critical thinking activities for university students

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11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

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Critical thinking activities encourage individuals to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to develop informed opinions and make reasoned decisions. Engaging in such exercises cultivates intellectual agility, fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues and honing problem-solving skills for navigating an increasingly intricate world.

Through critical thinking, individuals empower themselves to challenge assumptions, uncover biases, and constructively contribute to discourse, thereby enriching both personal growth and societal progress.

Critical thinking serves as the cornerstone of effective problem-solving, enabling individuals to dissect challenges, explore diverse perspectives, and devise innovative solutions grounded in logic and evidence. For engaging problem solving activities, read our article problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest.

52 Critical Thinking Flashcards for Problem Solving

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a 21st-century skill that enables a person to think rationally and logically in order to reach a plausible conclusion. A critical thinker assesses facts and figures and data objectively and determines what to believe and what not to believe. Critical thinking skills empower a person to decipher complex problems and make impartial and better decisions based on effective information.

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Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills cultivate habits of mind such as strategic thinking, skepticism, discerning fallacy from the facts, asking good questions and probing deep into the issues to find the truth. Acquiring critical thinking skills was never as valuable as it is today because of the prevalence of the modern knowledge economy.

Today, information and technology are the driving forces behind the global economy. To keep pace with ever-changing technology and new inventions, one has to be flexible enough to embrace changes swiftly.

Today critical thinking skills are one of the most sought-after skills by the companies. In fact, critical thinking skills are paramount not only for active learning and academic achievement but also for the professional career of the students.

The lack of critical thinking skills catalyzes memorization of the topics without a deeper insight, egocentrism, closed-mindedness, reduced student interest in the classroom and not being able to make timely and better decisions.

Incorporating critical thinking lessons into the curriculum equips students with the tools they need to navigate the complexities of the modern world, fostering a mindset that is adaptable, inquisitive, and capable of discerning truth from misinformation.

Benefits of Critical Thinking for Students

Certain strategies are more eloquent than others in teaching students how to think critically. Encouraging critical thinking in the classroom is indispensable for the learning and growth of the students. In this way, we can raise a generation of innovators and thinkers rather than followers. Some of the benefits offered by thinking critically in the classroom are given below:

• It allows a student to decipher problems and think through the situations in a disciplined and systematic manner
• Through a critical thinking ability, a student can comprehend the logical correlation between distinct ideas
• The student is able to rethink and re-justify his beliefs and ideas based on facts and figures
• Critical thinking skills make the students curious about things around them
• A student who is a critical thinker is creative and always strives to come up with out of the box solutions to intricate problems

Read our article: How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples

• Critical thinking skills assist in the enhanced student learning experience in the classroom and prepares the students for lifelong learning and success
• The critical thinking process is the foundation of new discoveries and inventions in the world of science and technology
• The ability to think critically allows the students to think intellectually and enhances their presentation skills, hence they can convey their ideas and thoughts in a logical and convincing manner
• Critical thinking skills make students a terrific communicator because they have logical reasons behind their ideas

Critical Thinking Lessons and Activities

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

We have compiled a list of 11 critical thinking activities for students that will facilitate you to promote critical thinking abilities in the students. By incorporating these activities, educators can introduce real-world examples of critical thinking in the classroom, empowering students to apply these skills in everyday situations.

We have also covered problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest in our another article. Click here to read it.

1. Worst Case Scenario

Divide students into teams and introduce each team with a hypothetical challenging scenario. Allocate minimum resources and time to each team and ask them to reach a viable conclusion using those resources.

The scenarios can include situations like stranded on an island or stuck in a forest. Students will come up with creative solutions to come out from the imaginary problematic situation they are encountering. Besides encouraging students to think critically, this activity will enhance teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills of the students.

This critical thinking activity not only pushes students to devise innovative solutions in challenging scenarios but also strengthens their teamwork, communication, and problem-solving abilities, making it an engaging and educational experience.

Read our article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

2. If You Build It

It is a very flexible game that allows students to think creatively. To start this activity, divide students into groups. Give each group a limited amount of resources such as pipe cleaners, blocks, and marshmallows etc.

Every group is supposed to use these resources and construct a certain item such as building, tower or a bridge in a limited time. You can use a variety of materials in the classroom to challenge the students. This activity is helpful in promoting teamwork and creative skills among the students.

Incorporating critical thinking games like this into your classroom not only promotes teamwork and creativity but also challenges students to think outside the box as they work together to build their structures.

It is also one of the classics which can be used in the classroom to encourage critical thinking. Print pictures of objects, animals or concepts and start by telling a unique story about the printed picture. The next student is supposed to continue the story and pass the picture to the other student and so on.

This engaging exercise is one of the most effective critical thinking activities for kids, as it encourages them to use their creativity and problem-solving skills while working together to construct innovative structures with limited resources.

4. Keeping it Real

In this activity, you can ask students to identify a real-world problem in their schools, community or city. After the problem is recognized, students should work in teams to come up with the best possible outcome of that problem.

5. Save the Egg

Make groups of three or four in the class. Ask them to drop an egg from a certain height and think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking. Students can come up with diverse ideas to conserve the egg like a soft-landing material or any other device. Remember that this activity can get chaotic, so select the area in the school that can be cleaned easily afterward and where there are no chances of damaging the school property.

6. Start a Debate

In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. Encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the topic. Conclude the debate with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity through brainstorming.

7. Create and Invent

This project-based learning activity is best for teaching in the engineering class. Divide students into groups. Present a problem to the students and ask them to build a model or simulate a product using computer animations or graphics that will solve the problem. After students are done with building models, each group is supposed to explain their proposed product to the rest of the class. The primary objective of this activity is to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills among the students.

8. Select from Alternatives

This activity can be used in computer science, engineering or any of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes. Introduce a variety of alternatives such as different formulas for solving the same problem, different computer codes, product designs or distinct explanations of the same topic.

Form groups in the class and ask them to select the best alternative. Each group will then explain its chosen alternative to the rest of the class with reasonable justification of its preference. During the process, the rest of the class can participate by asking questions from the group. This activity is very helpful in nurturing logical thinking and analytical skills among the students.

9. Reading and Critiquing

Present an article from a journal related to any topic that you are teaching. Ask the students to read the article critically and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the article. Students can write about what they think about the article, any misleading statement or biases of the author and critique it by using their own judgments.

In this way, students can challenge the fallacies and rationality of judgments in the article. Hence, they can use their own thinking to come up with novel ideas pertaining to the topic.

10. Think Pair Share

In this activity, students will come up with their own questions. Make pairs or groups in the class and ask the students to discuss the questions together. The activity will be useful if the teacher gives students a topic on which the question should be based.

For example, if the teacher is teaching biology, the questions of the students can be based on reverse osmosis, human heart, respiratory system and so on. This activity drives student engagement and supports higher-order thinking skills among students.

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

Silence is a great way to slow down thinking and promote deep reflection on any subject. Present a driving question to the students and divide them into groups. The students will discuss the question with their teammates and brainstorm their ideas on a big paper.

After reflection and discussion, students can write their findings in silence. This is a great learning activity for students who are introverts and love to ruminate silently rather than thinking aloud.

Incorporating critical thinking activities for high school students, like silent reflection and group brainstorming, encourages deep thought and collaboration, making it an effective strategy for engaging both introverted and extroverted learners.

Finally, for students with critical thinking, you can go to GS-JJ.co m to customize exclusive rewards, which not only enlivens the classroom, but also promotes the development and training of students for critical thinking.

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4 thoughts on “ 11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class ”

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Thanks for the great article! Especially with the post-pandemic learning gap, these critical thinking skills are essential! It’s also important to teach them a growth mindset. If you are interested in that, please check out The Teachers’ Blog!

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Critical thinking

Advice and resources to help you develop your critical voice.

Developing critical thinking skills is essential to your success at University and beyond.  We all need to be critical thinkers to help us navigate our way through an information-rich world. 

Whatever your discipline, you will engage with a wide variety of sources of information and evidence.  You will develop the skills to make judgements about this evidence to form your own views and to present your views clearly.

One of the most common types of feedback received by students is that their work is ‘too descriptive’.  This usually means that they have just stated what others have said and have not reflected critically on the material.  They have not evaluated the evidence and constructed an argument.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is the art of making clear, reasoned judgements based on interpreting, understanding, applying and synthesising evidence gathered from observation, reading and experimentation. Burns, T., & Sinfield, S. (2016)  Essential Study Skills: The Complete Guide to Success at University (4th ed.) London: SAGE, p94.

Being critical does not just mean finding fault.  It means assessing evidence from a variety of sources and making reasoned conclusions.  As a result of your analysis you may decide that a particular piece of evidence is not robust, or that you disagree with the conclusion, but you should be able to state why you have come to this view and incorporate this into a bigger picture of the literature.

Being critical goes beyond describing what you have heard in lectures or what you have read.  It involves synthesising, analysing and evaluating what you have learned to develop your own argument or position.

Critical thinking is important in all subjects and disciplines – in science and engineering, as well as the arts and humanities.  The types of evidence used to develop arguments may be very different but the processes and techniques are similar.  Critical thinking is required for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study.

What, where, when, who, why, how?

Purposeful reading can help with critical thinking because it encourages you to read actively rather than passively.  When you read, ask yourself questions about what you are reading and make notes to record your views.  Ask questions like:

• What is the main point of this paper/ article/ paragraph/ report/ blog?
• Who wrote it?
• Why was it written?
• When was it written?
• Has the context changed since it was written?
• Is the evidence presented robust?
• How did the authors come to their conclusions?
• Do you agree with the conclusions?
• What does this add to our knowledge?
• Why is it useful?

Our web page covering Reading at university includes a handout to help you develop your own critical reading form and a suggested reading notes record sheet.  These resources will help you record your thoughts after you read, which will help you to construct your argument. 

Reading at university

Developing an argument

Being a university student is about learning how to think, not what to think.  Critical thinking shapes your own values and attitudes through a process of deliberating, debating and persuasion.   Through developing your critical thinking you can move on from simply disagreeing to constructively assessing alternatives by building on doubts.

There are several key stages involved in developing your ideas and constructing an argument.  You might like to use a form to help you think about the features of critical thinking and to break down the stages of developing your argument.

Features of critical thinking (pdf)

Features of critical thinking (Word rtf)

Our webpage on Academic writing includes a useful handout ‘Building an argument as you go’.

Academic writing

You should also consider the language you will use to introduce a range of viewpoints and to evaluate the various sources of evidence.  This will help your reader to follow your argument.  To get you started, the University of Manchester's Academic Phrasebank has a useful section on Being Critical. 

Academic Phrasebank

Developing your critical thinking

Set yourself some tasks to help develop your critical thinking skills.  Discuss material presented in lectures or from resource lists with your peers.  Set up a critical reading group or use an online discussion forum.  Think about a point you would like to make during discussions in tutorials and be prepared to back up your argument with evidence.

For more suggestions:

Developing your critical thinking - ideas (pdf)

Developing your critical thinking - ideas (Word rtf)

Published guides

For further advice and more detailed resources please see the Critical Thinking section of our list of published Study skills guides.

Study skills guides  

This article was published on 2024-02-26

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UTC RAVE Alert

Short critical thinking activities, what if you could....

Critical thinking does not always have to involve long, detailed projects! Incorporate these short activities in your existing curriculum to help your students challenge their assumptions, expand their mindset, and experience a class they’ll never forget.

Cognitive Appraisal

Explain to an extraterrestrial.

When we become deeply immersed in a topic, it can be easy to overlook basic principles that are nevertheless important. This activity encourages students to think in detail about the basic processes and assumptions underlying your course content.

Evaluating Assumptions

This activity challenges students to evaluate assumptions they may have made about the solution they have developed to a problem. What assumptions might not be true? What are the possible flaws in their plans?

Debate Dialogue

It can be easy to argue our own side in a controversy, but it can build our critical thinking skills to see the other side. This activity guides students through developing a dialogue between two characters with opposing views.

Questioning Evidence

Evaluating evidence.

The world – and especially the internet – is full of answers to our questions. But how do we identify reputable sources of evidence? This activity will help students evaluate the strength of evidence from multiple sources.  

Expert Testimony

What information would you be sure to share with the jury if you were called as an expert witness in a trial? Use this activity to help students compare and contrast evidence and arguments to determine what will make the strongest case.  

Fact vs. Opinion

It can sometimes be easy to confuse our opinions or the opinions of others as facts. This activity guides students through deciding what statements are facts and which are opinions.  

Building Awareness

How far have we come and where are we going? Use KWL charts to help your students track what they already know, want to know, and have learned throughout your course.  

Learning Journal

What works for one student may not necessarily work for others. Use Learning Journals to help students track their learning approaches and progress to identify the techniques that work best for them.  

Driving Forces

What is the current status of a problem in your field and what would the ideal state look like? Use this activity to help students identify the forces that facilitate and delay progress toward that ideal state.  

WCTL Critical Thinking Workshop

Quick wits: encouraging students to think more deeply  .

“How do you know?” “Has it always been this way?” “Is your source credible?”

Are you looking for innovative ways to encourage your students to think more deeply and critically? This one-hour workshop offers an overview of critical thinking skills and provides ideas for short class assignments that can easily be added to your current curriculum. We hope you enjoy this recording! 

Facilitated by Dr. Karissa Peyer, HHP, WCTL Faculty Fellow in Program Development.

Click to download the PowerPoint slides . Other Spring Events: Faculty Fellow Spring 2022 Webpage Further Information: Contact [email protected]

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking

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(This is the first post in a three-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?

This three-part series will explore what critical thinking is, if it can be specifically taught and, if so, how can teachers do so in their classrooms.

Today’s guests are Dara Laws Savage, Patrick Brown, Meg Riordan, Ph.D., and Dr. PJ Caposey. Dara, Patrick, and Meg were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also be interested in The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom .

Current Events

Dara Laws Savage is an English teacher at the Early College High School at Delaware State University, where she serves as a teacher and instructional coach and lead mentor. Dara has been teaching for 25 years (career preparation, English, photography, yearbook, newspaper, and graphic design) and has presented nationally on project-based learning and technology integration:

There is so much going on right now and there is an overload of information for us to process. Did you ever stop to think how our students are processing current events? They see news feeds, hear news reports, and scan photos and posts, but are they truly thinking about what they are hearing and seeing?

I tell my students that my job is not to give them answers but to teach them how to think about what they read and hear. So what is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom? There are just as many definitions of critical thinking as there are people trying to define it. However, the Critical Think Consortium focuses on the tools to create a thinking-based classroom rather than a definition: “Shape the climate to support thinking, create opportunities for thinking, build capacity to think, provide guidance to inform thinking.” Using these four criteria and pairing them with current events, teachers easily create learning spaces that thrive on thinking and keep students engaged.

One successful technique I use is the FIRE Write. Students are given a quote, a paragraph, an excerpt, or a photo from the headlines. Students are asked to F ocus and respond to the selection for three minutes. Next, students are asked to I dentify a phrase or section of the photo and write for two minutes. Third, students are asked to R eframe their response around a specific word, phrase, or section within their previous selection. Finally, students E xchange their thoughts with a classmate. Within the exchange, students also talk about how the selection connects to what we are covering in class.

There was a controversial Pepsi ad in 2017 involving Kylie Jenner and a protest with a police presence. The imagery in the photo was strikingly similar to a photo that went viral with a young lady standing opposite a police line. Using that image from a current event engaged my students and gave them the opportunity to critically think about events of the time.

Here are the two photos and a student response:

F - Focus on both photos and respond for three minutes

In the first picture, you see a strong and courageous black female, bravely standing in front of two officers in protest. She is risking her life to do so. Iesha Evans is simply proving to the world she does NOT mean less because she is black … and yet officers are there to stop her. She did not step down. In the picture below, you see Kendall Jenner handing a police officer a Pepsi. Maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal, except this was Pepsi’s weak, pathetic, and outrageous excuse of a commercial that belittles the whole movement of people fighting for their lives.

I - Identify a word or phrase, underline it, then write about it for two minutes

A white, privileged female in place of a fighting black woman was asking for trouble. A struggle we are continuously fighting every day, and they make a mockery of it. “I know what will work! Here Mr. Police Officer! Drink some Pepsi!” As if. Pepsi made a fool of themselves, and now their already dwindling fan base continues to ever shrink smaller.

R - Reframe your thoughts by choosing a different word, then write about that for one minute

You don’t know privilege until it’s gone. You don’t know privilege while it’s there—but you can and will be made accountable and aware. Don’t use it for evil. You are not stupid. Use it to do something. Kendall could’ve NOT done the commercial. Kendall could’ve released another commercial standing behind a black woman. Anything!

Exchange - Remember to discuss how this connects to our school song project and our previous discussions?

This connects two ways - 1) We want to convey a strong message. Be powerful. Show who we are. And Pepsi definitely tried. … Which leads to the second connection. 2) Not mess up and offend anyone, as had the one alma mater had been linked to black minstrels. We want to be amazing, but we have to be smart and careful and make sure we include everyone who goes to our school and everyone who may go to our school.

As a final step, students read and annotate the full article and compare it to their initial response.

Using current events and critical-thinking strategies like FIRE writing helps create a learning space where thinking is the goal rather than a score on a multiple-choice assessment. Critical-thinking skills can cross over to any of students’ other courses and into life outside the classroom. After all, we as teachers want to help the whole student be successful, and critical thinking is an important part of navigating life after they leave our classrooms.

‘Before-Explore-Explain’

Patrick Brown is the executive director of STEM and CTE for the Fort Zumwalt school district in Missouri and an experienced educator and author :

Planning for critical thinking focuses on teaching the most crucial science concepts, practices, and logical-thinking skills as well as the best use of instructional time. One way to ensure that lessons maintain a focus on critical thinking is to focus on the instructional sequence used to teach.

Explore-before-explain teaching is all about promoting critical thinking for learners to better prepare students for the reality of their world. What having an explore-before-explain mindset means is that in our planning, we prioritize giving students firsthand experiences with data, allow students to construct evidence-based claims that focus on conceptual understanding, and challenge students to discuss and think about the why behind phenomena.

Just think of the critical thinking that has to occur for students to construct a scientific claim. 1) They need the opportunity to collect data, analyze it, and determine how to make sense of what the data may mean. 2) With data in hand, students can begin thinking about the validity and reliability of their experience and information collected. 3) They can consider what differences, if any, they might have if they completed the investigation again. 4) They can scrutinize outlying data points for they may be an artifact of a true difference that merits further exploration of a misstep in the procedure, measuring device, or measurement. All of these intellectual activities help them form more robust understanding and are evidence of their critical thinking.

