Teaching Critical Thinking

Engaging Students in the Liberal Arts & Sciences Best PracticesTeaching Critical Thinking Bard High School Early College Folio 31







Engaging Students in the Liberal Arts & Sciences Best Practices: Teaching Critical Thinking Bard High School Early College Folio



ForewordPremised on the belief that many adolescents are ready andeager for challenges greater than those offered by tradi-tional high schools, Bard High School Early College seeksto provide bright, highly motivated, and diverse studentswith an intellectually engaging four-year academic pro-gram that includes a two-year college liberal arts degree.Students graduate prepared to take upper level collegecourses, earn a baccalaureate degree, develop successfulcareers, and contribute to society. First developed in 2001as a partnership between Bard College and the New YorkCity Department of Education, four BHSEC schools cur-rently operate: BHSEC Manhattan, BHSEC Queens (2008),BHSEC Newark (2011), developed by Bard College and theNewark Public Schools, and most recently, BHSEC Cleve-land, a partnership between Bard College and the Cleve-land Metropolitan School District (2014).The BHSEC schools immerse students in the traditions andpractices associated with a liberal arts education. Studentstake high school courses for two years, and then engage ina full college course of studies in the eleventh and twelfthgrade, graduating from high school with an Associate inArts degree from Bard College. With a faculty of highlyqualified scholars and artists who teach both high schooland college courses, BHSEC aspires to teach higher-level 7

thinking skills through analytic writing, focused discus-sion, and in-depth inquiry.After four years at BHSEC, the majority (90%) of studentsgraduates with a Bard College Associate in Arts degree inthe liberal arts and sciences and 60 transferrable collegecredits. Historically, 98-100% of BHSEC Manhattan andQueens students receive a New York State Regents highschool diploma. (BHSECs Newark and Cleveland are stilltoo new to have this historic data regarding either highschool or college graduation rates.) More than 97% ofBHSEC students continue their studies at a four-year col-lege and most complete their BA/BS degrees.To help others understand the design underlying the successof Bard High School Early College schools and students,the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schoolsand Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University un-dertook a study of several of BHSEC’s key practices. Thisseries of seven reports provides insights into how the keypractices are implemented as well as how they could bereplicated by others.The teaching of critical thinking skills at BHSEC is thethird practice to be examined. NCREST investigated thistopic by conducting interviews and focus groups withBHSEC school leaders, staff and teachers; by reviewing syl-labi, grading rubrics, sample assignments, student work,and teaching materials; and by observing a range of class-rooms. A detailed report on this practice follows.

About Critical Thinking‘Critical thinking’ is widely recognized as an essential skillin today’s world (Abrami et al., 2008). Fostering higher or-der thinking among students of all ages is an importanteducational goal (Zohar and Dori, 2003), which more andmore schools seek to achieve (Burke and Williams, 2008a).Although attention to teaching ‘critical thinking’ in K–12education started to increase significantly in the 1980s (En-nis, 1993), no universal definition of the term yet exists.Some researchers refer to critical thinking skills; others re-fer to thinking skills; yet others refer to cognitive strategies(Burke and Williams 2008b). Scriven and Paul (1987) pro-posed that,“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplinedprocess of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying,analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating informationgathered from, or generated by, observation, experience,reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to beliefand action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universalintellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions:clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, soundevidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness” (p.1).Beyer noted in 2001, however, that, “in what they chooseto discuss or to teach as thinking skills, educators todaycontinue to exhibit both haziness and great diversity” (p.35). This is still true today. 9

Critical thinking: to not take the world at face value but to questioneverything you see. FORMER BHSEC DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND EVALUATIONSome theorists have categorized thinking skills into de-tailed frameworks (e.g., Burke and Williams, 2008a). Oneof the most widely accepted mental constructs of thinkingand learning processes used in United States education —Bloom’s Taxonomy — establishes a progression of think-ing skills from “lower level” to “higher level” that includesknowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesisand evaluation (see Eisner, 2000). An alternative frameworkis offered by Facione (1990), who assembled 46 experts todevelop a consensus definition of critical thinking. They ar-rived at the list of skills and sub-skills shown in Table 1.BHSEC taught me critical thinking during high school. … To me, criticalthinking means asking ‘why’ until I reach the core of an idea. It meansthat I know when I understand something, and I know when I don’t. BHSEC ALUMNUSEvery day, we strive to live up to the Bard College motto “A Place toThink” by emphasizing the critical thinking skills and habits of mindthat help students to succeed academically, as well as gain a betterunderstanding of themselves, and their place in the world. BHSEC MANHATTAN PRINCIPAL WELCOME LETTERCritical thinking skills are widely considered to be centralto student success in college. Noted researcher David Con-ley, for example, conducted research to learn what collegefaculty expected students to know and be able to do in theircourses (Conley, 2007). He found that, in addition to con-tent knowledge, college faculty “expect students to makeinferences, interpret results, analyze conflicting explana-tions of phenomena, support arguments with evidence, 10

