Pedagogy of the 21st century primarily considers the personality of the student. Its formation is the goal of the educational process. A modern teacher should develop his best qualities in a child, taking into account the characteristics of the pupil and forming a positive “I am a concept”. In addition, it is important for the teacher to encourage children to learn with enthusiasm. To do this, many technologies are used. One of them is the RKMChP, or “Development of critical thinking through reading and writing.”
Background
The technology of the RCMCHP was developed in the 80s of the 20th century. The authors of this program are American educators Scott Walter, Kurt Meredith, as well as Ginny Steel and Charles Temple.
What is RCMCH technology? This is a system of teaching methods and strategies that can be used in various forms and types of work, as well as in subject areas. The technology of American educators allows students to be trained in the ability to work with a constantly updated and increasing information flow. Moreover, this is relevant for a wide variety of areas of knowledge. In addition, the RKMCHP technology allows you to develop the following skills in a child:
- Solve problems.
- Form your own opinion based on the understanding of various ideas, ideas and experience.
- Express your own thoughts in written and verbal form, making it confidently, clearly and correctly for others.
- To study independently, which is called "academic mobility."
- Work and collaborate in a group.
- Form a constructive relationship with people.
The RCMCHP technology came to Russia in 1997. At present, it is actively used in its practice by teachers from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara, Novosibirsk and other cities.
Technology feature
The development of a critical type of thinking through reading and writing is a holistic system. When applied, children develop skills in working with information. The technology of the RCMCHP contributes to the preparation of such members of the society who in the future will be in demand by the state. At the same time, students will gain the ability to work on an equal footing and cooperate with people, as well as to lead and dominate.
The purpose of this technology is to develop the mental skills of children. Moreover, they can apply them not only for study, but also in everyday situations.
What is the need for critical thinking in the younger generation? The reasons for this are as follows:
- Critical thinking is independent. It allows each student to formulate their own assessments, ideas and beliefs. Moreover, each child does this regardless of the people around him. Thinking can be called critical if it is individual. The student should have enough freedom to think and find answers to everything, even the most difficult questions on his own. If a person thinks critically, this does not mean that he will constantly disagree with the point of view of his interlocutor. The main thing in this case is that people themselves decide what is bad and what is good. Thus, independence is the first and probably the most important feature of the characteristics of the critical type of thinking.
- The information received is considered the starting point for a critical type of thinking, but far from finite. Knowledge allows you to create motivation. Without it, a person simply cannot begin to think critically. In order for a complex thought to appear in the head, the human brain must process a huge amount of data, theories, concepts, texts and ideas. And this is impossible without a book, reading and writing. Their involvement is mandatory. The application of the RKMCHP technology allows you to teach a student the ability to perceive the most complex concepts, as well as to keep various information in his memory.
- With the help of critical thinking, the student is able to raise the question much faster and understand the problem that needs to be solved. Man is quite curious in nature. Noticing something new, we always strive to find out what it is. When applying the technology developed by American teachers, students analyze texts, collect data, compare opposing points of view, using the opportunity to discuss the issue in a team. Children themselves look for answers to their questions and find them.
- Critical thinking implies convincing argumentation. In this case, a person tries to find his own way out of the situation, supporting the decision with reasonable and reasonable conclusions.
Distinctive features of technology
The RKMCHP technique promotes the formation of skills to work with various information in the process of writing and reading. This encourages interest in the student, contributes to the manifestation of creative and research activity, and also allows you to use the amount of existing knowledge.
Thus, the conditions are provided for understanding a new topic, which helps the student to generalize and process the data.
The development of a critical type of thinking by the method of American educators is different:
- inconspicuous in nature;
- manufacturability;
- the assimilation of information and the development of communicative and reflective abilities;
- a combination of text skills and further communication about the data received;
- using work with texts as a tool for self-education.
Critical reading
In the RKMCHP technology, the text plays the leading role. It is read, and then retold, transformed, analyzed, interpreted.
What is the use of reading? If it is the opposite of the passive one, being active and thoughtful, then students begin to approach the information they receive more deeply. At the same time, they critically evaluate how justified and accurate the views of the author are on this or that issue. What is the use of reading a critical view? Pupils using this technique are less vulnerable to manipulation and deception than all other people.
Why do we need books in lessons that develop critical thinking? Their application allows the teacher to devote time to the strategy of semantic reading, as well as to work on the text. Those skills that are formed at the same time among students are classified as general educational. Their development allows us to provide the opportunity for the successful development of knowledge in a variety of subject areas.
By semantic reading is meant one in which children begin to understand the semantic content of the text.
What are books for when forming critical thinking? The fact is that the success of such a process largely depends on the development of the student's intelligence, on his literacy and education. That is why reading books is so important. For the development of intelligence and vocabulary, it is necessary to carefully select a list of references. It should help increase the amount of memory that is needed to store information.
An important point is the increase in vocabulary. Indeed, only in such a conversation, when a person expresses himself eloquently, he will attract the necessary attention.
In addition, books for the development of intelligence and vocabulary stimulate mental development, form experience. The images in the books are remembered so that in a similar case, “emerge” and be used.
Literature, depending on the age of the student, should be selected scientific or philosophical. Among these books can also be various works of art and poetry.