In explore-before-explain teaching, all of these hard critical-thinking tasks come before teacher explanations of content. Whether we use discovery experiences, problem-based learning, and or inquiry-based activities, strategies that are geared toward helping students construct understanding promote critical thinking because students learn content by doing the practices valued in the field to generate knowledge.

An Issue of Equity

Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is the chief learning officer at The Possible Project, an out-of-school program that collaborates with youth to build entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and provides pathways to careers and long-term economic prosperity. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years as a middle and high school teacher, school coach, college professor, regional director of N.Y.C. Outward Bound Schools, and director of external research with EL Education:

Although critical thinking often defies straightforward definition, most in the education field agree it consists of several components: reasoning, problem-solving, and decisionmaking, plus analysis and evaluation of information, such that multiple sides of an issue can be explored. It also includes dispositions and “the willingness to apply critical-thinking principles, rather than fall back on existing unexamined beliefs, or simply believe what you’re told by authority figures.”

Despite variation in definitions, critical thinking is nonetheless promoted as an essential outcome of students’ learning—we want to see students and adults demonstrate it across all fields, professions, and in their personal lives. Yet there is simultaneously a rationing of opportunities in schools for students of color, students from under-resourced communities, and other historically marginalized groups to deeply learn and practice critical thinking.

For example, many of our most underserved students often spend class time filling out worksheets, promoting high compliance but low engagement, inquiry, critical thinking, or creation of new ideas. At a time in our world when college and careers are critical for participation in society and the global, knowledge-based economy, far too many students struggle within classrooms and schools that reinforce low-expectations and inequity.

If educators aim to prepare all students for an ever-evolving marketplace and develop skills that will be valued no matter what tomorrow’s jobs are, then we must move critical thinking to the forefront of classroom experiences. And educators must design learning to cultivate it.

So, what does that really look like?

Unpack and define critical thinking

To understand critical thinking, educators need to first unpack and define its components. What exactly are we looking for when we speak about reasoning or exploring multiple perspectives on an issue? How does problem-solving show up in English, math, science, art, or other disciplines—and how is it assessed? At Two Rivers, an EL Education school, the faculty identified five constructs of critical thinking, defined each, and created rubrics to generate a shared picture of quality for teachers and students. The rubrics were then adapted across grade levels to indicate students’ learning progressions.

At Avenues World School, critical thinking is one of the Avenues World Elements and is an enduring outcome embedded in students’ early experiences through 12th grade. For instance, a kindergarten student may be expected to “identify cause and effect in familiar contexts,” while an 8th grader should demonstrate the ability to “seek out sufficient evidence before accepting a claim as true,” “identify bias in claims and evidence,” and “reconsider strongly held points of view in light of new evidence.”

When faculty and students embrace a common vision of what critical thinking looks and sounds like and how it is assessed, educators can then explicitly design learning experiences that call for students to employ critical-thinking skills. This kind of work must occur across all schools and programs, especially those serving large numbers of students of color. As Linda Darling-Hammond asserts , “Schools that serve large numbers of students of color are least likely to offer the kind of curriculum needed to ... help students attain the [critical-thinking] skills needed in a knowledge work economy. ”

So, what can it look like to create those kinds of learning experiences?

Designing experiences for critical thinking

After defining a shared understanding of “what” critical thinking is and “how” it shows up across multiple disciplines and grade levels, it is essential to create learning experiences that impel students to cultivate, practice, and apply these skills. There are several levers that offer pathways for teachers to promote critical thinking in lessons:

1.Choose Compelling Topics: Keep it relevant

A key Common Core State Standard asks for students to “write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.” That might not sound exciting or culturally relevant. But a learning experience designed for a 12th grade humanities class engaged learners in a compelling topic— policing in America —to analyze and evaluate multiple texts (including primary sources) and share the reasoning for their perspectives through discussion and writing. Students grappled with ideas and their beliefs and employed deep critical-thinking skills to develop arguments for their claims. Embedding critical-thinking skills in curriculum that students care about and connect with can ignite powerful learning experiences.

2. Make Local Connections: Keep it real

At The Possible Project , an out-of-school-time program designed to promote entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, students in a recent summer online program (modified from in-person due to COVID-19) explored the impact of COVID-19 on their communities and local BIPOC-owned businesses. They learned interviewing skills through a partnership with Everyday Boston , conducted virtual interviews with entrepreneurs, evaluated information from their interviews and local data, and examined their previously held beliefs. They created blog posts and videos to reflect on their learning and consider how their mindsets had changed as a result of the experience. In this way, we can design powerful community-based learning and invite students into productive struggle with multiple perspectives.

3. Create Authentic Projects: Keep it rigorous

At Big Picture Learning schools, students engage in internship-based learning experiences as a central part of their schooling. Their school-based adviser and internship-based mentor support them in developing real-world projects that promote deeper learning and critical-thinking skills. Such authentic experiences teach “young people to be thinkers, to be curious, to get from curiosity to creation … and it helps students design a learning experience that answers their questions, [providing an] opportunity to communicate it to a larger audience—a major indicator of postsecondary success.” Even in a remote environment, we can design projects that ask more of students than rote memorization and that spark critical thinking.

Our call to action is this: As educators, we need to make opportunities for critical thinking available not only to the affluent or those fortunate enough to be placed in advanced courses. The tools are available, let’s use them. Let’s interrogate our current curriculum and design learning experiences that engage all students in real, relevant, and rigorous experiences that require critical thinking and prepare them for promising postsecondary pathways.

Critical Thinking & Student Engagement

Dr. PJ Caposey is an award-winning educator, keynote speaker, consultant, and author of seven books who currently serves as the superintendent of schools for the award-winning Meridian CUSD 223 in northwest Illinois. You can find PJ on most social-media platforms as MCUSDSupe:

When I start my keynote on student engagement, I invite two people up on stage and give them each five paper balls to shoot at a garbage can also conveniently placed on stage. Contestant One shoots their shot, and the audience gives approval. Four out of 5 is a heckuva score. Then just before Contestant Two shoots, I blindfold them and start moving the garbage can back and forth. I usually try to ensure that they can at least make one of their shots. Nobody is successful in this unfair environment.

I thank them and send them back to their seats and then explain that this little activity was akin to student engagement. While we all know we want student engagement, we are shooting at different targets. More importantly, for teachers, it is near impossible for them to hit a target that is moving and that they cannot see.

Within the world of education and particularly as educational leaders, we have failed to simplify what student engagement looks like, and it is impossible to define or articulate what student engagement looks like if we cannot clearly articulate what critical thinking is and looks like in a classroom. Because, simply, without critical thought, there is no engagement.

The good news here is that critical thought has been defined and placed into taxonomies for decades already. This is not something new and not something that needs to be redefined. I am a Bloom’s person, but there is nothing wrong with DOK or some of the other taxonomies, either. To be precise, I am a huge fan of Daggett’s Rigor and Relevance Framework. I have used that as a core element of my practice for years, and it has shaped who I am as an instructional leader.

So, in order to explain critical thought, a teacher or a leader must familiarize themselves with these tried and true taxonomies. Easy, right? Yes, sort of. The issue is not understanding what critical thought is; it is the ability to integrate it into the classrooms. In order to do so, there are a four key steps every educator must take.

• Integrating critical thought/rigor into a lesson does not happen by chance, it happens by design. Planning for critical thought and engagement is much different from planning for a traditional lesson. In order to plan for kids to think critically, you have to provide a base of knowledge and excellent prompts to allow them to explore their own thinking in order to analyze, evaluate, or synthesize information.
• SIDE NOTE – Bloom’s verbs are a great way to start when writing objectives, but true planning will take you deeper than this.

QUESTIONING

• If the questions and prompts given in a classroom have correct answers or if the teacher ends up answering their own questions, the lesson will lack critical thought and rigor.
• Script five questions forcing higher-order thought prior to every lesson. Experienced teachers may not feel they need this, but it helps to create an effective habit.
• If lessons are rigorous and assessments are not, students will do well on their assessments, and that may not be an accurate representation of the knowledge and skills they have mastered. If lessons are easy and assessments are rigorous, the exact opposite will happen. When deciding to increase critical thought, it must happen in all three phases of the game: planning, instruction, and assessment.

TALK TIME / CONTROL

• To increase rigor, the teacher must DO LESS. This feels counterintuitive but is accurate. Rigorous lessons involving tons of critical thought must allow for students to work on their own, collaborate with peers, and connect their ideas. This cannot happen in a silent room except for the teacher talking. In order to increase rigor, decrease talk time and become comfortable with less control. Asking questions and giving prompts that lead to no true correct answer also means less control. This is a tough ask for some teachers. Explained differently, if you assign one assignment and get 30 very similar products, you have most likely assigned a low-rigor recipe. If you assign one assignment and get multiple varied products, then the students have had a chance to think deeply, and you have successfully integrated critical thought into your classroom.

Thanks to Dara, Patrick, Meg, and PJ for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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Writing to Learn: Critical Thinking Activities for any Classroom

What is writing to learn.

We all can think of times when we were stuck while we were writing a major project. A perspective we hadn't considered occurred to us, or an idea that we thought was clear cut didn't quite sound as convincing when we tried to put it into words. If we stuck with it, we often found that we could write our way out of the problem, and our thinking became clearer. Sometimes, even, our struggles with writing ended up radically changing the way we think. The challenge our writing posed helped us clarify difficult concepts, to see apparently stale ideas in new ways. This kind of writing is powerful, if sometimes a bit messy as we work to shape our thinking.

"Writing to Learn" is what Writing Across the Curriculum folks call writing's capacity to not just communicate thoughts and ideas, but to actually help structure our thinking. By giving students opportunities to work out their thinking in writing, they have a chance to struggle through difficult ideas and practice crucial habits of thought. Often, writing to learn activities are short, low stakes assignments or activities in class. The most basic activity might be asking your students to write for five minutes on a discussion question that you'll be starting class with. These kinds of activities can be a boon to those of us who have been frustrated by awkward silences when we ask a discussion question and when struggle to get a conversation going. If we ask students to write first, we know they have something to say; they've had a chance to develop their ideas without speaking off the cuff. Furthermore, we don't have to spend the time grading their responses, since their writing immediately applies to the work you are doing in class.

Since their writing is tied to the central topical and methodological issues you want your students to learn, time spent writing is not wasted. It's not something "extra" that you have to struggle to shoehorn into an already busy schedule.

Writing to Learn Activities: Effective and Efficient

Writing to learn activities can be used in three ways:

• As a way of helping students practice crucial habits of thought you'd like them to master.  Think about the particular kinds of critical thinking you want your students to perform. Design a low stakes activity in class that allows them to work through that way of thinking. Group work can be particularly effective here. For example, a psychology instructor who wanted her students to understand the role that scholarly literature played in research. She had students write three summaries of psychological literature on a topic they were exploring in groups. Two summaries were on articles on the topic that were in conversation with each other in some way (one cited the other), and the third was on how the two articles together contributed to knowledge about their topic. On top of this, each group member had to pick two different articles, so the group together developed a certain amount of expertise on the topic.
• As a way of "scaffolding" larger assignments.  If you divide up major projects into smaller, more manageable parts, you'll allow students the opportunity to approach the process of research and writing more effectively. You'll be able to guide students through their work, giving them resources and advise along the way. Students will be able to pace themselves, rather than procrastinating to the last minute. And, by highlighting crucial stages in the project, you'll be able to emphasize what components are most valuable to you in their work, so that students will know your expectations more clearly.
• As a way of bringing students into dialogue.  More informal interchange between students helps them to build on each other’s’ ideas, to collectively organize group projects, or to learn how to provide constructive feedback as they grapple with new genres.
• As a way of assessing student learning.  Writing to learn activities can give you a chance to get immediate and rich feedback on what your students are learning. You might ask them to write down the point they thought was most interesting in class that day, or what concepts they are most struggling with. You don't have to wait until you grade their major assignments to find out what they are learning and how well they are learning it. In addition, asking students to reflect on their learning helps students to make more comprehensive connections between different course units or concepts that might have seemed as distinct and unrelated otherwise.

Writing to Learn Booklet

Several years ago, WAC consultants put together a collection of writing to learn activities that we use in workshops and share with colleagues. The activities included in the booklet can be adapted to any number of different purposes and contexts.

(.pdf file)

 (.pdf file)

Bean, John C.  Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . San Francisco: JosseyBass Publishers, 2001.

Emig, Janet. "Writing as a Mode of Learning."  Landmark Essays on Writing Across the Curriculum . Eds. Charles Bazerman and David Russell. Anaheim: Hermagoras Press, 1994.

Flash, Pamela. "Teaching with Writing."  University of Minnesota Writing Center . < http:// writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/inclass.htm >.

Murray, Donald.  Write to Learn . New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1984.

The WAC Clearinghouse. < http://wac.colostate.edu/ >.

Young, Art.  Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum . 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. WAC Clearinghouse Landmark Publications in Writing Studies:  http://wac.colostate.edu/books/young_teaching/&nbsp ;

How to teach critical thinking, a vital 21st-century skill

A well-rounded education doesn’t just impart academic knowledge to students — it gives them transferable skills they can apply throughout their lives. Critical thinking is widely hailed as one such essential “ 21st-century skill ,” helping people critically assess information, make informed decisions, and come up with creative approaches to solving problems.

This means that individuals with developed critical thinking skills benefit both themselves and the wider society. Despite the widespread recognition of critical thinking’s importance for future success, there can be some ambiguity about both what it is and how to teach it . 1 Let’s take a look at each of those questions in turn.

What is critical thinking?

Throughout history, humanity has attempted to use reason to understand and interpret the world. From the philosophers of Ancient Greece to the key thinkers of the Enlightenment, people have sought to challenge their preconceived notions and draw logical conclusions from the available evidence — key elements that gave rise to today’s definition of “critical thinking.”

At its core, critical thinking is the use of reason to analyze the available evidence and reach logical conclusions. Educational scholars have defined critical thinking as “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do,” 2 and “interpretation or analysis, followed by evaluation or judgment.” 3 Some have pared their definition down to simply “good” or “skillful thinking.”

At the same time, being a good critical thinker relies on certain values like open-mindedness, persistence, and intellectual humility. 4 The ideal critical thinker isn’t just skilled in analysis — they are also curious, open to other points of view, and creative in the path they take towards tackling a given problem.

Alongside teaching students how to analyze information, build arguments, and draw conclusions, educators play a key role in fostering the values conducive to critical thinking and intellectual inquiry. Students who develop both skills and values are well-placed to handle challenges both academically and in their personal lives.

Let’s examine some strategies to develop critical thinking skills and values in the classroom.

How to teach students to think critically — strategies

1. build a classroom climate that encourages open-mindedness.

Fostering a classroom culture that allows students the time and space to think independently, experiment with new ideas, and have their views challenged lays a strong foundation for developing skills and values central to critical thinking.

Whatever your subject area, encourage students to contribute their own ideas and theories when addressing common curricular questions. Promote open-mindedness by underscoring the importance of the initial “brainstorming” phase in problem-solving — this is the necessary first step towards understanding! Strive to create a classroom climate where students are comfortable thinking out loud.

Emphasize to students the importance of understanding different perspectives on issues, and that it’s okay for people to disagree. Establish guidelines for class discussions — especially when covering controversial issues — and stress that changing your mind on an issue is a sign of intellectual strength, not weakness. Model positive behaviors by being flexible in your own opinions when engaging with ideas from students.

2. Teach students to make clear and effective arguments

Training students’ argumentation skills is central to turning them into adept critical thinkers. Expose students to a wide range of arguments, guiding them to distinguish between examples of good and bad reasoning.

When guiding students to form their own arguments, emphasize the value of clarity and precision in language. In oral discussions, encourage students to order their thoughts on paper before contributing.

In the case of argumentative essays , give students plenty of opportunities to revise their work, implementing feedback from you or peers. Assist students in refining their arguments by encouraging them to challenge their own positions. 

They can do so by creating robust “steel man” counterarguments to identify potential flaws in their own reasoning. For example, if a student is passionate about animal rights and wants to argue for a ban on animal testing , encourage them to also come up with points in favor of animal testing. If they can rebut those counterarguments, their own position will be much stronger!

Additionally, knowing how to evaluate and provide evidence is essential for developing argumentation skills. Teach students how to properly cite sources , and encourage them to investigate the veracity of claims made by others — particularly when dealing with online media .

3. Encourage metacognition — guide students to think about their own and others’ thinking

Critical thinkers are self-reflective. Guide students time to think about their own learning process by utilizing metacognitive strategies, like learning journals or having reflective periods at the end of activities. Reflecting on how they came to understand a topic can help students cultivate a growth mindset and an openness to explore alternative problem-solving approaches during challenging moments.

You can also create an awareness of common errors in human thinking by teaching about them explicitly. Identify arguments based on logical fallacies and have students come up with examples from their own experience. Help students recognize the role of cognitive bias in our thinking, and design activities to help counter it.

Students who develop self-awareness regarding their own thinking are not just better at problem-solving, but also managing their emotions .

4. Assign open-ended and varied activities to practice different kinds of thinking

Critical thinkers are capable of approaching problems from a variety of angles. Train this vital habit by switching up the kinds of activities you assign to students, and try prioritizing open-ended assignments that allow for varied approaches.

A project-based learning approach can reap huge rewards. Have students identify real-world problems, conduct research, and investigate potential solutions. Following that process will give them varied intellectual challenges, while the real-world applicability of their work can motivate students to consider the potential impact their thinking can have on the world around them.

Classroom discussions and debates are fantastic activities for building critical thinking skills. As open-ended activities, they encourage student autonomy by requiring them to think for themselves.

They also expose students to a diversity of perspectives , inviting them to critically appraise these different positions in a respectful context. Class discussions are applicable across disciplines and come in many flavors — experiment with different forms like fishbowl discussions or online, asynchronous discussions to keep students engaged.

5. Use argument-mapping tools such as Kialo Edu to train students in the use of reasoning

One of the most effective methods of improving students’ critical thinking skills is to train them in argument mapping .