solve complex problems that have no obvious answer, reachconclusions, offer explanations, conduct research, engagein the give-and-take of ideas, and generally think deeplyabout what they are being taught” (p. 6). The dimensionsof critical thinking described as priorities by BHSEC facultyand staff align well with this summary as well as with bothBloom’s and Facione’s taxonomies.TABLE 1FACIONE’S FRAMEWORK: CRITICAL THINKINGSKILLS SUB-SKILLSInterpretation CategorizationDecoding SignificanceClarifying MeaningAnalysis Examining IdeasIdentifying ArgumentsAnalyzing ArgumentsEvaluation Assessing ClaimsAssessing ArgumentsInference Querying EvidenceConjecturing AlternativesDrawing ConclusionsExplanation Stating ResultsJustifying ProceduresPresenting Arguments 11



Defining Critical Thinking at BHSECThe education provided to BHSEC students is firmly groun-ded in the liberal arts tradition, which aims to foster theability to think critically and communicate proficiently(Becker, 2003) and emphasizes the thinking skills and hab-its of mind that help students to succeed academically andgrow intellectually. The BHSEC program is designed to pre-pare 9th and 10th graders to succeed in rigorous collegecourses when they enter 11th grade, Year 1 of the BHSECcollege program.While there is no single, official definition of critical think-ing at BHSEC, school faculty and leaders have given con-siderable thought to its different dimensions, as exemplifiedby these responses to the question of what is meant by crit-ical thinking at BHSEC:Experimenting and noticing relationships and organizing those relation-ships into a cohesive argument… . MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTANAn invitation to open-ended exploratory thinking. SOCIAL STUDIES FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTANA constant way of interacting with the world, kind of always saying, “Doesthis make sense? Is there a better way to do this?” DATA SPECIALIST, MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC QUEENS 13

In general, when asked about critical thinking, BHSEC fac-ulty members emphasize diving deeply into ideas, usuallystarting with a text. Students are asked to notice patterns,to form opinions, and to make clear arguments both with-in subject areas and across disciplines. Classroom practicesthat emphasize writing, reading, and dialogue, intertwinedin various ways, consistently foster thinking and rethinking. 1. ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH CLASSROOM PRACTICESIn their first school year, students enter classrooms that areoften very different from what they have experienced intheir middle schools. Teachers explicitly model general andspecific ways to engage in critical thinking, beginning withtheir first Writing and Thinking Workshop. Course sylla-bi show how opportunities for critical thinking are part ofclasses in all subjects and at all grade levels; for example:Through study of evocative novels and works of political, social andpsychoanalytic theory, the Seminar asks students to think and writecritically about concepts that have revolutionized the world in the last150 years and continue to provide the framework for contemporarydebates about economics, evolution, religion, cross-cultural encounters,race, sex, and family. PROFESSOR CHO’S SOPHOMORE SEMINAR I SYLLABUSFaculty expect students to progress from understandingto analysis to intellectual engagement. Homework assign-ments, such as Professor Matthews’ response journals, re-quire students to take and defend a position, rather thanto provide a mere surface level description of the material. 14

The goal of [weekly] response journals is to develop your own indepen-dent thoughts, ideas and questions about the material we are wrestlingwith. This can take many forms, from that of a two-column responsejournal, to writing paragraph or short essay entries. The commondenominator however is that you go beyond the passive activity ofmerely taking notes, and instead generate your own position vis-à-vis thereadings and themes of our course. PROFESSOR MATTHEWS’ FIRST YEAR SEMINAR SYLLABUS 2. ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH WRITINGA well-established tradition at Bard College and BHSECis the use of writing as a tool for thinking critically. EachBHSEC school year begins with an intensive Writing andThinking Workshop, described in the box below. The edu-cational practices used in these workshops serve as the basisof much of BHSEC’s instruction related to critical thinking.Writing and Thinking Workshops: The annual Writing andThinking Workshop provides an intensive learning expe-rience for all BHSEC students organized around exercisesin critical reading and writing. The Workshop, held at thebeginning of every school year, serves several functions. Fornew students, it is an introduction to the values and practic-es of the school. It helps all students learn how to use writ-ing as a tool for developing thinking. Socially, it providesstudents with a personalized, extended welcome to the year.Academically, it serves as an introduction to the rhythm ofthe school year by providing a structure of required atten-dance in class and regular homework as a warm-up for thecritical thinking and writing that will be expected in classesthroughout the year. 15

