers to uncover students
thinking. The teacher would then ask a question on the topic and the student would reply with
their opinion. Some questions focused on tragedy when asked about a mining accident which
then the students started to follow the news, bring in articles and started coming up with their
own theories about how it happened. This is one of strategies that enabled students to think
harder and follow facts to determine things on their own. Another strategy used in this study was
they asked the students What do you Know? What do you Want to know? And What have you
learned? About this mining accident this also gave the students the chance to prompt conditional
The last thing they mentioned was with these methods that with using them students who
previously believed they lack a voice or ideas did not have to worry about that. Not only that
with the methods mentioned high school students thinking routines were changed to structure
better thinking before writing essays. Which boosted their confidence and increased the time
spent thinking.
Critical Thinking is clearly an ongoing debate on if there are ways to make children
smarter and if PISA test really matter on determining quality of American schools. Also, if
making thinking visible can really improve critical thinking in an individual. Ron Ritchhart and
David Perkins successfully made there point with examples of strategies on how to make
thinking visible by using tons of facts and a real-life example on the strategies in a classroom
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scenario. Both authors would agree that thinking is a very important matter in the school system.
The American culture has led us to many questions with the public-school system for
standardized tests and the use of critical thinking in them. Ron Ritchart and David Perkins article
shows a more effective way to implement it into school making their article more appealing to
more people and they succeed by showing real life examples of thinking and how to make it
visible. How is it taught? Is it taught in a correct way? Why should a test determine a societies
quality? Even though public is speaking up about this it is up to the childrens future articles like
Clemmitts, Richharts and Perkins to keep the conversations relevant, so other experts in the
future can address this in the future so that generations forward have evidence and facts to
References
Langer, E., & Piper, A. (1987). The prevention of mindlessness. Journal of Personality
Lyman, F. T. (1981). The responsive classroom discussion: The inclusion of all students.
Maryland Press.
Perkins, D. N., & Ritchhart, R. (2004). When is good thinking? In D. Y. Dai & R. J.
Perkins, D. N., Tishman, S., Ritchhart, R., Donis, K., & Andrade, A. (2000). Intelligence
in the wild: A dispositional view of intellectual traits. Educational Psychology Review, 12(3),
269293.
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Ritchhart, R. (2002). Intellectual character: What it is, why it matters, and how to get it.
Ritchhart, R., Hadar, L., & Turner, T. (2008, March). Uncovering students' thinking about
Ritchhart, R., Palmer, P., Church, M., & Tishman, S. (2006, April). Thinking routines:
Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. N. (2000). Life in the mindful classroom: Nurturing the