From KIPP Kings Collegiate in the Bay Area, ten straightforward ideas for teachers to push critical-thinking skills in the classroom:
4. Model your expectations.
“It all comes back to modeling,” says Kellan McNulty, who teaches AP world history and AP U.S. history at KIPP King Collegiate. “If you have a behavioral expectation, the best way to teach that is to model.” In fact, he learned how to facilitate effective Socratic discussions by observing his colleague. Similarly, he demonstrates for his students ways to enter a conversation, the difference between an analytical point and a summary, and appropriate ways to disagree with one another.