Like a musician practicing scales, a ballet dancer at the barre, or anathlete stretching before a workout, the student in Writing and Thinkingwarms-up his or her mind through specific techniques that teachlistening, analysis, and expression. PRINCIPAL, BHSEC NEWARK[Writing and Thinking workshops] set the tone for the whole year. PRINCIPAL, BHSEC MANHATTANThe workshops are based on Bard College’s Writing andThinking program, developed in the early 1980s under theleadership of Peter Elbow and Paul Connolly. The found-ers’ vision was to enable students to use writing to developthought processes.Goal of Writing and Thinking Workshops: That ideal culture of theclassroom toward which we aspire is student-centered and encouragesactive learning and respect for the processes that contribute to learning.The workshop encourages students to learn within the supportive com-munity of the classroom by speaking, writing, and thinking together tosupplement the more traditional mode of learning alone. Since teachersparticipate in the writing activities along with students, the boundariesoccasionally blur between students and teacher. BHSEC FACULTY GUIDEBOOKThe Writing and Thinking Workshop is held during the firstweek of school at each of the four BHSEC schools. It runsfor 3 to 5 days (depending upon the school and district cal-endars) and includes three sessions per day of 90 minuteseach. There are two back-to-back sessions in the morning,then lunch, and another session in the afternoon. Studentswrite for about half of each 90-minute period in response tostructured prompts. During the Workshop, students are ex-pected to write by hand on actual paper, even if they neverdo so again thereafter. Through the ways that teachers en- 16

gage students, the workshops convey the message that writ-ing and critical analysis skills are fundamental to successat BHSEC. Additionally, they are structured so that theirserious purpose can be achieved in ways that are playfuland exciting.My goal for Workshop is for each group to have a magic moment, onethat raises the group to a higher level, with each person an integralpart of that experience. The moments are simultaneously collective andprivate, shared by all members of the group, but likely indescribable tothose outside of it. WEINSTEIN, 2011.Almost all BHSEC classes throughout the year incorporatethe teaching methods that are practiced in the Writing andThinking Workshop. A number of these are described indetail below, adapted from the BHSEC Queens Writing andThinking Manual, a guide for teachers of the annual work-shops.Free-writing is the activity of putting pen to paper andkeeping the pen moving. Students are encouraged to write“freely,” that is, without worry about the success or eventhe formalities of writing. It is meant to encourage thinkingon paper.Focused Free-writing is like free-writing in that it is mostlyfree-associative and can’t be done “incorrectly.” However, afocused free write responds to a prompt or a topic providedby the class’s workshop leader or in a classroom assignment. 17

Classroom example: A teacher asked students to take five minutesfor a focused free-write on: How would we assess if the Reconstructionpolicies were successful in addressing the evils of slavery, the plightof newly freed African-Americans, and rebuilding the South after theCivil War? 9TH GRADE HISTORY CLASS, BHSEC NEWARKProcess Writing is self-reflective writing. Students are askedto tell the story of how a piece of writing evolved and torecall the mental processes that took place for them as theywrote.Teacher reflection: I use process writing for students to reflect on whatthey have done, what kind of obstacles they encounter when solvingproblems, an assignment, etc. MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC NEWARKIn Thought Chain, one student begins the chain by simplyreading aloud her response to a prompt. Then the secondand subsequent students find ways to connect to the previ-ous speaker by first paraphrasing the previous speaker us-ing the phrase “I hear you saying…” and then adding “but”or “and” as connector to reading their own piece of writing.I thought it would be quite an experiment to use this in a math class, butthe students love it. They ask for thought-chain and use it all the time. Itgives them a way to articulate and talk about math in a different way. MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC NEWARKBelieving and Doubting is a technique that can serve a va-riety of purposes. The teacher asks students to write a fewsentences confirming an author’s viewpoint, agreeing withit. Students share their writing. Then students are asked towrite again, disagreeing with that same author, and againto share their writing. 18

