BENEFITS OF TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TO KIDS
We live in a rapidly changing technological world, a lot of information is available at the touch of our fingers and it creates complexity to find the right answer. This happens because all the provided information is not accurate and it can be very easy to come up with the wrong solution due to fabricated information. Here comes the person’s ability to analyze, compare & give logical solutions at the right time. But, in today’s competitive and fast-changing world, what are the skills that we should teach to our kids today to really understand the information given, analyze, compare, examine, innovate, and generate logical results. Here comes the idea of critical thinking. In this article, we will discuss critical thinking and its benefits. Let’s learn the concept of “CRITICAL THINKING”.
Critical thinking
Michael Scriven & Richard Paul stated:
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action”.
Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, stated:
“Critical thinking consists of seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, [and]solving problems.”
In other words, we can explain critical thinking as a process that helps us in making knowledgeable, rational conclusions. It empowers us to understand the logical connection between the ideas, identify, reconstruct and analyze the arguments to solve the problems rationally.
Why is it important for kids?
Educator Brian Oshiro says,
“If we want children to thrive in our complicated world, we need to teach them how to think”.
According to Peter Worley, co-CEO and co-founder of an educational charity group named The Philosophy Foundation,
“It is important that children develop critical thinking skills as early as primary school age”.
Critical thinking enhances a kid’s creativity and motivates them to learn new concepts, being logical and imaginative, able to analyze present and past knowledge, be open to new ideas, an evidence-based argument along with logical reasoning. This skill benefits them in all walks of life.
Benefits of Critical Thinking
1-Enhance Decision Making Ability
In the 21st century, it is the concept that is widely used everywhere, whether it is education, politics, research, & technology. It means critical thinking skills will be required to be successful in the future. Our Young kids will be the future leaders, doctors, engineers, but without critical thinking ability, they will not be able to make decisions that benefit society and will not be able to solve everyday problems. For Example, doctors and researchers will not be able to figure out the therapies for common diseases, scientists will not be able to resolve global warming issues, etc. We can say this; critical thinking is crucial to our lives.
2- Crucial for Self Reflection
Critical thinking is the crucial part of kids ’ nurturing and it helps kids to see the world in a reasonable and logical way, and helps them to protect themselves from evil. We live in the 21st century and Google has almost the solution to every question. The Internet is used to search different queries related to any field by different people. Students are using the internet for educational purposes to understand difficult concepts. But this approach will be used by students who are critical thinkers. They have the habit of doing research before asking for help from others. This thinking approach will help them to achieve life goals easily and timely.
3-Enhance Curiosity
The world is full of information and a person can’t memorize all the information and there is no need to memorize the concept that we can look up. An intellectual person uses the brain to solve complex problems by analyzing and assessing the available information. Here comes the concept of conscience that can be enhanced by learning critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is about being curious, innovative, identifying, constructing and evaluating arguments, self-disciplined, think open-mindedly within alternatives, gather and assess information, and come up with different innovative ideas or solutions. It empowers kids to identify the relevance and importance of ideas, to communicate effectively with others in figuring out complex solutions based on evidence.
4-Enhance Academic Success
Critical Thinkers are active learners. The habit of curiosity, reasoning, and problem-solving skills push them to learn new concepts deeply that reflects in their education and career success. It is observed, based on scientific research, that children with critical thinking skills perform better in language comprehension and solve complex problems easily, and they also have higher IQ than their classmates.
5-Reinforce Creativity & Problem Solving Skills
Today’s generation will be tomorrow’s leaders, doctors, scientists, etc. They will face challenges that don’t exist today. Greatest Physicist Albert Einstein said this:
“It’s not that I’m so smart it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Critical thinking skills will prepare today’s generation to tackle alarming future challenges, like global warming, water shortages, pollution, etc. and by the passage of time, these problems will grow. Creativity and problem-solving skills will make them capable of producing innovative and result-oriented solutions.
6-Decreases the Chances of Distraction
A lot of time we come across these sentences:
- My kids are spending a lot of time on the internet and don’t do homework on time.
- He got low marks in exams due to extracurricular activities and the list goes on.
Distraction makes them behave like this. This is because they don’t know how to focus and react to complex situations. Whereas critical thinking skills help kids to focus on objectives & improves mental health and give them a proper direction to achieve objectives. Critical thinking opens children’s minds to explore the world and encourages them to analyze all the best possible solutions based on facts and figures.
7-Enhance Success Rate
Critical thinker argument with logic and data along with reasoning. This is the ability that primarily focused on existing & current information, analysis, comparison, examination, innovation, and logical reasoning. This approach enhances the success rate of any given task. Critical thinking skills have unlimited advantages in educational, personal & professional life. It is a life learning process that never ends. Start today to inculcate critical thinking skills in your child to prepare for the future.