Argument mapping involves breaking an argument down into its constituent parts, and displaying them visually so that students can see how different points are connected. Research has shown that university students who were trained in argument mapping significantly out-performed their peers on critical thinking assessments. 5

While it’s possible — and useful — to map out arguments by hand, there are clear benefits to using digital argument maps like Kialo Edu. Students can contribute simultaneously to a Kialo discussion to collaboratively build out complex discussions as an argument map. 

Individual students can plan essays as argument maps before writing. This helps them to stay focused on the line of argument and encourages them to preempt counterarguments. Kialo discussions can even be assigned as an essay alternative when teachers want to focus on argumentation as the key learning goal. Unlike traditional essays, they defy the use of AI chatbots like ChatGPT!

Kialo discussions prompt students to use their reasoning skills to create clear, structured arguments. Moreover, students have a visual, engaging way to respond to the content of the arguments being made, promoting interpretive charity towards differing opinions. 

Best of all, Kialo Edu offers a way to track and assess your students’ progress on their critical thinking journey. Educators can assign specific tasks — like citing sources or responding to others’ claims — to evaluate specific skills. Students can also receive grades and feedback on their contributions without leaving the platform, making it easy to deliver constructive, ongoing guidance to help students develop their reasoning skills.

Improving students’ critical thinking abilities is something that motivates our work here at Kialo Edu. If you’ve used our platform and have feedback, thoughts, or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on social media or contact us directly at [email protected] .

•  Lloyd, M., & Bahr, N. (2010). Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in Higher Education. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 4 (2), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2010.040209
•  Ennis, R. H. (2015). Critical Thinking: A Streamlined Conception. In: Davies, M., Barnett, R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
• Lang-Raad, N. D. (2023). Never Stop Asking: Teaching Students to be Better Critical Thinkers . Jossey-Bass.
•  Ellerton, Peter (2019). Teaching for thinking: Explaining pedagogical expertise in the development of the skills, values and virtues of inquiry . Dissertation, The University of Queensland. Available here .
• van Gelder, T. (2015). Using argument mapping to improve critical thinking skills. In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education (pp. 183–192). doi:10.1057/9781137378057_12.

Want to try Kialo Edu with your class?

Sign up for free and use Kialo Edu to have thoughtful classroom discussions and train students’ argumentation and critical thinking skills.

50 Super-Fun Critical Thinking Strategies to Use in Your Classroom

by AuthorAmy

Teaching students to be critical thinkers is perhaps the most important goal in education. All teachers, regardless of subject area, contribute to the process of teaching students to think for themselves. However, it’s not always an easy skill to teach. Students need guidance and practice with critical thinking strategies at every level.

One problem with teaching critical thinking is that many different definitions of this skill exist. The Foundation for Critical Thinking offers four different definitions of the concept. Essentially, critical thinking is the ability to evaluate information and decide what we think about that information, a cumulative portfolio of skills our students need to be successful problem solvers in an ever-changing world.

Here is a list of 50 classroom strategies for teachers to use to foster critical thinking among students of all ages.

1. Don’t give them the answers  

Learning is supposed to be hard, and while it may be tempting to jump in and direct students to the right answer, it’s better to let them work through a problem on their own. A good teacher is a guide, not an answer key. The goal is to help students work at their “challenge” level, as opposed to their “frustration” level.

2. Controversial issue barometer

In this activity, a line is drawn down the center of the classroom. The middle represents the neutral ground, and the ends of the line represent extremes of an issue. The teacher selects an issue and students space themselves along the line according to their opinions. Being able to articulate opinions and participate in civil discourse are important aspects of critical thinking.

3. Play devil’s advocate

During a robust classroom discussion, an effective teacher challenges students by acting as devil’s advocate, no matter their personal opinion. “I don’t care WHAT you think, I just care THAT you think” is my classroom mantra. Critical thinking strategies that ask students to analyze both sides of an issue help create understanding and empathy.

4. Gallery walk

In a gallery walk, the teacher hangs images around the classroom related to the unit at hand (photographs, political cartoons, paintings). Students peruse the artwork much like they are in a museum, writing down their thoughts about each piece.

5. Review something

A movie, TV show , a book, a restaurant, a pep assembly, today’s lesson – anything can be reviewed. Writing a review involves the complex skill of summary without spoilers and asks students to share their opinion and back it up with evidence.

6. Draw analogies

Pick two unrelated things and ask students how those things are alike (for example, how is a museum like a snowstorm). The goal here is to encourage creativity and look for similarities.

7. Think of 25 uses for an everyday thing

Pick an everyday object (I use my camera tripod) and set a timer for five minutes. Challenge students to come up with 25 things they can use the object for within that time frame. The obvious answers will be exhausted quickly, so ridiculous answers such as “coatrack” and “stool” are encouraged.

8. Incorporate riddles

Students love riddles. You could pose a question at the beginning of the week and allow students to ask questions about it all week.

9. Crosswords and sudoku puzzles

The games section of the newspaper provides great brainteasers for students who finish their work early and need some extra brain stimulation.

10. Fine tune questioning techniques

A vibrant classroom discussion is made even better by a teacher who asks excellent, provocative questions. Questions should move beyond those with concrete answers to a place where students must examine why they think the way they do.

11. Socratic seminar

The Socratic seminar is perhaps the ultimate critical thinking activity. Students are given a universal question, such as “Do you believe it is acceptable to break the law if you believe the law is wrong?” They are given time to prepare and answer, and then, seated in a circle, students are directed to discuss the topic. Whereas the goal of a debate is to win, the goal of a Socratic discussion is for the group to reach greater understanding.

12. Inquiry based learning

In inquiry-based learning, students develop questions they want answers to, which drives the curriculum toward issues they care about. An engaged learner is an essential step in critical thinking.

13. Problem-based learning

In problem-based learning, students are given a problem and asked to develop research-based solutions. The problem can be a school problem (the lunchroom is overcrowded) or a global problem (sea levels are rising).

14. Challenge all assumptions

The teacher must model this before students learn to apply this skill on their own. In this strategy, a teacher helps a student understand where his or her ingrained beliefs come from. Perhaps a student tells you they believe that stereotypes exist because they are true. An effective teacher can ask “Why do you think that?” and keep exploring the issue as students delve into the root of their beliefs. Question everything.

15. Emphasize data over beliefs

Data does not always support our beliefs, so our first priority must be to seek out data before drawing conclusions.

16. Teach confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is the human tendency to seek out information that confirms what we already believe, rather than letting the data inform our conclusions. Understanding that this phenomenon exists can help students avoid it.

17. Visualization

Help students make a plan before tackling a task.

18. Mind mapping

Mind mapping is a visual way to organize information. Students start with a central concept and create a web with subtopics that radiate outward.

19. Develop empathy

Empathy is often cited as an aspect of critical thinking. To do so, encourage students to think from a different point of view. They might write a “con” essay when they believe the “pro,” or write a letter from someone else’s perspective.

20. Summarization

Summarizing means taking all the information given and presenting it in a shortened fashion.

21. Encapsulation

Encapsulation is a skill different from summarization. To encapsulate a topic, students must learn about it and then distill it down to its most relevant points, which means students are forming judgements about what is most and least important.

22. Weigh cause and effect

The process of examining cause and effect helps students develop critical thinking skills by thinking through the natural consequences of a given choice.

23. Problems in a jar

Perfect for a bell-ringer, a teacher can stuff a mason jar with dilemmas that their students might face, such as, “Your best friend is refusing to talk to you today. What do you do?” Then, discuss possible answers. This works well for ethical dilemmas, too.

24. Transform one thing into another

Give students an object, like a pencil or a mug. Define its everyday use (to write or to drink from). Then, tell the students to transform the object into something with an entirely separate use. Now what is it used for?

25. Which one doesn’t belong?

Group items together and ask students to find the one that doesn’t belong. In first grade, this might be a grouping of vowels and a consonant; in high school, it might be heavy metals and a noble gas.

26. Compare/contrast

Compare and contrast are important critical thinking strategies. Students can create a Venn diagram to show similarities or differences, or they could write a good old-fashioned compare/contrast essay about the characters of Romeo and Juliet .

27. Pick a word, find a related word

This is another fun bell-ringer activity. The teacher starts with any word, and students go around the room and say another word related to that one. The obvious words go quickly, meaning the longer the game goes on, the more out-of-the-box the thinking gets.

28. Ranking of sources

Give students a research topic and tell them to find three sources (books, YouTube videos, websites). Then ask them, what resource is best – and why.

29. Hypothesize

The very act of hypothesizing is critical thinking in action. Students are using what they know to find an answer to something they don’t know.

30. Guess what will happen next

This works for scientific reactions, novels, current events, and more. Simply spell out what we know so far and ask students “and then what?”

31. Practice inference

Inference is the art of making an educated guess based on evidence presented and is an important component of critical thinking.

32. Connect text to self

Ask students to draw connections between what they are reading about to something happening in their world. For example, if their class is studying global warming, researching how global warming might impact their hometown will help make their studies relevant.

33. Levels of questioning

There are several levels of questions (as few as three and as many as six, depending on who you ask). These include factual questions, which have a right or wrong answer (most math problems are factual questions). There are also inferential questions, which ask students to make inferences based on both opinion and textual evidence. Additionally, there are universal questions, which are “big picture” questions where there are no right or wrong answers.

Students should practice answering all levels of questions and writing their own questions, too.

34. Demand precise language

An expansive vocabulary allows a student to express themselves more exactly, and precision is a major tool in the critical thinking toolkit.

35. Identify bias and hidden agendas

Helping students to critically examine biases in sources will help them evaluate the trustworthiness of their sources.

36. Identify unanswered questions

After a unit of study is conducted, lead students through a discussion of what questions remain unanswered. In this way, students can work to develop a lifelong learner mentality.

37. Relate a topic in one subject area to other disciplines

Have students take something they are studying in your class and relate it to other disciplines. For example, if you are studying the Civil War in social studies, perhaps they could look up historical fiction novels set during the Civil War era or research medical advancements from the time period for science.

38. Have a question conversation

Start with a general question and students must answer your question with a question of their own. Keep the conversation going.

39. Display a picture for 30 seconds, then take it down

Have students list everything they can remember. This helps students train their memories and increases their ability to notice details.

40. Brainstorm, free-write

Brainstorming and freewriting are critical thinking strategies to get ideas on paper. In brainstorming, anything goes, no matter how off-the-wall. These are great tools to get ideas flowing that can then be used to inform research.

41. Step outside your comfort zone

Direct students to learn about a topic they have no interest in or find particularly challenging. In this case, their perseverance is being developed as they do something that is difficult for them.

42. The answer is, the question might be

This is another bell-ringer game that’s great for engaging those brains. You give students the answer and they come up with what the question might be.

43. Cooperative learning

Group work is a critical thinking staple because it teaches students that there is no one right way to approach a problem and that other opinions are equally valid.

44. What? So what? Now what?

After concluding a unit of study, these three question frames can be used to help students contextualize their learning.

45. Reflection

Ask students to reflect on their work – specifically, how they can improve moving forward.

46. Classify and categorize

These are higher level Bloom’s tasks for a reason. Categorizing requires students to think about like traits and rank them in order of importance.

47. Role play

Roleplay allows students to practice creative thinking strategies. Here, students assume a role and act accordingly.

48. Set goals

Have students set concrete, measurable goals in your class so they understand why what they do matters.

No matter your subject area, encourage students to read voraciously. Through reading they will be exposed to new ideas, new perspectives, and their worlds will grow.

50. Cultivate curiosity

A curious mind is an engaged mind. Students should be encouraged to perform inquiry simply for the sake that it is a joy to learn about something we care about.

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Critical Thinking Exercises

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Critical thinking is a skill that students develop gradually as they progress in school. While the skill becomes more important in higher grades, some students find it difficult to understand the concept of critical thinking .

The reason critical thinking can be difficult to grasp is because it requires students to set aside assumptions and beliefs to learn to think without bias or judgment.

Critical thinking involves suspending your beliefs to explore and question topics from a "blank page" point of view. It also involves the ability to distinguish fact from opinion when exploring a topic.

These exercises are designed to help develop critical thinking skills.

Critical Thinking Exercise 1: Tour Guide for an Alien

This exercise provides an opportunity to think outside your normal way of thinking.

Pretend that you have been assigned the task of conducting a tour for aliens who are visiting the earth and observing human life. You're riding along in a blimp, viewing the landscape below, and you float over a professional baseball stadium. One of the aliens looks down and is very confused by what he sees. You explain that there is a game going on and he asks several important questions.

• What is a game? 
• Why are there no female players?
• Why do people get so excited about watching other people play games?
• What is a team?
• Why can't the people in the seats go down on the field and join in?

If you try to answer these questions fully, it will quickly become apparent that we carry around certain assumptions and values. We support a certain team, for instance, because it makes us feel like we're a part of a community. This sense of community is a value that matters to some people more than others.

Furthermore, when trying to explain team sports to an alien, you have to explain the value we place on winning and losing.

When you think like an alien tour guide, you are forced to take a deeper look at the things we do and things we value. Sometimes they don't sound logical from the outside looking in.

Critical Thinking Exercise 2: Fact or Opinion

Do you think you know the difference between fact and opinion? It's not always easy to discern. When you visit websites, do you believe everything you read? The abundance of available information makes it more important than ever for students to develop critical thinking skills. Additionally, it's an important reminder that you must use trustworthy sources in your school work.

If you don't learn the difference between fact and opinion, you may end up reading and watching things that continue to reinforce beliefs and assumptions you already own.

For this exercise, read each statement and try to determine whether it sounds like a fact or an opinion. This can be completed alone or with a study partner .

• My mom is the best mom on earth.
• My dad is taller than your dad.
• My telephone number is difficult to memorize.
• The deepest part of the ocean is 35,813 feet deep.
• Dogs make better pets than turtles.
• Smoking is bad for your health.
• Eighty-five percent of all cases of lung cancer in the U.S. are caused by smoking.
• If you flatten and stretch out a Slinky toy it will be 87 feet long.
• Slinky toys are fun.
• One out of every one hundred American citizens is color blind.
• Two out of ten American citizens are boring.

You will probably find some of the statements easy to judge but other statements difficult. If you can effectively debate the truthfulness of a statement with your partner, then it's most likely an opinion.

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• What is Critical Thinking?

The ability to think critically calls for a higher-order thinking than simply the ability to recall information.

Definitions of critical thinking, its elements, and its associated activities fill the educational literature of the past forty years. Critical thinking has been described as an ability to question; to acknowledge and test previously held assumptions; to recognize ambiguity; to examine, interpret, evaluate, reason, and reflect; to make informed judgments and decisions; and to clarify, articulate, and justify positions (Hullfish & Smith, 1961; Ennis, 1962; Ruggiero, 1975; Scriven, 1976; Hallet, 1984; Kitchener, 1986; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Mines et al., 1990; Halpern, 1996; Paul & Elder, 2001; Petress, 2004; Holyoak & Morrison, 2005; among others).

After a careful review of the mountainous body of literature defining critical thinking and its elements, UofL has chosen to adopt the language of Michael Scriven and Richard Paul (2003) as a comprehensive, concise operating definition:

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.

Paul and Scriven go on to suggest that critical thinking is based on: "universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue, assumptions, concepts, empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions, implication and consequences, objections from alternative viewpoints, and frame of reference. Critical thinking - in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes - is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking."

This conceptualization of critical thinking has been refined and developed further by Richard Paul and Linder Elder into the Paul-Elder framework of critical thinking. Currently, this approach is one of the most widely published and cited frameworks in the critical thinking literature. According to the Paul-Elder framework, critical thinking is the:

• Analysis of thinking by focusing on the parts or structures of thinking ("the Elements of Thought")
• Evaluation of thinking by focusing on the quality ("the Universal Intellectual Standards")
• Improvement of thinking by using what you have learned ("the Intellectual Traits")

Selection of a Critical Thinking Framework

The University of Louisville chose the Paul-Elder model of Critical Thinking as the approach to guide our efforts in developing and enhancing our critical thinking curriculum. The Paul-Elder framework was selected based on criteria adapted from the characteristics of a good model of critical thinking developed at Surry Community College. The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework is comprehensive, uses discipline-neutral terminology, is applicable to all disciplines, defines specific cognitive skills including metacognition, and offers high quality resources.

Why the selection of a single critical thinking framework?

The use of a single critical thinking framework is an important aspect of institution-wide critical thinking initiatives (Paul and Nosich, 1993; Paul, 2004). According to this view, critical thinking instruction should not be relegated to one or two disciplines or departments with discipline specific language and conceptualizations. Rather, critical thinking instruction should be explicitly infused in all courses so that critical thinking skills can be developed and reinforced in student learning across the curriculum. The use of a common approach with a common language allows for a central organizer and for the development of critical thinking skill sets in all courses.

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Become a better critical thinker with these 7 critical thinking exercises

Critical thinking is a skill you can use in any situation. Whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or business executive, critical thinking can help you make better decisions and solve problems.

But learning critical thinking skills isn't always an easy task. Many tools, techniques, and strategies are available, and choosing the right one can be challenging. Vague suggestions on the internet like "read more" aren't very helpful, and elaborate business examples don’t apply to many of us.

As average problem-solvers, we need actionable thinking exercises to improve our critical thinking skills and enhance our thinking processes. Regularly performing exercises that specifically stretch our decision-making and reasoning skills is the most effective method of improving our thinking abilities.

This article will explore several exercises that will help you develop critical thinking skills. Whether you are preparing for an exam, making an influential decision for your business, or going about your daily life, these fun activities can build your reasoning skills and creative problem-solving abilities.

Boost your logical thinking skills and start practicing a critical mindset with these 10 critical thinking exercises.

A Quick Look at Critical Thinking

As a thoughtful learner, you likely already understand the basics of critical thinking, but here's a quick refresher.

Critical thinking involves analyzing problems or issues objectively and rationally. Critical thinkers are able to understand their own biases and assumptions, as well as those of others. They’re also able to see the world from a different point of view and understand how their experiences impact their thinking.

Developing critical thinking skills is essential because it allows us to see things from multiple perspectives, identify biases and errors in reasoning, and be open to possible solutions. Making informed decisions is easier when we have a better understanding of the world around us.

Why We Need to Practice Critical Thinking

We aren't born with critical thinking skills, and they don’t naturally develop beyond survival-level thinking. To master critical thinking, we must practice it and develop it over time.