Small Group Critique for Paper is based on the premise thatstudents improve their writing by giving as well as receiv-ing peer commentary. This technique is widely used. Thereader reads her/his piece more than once to a small group.The group responds to each reader with observations andquestions.Text Explosion begins when students read through an en-tire poem or prose piece. Then students underline phrases orwords that interest them as the teacher reads the text aloud.Students then choose one of the phrases they underlinedand do a Focused Free-write on that phrase. The idea is togenerate a rich array of responses to words and phrases.Besides writing exercises in class, students are regularly as-signed written homework and long essays. Expectations forwriting differ substantially between the high school years(grade 9 and 10) and the college years (grade 11 and grade12; called Years 1 and 2 at BHSEC). While significant writ-ing is required in 9th and 10th grade, students in Years 1and 2 are asked to write more analytic and comparative pa-pers that gradually prepare them to write a fairly lengthy —about fifteen pages — research paper in Year 2 on a topicof their choosing. Professors carefully design essay assign-ments as a way to encourage student thinking. One essayassignment for a Year 2 Seminar class was as follows: Whatspecific ideas do you see in Marx and Engel’s  The Com-munist Manifesto? Looking carefully at specific passages ofthe Manifesto, are there moments in the text where Marxseems to complicate or contradict himself?  How does thetext try to resolve some of these complications and con-tradictions? Why might some of these complications andcontradictions be in the text? 19

Faculty also respond to student writing in a way to encour-age further thought. For example, a professor, commentingon a paper written in response to the above assignment,praised the student’s work and also encouraged furtherthinking and dialogue: “Nicely concluded. Next time, I rec-ommend that you try writing a conclusion that opens upto some larger questions rather than tying up all the pointsneatly into a ribbon. I never thought much about the thirdsection of the Manifesto, but after reading your essay, I seehow it relates to his anxiety.” 3. ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKINGTeachers at BHSEC use reading for the traditional purposesof conveying important information, learning how to ex-tract information from a text, and expanding vocabulary.However, the founding principal of BHSEC Manhattan andBHSEC Newark, quoting a former director of Bard College’sInstitute for Writing and Thinking, states, “Reading shouldbe a contact sport; you should be constantly bouncing offof the author.” He went on to discuss the school’s emphasison constantly pressing students to read more deeply.BHSEC prioritizes the use of primary texts as a foundationfor building critical thinking skills in all literature and histo-ry classes but especially in Freshman and Sophomore Sem-inar, BHSEC’s two-year college sequence centered aroundgreat books of the Western tradition. For these classes,BHSEC faculty develop an annual reading list based onthose used at Bard College and Bard College at Simon’sRock (see NCREST report on Seminar, Folio 1 of this series).In a given year, all Seminar students in the same grade levelread the same texts, giving them a common language and set 20

of ideas that they can draw upon in their thinking and con-versations. Teachers emphasize that it is very important tohelp students understand the relevance of the texts in theirown lives.Teachers employ particular techniques to help students tothink deeply about their readings. A frequently used tech-nique is the Response Journal or Reading Log/Journal.The journals may be highly structured with a specific setof questions that students must address, or they may bemore open-ended and directed by students’ interests andcreativity. One teacher described the journaling process tostudents as follows:For this class, I am asking you to keep a Reading Log/Journal (RLJ), andto write an entry for every primary source you read as homework. TheRLJ is a tool to help you read “critically” — reading texts not just togather information, but to actively analyze them. Another way to think ofthis task is to “interrogate” a text. Imagine yourself as an FBI agent whois questioning a suspect (in this case, a written document). You want tofind out everything you can, and you shouldn’t totally trust it. ASSIGNMENT, HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS, BHSEC QUEENS, 9TH GRADE, FALL 2013An English teacher emphasized the importance of figuringout how different texts support or contradict one anotherand of embracing complexities:I focus my students on thinking about things that are incoherent andthat get complicated by other things. I am not looking for students tohave a coherent understanding necessarily of the text, but really to beaware and notice how one text complicates another text. ENGLISH FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTAN 21

