Week 6 Teaching Critical Thinking (with Dog Food)

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-critical-thinking-dog-food-james-bach

I really liked this article because a lot of the kids now are trying for the right answer, meaning the one the teacher wants to hear.  They are not worried about learning or understanding the concepts.  Students need to think critically as a practice.  A friend of mine gave an Algebra II/ Trig class a test and said NO CALCULATORS!!  What she had given them were graphs( I know she used a more complicated math term) and the students had to give reasons for things on the graphs, not do any calculations and she told me they were having a fit about it.  She told them they had to really understand what was going on, not just calculate it to get the right answer.  Needles to say she is doing this more often to boost their level of confidence about this, they rely on the calculators and forget to think about reasoning.