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Can We Teach Creative and Critical Thinking?136

When a teacher gives a test, he or she is trying to measure students' ability to recall and apply information

learned over a particular period of time. The exams make it relatively straightforward: Did the student get an

answer right or wrong? Was mastery of skills demonstrated?

But how is creative or critical thought defined and taught? And by what assessment can we measure it, if at all?

Critical thinking is, among many things, the ability to understand and apply the abstract, the ability to infer

and to meaningfully investigate. Its the skills needed to see parallels, comprehend intersections, identify

problems, and develop sustainable solutions. According to theFoundation for Critical Thinking, sound critical

thinking is imperative to social progress. It is with our thoughts that we shape the world: Thinking creativelyshapes social and cultural structures. It affects the way blame is placed, the way ideas of right and wrong are

developed, the way leaders are elected, and the way we understand our place in the world as individuals and as

a collective. It helps define, or complicate, who we are in the first place.

Teaching critical and creative thought, however, is challenging: First, critical thinking may mean different

things to different instructors, principals, and/or districts. Second, it can be hard to know what students are

taking away from lessons and curricula designed to cultivate critical thinking skills.

There are ways to navigate through these obstacles: Cultivating critical thinking may be accomplished with

modeling. A teacher may explicitly show students how to make connections between their experiences and

those of others, show them how to link pieces of literature, or explain the relationship between a piece of

modern music infused with metaphor and the poetry lesson from last month. Particular curricula, ones that ask

students not just when and where things happened, but why and how, and what contemporary parallels can be

drawn, can enhance these skills.

Critical thinking can also be elicited in less directive ways: School trips,service learning requirements, and

various other kinds of hands-on situations allow students to make connections at their own pace. In any case,

critical thinking skills are probably best infused over months and years, the result of both direct and more

subtle instruction, during which teachers suggest, and insist, that students investigate further, makingbut

more importantly, justifyinginferences and conclusions.

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Students at Codman Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, engage in so-called

"expeditionary learning" projects, which are designed around a topic (for example, botany or urban renewal in

a particular city) selected by the students or their teachers. Through research, participating in service learning,

talking with seasoned professionals within a particular industry, fieldwork, and by preparing presentations and

papers on their topics to share with their schoolmates and the larger community, students build critical and

problem solving skills that will serve them for life.

So, if it is possible to teach this type of thinking, how then can we measure if students are developing these

skills? This is likely the more confounding question. Its hard to design test questions that effectively measure a

childs ability think creatively. One way may be to scaffold questions that increase in complexity and demand,

which may allow students the opportunity to reiterate, to explain, and then to synthesize information they've

gathered. Asking students to make connections between different strands of a curriculum may also be a good

way to measure these skills. Assessments may also come in more spontaneous moments, when a child responds

to a question or a moment with quiet brilliance or sensitivity. (It may be, however, that the most meaningful

measurement takes place once a student is launched into the adult world.)

At the heart of teaching critical and creative thought is the ability to ask the right questions to students. In turn,

they need to be able answer in a way that demonstrates their ability to see the parallels and intersections;

perceive linkages between historical moments, between the period and the art, between the circumstances then

and now; to comprehend the relationship between us and them, between we and they, and, ultimately,

whether dichotomies like we and they are usefuland, if so, how.

Illustration by Will Etling

Zoe Burgess has been working in education for seven years. She is a Teach For America alumnus, and

currently works as an education consultant, research assistant, and writer.