However, learning to think critically isn't as easy as learning to ride a bicycle. There aren't any step-by-step procedures to follow or supportive guides to fall back on, and it is not taught in public schools consistently or reliably. To ensure students' success, teachers must know higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) and how to teach them, research says.

Unfortunately, although teachers understand the importance of HOTS and attempt to teach it, studies show that their capacity to measure students' HOTS is low. Educator and author Dr. Kulvarn Atwal says, "It seems that we are becoming successful at producing students who are able to jump through hoops and pass tests."

As critical thinking skills become more important in higher grades, some students find it challenging to understand the concept of critical thinking. To develop necessary thinking skills, we must set aside our assumptions and beliefs. This allows us to explore and question topics from a "blank page" point of view and distinguish fact from opinion.

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7 Critical Thinking Exercises To Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills

The good news is that by assessing, analyzing, and evaluating our thought processes, we can improve our skills. Critical thinking exercises are key to this improvement. Our critical thinking builds and improves with regular practice, just like a muscle that gets stronger with use.

If you want to become a better critical thinker , here are some critical thinking exercises to try:

Exercise #1: The Ladder of Inference

You can exercise your critical thinking skills by using the Ladder of Inference model . This thinking model was developed by renowned organizational psychologist Chris Argyris. Each rung on the ladder of inference represents a step you take to arrive at your conclusions.

The decision-making process starts when we are faced with a problem or situation. As soon as we observe something problematic or important, we presume what is causing it, and then we use that assumption to draw conclusions. Based on those conclusions, we take action.

For example, say you're at a party and see a friend across the room. You catch their eye and wave, but they turn and walk away. Using the ladder, you might climb the rungs as follows:

• Observe that your friend walked away.
• Select a few details of the situation, including your wave and your assumption that they saw you.
• Meaning is attached based on the environment, making you think your friend must have other people to talk to at the party.
• Assumptions are made based on that meaning, assuming that means your friend doesn’t like you as much as them.
• Conclusions are drawn from the assumption, and you determine that your friend must be mad at you or doesn't want you to be at the party.
• Beliefs are formed, making you think you're not welcome.
• Action is taken, and you leave the party.

In this example, you started with a situation (someone walking away at a crowded party) and made a series of inferences to arrive at a conclusion (that the person is mad at you and doesn't want you there).

The Ladder of Inference can be a helpful tool to frame your thinking because it encourages you to examine each step of your thought process and avoid jumping to conclusions. It's easy to make assumptions without realizing it, as in this scene. Perhaps your friend never even saw you wave from across the crowded room.

Exercise #2: The Five Whys

The "Five Whys" technique is an analytical skill that can help you uncover the source of a problem. The activity was created by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota, and consists of repeatedly asking “why?” when a problem is encountered to determine its root cause.

This exercise can be difficult because knowing if you've discovered the source of your problem is challenging. The "five" in "Five Whys" is just a guideline — you may need to ask more. When you can't ask anything else, and your response is related to the original issue, you've probably arrived at the end.

Even if you need several rounds of questioning, just keep going. The important part that helps you practice critical thinking is the process of asking "why?" and uncovering the deeper issues affecting the situation.

For instance, say you're trying to figure out why your computer keeps crashing.

• You ask " why ," and the answer is that there's a software problem.
• Why? Because the computer keeps running out of memory.
• Why? Because too many programs are running at the same time.
• Why? Because too many browser tabs are open .
• Why? Because multitasking is fragmenting your focus, you're doing too many things at once.

In this example, working through the "why's" revealed the underlying cause. As a result, you can find the best solution, which is concentrating on just one thing at a time.

Exercise #3: Inversion

Inversion is another critical thinking exercise that you can use in any situation. Inversion is sort of like taking on the role of the devil's advocate. In this exercise, adopt the opposite view of whatever issue you're exploring and consider the potential arguments for that side. This will help broaden your critical thinking skills and enable you to see other perspectives on a situation or topic more clearly.

For example, let's say you're thinking about starting your own business. Using inversion, you would explore all of the potential arguments for why starting your own business is bad. This might include concerns like:

• You could end up in debt.
• The business might fail.
• It's a lot of work.
• You might not have time for anything else.

By exploring these potentially adverse outcomes, you can identify the potential risks involved in starting your own business and make a more sound decision. You might realize that now is not the right time for you to become an entrepreneur. And if you do start the company, you'll be better prepared to deal with the issues you identified when they occur.

Exercise #4: Argument Mapping

Argument mapping can be a beneficial exercise for enhancing critical thinking skills. Like mind mapping, argument mapping is a method of visually representing an argument's structure. It helps analyze and evaluate ideas as well as develop new ones.

In critical thinking textbooks, argument diagramming is often presented to introduce students to argument constructions. It can be an effective way to build mental templates or schema for argument structures, which researchers think may make critical evaluation easier .

Argument maps typically include the following:

• Conclusion: What is being argued for or against
• Premises: The reasons given to support the conclusion
• Inferences: The connections made between the premises and conclusion

The argument map should be as clear and concise as possible, with a single word or phrase representing each element. This will help you make connections more easily. After the map is completed, you can use it to identify any weak points in the argument. If any areas aren't well-supported, additional premises can be added.

Argument mapping can be applied to any situation that requires critical thinking skills. The more time you take to map out an argument, the better you'll understand how the pieces fit together. Ultimately, this will help you think more creatively and critically, and make more informed decisions.

Exercise #5: Opinion vs. Fact

Critical thinking activities that focus on opinions and facts are particularly valuable and relevant new learning opportunities. Our constantly-connected world makes it easy to confuse opinions and facts , especially with sensationalist news articles and click-bait headlines.

How can you tell a fact from an opinion? Facts are generally objective and established, whereas opinions are subjective and unproven. For example, "the cloud is in the air" is a fact. "That dress looks good on you" is an opinion.

Practice your critical thinking skills by reading or listening to the news. See if you can identify when someone is stating an opinion rather than a fact. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is saying what? What reasons might be behind their statements?
• Does the claim make sense? Who would disagree with it and why?
• How can you tell if the data is reliable? Can it be fact-checked? Has it been shared by other credible publishers?
• How do you know whether or not the presenter is biased? What kind of language is being used?

This powerful exercise can train your mind to start asking questions whenever presented with a new claim. This will help you think critically about the information you're taking in and question what you're hearing before accepting it as truth.

Exercise #6: Autonomy of an Object

In her book " The Critical Thinking Tool Kit ," Dr. Marlene Caroselli describes a critical thinking exercise called "Living Problems, Lively Solutions." This exercise uses the autonomy of an object as a problem-solving tool to find a possible solution.

To do this, you'll personify your problem and place it in another context — a different time or place. This allows you to uncover unique solutions to the problem that might be tied to your mental associations with that setting.

For example, if your problem is poor time management , you might personify the issue as a thief of your time. The idea of a thief could make you think of jail, which might prompt thoughts of locking up specific distractions in your life. The idea of jail could also make you think of guards and lead you to the possible solution of checking in with an accountability buddy who can make sure you're sticking to your schedule.

The autonomy-of-object technique works because it stimulates thoughts you wouldn’t have considered without the particular context in which you place the problem.

Exercise #7: The Six Thinking Hats

Designed by Edward de Bono, the Six Thinking Hats is a critical thinking exercise that was created as a tool for groups to use when exploring different perspectives on an issue. When people use other thinking processes, meetings can become challenging rather than beneficial.

To help teams work more productively and mindfully, de Bono suggests dividing up different styles of thinking into six categories, represented as hats:

• The white hat is objective and focuses on facts and logic
• The red hat is intuitive, focusing on emotion and instinct
• The black hat is cautious and predicts negative outcomes
• The yellow hat is optimistic and encourages positive outcomes
• The green hat is creative, with numerous ideas and little criticism
• The blue hat is the control hat used for management and organization

With each team member wearing a different hat, a group can examine an issue or problem from many different angles, preventing one viewpoint (or individual) from dominating the meeting or discussion. This means that decisions and solutions reached using the Six Thinking Hats approach will likely be more robust and effective, and everyone’s creative thinking skills will benefit.

Train Your Brain With Critical Thinking Exercises

Using critical thinking regularly in various situations can improve our ability to evaluate and analyze information. These seven critical thinking exercises train your brain for better critical thinking skills . With daily practice, they can become habits that will help you think more critically each day.

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It’s Time to Get Serious About Teaching Critical Thinking

By  Jonathan Haber

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For close to 50 years, educators and politicians from classrooms to the Oval Office have stressed the importance of graduating students who are skilled critical thinkers.

Content that once had to be drilled into students’ heads is now just a phone swipe away, but the ability to make sense of that information requires thinking critically about it. Similarly, our democracy is today imperiled not by lack of access to data and opinions about the most important issues of the day, but rather by our inability to sort the true from the fake (or hopelessly biased).

We have certainly made progress in critical-thinking education over the last five decades. Courses dedicated to the subject can be found in the catalogs of many colleges and universities, while the latest generation of K-12 academic standards emphasize not just content but also the skills necessary to think critically about content taught in English, math, science and social studies classes.

Despite this progress, 75 percent of employers claim the students they hire after 12, 16 or more years of formal education lack the ability to think critically and solve problems -- despite the fact that nearly all educators claim to prioritize helping students develop those very skills. Those statistics were included in Academically Adrift , the 2011 book by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, which caused a stir when the authors asserted that students made little to no progress in critical-thinking ability during their college years.

With perils mounting, many of them attributable to too little critical thinking about the subjects that matter most, we clearly must do more to ensure today’s students become tomorrow’s skilled thinkers. Fortunately, we are in a position to do so without having to overturn the current higher education system or break the bank.

What Do We Mean by ‘Critical Thinking’?

One barrier that has kept us from making more progress in critical-thinking education over the last several decades is the perception that we still do not understand the concept well enough to determine how teaching critical-thinking skills can be integrated into the curriculum.

That paralysis derives partly from debates within the critical-thinking community over how the term should be defined. But such debates, while thoughtful and constructive, should not obscure the fact that there is widespread consensus regarding what skills constitute critical thinking, as well as substantial research on how those skills can be taught successfully.

For example, critical thinking involves thinking in a structured way. The term commonly used to describe this form of productive, structured thinking is “logic,” but logic describes a number of systems for reasoning systematically.

Formal logic reduces words and ideas to symbols that can be manipulated, for instance, much like numbers and symbols used in mathematics. While formal logic is extraordinarily powerful (just ask any computer programmer), we can also systematize our reasoning using informal logic that allows us to consider the meaning of words rather than reducing them to symbols fit into a structure. There are also a number of graphical systems for mapping out logical relationships, some of them easy enough to be picked up by young learners, that can be applied to any content area.

Since most of the communication we need to think critically about involves everyday human language, rather than machine code, skilled critical thinkers must also be adept at translating spoken and written language into precise statements that can be built into a logical structure. This translation process is as much art as science, but with practice, students can perform this kind of translation on anything from historic or literary documents to scientific ideas and mathematical proofs.

When those translated precise statements are built into a logical structure, you have an argument -- the basic unit of reasoning. Arguments can be found in political speeches, editorials and advertisements, as well as in communication across STEM fields, and the rules for analyzing the quality of arguments have been in place for more than 2,000 years.

Structured arguments play a special role in highlighting the importance of reasons for belief (called a warrant in logical argumentation), which gives students the ability to understand why true premises can lead to a false conclusion -- rather than labor under the misconception that the world consists of facts that can be true or false, with everything else falling into the category of opinion (or worse, “just an opinion”).

Another myth that has slowed down integrating critical-thinking instruction more deeply into the curriculum is fear that teaching skills, including critical-thinking skills, must come at the expense of teaching academic content. Yet one cannot think critically about a subject one knows nothing about. Since background knowledge , including knowledge of content related to the academic disciplines, is a vital part of being a critical thinker, understanding content and thinking critically about it do not need to come into conflict.

While people continue to be debate the role of elements such as creativity in the critical-thinking process, there is a general consensus, going back to the earliest definitions of the term, that the concept includes three interconnecting elements: knowledge (for example, knowledge of one or more logical systems), skills (such as skills in applying that logical system to construct and analyze arguments) and dispositions (such as the willingness to apply critical-thinking principles, rather than fall back on existing unexamined beliefs, or simply believe what you’re told by authority figures).

Teaching Students to Think Critically

Just as enough consensus exists about what critical thinking is, so too we have adequate agreement regarding how critical thinking is best taught. Research shows that elements of critical thinking need to be taught explicitly , rather than assumed to come along for the ride when thoughtful teachers run through complex material with students. As mentioned previously, nearly all college professors prioritize developing their students’ critical-thinking abilities, but to move from aspiration to progress, they must marry this priority to practices that make critical-thinking instruction explicit within a discipline.

For example, mathematics is a subject where students are continually introduced to examples of deductive reasoning in the form of mathematical proofs. Yet how many math professors use this opportunity to explicitly introduce students to principles of deductive reasoning, or contrast deductive with inductive logic (the primary mode of reasoning used in science)? Similarly, activities involving informational reading and argumentative writing provide ideal opportunities to introduce students in college writing classes to logical arguments in which evidence (in the form of premises of an argument) leads to a conclusion and how those arguments can be tested for validity, soundness, strength and weakness.

As it turns out, the number of critical-thinking topics professors and students need to understand is relatively small, certainly compared to the much larger body of content that students need to master in an English, math, science or history course. For students to develop as critical thinkers, however, they must put that knowledge to work through deliberate practice that specifically focuses on development of critical-thinking skills. That can be accomplished through carefully designed activities and assignments that provide students opportunities to practice applying critical-thinking principles to answer questions and solve problems specific to academic content areas.

The previous example of a math professor contrasting deductive and inductive reasoning and explaining what each form of reasoning brings to different disciplines demonstrates the potential for critical-thinking skills to transfer between academic domains. Since critical thinking is universally applicable, faculty members can also use examples and deliberate practice exercises to show students how they can apply critical-thinking techniques to issues outside class, such as how to systematically make decisions regarding college or work or how to avoid manipulation by politicians and advertisers.

One critical-thinking researcher has proposed that becoming a skilled critical thinker requires the same amount of practice required to become a highly skilled athlete or musician: approximately 10,000 hours. If this suggestion is even partially correct, it points out a problem, since no single class, or even years of education, can provide this amount of dedicated practice time.

That is why professors must not just teach students critical-thinking skills and give them opportunities to put them to use, but they must also inspire them to continue practicing those skills on their own across academic subjects and in all areas of life. Given that thinking is something we do every waking hour and does not require practice fields, instruments or special equipment, inspired students can apply the critical-thinking skills they learn in class to improve their grades and make better decisions in life, reinforcing their value and creating a virtuous cycle of continuous use.

High-Leverage Critical Thinking Teaching Practices

The techniques I’ve described above -- explicit instruction on critical-thinking principles and techniques, deliberate practice opportunities that put those techniques to work, encouraging transfer between domains, and inspiring students to practice thinking critically on their own -- all represent high-leverage critical-thinking practices applicable to any domain. Such practices can be applied to focused content areas, highlighting the fact that integrating critical-thinking practices into the curriculum does not need to crowd out other activities college instructors have used for years.

Concrete methods for improving student critical-thinking ability can help colleges and universities, including liberal arts schools struggling in an era emphasizing STEM and career-oriented majors like business, define their mission as the place where the most vital 21st-century skills are explicitly taught, practiced and mastered. One major where a new emphasis on practical critical-thinking skills development can have a double impact is education, where students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate teacher-preparation programs can be taught using high-leverage critical-thinking practices they can then bring into the classroom as they enter jobs in K-12 schools.

Changing colleges to embrace both methods and a culture of critical thinking does not require overhauling education, eliminating courses or even asking professors to sacrifice approaches they have developed and used successfully. It simply involves adding new tools to their arsenal that allow them to accomplish what they already wholeheartedly support: helping students develop the skills needed to think critically about the world.

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5 Critical Thinking Activities That Get Students Up and Moving

More movement means better learning.

It’s easy to resort to having kids be seated during most of the school day. But learning can (and should) be an active process. Incorporating movement into your instruction has incredible benefits—from deepening student understanding to improving concentration to enhancing performance. Check out these critical thinking activities, adapted from Critical Thinking in the Classroom , a book with over 100 practical tools and strategies for teaching critical thinking in K-12 classrooms.

Four Corners

In this activity, students move to a corner of the classroom based on their responses to a question with four answer choices. Once they’ve moved, they can break into smaller groups to explain their choices. Call on students to share to the entire group. If students are persuaded to a different answer, they can switch corners and further discuss. 

Question ideas:

• Which president was most influential: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, or Abraham Lincoln?
• Is Holden Caulfield a hero: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree?

Gallery Walk

This strategy encourages students to move around the classroom in groups to respond to questions, documents, images, or situations posted on chart paper. Each group gets a different colored marker to record their responses and a set amount of time at each station. When groups move, they can add their own ideas and/or respond to what prior groups have written.

Gallery ideas:

• Political cartoons

Stations are a great way to chunk instruction and present information to the class without a “sit and get.” Group desks around the room or create centers, each with a different concept and task. There should be enough stations for three to five students to work for a set time before rotating.

Station ideas:

• Types of rocks
• Story elements
• Literary genres

Silent Sticky-Note Storm

In this brainstorming activity, students gather in groups of three to five. Each group has a piece of chart paper with a question at the top and a stack of sticky notes. Working in silence, students record as many ideas or answers as possible, one answer per sticky note. When time is up, they post the sticky notes on the paper and then silently categorize them.

• How can you exercise your First Amendment rights?
• What are all the ways you can divide a square into eighths?

Mingle, Pair, Share

Take your Think, Pair, Share to the next level. Instead of having students turn and talk, invite them to stand and interact. Play music while they’re moving around the classroom. When the music stops, each student finds a partner. Pose a question and invite students to silently think about their answer. Then, partners take turns sharing their thoughts.

• How do organisms modify their environments?
• What is the theme of Romeo and Juliet ?

Looking for more critical thinking activities and ideas?

Critical Thinking in the Classroom is a practitioner’s guide that shares the why and the how for building critical thinking skills in K-12 classrooms. It includes over 100 practical tools and strategies that you can try in your classroom tomorrow!

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Critical and Creative Thinking: An Essential Skill for Every Student

Table of Contents

Key takeaways:, what is critical and creative thinking, unlocking the power of creative thinking for young minds, critical and creative thinking skills you need to master, how to improve your critical thinking skills, is critical and creative thinking crucial to problem-solving and decision making, can critical and creative thinking ability be tested, critical thinking vs intelligence: which do you value the most, does critical thinking positively impact leadership.

