Reflecting on Initial Implementations: Criteria and Habits of Mind

As school started again, it was the first year I have been able to start fresh with the beginnings, or middles, of new understandings about critical, creative and collaborative thinking (C3 thinking). As I have started to introduce these concepts to my middle and high school science and math students, I have been able to observe a few things. The first is that one of the easiest ways to start integrating C3 thinking into practice is to discuss the idea of criteria when posing questions. Criteria helps people think about what would make a good answer to the question. It frames the direction that the answers will go. 

Its amazing how quickly thoughtless answers were eliminated when criteria was explicitly applied to the question. Beyond that, I was pleased at how quick many of my senior students were able to come up with what makes a good answer to questions I have posed. Albeit we have started simply, with questions like "What is the most important math concept learned last year?", but the thoughtfulness of the answers were surprising, and in many the creativity, or the divergence of answers I got from students was also surprising. For example, many chose to answer the questions with explicit concepts taught within the government assigned curriculum, things like the concept of functions. However, I also got answers that diverged from the expected answers to things like how to use a calculator effectively. In the end, the class collaborated on a single answer, and the calculator answer best met the criteria we set out.

The collaborative work benefited significantly by being explicit about being open-mindedness, and also always pointing back to the criteria we set out. These things kept emotions in check as well as the need to win that sometimes arises in disagreements.

These two developments pointed to how powerful incorporating C3 Thinking into the classroom can be with simple adjustments to the way regular instruction is done. I am only imagining how powerful it could be with full scale implementation and weeks down the road with much scaffolding. Something to look forward to.