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Non-written texts may also be “read” and critically analyzed.For example, one class observed by the NCREST researcherslooked at photographs and discussed ways that pictures canbe deceiving and may be used to manipulate people. 4. ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH SHARINGAt BHSEC, classes are often organized with students seatedin a circle or square so as to facilitate discussion. In many ofthe classes observed, the teacher spoke very little; rather heor she provided an initial question or prompt and encour-aged students to engage in dialogue with one another. Moststudents participated readily. In this environment, studentsappeared to be learning primarily through their interactionswith one another. Students treated each other and the teach-er with attention and respect.When teachers chimed in, they would often press studentsto dig more deeply into an issue under discussion by askingquestions such as:What is freedom? What are basic rights? Why are [teenagers’]rights limited? 9TH GRADE AMERICAN HISTORY CLASSWhere in the real world do we use these formulas? ALGEBRA I CLASS, BHSEC NEWARKHow exactly does Douglass argue for the right to vote for blacks? 9TH GRADE AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS, BHSEC QUEENSWhat would happen if you put a hockey puck in the middle of twopositive charges? 9TH GRADE PHYSICS CLASS, BHSEC MANHATTAN 28

What comes to mind when you think of the word “domestic?” 9TH GRADE AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS, BHSEC QUEENSBefore the fall, Adam and Eve had free will? Do Adam and Eve have freewill after the fall? Has the quality of free will changed? COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASS ON MILTON, YEAR 1 AND 2 STUDENTS IN BHSEC QUEENSThe students appeared to find these kinds of questions in-triguing and thought-provoking. They were clearly accus-tomed to contributing ideas to the conversation.An important part of encouraging dialogue is argumen-tation. Students are expected to take a position and thenback it up with textual evidence. They are often encouragedto consider the merits and flaws of opposing arguments.A BHSEC grading rubric calls for arguments to be “clear,topical, contestable, original, and significant.” Argumenta-tion is also used in writing and reflecting on readings asdiscussed in the Writing and Thinking Workshop practicecalled “Believing and Doubting.”At BHSEC Manhattan, Year 1 and Year 2 students sharetheir independent study projects with the school commu-nity at a specially-designated “Symposium Day.” While apresentation is not a graduation requirement, about half ofthe students offer one, either individually or in a group, inthe form of a lecture, a panel, a workshop, or a demonstra-tion of an art form. Examples of sessions led by students inJune 2013 are: 29

Reading original works of poetry and fictionDramatic Reading of Prophesies–The End for All Brooklynites and QueensiesPanel DiscussionsThe Future of Food: Vertical Farming and Food LabelsDimensions of KPop (Korean Pop)Capitalism, Eugenics and Designer BabiesFirst, Do No Harm: Bioethics and Holistic MedicineStudent PresentationsFaulty Logic in Political AdvertisementsThe Structure of LoveLogical Fallacies in Anti-Abortion ArgumentsModern Objectification: From Toplessness to HeadscarvesDuring these sessions, students not only present original re-search, they also take turns questioning each other abouttheir projects and results. 5. FACILITATING PRACTICESBHSEC has developed a number of practices that facilitateor support instruction on critical thinking, such as: 1.teacher professional development; 2. PhD prepared faculty;3. support services that help students grapple with academicchallenges; and 4. a school culture that values criticalthinking.Professional development: Many of BHSEC’s profession-al development strategies help faculty to effectively teachcritical thinking skills. To prepare them to lead Writingand Thinking workshops, all new faculty attend a week- 30

long workshop held at Bard College, Bard College at Si-mon’s Rock, or a BHSEC school at which they learn aboutthe range of methods used in teaching writing and think-ing. Experienced teachers can participate in short-term re-fresher trainings, sometimes targeted to those in specificdisciplines.[The training] can be something that puts you back in touch with whatmade you love teaching. BHSEC FACULTY MEMBERIn Newark, they were doing training of new faculty. The PE teacher askedif he could use the writing techniques in his classes. He was excited thathe was being included and encouraged to use writing. BHSEC FACULTY MEMBERProfessional development activities lay the groundwork forinstruction aimed at improving critical thinking, in part byhaving faculty members practice the techniques that theywill later use with their students. They are also given a setof tools to help students develop better thinking skills, in-cluding the guidebook mentioned above. However, a schoolleader pointed out that there is no one “right way” to teachWriting and Thinking and that “there is a lot of room fornew ideas and reinventions; it is not just about replicationof what you were told.” In addition, faculty meet regular-ly with principals to discuss their teaching and principalsconduct classroom observations and offer feedback. Fac-ulty members also support each other’s work. When theybegin teaching the Writing and Thinking workshops, newteachers are paired with more experienced ones. Groups offaculty also meet in different configurations. 31

