Teaching Critical Thinking Research

When children enter the world, they automatically have a curiosity to everything they see. Their minds never stop; they are constantly searching for the answers to the never-ending unknown. Each and every child “[is] organically predisposed to be [a] critical thinker[ ]” (Hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking). A child never wants to stop learning. They will yearn for knowledge even if they have heard and received all the possible answers. At this moment in life it is critical for the educational system to hold onto this natural inquisitiveness of a child. Once the child grows and begins heading towards high school it will become difficult to harness their original creative, critical thinking ideas. Students have had the notion of memorization and standardized testing drilled into their heads …show more content…
From there the learning process heads into a downward spiral; students no longer care for the root of learning but only care about the grade they receive based on their mass memorization skills. Learning becomes a chore for these students. They believe all they will need to do to pass is “consume information and regurgitate it at appropriate moments” (Hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking). They feel as if their voice has been silenced in order to produce the perfect test score. These ideas form a dangerous stigma that must be removed from the educational system. In order for the educational system to encourage the development of critical thinking and inquisitiveness beginning during one’s childhood, the system must harness the balance of creativity and thinking on a higher level. The first step in fostering a student’s childhood creativity is to start as early as possible. During elementary school, there must be a balance between