This article was last updated: 20th February 2024

The Importance of Critical and Creative Thinking : In a world with prevalent fake news and misinformation, teaching young individuals to think critically and creatively helps them make wise decisions and problem-solve effectively.

Definition Challenges : While the exact definition of critical and creative thinking varies, most experts agree it involves thinking independently, rationally, and being an active learner.

Practical Application : Equipping students with these skills allows them to scrutinise information, such as evaluating news on climate change or rumors on social media, and come to reasoned conclusions.

Creative Thinking in Education : It’s essential for students aged 6-18 to not just adhere to set patterns but also nurture their innate creativity. This involves thinking out-of-the-box and coming up with innovative solutions.

Core Skills : Key skills for critical and creative thinking include analysis, brainstorming, lateral thinking, interpretation, and problem-solving. Students need to approach problems with curiosity, risk-taking, and structured reasoning.

Teaching Approach : Critical thinking skills are best nurtured within a content-rich environment specific to each subject. It’s essential to avoid teaching generic skills and instead focus on domain-specific thinking capabilities.

Critical Thinking in Decision-making : These skills go beyond just acquiring knowledge. They prepare young minds to address global challenges, from resource management to technological advances.

Testing Abilities : There are validated tests like The California Critical Thinking Assessment Test and The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal that measure critical and creative thinking abilities.

What parent doesn’t want their child to learn skills for wise decision-making and problem solving? The importance of critical and creative thinking is more obvious than ever in a world where fake news, scams and hoaxes are part of everyday life.

Here at ACC, we are committed to teaching our young people skills for thinking deeply about issues they will encounter in their relationships, work and culture. Most importantly, we want those skills to be rooted in the truths of the Bible – God’s foundation for critical and creative thinking.

Before we look more deeply, it seems helpful to define critical and creative thinking. However, as an abstract concept that’s been discussed since the times of early Greek philosophy, it is notoriously hard to pin down an agreed definition.

There are elements that experts agree are essential for critical and creative thinking, such as being able to think independently, clearly and rationally. It involves the ability to reflect on an idea or problem, apply reason, and make logical connections between ideas.  

Life skills’ website Skills You Need points out that critical and creative thinking “is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information.”

“Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value,” they write. “They will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and findings represent the entire picture and are open to finding that they do not.”

For example, a high schooler may see a news item about climate change. They can apply critical and creative thinking skills to reflect on the different arguments, learn more about the topic and come to a reasoned conclusion.

Skills You Need add that critical and creative thinking has a goal – to arrive at the best possible solution in given circumstances. It is a “way of thinking about particular things at a particular time; it is not the accumulation of facts and knowledge or something that you can learn once and then use in that form forever, such as the nine times table.”

As an example, your student might see a social media post spreading rumours about someone they know. They can use critical and creative thinking skills to evaluate the accuracy (or otherwise) of this specific information, at this time.

Skills You Need note that someone with critical and creative thinking skills can:

• Synthesise diverse pieces of information.
• Predict potential outcomes based on current data.
• Challenge prevailing assumptions and status quo.
• Generate alternative solutions for a given problem.
• Discern between fact, opinion, and bias.
• Seek feedback and integrate it into revised perspectives.
• Use metaphor and analogy to explain complex concepts.
• Prioritise tasks based on strategic importance.
• Cultivate a sense of curiosity and wonder.
• Adapt and adjust to evolving situations and information.

Perhaps more important is the question of why critical and creative thinking skills are so vital. There are various reasons:

• In a post-COVID world where flexible work is increasingly prevalent, young individuals are discovering the importance of both creative and critical thinking. A 2020 report states that flexible work often necessitates self-direction, adaptability, and the ability to navigate ambiguous situations. Creative thinking empowers these young professionals to envision innovative solutions, adapt to diverse roles, and harness opportunities in non-traditional job settings. Meanwhile, critical thinking equips them to evaluate job offers, discern the viability of freelance projects, and understand the broader implications of gig economy trends. In essence, these cognitive skills are becoming invaluable assets, helping the youth thrive in the dynamic landscape of contemporary employment.
• Studies indicate that critical and creative thinking skills are among the most highly valued attributes that employers seek in job candidates . They want staff who can solve problems, make decisions and take appropriate action. In an Australian context, a 2015 report  indicated that demand for critical and creative thinking skills in new graduates rose 158 percent over three years.
• Research also indicates that critical thinkers experience fewer negative life events , such as racking up credit card debt or getting arrested for drunk driving.
• In our increasingly secular society, young people are exposed to a plethora of ideas that counter the truths of the Bible. They need critical and creative thinking skills to discern falsehood and make reasoned arguments for their faith (2 Cor 10:5).
• God instructs us to be intentional about our thoughts, by renewing our minds for example (Rom 12:2), and to cultivate wisdom (Prov 4:6-7).

Isn’t it fascinating to observe a child come up with an imaginative story or a teenager devise a novel solution to a problem at school? This prowess to generate fresh ideas and think outside the box is rooted in creative thinking. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't a skill reserved for the so-called 'creatives' like budding artists or young musicians. As highlighted by the Skills You Need website, every young mind has the potential to tap into this reservoir of creativity.

What is Creative Thinking?

For students aged 6-18, creative thinking can be envisioned as a magical kaleidoscope, transforming ordinary scenarios into vibrant patterns of possibilities. It's the very art of crafting a quirky story from a simple picture, or brainstorming unconventional ways to address school projects. Whether it's a group of primary school students huddled together, brainstorming ideas for a play, or a high schooler employing lateral thinking in a science experiment, creative thinking stands as the bedrock of innovation.

At the heart of creativity is the act of birthing something original. It could manifest as a colourful art project, an innovative school presentation, or even a fresh perspective on a historical event. Nurturing this in young minds allows them to see beyond the textbook, encouraging them to approach problems and questions from angles that might not be immediately apparent.

However, as students grow and transition through the education system, there's a tendency to align with set patterns or accepted ways of thinking. While this helps in establishing foundational knowledge, it's equally essential to keep the flame of creative thinking alive.

Fostering Creative Thinking

While some students seem to be natural idea-generators, always buzzing with questions and innovative solutions, many need encouragement and the right environment to let their creative thoughts flow. Consider the instance of a student stuck on a maths problem. Instead of relying solely on conventional methods, they could be prompted to explore various approaches or even discuss with peers to gain a fresh perspective.

Teachers and parents can introduce structured creative sessions. Imagine a 'Creative Hour' in schools where students are given abstract topics or challenges and are guided to think freely, explore diverse avenues, and come up with unique solutions.

Tools to Spark Creativity

Several tools can help ignite the imaginative prowess of students. Mind-mapping can help a student plot out an essay or a project, brainstorming sessions can lead to dynamic group projects, and role-playing can enhance understanding of literature or historical events. Some might raise eyebrows at these unconventional methods, but their effectiveness in nurturing creativity is evident. It's vital to keep an open heart and mind when introducing these techniques.

By exploring further, educators and parents can dive deeper into the intricacies and methods of cultivating creative thinking in young minds, ensuring that the next generation is not just informed but also innovative.

Now we have some understanding of what critical and creative thinking is, it’s helpful to break it down into skills.

Skills You Need divide the critical and creative thinking process into several steps:

• Analysis – thinking about a topic or issue objectively and critically. This could start with clarifying the issue. For example, the issue of climate change is about sustainability and future generations.
• Brainstorming - The process of generating a multitude of ideas without initially judging their feasibility. For instance, when tasked with a project on renewable energy, students could brainstorm all possible solutions, no matter how out-of-the-box.
• Mind Mapping - Creating a visual representation of ideas and concepts, which helps in understanding the interconnections between them. If one were exploring the topic of "Oceans," a mind map could visually link related subtopics like marine life, coral reefs, ocean pollution, and deep-sea exploration.
• Lateral Thinking - Approaching problems in innovative ways rather than using traditional or step-by-step logic. For example, instead of directly addressing an issue like plastic pollution with obvious solutions, a lateral thinker might explore ideas like edible packaging or repurposing waste plastic into art.
• Interpretation/reflection – by identifying and reflecting on the different arguments relating to an issue. In our example, this includes identifying and reflecting on the arguments presented by the man-made climate change advocates and those supporting ‘natural’ climate change.
• Curiosity - A natural desire to know, learn, and explore without immediate judgments. Curious individuals might ask questions like "Why does this work this way?" or "What if we tried this method?"
• Risk-taking - Willingness to venture into unknown territories or explore untested solutions. A student might, for instance, choose a unique topic for a project even if they're unsure about its acceptance.
• Evaluation – critically evaluating how strong and valid are different points of view, including any weaknesses or negative aspects in the evidence or argument.
• Inference – considering the implications there might be behind a statement or argument. For example, considering the ramifications a decision will have for yourself and others.
• Problem solving and decision making – giving structured reasoning and support for your choice.

This sounds simple enough, but how do you develop these critical thinking skills? The good news is that substantial evidence shows that critical thinking can be learned (although there is still debate about the best way to teach it).

A recent review of research about teaching critical thinking , published by the New South Wales Department of Education, concluded that teaching so-called generic critical thinking skills, such as logical reasoning, is largely ineffective.

As the study’s author, Daniel Willingham – education expert and Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia – writes: “It is not useful to think of critical thinking skills, once acquired, as broadly applicable. Wanting students to be able to “analyse, synthesise and evaluate” information sounds like a reasonable goal. But analysis, synthesis, and evaluation mean different things in different disciplines.”

For example, he notes that the critical thinking skills required for literary criticism are very different from those for mathematics. Different domains, such as science and history, have different definitions of what it means to “know” something.

He thus argues that “our goals for student critical thinking must be domain-specific. An overarching principle like ‘think logically’ is not a useful goal.” In other words, teaching critical thinking is best done within a specific context. For example, in history, students need to learn the skills for evaluating documents by considering their historical context, intended purpose and audience, and how they compare to other documents. This approach would be pointless in science, where critical thinking is applied by conducting experiments and following the scientific method.

That is to say, critical thinking is best taught in a content-rich environment – mathematics skills in a maths-rich learning environment, and so on. Students need to be immersed in the subject matter and given opportunities to develop content-specific critical thinking skills. Good teachers will design various strategies to help their students acquire the specific critical thinking skills associated with each subject.

When it comes to what you can do at home, Skills You Need recommend these strategies:

Start by deciding what you’re aiming to achieve – once you know why you need to think through something critically, “you must then discipline yourself to keep on track until changing circumstances mean you have to revisit the start of the decision making process,” they write.

Be aware of how your personal preferences and biases might influence your thinking.

Use foresight – they point out that “our decision making will be infinitely better and more likely to lead to success if, when we reach a tentative conclusion, we pause and consider the impact on the people and activities around us.” Thinking through the implications of our choices can reveal potential pitfalls and save us from the consequences of unwise decisions.

Practice and persevere - like any skill, developing critical thinking takes time and effort.

The Global Digital Citizen Foundation have developed what they call the Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Critical Thinking . It consists of 48 questions that can be modified for almost any age or subject area, based around the “who, what, where, when, why and how” of given situations.

This article by Scholastic has other helpful tips for encouraging your child’s critical thinking skills.

As I’ve discussed, critical thinking is about more than acquiring knowledge. Furthermore, it is not like daydreaming or intuitive thought, where ideas or solutions seem to pop into our minds, sometimes when we’re thinking about other things.

Critical thinking is inextricably connected to both problem solving and decision making. It always has a goal – usually, to solve a problem or come to a decision! For example, students might apply critical thinking in their science lesson to work out the best way to approach their group project. They make decisions such as who will complete each task, in what time frame. They solve problems like how and where they will meet outside of school hours to work together. These might sound like small steps, but they pave the way for making bigger decisions and solving the larger problems they’ll encounter in the future.

We use critical thinking skills for problem solving every day almost from infancy – to solve puzzles, for example, and work out how to stack blocks into a tower. Early decision-making tasks requiring critical thinking include choosing to wear warm clothes when it’s cold (rather than fighting to stay in swimmers year-round) or not to hit out when we’re provoked. Critical thinking enables us to make wise, rational decisions rather than reactive ones.

As Wabisabi Learning point out, critical thinkers tend to be instinctual problem-solvers. “The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and will face complex challenges using critical thinking capacity to engineer imaginative solutions,” they write. “One of history’s most prolific critical thinkers, Albert Einstein, once said: ‘It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’ It’s also worth noting this is the same guy who said that, when given an hour to solve a problem, he’d likely spend 5 minutes on the solution and the other 55 minutes defining and researching the problem. This kind of patience and commitment to truly understanding a problem is a mark of the true critical thinker.”

They add that critical thinking skills will prepare young people to solve the world’s complex problems, such as the need for wise management of resources.

Furthermore, critical thinking is related to creativity. As Wabisabi Learning explain, critical thinking in most professions relies heavily on the ability to be creative. They note that creative people question assumptions and ask "how?" or "why not?" rather than focusing on limitations.

No doubt you can think of many things we take for granted today (like electricity and the internet) that resulted from someone’s ability to persevere through problems and think creatively.

The short answer is “yes”. There are various well-validated tests that quantify critical thinking. Here’s some examples:

1. The California Critical Thinking Assessment Test  

This is the most widely used, and is actually a family of tests, with different versions for different ages, educational levels and professional fields. It is based on research and is considered a reliable and objective measure of core reasoning skills. It allows test-takers to show the critical thinking skills required for successfully solving problems and making decisions.

This test is used worldwide in educational settings for evaluating applicants, assessing learning outcomes, advising individual students, and research.

It involves the test-taker answering multiple choice questions – ranging in difficulty and complexity – about everyday scenarios appropriate to that group. Test results are provided on scales that describe strengths and weaknesses in various critical thinking skill areas, such as overall reasoning skills, analysis, evaluation and inference.

2. The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal  

This test is designed to help organisations make decisions about staffing and development. It is completed online, with test questions drawn from a large pool.

It is used widely for selecting candidates for graduate, professional and managerial jobs. This test has five subcategories that measure critical thinking ability, the ability to use evidence to draw conclusions and how test-takers use logic to differentiate between inferences, abstractions, and generalisations.

3. The Cornell Critical Thinking Tests

These are tests for students in grades 5 to 12+. As well as testing students’ critical thinking skills, they are sometimes used to teach critical thinking, for university admissions, careers, and employment, and for research.

They come in two levels, X and Z. Level X is a 71-item, multiple choice test for students in grades 5-12+. It assesses induction, deduction, credibility and identification of assumptions. Level Z is a 52-item, multiple choice test for advanced and gifted high school students, university students, postgraduate students, and other adults. It assesses the same attributes as Level X, plus semantics, definition and prediction in planning experiments.

You might have noticed that these tests are different to those used to assess intelligence. That’s because they are different things. In fact, you might know some highly intelligent people who make foolhardy choices thanks to a lack of critical thinking.

There are clear advantages to being intelligent, such as the ability to get good grades and be successful at school and work. However, intelligence doesn’t predict other important life outcomes , such as wellbeing or life satisfaction.

Critical thinking, however, has been linked with wellness and longevity. As mentioned earlier, this study indicated that critical thinking more strongly predicted life events than intelligence. This is good news, because while intelligence is significantly determined by genetics, critical thinking can be taught. So even if your child is far from being a straight-A student, they can learn the skills to think through problems and make wise decisions.

Moreover, God graces each of us with different gifts for different acts of service, of which intelligence is just one (1 Cor 12: 4-5). However, he instructs each of us to be “careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16). He also promises to give us the wisdom we need if we ask for it (James 1:5).

When it comes to making wise decisions, there are few places where this ability is more important than leadership. Whether it’s in business, government, the church or at home, critical thinking helps leaders to solve problems and understand the impact of their decisions.

In the business realm, at least, Australia seems to be in the midst of a leadership crisis. A survey earlier this year showed that more than 72 percent of Australian workers leave their jobs due to poor leadership. Employees gave their leaders an average rating of 5.6/10.

It’s important to remember, however, that God’s vision for leadership is very different to the world’s. Rather than enforcing authority, he instructs leaders to be humble servants of those in their care (Mark 10:42-45). For those called to leadership in church, qualities such as faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are required (I Tim 3:1-13).

At ACC, one of the key attributes we aim to foster in our students is humility. We view servant leadership as a reflection of a heart captured by the Gospel, seeking the good of others even at great cost. To this end, critical and creative thinking is another key attribute. We encourage our students to construct evidence for an argument following logical steps and based on sound reasoning, and to objectively evaluate issues to form a well-considered judgement.

Our schools are committed to raising a generation of godly leaders who think deeply about issues affecting their world, and make wise decisions based on biblical principles.

Sophia Auld

Sophia Auld is the Editor of ACC’s blog. Sophia has a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Diploma of Divinity from Malyon Theological College and is currently completing an MA in Writing and Literature through Deakin University. Sophia has been writing since 2015 across a range of industries. Two of her children completed distance education through Australian Christian College. Sophia is known for her depth of research and accurate, evidence-based approach to writing. On the weekends you might find her scuba diving with sharks, bushwalking or hanging out with family. Sophia can be reached at [email protected] .

10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

Begin a story that incorporates whatever happens to be on your assigned photo. The next student continues the story, incorporating their photo, and so on.

What Are The Best Team-Building Games For Promoting Critical Thinking?

by TeachThought Staff

One of education’s primary goals is to groom the next generation of little humans to succeed in the ‘real world.’

Yes, there are mounds of curricula they must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test.

Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed posters.

Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. The following team-building games can promote cooperation and communication, help establish a positive classroom environment and — most importantly — provide a fun, much-needed reprieve from routine.

See also Team-Building Games For The First Day Of School

10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking

You can purchase a classroom-ready version of team-building games that promote critical thinking here .

1. If You Build it…

This team-building game is flexible. First, divide students into teams and give them equal amounts of a certain material, like pipe cleaners, blocks, or even dried spaghetti and marshmallows.

Then, give them something to construct. The challenge can be variable (think: Which team can build the tallest, structurally-sound castle? Which team can build a castle the fastest?). You can recycle this activity throughout the year by adapting the challenge or materials to specific content areas.