In math, [the faculty] work together almost every day. When the classis done, we talk about how it went; we look at what works; we develophomework together. That really helps support the thoughtfulness. MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTANPhD prepared faculty: Sixty eight percent of BHSEC facul-ty have PhDs or terminal degrees in their fields (e.g., MFAdegrees) and another 10% are in the process of complet-ing their dissertations. Many faculty members participateactively in their fields and engage in their own researchagendas. BHSEC encourages this activity through makingresearch funds available and providing time for researchand writing (see NCREST report on Faculty Hiring andSupport, Folio 5 of this series). Faculty members make ita point to share their research with students so that theyform images of what critical thinking “looks like.” Theirpersonal research activities also influence interactions withcolleagues and students on scholarly matters. A facultymember commented,The faculty bring a collegiate ethos to their classes and their conversa-tions with one another. We do talk about pedagogy, but we also talk aboutscholarly matters, and that does, in various moments, move into ourdiscussions with students. RESPONDENT, FACULTY SURVEYStudent support: Students at BHSEC are constantly taskedwith reading and deciphering difficult texts, thinking abouthow they connect with other texts or their own experienc-es, and writing about them. While BHSEC faculty expectall students to find their coursework challenging, there isan understanding that students’ prior academic experiencesvary greatly—not all students were high achievers in mid-dle school, nor were all of their middle schools high-per-forming institutions. Therefore, it is important that BHSECstudents get the help they need to manage and understand 32

these more difficult assignments. One teacher commented,“We are asking students to go above what most schoolsask students to perform so we need a safety net.” Anotherresponded, “It is absolutely essential not to just have a net,but to have an airbag that students can fall on!”The student supports available at BHSEC are multifacetedand focus on both academic and socio-emotional needs.1Teachers provide individual support to students during andafter class. Counselors offer help in working through prob-lems that may get in the way of full academic engagement.In addition, school structures such as the Learning Com-mons, peer tutoring program, and extra help sessions areavailable. Teachers monitor student progress individuallyand in departmental meetings; students are actively encour-aged to seek help when needed.{It is the] support that we provide to students … [that] makes it possibleto have a successful school. It complements … the high level demands.They go hand in hand. FACULTY MEMBERSchool culture: Three aspects of the BHSEC culture are es-pecially supportive of critical thinking: 1. valuing studentsas autonomous thinkers; 2. creating a culture of authenticinquiry; and 3. honoring learners’ intellectual struggle andperseverance.BHSEC culture is one that encourages students to think critically andanalytically in a way that I have never experienced. It recognizes thetalents of young people and challenges them to work hard. RESPONDENT, FACULTY SURVEY 33

Valuing students as autonomous thinkers: Adults at BHSECare committed to the idea that students’ views have as muchvalue as those of the authors that they read. Students areencouraged to interact with knowledge, and not just bepassive receptors; they are expected to question what theyare told. For example, in a college English class, studentswere asked to talk about where the Bible story of Adamand Eve intersects with Milton’s Paradise Lost. They wereencouraged to think about where the perspectives of thesetwo pieces of writing were in agreement or differed, as wellas to draw on their own religious beliefs on topics such asfree will, nakedness, and acceptance or rejection by God.Treating students as having autonomy and authority goesbeyond the classroom. BHSEC leaders and teachers active-ly engage students in helping to create the kind of schoolthey envision for themselves. In a focus group discussion,faculty members emphasized that students are expected tooffer opinions and take action on their ideas. One schoolleader remarked, “We need to give students permission toask. Students should have opportunities to give input onschool culture.”We give students as much freedom as possible, like an adult—freedomto choose classes, go out for lunch, be adults. We give students thespace and opportunity to act like adults. We want students to engagein life like adults…. We tell students that they will make mistakes, butwe also tell them that that’s good for them, that you learn from yourmistakes. MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTANCreating a culture of authentic inquiry: Faculty work hardto make sure that students engage with both historical andcurrent subject matter in a way that permits inquiry and en- 34

courages discussion. While students often read texts from arange of historical periods (see NCREST report on Seminar,Folio 1 of this series), they are encouraged to consider howthese texts apply to current times and their own lives. Oneteacher led a discussion of the phrase inscribed on a plaqueon the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor,your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She askedher students: “What does this mean to you? To Americans?To the world?” In a unit on slavery, the same teacher askedwhat freedom meant to the students, as 14-year-olds.Honoring intellectual struggle and perseverance as a learn-er: Students are explicitly encouraged to embrace discom-fort. While teachers are willing to help and spend consid-erable time doing so, they also see the value in students’pushing themselves to do more, to dig deeper, to look be-yond the surface. Teachers talk about helping students tofind “ways to struggle productively” because struggle andprogress in learning go together.It’s got to be a challenge; the struggle with the material… has to beextremely personal. Students have to go through it. They can’t pretendto go through it; they really have to go through it and then studentscome out much more confident. MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER, BHSEC MANHATTAN 35

