Methods at SSA: The Importance of Critical Thinking
We help our students connect what they know and see the big picture!
True to our name, we lead our lessons with Socratic questions!
Find out more on our blog!
The More Students Think Critically, the More They Retain
Critical thinking means seeing the big picture
Critical thinking is one of the things that we care most about at SSA. There are a couple of ways to frame critical thinking. One is to zoom in and out, from the micro to the macro and back again. That way, for an idea, you're considering when you want to consider how it fits in the bigger picture and when you want to hyperfocus on it.
Critical thinking is also about linking information that you already know to new information that you’re being given, understanding what the relationship is, and connecting the ideas. It’s about creating webs of information and seeing how concepts are tied together
Our Socratic apporach
A big way that we do at SSA is leading with a question that is about the process. Question driven classrooms are not about asking leading questions that do nothing to advance the students’ comprehension. It doesn’t mean asking: “So, now I should add 7 to this side, right?” SSA teachers will ask questions that actually inform critical thinking skills: “What does this information do for us?” “How does that help us here?” “What can I do now?”If I’m always throwing the question back to the kid, that puts a greater onus on the person who’s doing the learning to come up with the solutions. This is active learning, not passive. Active learning helps you retain information; it helps you hold onto it. Also, active learning and instruction is more likely to help the student have an epiphany, which is that wonderful moment where they discover something that links new information to information you already know or realize a new way to think about the information they already know.
The more epiphanies a student gets, the more they will be able to retain, and, frankly, the more fun the learning process is going to be. And why shouldn’t learning be fun?! Why shouldn’t learning make you feel smart? Because a lot of times you already have most of the information. You just have to organize it properly. We can help!
Stay tuned for more tips on increasing retention! For more studying and test-prep tips, check out our blog: https://www.socraticsummeracademy.com/blog.