Skills: Communication; problem-solving

2.  Save the Egg

This activity can get messy and may be suitable for older children who can follow safety guidelines when working with raw eggs. Teams must work together to find a way to ‘save’ the egg (Humpty Dumpty for elementary school students?) — in this case, an egg dropped from a specific height. That could involve finding the perfect soft landing, or creating a device that guides the egg safely to the ground.

Let their creativity work here.

Skills: Problem-solving, creative collaboration

Zoom is a classic classroom cooperative game that never seems to go out of style. Simply form students into a circle and give each a unique picture of an object, animal, or whatever else suits your fancy. You begin a story that incorporates whatever happens to be on your assigned photo. The next student continues the story, incorporating their photo, and so on.

Skills: Communication; creative collaboration

4. Minefield

Another classic team-building game. Arrange some sort of obstacle course and divide students into teams. Students take turns navigating the ‘minefield’ while blindfolded, with only their teammates to guide them. You can also require students to only use certain words or clues to make it challenging or content-area specific.

Skills: Communication; trust

See also 10 Team-Building Games For A Friendlier Classroom

5. The Worst-Case Scenario

Fabricate a scenario in which students would need to work together and solve problems to succeed, like being stranded on a deserted island or getting lost at sea. Ask them to work together to concoct a solution that ensures everyone arrives safely. You might ask them to come up with a list of 10 must-have items that would help them most, or a creative passage to safety. Encourage them to vote — everyone must agree to the final solution.

Skills: Communication, problem-solving

6. A Shrinking Vessel

This game requires a good deal of strategy in addition to teamwork. Its rules are deceptively simple: The entire group must find a way to occupy a space that shrinks over time until they are packed creatively like sardines. You can form the boundary with a rope, a tarp or blanket being folded over, or small traffic cones. (Skills: Problem-solving; teamwork)

7. Go for Gold

This game is similar to the ‘If you build it’ game: Teams have a common objective but instead of each one having the same materials, they have access to a whole cache of materials. For instance, the goal might be to create a contraption with pipes, rubber tubing, and pieces of cardboard that can carry a marble from point A to point B in a certain number of steps, using only gravity.

Creative collaboration; communication; problem-solving

8. It’s a Mystery

Many children (and grown-ups) enjoy a good mystery, so why not design one that must be solved cooperatively? Give each student a numbered clue. In order to solve the mystery — say, the case of the missing mascot — children must work together to solve the clues in order. The ‘case’ might require them to move from one area of the room to the next, uncovering more clues.

Skills: Problem-solving, communication

9.  4-Way Tug-of-War 

That playground classic is still a hit — not to mention inexpensive and simple to execute. For a unique variation, set up a multi-directional game by tying ropes in such a way that three or four teams tug at once. Some teams might choose to work together to eliminate the other groups before going head-to-head.

Skills: Teamwork; sportsmanship

10. Keep it Real

This open-ended concept is simple and serves as an excellent segue into problem-based learning. Challenge students to identify and cooperatively solve a real problem in their schools or communities. You may set the parameters, including a time limit, materials, and physical boundaries.

Skills: Problem-solving; communication

While education technology is a basic and crucial component of the 21st-century classroom, educators must still ensure that students are engaging with each other in meaningful ways. Team-building exercises are a great way to do this, and because of this, they will never go out of style.

Aimee Hosler is a writer and mother of two living in Virginia. She specializes in a number of topics, but is particularly passionate about education and workplace news and trends. She holds a B.S. in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and is a contributor to several websites including OnlineSchools.com; 10 Team-Building Games For Kids, Teenagers, or Adults

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10 Fun Classroom Activities to Promote Critical Thinking

As a teacher, it's important to promote critical thinking skills in your students. Critical thinking is a valuable skill that helps students analyze information, solve problems, and make decisions. In this blog post, we'll explore 10 fun classroom activities that promote critical thinking.

Here are 10 fun classroom activities that promote critical thinking:

1. Problem-Solving Scenarios: Provide students with real-life scenarios and ask them to come up with solutions. This activity encourages students to think critically and creatively to solve problems. 2. Group Discussions: Encourage students to discuss and debate topics in groups. This activity helps students develop their communication and critical thinking skills. 3. Brainstorming: Ask students to brainstorm ideas for a project or assignment. This activity helps students develop their creativity and critical thinking skills. 4. Role-Playing: Assign students roles and ask them to act out a scenario. This activity helps students develop their empathy and critical thinking skills. 5. Analyzing Texts: Provide students with texts and ask them to analyze and interpret them. This activity helps students develop their analytical and critical thinking skills. 6. Debate: Assign students a topic and ask them to debate it. This activity helps students develop their communication and critical thinking skills. 7. Mind Mapping: Ask students to create a mind map of a topic. This activity helps students develop their organizational and critical thinking skills. 8. Creative Writing: Ask students to write a story or poem. This activity helps students develop their creativity and critical thinking skills. 9. Problem-Solving Games: Provide students with problem-solving games and ask them to solve them. This activity helps students develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. 10. Reflection: Ask students to reflect on their learning and identify areas for improvement. This activity helps students develop their self-awareness and critical thinking skills.

These activities are just a few examples of how you can promote critical thinking in your classroom. By incorporating these activities into your lessons, you can help your students develop their cognitive abilities and become better problem-solvers and decision-makers.

It's important to remember that critical thinking is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. By providing your students with opportunities to think critically, you can help them build this valuable skill.

In conclusion, promoting critical thinking in your classroom is essential for your students' success. By using these 10 fun classroom activities, you can engage your students and help them develop their critical thinking skills.

So, what are you waiting for? Try these activities in your classroom today and watch your students' critical thinking skills soar!

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Critical Thinking Activities for Students

Critical thinking is an important skill for students, and computer science is a great way to introduce it. Ellipsis Education has computer science curriculum for all age levels. We put learning in context so a teacher, not a machine, helps students connect apply technology skills in their lives.

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Lunar Loops

In Lunar Loops, students will participate in a hands-on game introducing the concept of loops.

3D Printing Industry

In 3D Printing Industry, students explore roles within the industry and design & evaluate a product.

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In Digital Security Analyst, students learn about Digital Security Analysts and how to leave a good digital footprint.

Ready to develop your students’ critical thinking skills?

Computer science courses from Ellipsis Education can help. We e nsure teachers have the curriculum, resources, and support they need to confidently teach computer science – and computational thinking.

Critical thinking is a skill that even the most advanced educators can struggle with teaching. However, it is a crucial part of learning, especially in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.

Training students to think critically can empower them to navigate academic and everyday life more effectively. With various strategies and practices at teachers’ disposal, fostering this in-demand skill can be an achievable goal within any classroom setting.

To help teachers implement critical thinking exercises in their curriculum, here are several critical thinking activities for students of all years.

Class Discussions

This encourages students to engage with their peers, analyze different perspectives, and deepen their understanding. Teachers can introduce diverse topics relevant to the curriculum or current affairs, provoking thought and discussion. You can find a comprehensive list of excellent class discussion topics here. This is one of the best critical thinking activities for students in the classroom, as it provides a safe space to explore significant issues.

Brainstorming Exercises

Similarly, brainstorming serves as an excellent platform for students to bounce ideas off each other, providing a sense of open-mindedness and enhancing problem-solving skills. Use a digital mind mapper like Popplet to allow your students to visualize problems during these critical thinking activities.

Case Studies

Utilizing case studies relevant to the course material can cultivate critical thinking by encouraging students to analyze, interpret, and apply knowledge. Professors can come up with hypothetical scenarios or use real-life examples. This is particularly relevant to critical thinking activities for university students in the classroom.

One of the best confidence-boosting critical thinking activities for students is debating. A structured argument where students defend their viewpoints can stimulate higher-level thinking. This practice nurtures critical thinking and cultivates public speaking and persuasive skills. Make sure to tailor debate topics for younger and older students.

Problem-Solving Activities

Strategic problem-based tasks can foster critical thinking by encouraging students to devise solutions to complex problems. Teachers can incorporate breakout sessions, puzzles, and riddles into these activities. Check out these great riddles you can use in the morning to get your students in the critical thinking mindset.

These interactive critical thinking activities place students in diverse scenarios and persuade them to think from a different perspective. It encourages empathy and improves problem-solving abilities. For inspiration, check out these great role-playing classroom games.

Along with the links provided, you can find these activities on various online educational platforms, such as Edutopia , along with practical guidance on how to implement them in the classroom. Additionally, the Critical Thinking Community shares a series of lessons and strategies designed to aid teachers in fostering this skill in their classroom.

Remember, embedding critical thinking activities into the curriculum is not an extra task but instead supports and enhances students’ understanding of the content dealt with. It is about teaching students to receive information and process, analyze, question, and apply it, giving them a solid foundation to navigate the world responsibly.

Nurturing critical thinking can result in a more engaged, confident, and continuous classroom learning environment. Whether through debates, problem-solving exercises, or role-play, each activity listed offers a unique chance to enrich the educational experience and inspire students to analyze, question, and solve.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is an essential skill that plays a starring role in cognitive development. It signifies the capacity to analyze facts to form a judgment. It’s the cornerstone of rational thoughts, rational actions, and the ability to understand how all ideas and concepts connect.

In an educational context, especially in K-12 schools, fostering critical thinking skills in students holds immense value. The importance of critical thinking for students stretches beyond simply improving academic performance. It helps students to develop a versatile mind capable of comprehending complex concepts, making informed decisions, solving problems, and navigating the complexities of today’s information-heavy society.

Beyond academia, critical thinking empowers students to dissect various perspectives to discern the most rational views.

Unfortunately, there are common misconceptions surrounding teaching critical thinking, specifically within computer science education. For instance, some believe that computer science teaching can be delayed until high school. In reality, students require regular introductions to critical thinking-based computer science concepts from an early age.

It’s also a misconception that specialized knowledge or certifications are vital to teaching computer science. Truthfully, any competent educator equipped with an empathic approach, solid curriculum, and strong support can teach critical thinking through computer science appropriately.

The idea that computer science is exclusively for “gifted and talented” students is far from reality. Regardless of their status, every student stands to gain enormously from learning and incorporating critical thinking in their everyday life.

Lastly, computer science is not a code-dominated field. On the contrary, it’s about empowering students to apply critical thinking to navigate and understand a progressively digital world responsibly. And far from being just another demanding subject, it perfectly complements contemporary education priorities. Therefore, the inclusion of critical thinking through computer science in the K-12 curriculum is not only significant but indispensable.

Types of Critical Thinking Activities

When it comes to enhancing the minds of K-12 students, types of critical thinking activities play an essential role. These activities are not just haphazard games or exercises; they’re specially designed tools and strategies to prompt students to question, critique, ascertain, and create instead of just passively perceiving what they learn.

Teachers can incorporate plenty of easy critical thinking activity examples in the classroom. To help uncover the potential of critical thinking, we should analyze various types of critical thinking activities.

Critical Thinking Games

Educators have a rich array of options in the realm of critical thinking games. These games are designed to facilitate critical thinking while being engaging and enjoyable. For instance, games like chess and strategy-based board games push students to plan several steps ahead, understand opponents’ strategies, and adapt their moves accordingly. Puzzle games stimulate logical thinking and pattern identification, while deduction games like ‘Clue’ offer hypothesis testing and logical reasoning opportunities.

Problem-Solving

When it comes to problem-solving activities, educators can employ fun critical thinking activities to improve students’ abilities to make decisions. Engaging students in real-world problem-solving scenarios encourages them to analyze issues, consider alternative solutions, and make informed decisions. For instance, presenting students with complex puzzles challenges them to think logically and develop creative approaches to find solutions. Similarly, collaborative projects that require students to address multifaceted challenges provide a platform for them to apply problem-solving skills in a team setting.

Creativity and Innovation

Fostering creativity and innovation in students involves utilizing activities that stimulate unconventional thinking and idea generation. Implementing brainstorming sessions allows students to explore a variety of perspectives and generate novel ideas collectively. Creative problem-solving exercises encourage students to approach challenges with an open mind, fostering innovative thinking. By introducing structured creativity activities, teachers provide students with frameworks to think divergently and consider alternative solutions.

Collaboration

Collaboration is a cornerstone of critical thinking, and educators can enhance this skill through purposeful activities. Group projects allow students to work together, combining diverse perspectives to achieve common objectives. Jigsaw activities, where each group focuses on a specific aspect of a broader topic, encourage collaboration as students synthesize their collective knowledge. Engaging in collaborative critical thinking activities strengthens problem-solving skills and nurtures essential interpersonal skills.

Metacognition

Metacognition, the ability to reflect on one’s thinking processes, is one of the most powerful critical thinking exercises for students. Teachers can integrate metacognitive strategies into classroom activities to encourage self-awareness and continuous improvement. Self-assessment prompts students to evaluate their thinking strategies, identify strengths, and pinpoint areas for growth. Goal-setting exercises guide students in establishing specific objectives for their critical thinking development. By incorporating metacognitive elements into various activities, educators empower students to become more aware of their cognitive processes, fostering a habit of introspection and self-directed learning.

Teachers must remember that cultivating a culture of critical thinking extends beyond just academic benefits. Critical thinking activities induce adaptability, empathy, and resilience. These lifelong skills enable K-12 students to navigate academic challenges and life obstacles just as effectively. Educators can create an enriching learning environment that facilitates comprehensive skill development by employing critical thinking games, fun activities, and targeted exercises in the classroom.

Implementing Critical Thinking Activities in Education

Implementing critical thinking activities in education is a pivotal cornerstone in molding young minds, especially within the realm of computer science.

While classroom games are essential for critical thinking in schools, the addition of computer science brings a modern, relevant aspect that sets students up for the world beyond their education. Teaching critical thinking becomes a seamless addition to a powerful subject in a way that engages students meaningfully.

By weaving critical thinking into a comprehensive computer science curriculum, educators have the opportunity to sculpt a learning environment that nurtures analytical prowess and problem-solving acumen.

Embracing project-based learning, instructors can task students with real-world problems, beckoning them to apply coding skills to tangible scenarios. Adding ethical discussions, entwined with case studies as part of a critical thinking curriculum, encourages students to delve into the societal implications of technology. Collaborative software development projects mirror industry practices, nurturing teamwork and project management skills.

From debugging challenges that demand systematic issue resolution to simulations modeling real-world systems, students engage in hands-on problem-solving. Reflective journals and documentation instill the habit of introspection, while debates on programming paradigms encourage a critical evaluation of different approaches.

By thoughtfully integrating these activities of critical thinking in education, teachers shape a curriculum that not only imparts technical proficiency but cultivates a profound understanding of the ethical, collaborative, and systemic dimensions inherent in computer science.

At Ellipsis Education, we provide a robust platform for educators to integrate influential learning materials into their teaching regimen seamlessly. Our emphasis extends beyond just coding; we believe in nurturing students to become responsible digital citizens who navigate the continually evolving digital world with wisdom and forethought.

Any teacher can effectively impart computer science education through the right critical thinking curriculum and support.

Related Links

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Inspire Your Students With 28 Creative Thinking Activities

January 20, 2023 //  by  Angie Starr

Do you shy away from creative activities because you are insecure about your own creativity? Do you think creativity is not educational?

Guess what. Creativity isn’t limited to art or music and every subject can incorporate creative thinking.

Creative activities involve imagination, problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration; which every student has the ability to do. And, there are no right or wrong answers!

Here are 28 activities to guide students in discovering and developing their creative talents. Happy creating!

1. What’s This?

Active your inner artist!

This is a modified version of the incomplete figure test. Have students create a shape or partial shape. Next, students will swap shapes with another student to create a picture. What will your students create?

Learn More: Raise Creative Kidz

2. 30 Shapes

It’s time to get into shape!

Do you see circles? I see a donut, a wheel, and a pizza. What will your students see when they look at 30 squares or 30 triangles? This creative activity has students turning a shape into a recognizable object within a set time.

Learn More: Club Experience

3. Continuous Line Drawing

Can you draw a picture without lifting your pen? Students’ creative and analytical thinking are activated when they draw a picture without lifting their pen from the paper. This is an excellent hand-eye coordination activity but also develops a sense of pride and accomplishment for the student.

Learn More: The Virtual Instructor

4. Add Something New

Try this creative and fun activity involving collaboration, and brainstorming. Show students a work of art such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Ask students what they would add to the painting. If possible, provide students with a printout of the artwork so that they can draw in their creative ideas.

Learn More: Byrd Seed

5. Strange Flavors

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Would you eat a strange flavor like Bug? Creative activities are deliciously fun when students get wild with recipe ideas. New ice cream flavors, unique pizza toppings, or outrageous sandwich ideas are just a few ways students can activate their taste buds and creativity!

Learn More: National Geographic Kids

6. Bad Ideas

Is it good to be bad? We’re always in search of great ideas. Let’s try a creative twist and think about bad ideas. What are some really bad ideas for products? What would be a bad recipe idea? Ask students why the ideas are bad so as to challenge their critical thinking skills.

Learn More: Lucid Spark

7. Classifying & Sorting

There’s more than one way to draw a straight line and there are many more ways to classify and sort! Give students an assortment of items and watch their cognitive and creative skills at work. Will students sort by color or size? What other categories can they come up with?

Learn More: Playing With Learning

8. Repurpose An Item

We can often be creatures of habit: A cup is used for drinking or a tennis ball is used for playing tennis. Students will look at everyday items with a fresh and creative perspective in this purposeful, repurposing activity. You’ll be amazed at the variety of new uses they come up with!

Learn More: PBS Kids

9. How Many Uses

This activity modifies the, “How many uses for a paperclip?” challenge. Students will show off their entrepreneurial knowledge whilst engaging in creative thinking by pitching an idea of how to use a ______ in a unique way.

Learn More: CANR.MSU.edu

10. Logo Makeover

Why do companies have logos? What was the reasoning behind the choice of logos for companies such as Apple or Amazon? If these companies decided to change their logo what would they come up with? Ask your students! Students will enjoy creating new logos for their favorite brands.

Learn More: ESL Brains

11. Create a New Word

If you show a picture of a person yawning, your students will know the person feels sleepy or bored. However, what if the person was sleepy and bored; what word could then be used to describe this feeling? “Slored”?  What new words can your students come up with?  

Learn More: Pinterest

12. Make a New Definition

Learning definitions from a dictionary is not a creative activity. Make learning new words a fun activity by having students create literal definitions or use funny descriptions to define a word. Linguistic and creative thinking skills will be put to work while helping students remember new information.

