We want to teach students to think logically and critically and not accept information as fact just because someone tells them it is so. We also want them to go beyond the memorization of facts and be able to analyze, evaluate, and apply what they learn to their own lives. The ability to think critically helps one to make thoughtful decisions about school work, directions in life, friends, politics, etc.

 

While the development of critical thinking skills is vital for all young people, it is especially important for gifted students. There are many definitions of critical thinking. These include the ability to

The incorporation of critical thinking skills is often what determines the more complex process when teachers differentiate curriculum for gifted students.

 

While it is important that critical thinking be taught in the schools, it is also very important that it be developed at home.

 

There are two well-recognized systems of questioning that have been developed to teach critical thinking: Bloom’s Taxonomy and Richard Paul’s Socratic Questions. These types of questioning can be incorporated into both school work and into discussions at home.

 

Benjamin Bloom created a hierarchical taxonomy of questioning techniques from the very basic levels of knowledge through analysis, synthesis, and evaluation questions. In the 1970s and 1980s, his taxonomy was often misused in classrooms in a variety of ways. Often gifted students were expected to jump right to the higher-level questions without the basic knowledge. Here is a list of well-constructed question-starters using Bloom’s Taxonomy that I would highly recommend. Remember to ask students questions from all levels—not just the complex questions.

 

Richard Paul’s Six Types of Socratic Questions offers another format of thought-provoking questions that are divided into categories. This is an approach that is different from Bloom’s. These questions are used to

While the questioning techniques of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Richard Paul’s Six Types of Socratic Questions can be applied to any subject that is discussed in school, teachers also need to know that there is excellent, already-developed curricula incorporating these critical thinking approaches. The curricula include