CRITICAL THINKING AT BHSEC AND THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDSThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math and English LanguageArts have been recently adopted in 46 states and are thought to represent amovement toward deeper and more rigorous learning. The faculty at BHSEChave been pleasantly surprised by the extent to which CCSS reflect the kindof education that they have always considered of highest value. I think I speak for many, that faculty are thrilled. [The Common Core is basically] what BHSEC has been doing for years. RAY PETERSON, FOUNDING PRINCIPAL, BHSEC NEWARK, BHSEC MANHATTANA longtime faculty member and founding principal of BHSEC Manhattan andBHSEC Newark, Ray Peterson has written on the alignment between the CCSSand BHSEC’s educational philosophy. He points to the emphasis that bothplace on the deep reading of complex texts: Students will be required to readmore complex texts…and to write and speak about these works using specif-ic evidence from the text to support their claims. The standards clearly pref-erence depth over breadth and are aimed at giving all high school graduatesthe skills and experiences they need to be college and career ready. (p. 1)He also notes that the CCSS position teachers as “facilitators of inquiry,”rather than imparters of knowledge, an approach that BHSEC faculty consid-er more effective than traditional models. He goes on to point out that manyof the tools long used by BHSEC teachers, such as Focused Free-writes, fitperfectly with the intent of the CCSS. In fact, many of the BHSEC classesobserved during the current study of critical thinking used techniques em-phasized in the CCSS. 36

Evidence of Critical Thinking SkillsAs in most schools, critical thinking is not formally assessed.In the BHSEC structure, however, faculty members havetheir own approaches to tracking students’ developmentof critical thinking. One teacher said that he asks himself:Can students ask questions? Can they write an argument?Can they use an argument? If I give them different typesof theses and have them explain which ones are wrong, dothey make sense?Further evidence comes from student perspectives, ex-pressed in the annual exit survey given to graduating se-niors. Those who took the survey in 2013 indicated the ex-tent to which they considered 22 factors “very important”to making BHSEC successful. Their responses suggest thatthey were especially appreciative of factors related to crit-ical thinking. Students from both Manhattan and Queensconsidered learning to “argue with evidence” to be themost important factor in BHSEC’s success.The survey also included an open-ended question on whatstudents valued about their experience at BHSEC. Severalcomments from 2012 and 2013 are especially illustrativeof the ways that students think about their training incritical thinking. 37

STUDENT RESPONSESClasses are oriented around intellectual growth. We are not taught to preparefor an exam. We are taught to rethink, to challenge, to reshape. BHSEC’sgoal isn’t that of other schools. That’s what makes it different and that’s whatmakes it successful. Reading Austen, Kafka, Lermontov, Pushkin is somethingfar greater than reading some book that will prepare me for the Regents. Thecurriculum, the faculty is what makes BHSEC successful. I love you BHSEC.BHSEC is successful because it teaches a student how to think criticallyabout texts, and helps find ways to make even one’s most challenging subjectrelatable. The teachers are not only intelligent in their fields, but also ableto teach their subjects in engaging ways and share their passion for thematerial.BHSEC is successful because it does not just promote rote memorization. Itencourages its students to become critical thinkers and passionate students.Where most often, high schools are seen as stepping stones to college,BHSEC ‘s education is an end to itself.I struggled the entire time. I also, however, gained more than I thought Icould. I’ve become eloquent, thoughtful, and well read enough to effectivelyarticulate and argue a point I want to make.FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO % WHO CONSIDERED ITMAKING BHSEC SUCCESSFUL “VERY IMPORTANT”(ITEMS RELATED TO CRITICAL THINKING) (RANK ORDER)Argue with evidence 83.8%Read to make inferences 79.4%Solving complex problems 70.2%Addressing conflicting views 67.1%Analytic writing 61.2%