13. Invent a New Animal

What is a Gireetah? It’s an animal that is both a cheetah and a giraffe! Students will engage in critical and creative thinking to create a new species or combine two or more animals to create a new version of an amazing animal.

Learn More: NPS

14. Music as Art Prompt

Music is a creative teaching tool when we encourage students to use their 4 senses when listening to music. What colors would they associate with this song? What images come to their mind when they hear it? What flavor does the song have?

Learn More: Artful Parent

15. Superpower Surprise

Not all superpowers have to be about strength or speed. This is a creative activity that influences a student’s self-esteem and encourages empathy, and appreciation for their fellow classmates.

Students will assign a unique superpower to a fellow classmate based on the student’s talents or personality. 

Learn More: Classroom Communities

16. Describing with Adjectives

How attentive are you to your surroundings? When we look at an object we may focus on its size, color, and shape. If we look closer, we often discover new details we didn’t see before! Describing is a creative activity that stimulates observation and gets students comfortable with using adjectives.

Learn More: Easy English

17. Storytelling the Pixar Way

Storytelling may seem like a creative and fun activity but it can also create anxiety with regard to not knowing where to begin or what to include. The Pixar structure is a formula to help writers organize their ideas into a cohesive story. Analytical thinking, creative thinking, and collaboration are a recipe for a happy ending!

Learn More: Khan Academy Labs

18. A Lifetime Tale in Pictures

Are you still using post-reading comprehension questions? Transform your post-reading activities into creative activities. What was Harry Potter like as a child? What if Harry quit magic, what would be his new job? Take elements or characters from the story and have students use their imaginations to expand their storytelling skills. 

Learn More: Literacy Ideas

19. Blackout Poetry

Turn newspapers into a poetic masterpiece!

Blackout poetry will get students excited about reading a newspaper. Students will isolate and then piece together single words or short phrases from the newspaper to create poetry or a short story.

Learn More: Arapahoe Libraries

20. Shape Poem

A sentence doesn’t have to be written in a straight line. Students have the chance to get creative with their writing by using this shape poem. It’s as simple as choosing a favorite object and then creating the shape of the object using words that describe it. 

Learn More: Study.com

21. Preposition Poem

Did you know that grammar can promote creative thinking skills? Have students write a poem using only prepositions and no verbs.  If students struggle, give them a visual prompt and let their words do the talking. Don’t forget to provide an example!

Learn More: Flying Words

22. What If Conversations

What if it rained marshmallows? What if you were invisible for a day? Spark critical thinking and problem-solving skills with this inquisitive creative thinking game. Students can show off their creative skills by creating “What If” questions for their classmates. The best part is there are no wrong responses!

Learn More: The Big List Of 34 “What If” Questions For Kids

23. 6 Thinking Hats

Teach students to think about a problem or situation by looking at it from different perspectives with this creative activity called the 6 Thinking Hats. The 6 Thinking Hats ensures that all students are engaged in critical and creative problem-solving.

Learn More: Edugage

24. The 5 Whys

Students are curious and ask many WHY questions. The 5 Whys is a brainstorming tool that can help students identify the root causes of a problem. In this creative activity, the students are responsible for answering their own WHY questions to understand root causes and create solutions. 

Learn More: Peachey Publications

25. The 9 Whys

The 9 Whys focus on reflection and purpose. Why shouldn’t we use our cell phones in the classroom? Students have the opportunity to ask and answer WHY questions in a group or interview format to gain an understanding of a situation and build creative thinking skills.

Learn More: Carsten Lützen

26. Negative Brainstorming

Negativity can promote creative thinking! When students brainstorm, they are generating ideas. However, not all brainstorming sessions are productive. Negative or reverse brainstorming techniques encourage students to think of all the ways an idea can fail or go wrong. From the negative, they reflect on the opposite to generate solutions.

Learn More: Model Teaching

27. The Frayer Model

Make words exciting again! Do your students look bored when they learn new vocabulary words? Definitions alone word do not inspire creative thinking skills. The Frayer Model is a creative activity to activate students’ curiosity, critical thinking, and ability to connect prior knowledge to new knowledge.  

Learn More: Teach Hub

28. SCAMPER

SCAMPER is an activity to foster out-of-the-box thinking in any subject. This creative activity involves strategies that students apply to a question or problem. 

• S – Substitute
• C – Combine
• P – Put to another use
• E – Eliminate
• R – Reverse

Creative thinking skills are fostered when we allow students to generate ideas or responses that are not contained to a single correct answer.  

Learn More: PBL Project

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• Published: 21 August 2024

Understanding barriers, enablers and motivational factors for Australian healthcare educators teaching university students on clinical placement using the validated Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire

• Natalie Ann Watt 1 , 2 ,
• Simon Backhouse 1 , 2 ,
• Saba Ansari 1 , 3 ,
• Karen Maree Dwyer 1 ,
• Janet McLeod 1 ,
• Grant Phelps 1 ,
• Deborah Leach 1 &
• James Andrew Armitage 1 , 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  900 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

152 Accesses

Metrics details

In Australia, university clinical programs rely heavily on external healthcare professionals to provide a range of authentic clinical training and professional development opportunities for students. There is, however, a limited understanding of the factors that motivate these professionals to be educators and whether this varies across different healthcare disciplines within Australia. As the demand for clinical placements continues to increase, it is critical for the ongoing success of these programs that universities identify both the barriers associated with teaching and the benefits that enhance job satisfaction.

A two-part questionnaire was emailed to 849 external healthcare educators teaching predominantly in Medicine, Medical Imaging, and Optometry programs at Deakin University. Part-one surveyed the socio-demographics, perceived benefits, and barriers to teaching, plus the utilisation of entitlements offered by the university. Part-two was modelled on Dybowski and Harendza’s validated Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire (PTMQ) and adapted to an Australian audience.

Overall, 776 out of the 849 questionnaires were considered in the final participant pool. The response rate for part-one was 19.7% ( n  = 153/776) and 18.3% ( n  = 142/776) for part-two. Across all professions, altruism was the primary source of motivation for teaching in Deakin University’s healthcare programs. Medical Imaging educators placed a higher value on career-related teaching aspects compared to those in Medicine and Optometry ( p  < 0.003). The resources and benefits associated with teaching were generally perceived to be of minimal importance. External healthcare educators most commonly reported that there were no barriers to teaching (41.3%, n  = 78) however, increased workloads and time constraints were the next most likely factors to affect teaching participation (31.8%, n  = 60).

Our validated adaptation of the PTMQ successfully targeted healthcare professions not focussed on by Dybowski and Harendza. Altruistic motivation was the overarching theme for why Australian external healthcare educators contribute to teaching with some differences in career-driven motivation additionally acknowledged. Despite there being no key benefits or barriers to teaching participation, universities must remain cognisant of the factors that influence the recruitment and retention of external healthcare educators and how to optimise these for the ongoing success and sustainability of their teaching programs.

Peer Review reports

An authentic clinical experience is the centrepiece of all modern healthcare programs. To fulfil this requirement, medical education is increasingly moving away from traditional hospital-based learning and other institutionalised settings to private or community-based healthcare practices [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. As such, external healthcare professionals who are acting as educators (hereafter referred to as external healthcare educators), play a pivotal role in the clinical training and professional development of healthcare students [ 3 , 4 ].

As teaching models evolve and the number of medical and allied health students continues to rise, there is a growing demand for clinical placements. To ensure healthcare programs remain sustainable and successful, it is essential to better understand and cultivate motivating factors that encourage external healthcare educators to engage in teaching. Furthermore, given the primary loyalty of external healthcare educators is to their own clinical practice, gaining a clearer insight into the benefits and barriers associated with teaching may help universities develop strategies that optimise or mitigate these factors. This knowledge has the potential to further strengthen initiatives aimed at improving the recruitment and retention of external healthcare educators teaching in university curriculums.

Over the past decade, several international studies have increased our understanding of the drivers behind clinical teaching participation, with selflessness and altruism emerging as the primary motivators [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that variations in motivational factors may exist across countries and professions due to cultural diversity, differing training pathways, and teaching styles [ 9 , 10 ]. To the best of our knowledge, clinical teacher motivation in Australia is limited to only a few studies that predominantly focus on the experience of medical educators in hospital settings [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Although the findings of these studies are consistent with the aforementioned international findings of altruism, none of them used a validated questionnaire to compare and contrast motivational factors of external healthcare educators across a range of healthcare professions, especially those primarily based in private or community practice settings where students are increasingly being placed.

Dybowski and Harendza [ 16 ] originally developed the Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire (PTMQ) for hospital-based healthcare practitioners in Germany but suggested that there was a need to validate its generalisability to other allied health professions. With this recognised limitation and the paucity of literature on teacher motivations among Australian healthcare educators, the PTMQ was applied across the three largest clinical courses taught within Deakin University‘s School of Medicine: Bachelor of Vision Science/ Master of Optometry, Doctor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Medical Imaging (diagnostic radiographers).

The success of these three professional degrees largely relies on experienced external healthcare educators teaching and passing on their knowledge to future healthcare graduates. While some of these external healthcare educators have formal educational qualifications and paid fractional appointments, many undertake this work on a casual or adjunct (unpaid members of the university community) basis. Similar to other universities, Deakin University also provides various benefits to their external healthcare educators to increase the value of their teaching contributions including, but not limited to, email accounts, access to university libraries, and research assistance. It is therefore incumbent on universities, including Deakin, to regularly evaluate the benefits and barriers associated with teaching to maintain maximum satisfaction and long-term engagement with external healthcare educators. Therefore, the aims of this study were to:

Understand what motivates external healthcare educators to contribute to university teaching programs.

Understand why they maintain their relationship with Deakin University.

Identify any perceived barriers associated with healthcare teaching.

Identify which benefits external healthcare educators value during their affiliation with the university.

Study design and sampling

This study utilised a cross-sectional survey design, selected for its ability to examine a representative cross-section of the population and generate findings that could be generalised to the entire target population. The total population of healthcare educators registered to supervise Medicine, Medical Imaging or Optometry students from Deakin University were invited to participate via email.

Participants

A total of 849 external healthcare educators, defined in this study as staff appointed to undertake teaching and/or research but whose primary employment is with an organisation external to Deakin University, were invited to participate in an online questionnaire-based survey sent via email from a senior administrative officer in October 2020. All participants primarily taught within Deakin University’s School of Medicine. The email addresses used consisted of a combination of personal and university-provided accounts. Of these 849 participants, 273 were from Medicine, 158 from Medical Imaging, and 418 from Optometry.

Questionnaire

The Qualtrics questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part-one (26 non-forced choice questions), evaluated participants’ socio-demographics, perceived barriers to healthcare teaching, and perceptions of benefits valued and used by external healthcare educators (see Additional file 1 ). Participants were asked to rate their usage and perceived value of the resources and benefits available to them at Deakin University using a 5-point Likert scale. The 5-point Likert scale used for perceived value was 1 = Extremely important, 2 = Very important, 3 = Moderately important, 4 = Slightly important and 5 = Not at all important and for usage, 1 = Daily, 2 = Weekly, 3 = A few times a month, 4 = A few times a year and 5 = Never.

For perceived barriers associated with teaching, participants were able to select more than one barrier. Each barrier was assigned a number to assist in the analysis of the results (no barriers = 1, the requirements of the HR onboarding process = 2, the requirements of ongoing compliance = 3, competing work requirements/time management = 4, income expectations = 5, other = 6 and IT requirements = 7).

Part-two (18 forced-choice items), was based on Dybowski and Harendza’s [ 16 ] PTMQ, a validated multidimensional self-assessment instrument developed to measure teaching motivation within the German medical system. This 18-item questionnaire was grouped into the same six motivational subdomains as the PTMQ: Intrinsic (items 1–4; indicating that they are intrinsically motivated to teach), Identified (items 5–7; professional identity is a motivator), Introjected (items 8–9; motivation is driven by guilt or a sense of duty), Career (items 10–12; there are clear benefits to career progression), External (items 13–15; motivation is driven by a desire to comply with the expectation of others), and Amotivation (items 16–18; teaching is viewed in a negative context). Part-two could only be accessed if part-one was completed.

As the PTMQ survey was developed for the German medical system, the phrasing of some subdomain items was carefully modified to suit Australian language conventions (see Additional file 1 ). Modifications were made to all items except for 2, 11 and 13. Predominantly, one-word synonym changes were made to avoid affecting the validity of the questionnaire. For example, the original PTMQ item 1 ‘ I look forward to my next teaching unit most of the time’, was revised to ‘I look forward to my next teaching session most of the time’. In the ‘Career’ sub-domain, changes were made to stay in line with modern Australian industrial relations terminology. For example, the original PTMQ item 10, ‘I teach because I need the lessons to accomplish my occupational objectives’ was adapted to ‘I teach because it is good for my CV to accomplish my occupational objectives’. The modifications were undertaken by the first and last authors and then circulated to the remaining researchers for review. All researchers agreed on the changes. Language experts were not consulted during this process.

As per the PTMQ, a 5-point Likert scale was used to rate each item (1 = Strongly agree, 2 = Somewhat agree, 3 = Neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Somewhat disagree, 5 = Strongly disagree).

The final version of questionnaire part-one and two were piloted on a selection of healthcare clinicians and educators across Medicine ( n  = 3), Medical Imaging ( n  = 1), and Optometry ( n  = 3) employed at Deakin University to confirm general understandability. These individuals were not included in the participant pool. Following the pilot test, no additional changes were made to the final version of the questionnaire as part-one achieved good face validity based on oral and written feedback from the pilot group.

Data collection

An anonymous link to a Qualtrics questionnaire (a web-based software program version October 2020, Qualtrics, Provo, UT. https://www.qualtrics.com ) was provided in the email. A second round of reminder emails were sent six weeks later. The survey ran for 12 weeks from October to December 2020.

Data preparation

All data from parts one and two of the questionnaire was exported from Qualtrics for statistical analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 26.0. IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). All Likert scales were treated as interval scales. Participants who completed less than 10% of the survey were excluded from the statistical analysis. The Kolmogorov – Smirnov test was applied to the data from part-one and part-two to check for normality which confirmed that the data was non-normal.

Data analysis

Questionnaire part-one.

Descriptive statistics were generated within SPSS to obtain frequency and percentage responses relating to sociodemographic questions.

Questionnaire part-two

As the PTMQ questionnaire was altered to accommodate the Australian language, reliability, and validation analyses were performed using SPSS. A Cronbach’s alpha (α) was applied to each motivational subdomain with α > 0.7 considered to represent an acceptable level, α > 0.8 a good level, and α > 0.9 an excellent level of internal consistency [ 18 ].

To align with Dybowski and Harendza’s [ 16 ] methodology, a classical factor analysis was conducted to establish construct validity. The Rasch measurement model for polytomous responses, using the Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Model (RUMM) 2030 software package [ 19 ], was also used to assess the validity of the PTMQ, looking at unidimensionality and item responses in the full 18-item survey and the identified subdomains [ 20 , 21 ].

A descriptive-analytic strategy was adopted to summarize the PTMQ item responses by percentage, frequency, median, skewness, and kurtosis. A univariate general linear model with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was used to compare the subdomain and item responses from Medicine, Optometry and Medical Imaging external healthcare educators, with significance set at p  < 0.05.

Ethical considerations

This study adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approval was granted by Deakin University’s Faculty of Health Human Ethics Advisory Group (HEAG_H 184_2020).

Completion of the survey indicated that participants had read the Plain Language Statement and provided consent to participate. Participants were instructed to close the survey and not proceed if they did not wish to provide consent [ 17 ]. By using an anonymous link, no identifiable information was collected. A unique response ID was automatically created for each participant once the Qualtrics questionnaire was completed.

Response characteristics (Questionnaire part-one and two)

Of the 849 questionnaires emailed, 73 emails were undeliverable resulting in 776 potential participants. Of these 776 potential participants, 153 completed part-one and 142 completed part-two. Fifteen participants (8.9%) completed fewer than 10% of the questions and were excluded from the analysis giving an overall completed response rate of 19.7% ( n  = 153/776) for part-one and 18.3% (142/776) for part-two. The response rates across each profession for part-one were as follows: Medicine (37.9%, n  = 58/153), Medical Imaging (10.5%, n  = 16/153), and Optometry (51.6%, n  = 79/153). For part-two (PTMQ): Medicine (38.7%, n  = 55/142), Medical Imaging (11.3%, n  = 16/142), and Optometry (50.0%, n  = 71/142). Due to these response variations, and several part-one questions allowing for multiple options to be chosen, percentage responses are quoted along with a fraction, in brackets, representing the total number of participants for that particular item.

Questionnaire part-one results

Participant socio-demographics.

Table  1 displays the frequency and percentage distribution of participants’ socio-demographic characteristics. The median age was between 40 and 49 years with more male participants than female. Nearly half of the participants had a Bachelor’s degree as their highest educational qualification, and close to 60% ( n  = 89/153) reported a length of service between one and five years. Half of the participants were involved in teaching Optometry, just over one-third taught in Medicine, and 10% taught in Medical Imaging. The ‘Other’ category included external healthcare educators who were also involved in teaching programs outside of the School of Medicine’s three largest clinical courses such as Paramedicine, Higher Degree Research, and Biomedicine. External healthcare educators’ primary teaching activity was the supervision of students providing clinical care (38.3%, n  = 106/277). A majority (60.1%, n  = 92/153) did not have a paid appointment with Deakin University however, all participants ( n  = 153), held an academic appointment title.

Benefits of teaching

Across all three professions, the most common response on the perceived value of the resources and benefits associated with teaching at Deakin University was ‘not at all important’ (Fig.  1 ). Having a university email account was the least valued, with almost half reporting that they did not use their account (46.4%, n  = 71/153). Although library access was considered slightly more valuable than having an email account, 54.9% ( n  = 84/153) reported having never accessed the library. While most commonly, university assistance with research was not considered important, there was some perceived value in having access to students’ online teaching resources even though only 49.7% ( n  = 76/153) utilised this material.

Continuing professional development, an additional benefit provided by Deakin University, was accessed by 34.6% ( n  = 53/153) of participants, with 27.5% ( n  = 42/153) of those completing only 1–5 h per year.

