While we all embrace the convenience of having information at our fingertips, we need to think about the impact of digital media on our children. The constant access to information makes it difficult for students to evaluate the information received critically, says Professor Patricia Greenfield, director of the Children's Digital Media Center at UCLA.

 

To become a strong decision maker, whether it is in writing, reading, or being an effective team player, students have to be able to think critically about several things: who is their audience and what will they respond to? How can they separate what information is relevant and what is not? What is the best, clearest, and most interesting way to organize their verbal and non-verbal messages?

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It isn’t enough for students to just learning the basics of reading and writing ("Remembering" and "Understanding" in Broom's cognitive learning model). Critical/deep thinking, like playing an instrument, doing math, or writing itself, is a set of skills that can be learned through instruction. However, many educational institutions, even universities, still lag in this area. A study found that critical thinking scores increased by 3.5 times in a class that included critical thinking as part of the curriculum. Students were able to develop their critical thinking skills in one semester of classes, with the same focus as in 2 years of study without this additional curriculum element. In short, critical thinking can be learned, but students need the opportunity to learn them.

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While we want our child to think critically and understand the complexity of a situation, including who they are as an individual, how many of us are aware of what “complexity” or critical thinking truly means? Our Deep Thinking and Communication Module, a stand-alone class and an embedded component of our Reading and Writing class, helps students analyze complex issues and situations by breaking them down so they can be identified and understood. This allows students to approach complex problems - whether it’s a multi-part problem on their final test, making a decision about how best to organize a school project, understanding what leadership truly means, or forming opinions about world events.

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"Deep Thinking and Communication" is a class developed by our team of Ivy League educators to promote deep thinking, communication skills, and personal growth. Based on research and years of experience working with K-12 students across the country, our team has identified several areas of difficulty and is addressing them through a specialized curriculum that helps students develop habits of deep thinking and thoughtful communication.

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This class was created based on the following barriers we observed in some students, who are often gifted and achievement-oriented:

1. Over-reliance on patterns and routines 

2. Close mindedness; not considering alternatives

3. Performance orientation

4. Lack of awareness of what deep thinking actually entails

5. Not giving themselves enough time to really think through an issue—rushing through ideas to finish quickly or move on to the next assignment or part of the assignment 

6. Perfectionism and fear of making a mistake

 

To address these barriers, we focus on several sub-modules, including the ones below:

• Goal Setting: Students will learn the differences between kinds of goals and the effort it will take to achieve them.

• Active Listening and Active Reading: Students will learn strategies for listening and close reading that will allow them to understand the material and think more critically thoroughly.

• Deep Thinking: Students will learn how to both develop complex thoughts about a given topic as well as how to adjust those thoughts based on new information.

• Leadership: Students will learn about different leadership styles and the leadership skills that define them.

 

The purpose of this course is to further develop students’ cognitive processing skills by enabling them to reflect deeply on themselves and their actions. Although the course incorporates elements of the academic curriculum, particularly reading and writing, the focus is on developing habits and modes of thinking through open communication and critical thinking.

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Students who are aware of the many ways a situation can be understood are more likely to gain a fuller understanding of their subject. This class can also be offered as a private 1-on-1 or a small group class. Please contact us at team@veducation.org for more information about this class. 

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Student feedback:

“The projects were really good and planned out. The topics were also very interesting and I was always looking forward to presenting. The teaching methods were very creative. For example, the perspective exercise taught me how to see things differently and how blindly I could look at things if I had not learned those things.” -6th grader

 

“It was helpful and I like that we actually learned stuff that we're gonna use in life like time management.” -7th grader

“The class is very helpful and I learned lots of things from the class like what success really is.” - 9th grader