ReplicationAspects of BHSEC’s approach to teaching critical thinkingcan be readily replicated. To start, institutions can scheduleprofessional development activities that explain and modelways of using writing as a form of processing ideas andinformation. The Institute for Writing and Thinking at BardCollege offers a range of workshops attended by teachersfrom around the country (see http://www.bard.edu/iwt/about/). At these workshops, “teachers learn through doing— they learn to be writers, just as they would have theirstudents be, to write their way into understanding, andquestioning, texts, ideas, themselves.”2 Faculty are providedwith published handbooks and materials that can be usedfor guidance.As described in this report, BHSEC’s approach to criticalthinking works at three levels: school culture, classroompractices, and facilitating practices. Developing a deep prac-tice around critical thinking is a complex enterprise involv-ing a high level of commitment. Replicating schools wouldneed to think about how to build the different dimensionsin a way that worked in their locale. 39

Bard has this problem. People come to visit and take some of the stuff.But it has to be about the whole school culture. By having Writing andThinking [Workshop] from the start, we’re saying it’s important. To doit right, it takes a … significant amount of time … and you’re going tohave to involve all the teachers so it becomes part of the message orcore enterprise of the school. FACULTY MEMBERSchools wishing to replicate BHSEC’s work on teachingcritical thinking are encouraged to make this topic part ofan ongoing program of school improvement. Bard Collegeand BHSEC resources are available to be used as a part ofthis program.  40



The BHSEC folio series is a publication of BHSEC, incollaboration with the National Center for the Restructuringof Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), a researchcenter at Teachers College, Columbia University. The seriesincludes information on seven exemplary practices associatedwith the four BHSEC schools. Each publication in the seriesis based on qualitative research conducted by NCREST.The development of these folios has been undertaken withsupport from the Booth Ferris Foundation and Bard College.For more information on the BHSEC model and this series,contact: Stephen Tremaine at [email protected] East Houston Street, New York, New York 10002+1 212 982 5024http://www.bard.edu/earlycollege/30 Campus Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York 12504+1 845 758 6822http://www.bard.edu

End Notes1. See report 4 in this series (Student Supports) formore detail.2. From A Day in the Life of a Workshop, Bard College,http://www.bard.edu/iwt/workshops/day/ReferencesAbrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Wade, Facione, P. A. (1990). Executive summary: CriticalA., Surkes, M. A., Tamim, R., and Zhang, T. (2008). thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposesInstructional interventions affecting critical thinking of educational assessment and instruction.skills and dispositions: A stage 1 meta-analysis, Review Millbrae, CA: The California Academic Press. Electronicof Educational Research, 78, 4, pp. 1102-1134. version retrieved August 6, 2013 from http://assessment. aas.duke.edu/documents/Delphi_Report.pdfBecker, J., (2003). What a liberal arts education is—andis not. Modification of a talk of the same title given at Meier, D. (1995). The Power of their ideas: Lessonsthe Open Society Institute’s UEP Alumni Conference in for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston:Budapest Hungary, June 2003. Retrieved from http://iile. Beacon Press.bard.edu/research/ Scriven, M., and Paul, R. (1987). A statement presentedBeyer, B. (2001). What research says about teaching at the 8th Annual International Conference on Criticalthinking skills. In A. Costa (Ed.), In developing minds: Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987.A resource book for teaching thinking. Alexandria, Retrieved from https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum defining-critical-thinking/766.Development. Weinstein, J. B. (2011). Intellectual warm-ups: howBurke, L. A., and Williams, J. M. (2008a). Two thinking writing and thinking prepares students for college study.skills assessment approaches: “Assessment of Pupils’ In N. Yanoshak (ed). Educating outside the Lines: BardThinking Skills” and “Individual Thinking Skills College at Simon’s Rock on a “New Pedagogy” for theAssessments”. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7, pp. Twenty-First Century. New York: Peter Lang Publishers.62–68. Zohar, A., and Dori, Y. J. (2003). Higher order thinkingBurke, L. A., and Williams, J. M. (2008b). Developing skills and low-achieving students: Are they mutuallyyoung thinkers: An intervention aimed to enhance exclusive? The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 12(2),children’s thinking skills. Thinking Skills and Creativity, pp. 145–181.3, pp. 104–124.Conley, D. T. (2007). Redefining college readiness,Volume 3. Eugene, OR: Educational PolicyImprovement Center.Eisner, E. (2000). Benjamin Bloom. Prospects: TheQuarterly Review of Comparative Educationvol. XXX, no. 3. Paris: UNESCO, International Bureauof Education. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/Thinkers/ThinkersPdf/bloome.pdf.Ennis, R. H. (1993). Critical thinking assessment.Theory into Practice, Volume 32, Number 3, pp.179-186.