Perceived usefulness of benefits and resources available to external healthcare educators

Barriers to teaching

Participants were given the option to choose multiple barriers, therefore, the sum total number of responses is greater than n  = 153. Figure  2 shows most commonly (41.3%, n  = 78/189), that there were no barriers to participants maintaining their association with Deakin University. However, 31.8% ( n  = 60/189) felt that competing work requirements and time constraints were potential deterrents. Information and technology (IT) requirements, income expectations, requirements of the onboarding human resources (HR) process, and ongoing university compliance were considered relatively minor barriers. The ‘other’ barrier category included factors such as the location of their practice, an inability to obtain student evaluation feedback, and difficulties with upholding regular communication with the university.

The primary barrier reported by Medicine were competing work requirements and time constraints (46.6%, n  = 27/58), while the majority of participants in Optometry (58.2%, n  = 46/79) and Medical Imaging (62.5%, n  = 10/16), reported that there were no barriers in being able to teach.

Questionnaire part-two results

Ptmq survey items.

The final adapted 18 PTMQ survey items, along with the corresponding median, interquartile range, skewness, and kurtosis values for all participants are displayed in Table  2 . Overall, the subdomain median values were lowest for Identified and highest for Amotivation. A low median value indicated a ‘strongly agree’ response and a high median indicated a ‘strongly disagree’ response.

PTMQ descriptive responses

Overall, the ‘Identified’ subdomain, comprising items 5, 6, and 7, showed the highest level of congruence, with nearly 60% expressing a ‘strongly agree’ response across these three items. Within this subdomain, 73.2% ( n  = 104/142) strongly agreed with item 5: ‘I teach because it’s important for me to make a contribution to students becoming a good healthcare professional in the future’. This also represented the highest percentage response out of all 18 items. Additionally, 42.3% ( n  = 60/142) and the most common response, strongly agreed with feeling like they had a sense of duty to pass on their knowledge to students (item 6).

A majority of participants strongly agreed with the ‘Intrinsic’ subdomain items 2 and 4, ‘I enjoy teaching most of the time’ and ‘I teach because it increases my job satisfaction’ respectively suggesting that altruism plays a strong role in why participants teach healthcare students.

Items 8 and 9 in the ‘Introjected’ subdomain demonstrated higher responses to the negative attitude Likert scale of agreements, supporting the notion that teaching is not typically driven by guilt.

The ‘Career’ subdomain exhibited the largest diversity of responses. For PTMQ ‘Career’ item 12, ‘I teach because it is good for my career progression,’ Medical Imaging participants strongly agreed (25%, n  = 4/16) with this statement compared to Medicine 1.8% ( n  = 1/55) and Optometry 2.8% ( n  = 2/71). The negative attitude Likert responses to the same PTMQ career item, resulted in no Medical Imaging participants strongly disagreeing with this statement whereas 38.2% ( n  = 21/55) of Medicine and 25.4% ( n  = 18/71) of Optometry did. Teaching was viewed as a greater incentive for career progression in Medical Imaging compared to Medicine and Optometry.

In the ‘External’ subdomain, 65.6% ( n  = 93/142) of external healthcare educators strongly disagreed with the assertion that they taught to avoid being performance-managed (item 15). Items 13 and 14 also, most commonly, signalled that participants were not motivated to teach by the prospect of a reward or to avoid punishment.

Approximately 60% strongly disagreed with item 17, ‘I rarely feel like teaching but do it anyway’ and item 18, ‘I teach even though I often perceive it as an annoying chore’, indicating ‘Amotivation’ was not a prevalent trait amongst participants.

PTMQ subdomain and item comparisons across Medicine, Optometry and Medical Imaging

Across the three professions (Medicine, Optometry and Medical Imaging), PTMQ participant responses showed a reasonable level of homogeneity (Table  3 ). The mean values for the ‘Intrinsic’ and ‘Identified’ items were consistently low, indicating that teaching motivations were primarily altruistic. In the ‘Introjected’ subdomain, the mean values suggest that feelings of guilt do not serve as a motivating factor for teaching across all professions.

Significant differences were observed within the ‘Career’ ( p  < 0.003) and ‘External’ ( p  < 0.001) subdomains. Specifically, item 12 in the ‘Career’ subdomain, “I teach because it is good for my career progression” and item 14 in the ‘External’ subdomain, “I mainly teach because it is part of my position description” highlighted this disparity, with Medical Imaging exhibiting a significantly lower mean value than Medicine and Optometry ( p  < 0.001).

The ‘Amotivation’ subdomain displayed similar higher mean values across all three professions, indicating there was no lack of motivation to teach. However, item 16, “I teach even though I feel that teaching is a lower priority than my other occupational activities”, revealed a significantly higher mean value for Medical Imaging compared to Medicine and Optometry ( p  < 0.001).

PTMQ subdomain reliability

A good or acceptable Cronbach’s alpha was obtained for each motivational subdomain (Intrinsic α = 0.87, Identified α = 0.77, Introjected α = 0.86, Career α = 0.81, External α = 0.83 and Amotivation α = 0.83). Removal of a survey item within each subdomain did not increase Cronbach’s alpha except for in the Amotivation subdomain. By removing the first survey item in this subdomain, Cronbach’s alpha increased slightly from 0.83 to 0.85 however, we elected to keep the instrument intact rather than removing this question for a marginal gain.

PTMQ factor analysis

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was meritorious (0.804) [ 22 ].

Conducting the principal component analysis by fixing six domains as reported by Dybowski [ 16 ] resulted in similar outcomes to the initial validation. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was highly significant (c2 = 1334, df = 153, p  < 0.001). Items had extraction coefficients between 0.685 and 0.873.

PTMQ Rasch analysis

Following the classical factor analysis, a Rasch analysis was undertaken to further validate and confirm the results and to provide additional insight into the survey responses.

A significant likelihood ratio test result (χ 2  = 148.87, df = 50, p  < 0.0001) indicated that partial-credit parameterisation should be used [ 19 ]. Items 8–18 inclusive were reverse coded for the analysis. Overall, the data from the full PTMQ did not fit the Rasch model (Table  4 ), with a significant item-trait Chi-square interaction observed (χ 2  = 80.45, df = 36, p  < 0.0001).

As the PTMQ was originally developed to target specific subdomains, the misfit of the full survey results to the Rasch model was assumed to be the result of multidimensionality in the instrument. This was confirmed by examining residual Principal Component 1 (PC1) (Table  4 ) [ 23 ]. Items 8–15 negatively correlated with PC1, dividing the questionnaire into two main groups (Intrinsic, Identified, and Amotivation subdomains in one ‘Altruistic’ group; Introjected, Career, and External subdomains in the other ‘Career’ group). No new subdomains were identified.

PTMQ Rasch subgroup analysis

Rasch analysis was conducted on the ‘Altruistic’ and ‘Career’ subgroups identified from the PC1 loadings in the full PTMQ. Neither the Altruistic group (Intrinsic, Identified, and Amotivation subdomains; χ 2  = 67.41, p  < 0.0001) nor the Career group (Introjected, Career, and External subdomains; χ 2  = 35.59, p  = 0.003) fit the Rasch model (Table  4 ). (The principal component loading analyses for the two subgroups suggested, as the original PTMQ analyses found [ 16 ], that each of the six subdomains represents a different underlying trait of teacher motivation.

PTMQ Rasch subdomain analysis

The six subdomains were analysed individually with Rasch to confirm they each represented a single underlying trait. All six subdomains fitted the Rasch model, albeit with reduced power of fit due to the smaller number of questions and thresholds (Table  4 ). All items in each subdomain showed good individual item fit residuals (within the expected ± 2.5 logit range) with no significant chi-square values. Many of the items showed disordered thresholds, but investigation of the category frequencies revealed this was mostly due to clustering of responses at one end of the Likert scale, and no collapsing of categories was required.

During the subdomain analysis, each item was examined for the presence of any differential item functioning (DIF) for each of the three person factors included in the model (course, sex, and year in teaching). Only item 15 displayed any DIF, showing a significant difference in item response by sex (F = 8.16, p  = 0.005). Uniform DIF was present, suggesting that male tertiary educators in this cohort were more likely to indicate they taught to avoid being performance managed than expected, while female participants were less worried about this than expected in the model.

Differences in response (average person abilities) across the three person factors were also examined for each of the six subdomains (Table  5 ). Investigation of the mean person abilities showed that educators involved in Medical Imaging were more likely to score higher in the Career and External subdomains than those in Medicine or Optometry, indicating they were more likely to be teaching for the impact it would have on their career progression and the innate requirements of their position expectations.

In Australia, the limited research exploring the motivations of external healthcare educators in teaching has predominantly centred around medical educators, with little attention given to other allied health professions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Australia to have applied a validated motivation questionnaire across different healthcare disciplines including Medicine, Optometry, and Medical Imaging professions. Our adaptation of Dybowski and Harendza’s PTMQ [ 16 ] did not compromise its application, demonstrating good internal consistency and construct validity.

Across all surveyed professions, altruism emerged as the overarching motivational factor behind why external healthcare educators teach in healthcare disciplines at Deakin University. These educators are motivated by a genuine desire to contribute to the development of future healthcare practitioners by imparting their skills and knowledge. This sense of altruism brings them significant internal satisfaction and fulfilment in their work, providing further motivation for them to continue teaching. These findings are comparable with global research, which commonly cited altruistic elements as healthcare educators’ primary reason for teaching [ 6 ]. Similarly, several Australian studies have also reported that clinical educators predominantly engage in teaching for the enjoyment it provides [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 15 ]. Interestingly, Thomson et al. [ 12 ], suggested that teaching institutions could benefit from marketing this altruistic enjoyment of teaching to recruit new educators. Adopting such a strategy could assist in addressing the growing need for external healthcare educators supervising students.

The majority of our healthcare educators perceived that they had a sense of duty to contribute to their profession and the future of the healthcare system. This finding is also consistent with research undertaken on Australian general practitioners, where 82% ( n  = 69) of participants felt the same ethical responsibility to teach [ 13 ]. As a result, it was not unexpected to find low levels of teaching amotivation within our study. While overall, there were low levels of amotivation, some gender differences were noted, with males slightly more likely to display amotivational tendencies than females.

Although, in general, there were no significant differences in participants’ motivational responses, some educators within the ‘Career and External’ subdomains exhibited additional driving factors independent of the more altruistic motivating aspects. Medical Imaging educators showed a greater inclination to agree with ‘Career and External’ motivation PTMQ items than Optometry and Medicine educators, indicating that they may be more driven to teach for career progression but also, display a greater level of indifference towards meeting others’ teaching expectations compared to Medicine and Optometry. This may be explained, in part, by the structure of the Medical Imaging workforce which is divided between hospital and non-hospital sectors. Many hospital-based positions build into their promotion policies minimum capability duties which, for some levels, include supervision and training of students, potentially increasing Medical Imaging educators’ incentive to mentor and teach [ 24 ]. The majority of the Medical and Optometric workforce surveyed are situated in private practice. Career progression often ceases in these settings, especially in smaller private practices therefore, the supervision and training of healthcare students tends not to be a strong factor for promotion.

To maintain maximum satisfaction and long-term commitment of external healthcare educators, gaining a better understanding of the perceived benefits and barriers associated with teaching could be invaluable. Currently, universities offer a wide variety of benefits and resources to incentivise external healthcare educators to teach. Several studies have found that the benefits perceived as being most valuable vary, but most commonly include the use of academic appointment titles, access to university libraries, and continued professional development (CPD) [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. While our research found, overall, that the resources and benefits associated with teaching, including holding university email accounts, were not important to participants, having access to the university library was somewhat beneficial. Similarly, Scott and Sazegar [ 28 ] reported that medical educators regarded the provision of email accounts to be of little value; however, in contrast to our findings, their study indicated that library access was deemed unimportant.

Although all of our external healthcare educators are given academic appointment titles, our research did not investigate the perceived benefits of this. Considering, that other studies have shown this to be a major motivation to teach [ 25 , 26 ], it appears worthwhile for universities to continue to offer this benefit.

Continued professional development has also been recognised as an important teaching incentive [ 25 , 26 ]. Given that only a third of our participants engaged in university-provided continuing professional development opportunities, typically for five or fewer hours per year, there is potential for universities, including Deakin, to develop strategies that further incentivise participation. Baldor et al. [ 26 ], additionally found that CPD credits/points for teaching were rated highly important in medical educators’ decision to teach. Since most healthcare professionals/educators in Australia are required to undertake professional development to maintain their registration to practice, universities could consider a system that provides CPD points as a reward for their teaching hours.

There was a discernible difference in the perceived value of university assistance in research endeavours between Medicine and Optometry, with Medicine placing a higher value on this support compared to Optometry. This could be attributed to the fact that many external healthcare educators in Medicine are affiliated with hospitals that potentially include academic pursuits as part of their role whereas the vast majority of surveyed optometrists were based in community and private practice.

While this study revealed, overall, that there were no significant barriers to being a healthcare educator, the main deterrents influencing participants’ decision to be involved in teaching were competing work requirements and time constraints. This was more commonly cited by Medicine educators, than those in Optometry and Medical Imaging. Clinical supervision is widely known to be time-consuming and can negatively impact the number of patients seen in the practice [ 2 , 5 , 12 , 29 ]. Laurence et al. [ 29 ], imply the financial implications of this are more pronounced for the supervision of medical students compared to junior doctors and general practice registrars [ 29 ]. Kirkman et al. [ 2 ], also describe the demands of clinical practice and the responsibility of supervising optometry students to be higher in the early stages of a student’s placement compared to the later stages. This tension between patient care and clinical supervision lessens though as students’ skills improve. Reimbursement, in the form of a teaching stipend or subsidy rate to offset the cost of clinical teaching, has been proposed by several studies [ 27 , 29 ]. While this sounds like a reasonable solution, it may not be a financially viable option for many universities. Nonetheless, universities that continue to explore innovative solutions to address these challenges may help improve the retention rates of external healthcare educators.

Given that a majority of our participants teach without a paid appointment, it was unsurprising that this analysis demonstrated minimal financial barriers to teaching. Kirkman et al. [ 2 ], reported a similar outcome with clinical supervisors in Australian community-based optometric practices but also emphasised that financial incentives would be appreciated by external clinical supervisors to compensate them for their contributions - an aspect that this study did not explore.

Despite these apparent barriers, interest in clinical teaching continues to exist among external healthcare educators, likely driven by their altruistic motivations.

Limitations

We acknowledge that there were several limitations in this study.

Part-one of the questionnaire did not utilise forced responses therefore, not all participants answered every question. This reduced the number of participants whose data could be analysed. However, several studies have shown that forcing responses to avoid missing data may compromise data quality as participants may not want to answer questions truthfully or may drop out before completing the survey [ 30 , 31 ].

The response rate may have generated a non-representative sample potentially affecting the validity of the results. Due to the convenience sampling methodology, those who responded are more likely to be engaged with, and theoretically motivated to contribute to teaching programs, potentially biasing the results. Our response rate was also lower than that reported by Dybowski and Harendza [ 16 ]. Some studies have suggested that falling survey response rates by medical practitioners can be attributed to workload and time pressures [ 32 , 33 ]. It is worth noting that during 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound negative impact on the workload and stress levels of Australian healthcare workers [ 34 , 35 ], which possibly contributed to the lower-than-expected response rate.

This single-centred study involved only three healthcare professions, potentially limiting the generalisability of the results. Mitigating this possibility is the fact that all participants are based in geographically disparate areas and from different professions (medical and allied health). We also acknowledge that there may be an institutional bias and that external healthcare educators associated with other universities may respond differently from the participants of this study. Despite a relative overrepresentation of Optometry educators and a relative underrepresentation of Medical Imaging educators, the vast majority of responses exhibited consistent patterns across all professions, again speaking to the generalisability of the results. Nonetheless, even with a smaller number of Medical Imaging participants responding, subtle yet significant differences in teaching motivations between the professions’ were still discernible.

Future research

To validate our findings, broadening the application of the PTMQ to other healthcare disciplines and institutions not targeted in this study would allow for a more diverse sample and greater comparability of teaching motivations amongst external healthcare educators. This could potentially provide additional insights into how universities can tailor their curriculum and incentives to better maintain retention rates among external healthcare educators. Moreover, this study did not capture any information on the geographical location of the participating external healthcare educators. This information would be beneficial because it is vital for rural and regional training programs, such as those at Deakin University, to maximise its external staff uptake in the hopes that graduating students bolster the workforce in these areas. Another worthwhile consideration would be to organise a follow-up focus group discussion on the same sample to further explore the issues raised, such as competing work requirements and time constraints and map any divergence of findings.

This study has demonstrated that the PTMQ exhibits good generalisability when applied across Australian medical and allied health professions. Altruism was the overarching motivational theme for why external healthcare educators contribute to university healthcare programs. However, career motivations differed slightly across the professions, with Medical Imaging educators showing a stronger inclination towards teaching for the promotional benefits associated with their professional award. While there were no key benefits or barriers identified in maintaining teaching relationships with the university, exploring innovative ideas to address time constraints faced by some external healthcare educators is essential to enhancing teaching participation. Moreover, given the rising demand for clinical placements, external healthcare educators will remain pivotal in the provision of authentic clinical experiences and professional development opportunities for healthcare students. Consequently, universities must remain cognisant of the factors that aid in the recruitment and retention of their external healthcare educators and continue to maximise these for the ongoing success and sustainability of their clinical programs.

Data availability

All data generated and/or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

Abbreviations

Differential Item Functioning

Human Resources

Information and Technology

Principal Component 1

Principal Component 2

Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire

Standard Deviation

Self Determination Theory

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge our participants for their time and contributions toward this study.

The authors did not receive financial support from any organisation for the work.

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NAW made a substantial contribution to the study design, questionnaire piloting, data collection, data analysis, wrote the main manuscript text, prepared figures, and tables. SB made contributions to data analysis, manuscript text and editing. SA made contributions to questionnaire piloting and manuscript editing. KD made contributions to questionnaire piloting and manuscript editing. GP made contributions to questionnaire piloting and manuscript editing. DL made contributions to questionnaire piloting and manuscript editing. JM made contributions to questionnaire piloting and manuscript editing. JAA made contributions to the study design, questionnaire piloting, data collection, data analysis, manuscript text and editing. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Natalie Ann Watt .

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Watt, N.A., Backhouse, S., Ansari, S. et al. Understanding barriers, enablers and motivational factors for Australian healthcare educators teaching university students on clinical placement using the validated Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire. BMC Med Educ 24 , 900 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05886-1

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Received : 19 May 2023

Accepted : 09 August 2024

Published : 21 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05886-1

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