Do Schools For Gifted Children Value Critical Thinking?

We tend to associate the terminology “critical thinking” with some form of skepticism or a question of validity.  The question “Is this the truth?” is oftentimes perceived as some sort of challenge.  Yet, we should spend our time evaluating or judging a belief, idea, solution, or statement.  The term “critical” is derived from the Greek “krinein” and means to evaluate or judge.  Therefore, when you combine this with the term “thinking”, the use of reasoning becomes part of the evaluation process.  Hence the question “Do schools for gifted children value critical thinking?”

Teachers provide students with the opportunity for critical thinking as a part of a gifted school program in Chicago; and in the regular classroom as well.  Furthermore, critical thinking skills are associated with the analysis, comparison, evaluation, or synthesis of information that is available in books and lectures.  Basically, this boils down to creating and developing strategies that nurture critical thinking abilities in gifted learners.  These strategies are broken down in the following content.

•    In-depth classroom discussions – Teachers encourage these skills so that they can be developed via in-depth classroom discussions within the gifted school programs in Chicago.  Students can ask their own questions, while teachers can pose questions that require more than simply quoting text and recalling facts.  After analyzing information that is presented in the classroom, students are encouraged to share their opinions with one another.

•    Real-life problem solving – One of the areas where teachers can play a significant role in helping gifted students develop their critical thinking skills is in solving the problems of everyday life.  For instance, the use of paper in the classroom is oftentimes excessive and even wasteful.  Students may use an entire sheet of notebook paper just to solve four or five math problems.  In some cases, students may exhaust an entire supply of math scratch paper just by solving one problem at time, and then throwing that paper into the classroom recycling bin.

•    Self-evaluation – Students enrolled in gifted school programs in Chicago can improve their critical thinking abilities through the process of self-evaluation.  This is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.  It takes a considerable amount of insight for the student to identify their strengths and weaknesses.  For example, you can ask them to evaluate their performance after giving a class presentation.  Thus, they would highlight the strong points of their performance and the areas that need the most improvement.

As a portion of the classroom curriculum, teachers target gifted students by challenging them to develop their critical thinking abilities and skills.  However, all students in gifted school programs in Chicago can better themselves, while improving their critical thinking skills through the utilization of these three strategies. Visit Here: Science & Arts Academy