Technology goals
Learning to read and write, contributing to the development of critical thinking of students, will allow:
- to teach children to highlight causal relationships in the information received;
- reject incorrect or unnecessary data;
- to consider new knowledge and ideas in the context of those that students already have;
- to trace the relationship between the various pieces of information available;
- identify errors in utterances;
- to draw conclusions about whose ideological attitudes, interests and value orientations are reflected in the text or in the speech of the speaking person;
- avoid categorical statements;
- to reason honestly;
- identify false stereotypes that may lead to incorrect conclusions;
- be able to highlight biased relationships, judgments and opinions;
- identify facts that may be subject to verification;
- to separate in the text or in speech the main thing from the non-essential, focusing on the first;
- question the logical sequence of written or spoken language;
- to form a reading culture, which involves a free orientation in the sources of information, an adequate reading perception;
- stimulate independent search creative activity by launching self-organization and self-education mechanisms.
Features of the results
Using technology developed by American teachers, teachers need to understand that:
- The purpose of education is not the amount of information or the amount of knowledge that will be "laid" in the head of students. Children should be able to manage the data obtained, look for material in the most optimal way, find their own meaning in it and apply it in life in the future.
- In the learning process, there should not be the appropriation of ready-made knowledge, but the construction of one's own, born during the lesson.
- The principle of teaching practice should be communicative and active. It provides an interactive and interactive mode of conducting classes, a joint search for solutions to problems with partnerships between the teacher and his students.
- The critical thinking skills developed by students should not consist in finding faults. It should be an objective assessment of all the negative and positive sides of the knowable object.
- Unconfirmed assumptions, cliches, cliches and excessive generalizations can lead to the formation of stereotypes.
Base model
The lesson of the RCMCHP is built using a specific technological chain. It includes such links: challenge, as well as reflection and reflection. At the same time, the methods of the RCMCH can be applied at any lesson and for students of any age.
In this case, the teacher’s task is to become a thoughtful assistant for his students, to stimulate them to constant knowledge and to direct children to the formation of skills that allow them to develop productive thinking. Let us consider in more detail each of the stages of technology.
Call
This is the first stage of technology. Her passage is mandatory in every lesson. Stage "challenge" allows you to:
- summarize and actualize the knowledge that the student has on a particular problem or topic;
- arouse the student’s interest in new material and motivate him to study activity;
- Decide on the questions for which it is desirable to get answers;
- to intensify the work of the student not only in the lesson, but also at home.
At the “challenge” stage, students even before acquaintance with the text, which means not only written information, but also the video, as well as the teacher’s speech, begin to think about this or that material. At this stage, the goal is determined and the motivation mechanism is activated.
Comprehension
The tasks of this stage are completely different. At this stage, the student:
- receives information, and then comprehends it;
- correlates material with existing knowledge;
- looking for answers to those questions that were posed in the first part of the lesson.
The conceptualization stage involves working with text. This reading is accompanied by certain actions of the student, namely:
- markings that use the “v”, “+”, “?”, “-” icons (they are all put in the fields on the right as you read);
- finding the answer to your questions;
- compiling tables.
All this allows the student to obtain information, correlating new knowledge with existing knowledge, and conducting their systematization. Thus, the student independently monitors his understanding.
Reflection
The main at this stage is the following:
- generalization and holistic understanding of the information received;
- mastering by a schoolboy of new knowledge;
- the formation of each child’s personal relationship with the material being studied.
At the stage of reflection, that is, where information is generalized, the role of writing becomes dominant. It allows not only to understand new material, but also to reflect on what has been read, expressing new hypotheses.
"Basket of ideas"
Technology for the formation of a critical type of thinking involves the use of a variety of techniques. So, at the initial stage of the lesson, the teacher needs to organize individual and group work, in the process of which the actualization of experience and knowledge will take place. What techniques of the RCMCH technology can be used at this stage? As a rule, teachers make up the “Basket of Ideas”.
This technique makes it possible to find out everything that students know about the upcoming topic of the lesson. The teacher conducts work using the following algorithm:
- each student within 1-2 minutes writes in his notebook everything that he knows on a given topic;
- information is exchanged either in groups or between pairs;
- students name one fact without repeating what was said earlier;
- the received information is recorded in the “Basket of ideas” located on the chalkboard even if it is erroneous;
- correction of inaccuracies occurs as new information is received.
Consider an example of applying this principle of technology RKMCHP in the literature. The theme of the lesson is the study of the novel Crime and Punishment by F. Dostoevsky. At the initial stage, students describe in their notebooks everything that they know about this work. On the blackboard, the teacher draws a basket or attaches a picture with her image. After discussing the issue in groups, the following information can be recorded:
- Dostoevsky - Russian writer of the 19th century .;
- the punishment is ..;
- a crime is ...;
- the main character is Raskolnikov.
After this, the teacher conducts a lesson during which students conduct an analysis of each statement, comprehending it.
"Clusters"
Critical thinking techniques can be very different. To systematize the acquired knowledge, a method is often called the “Cluster”. It can be used when using the RKMCHP technology in elementary school and in high school, as well as at any stage of the lesson. The rules used to build the cluster are quite simple. To do this, you need to draw a model of our solar system. In the center of the image is the Sun. It is the theme of the lesson. Planets around the Sun are the largest semantic units. These images of celestial bodies must be connected to the star by a straight line. Each planet has satellites, which, in turn, also have their own. Such a system of clusters allows you to cover a large amount of information.
Often, teachers apply this principle of technology RKMCHP in mathematics. This allows you to form and develop the ability of students to highlight the most important features of the subject, to compare geometric shapes with each other and highlight the general properties of objects, building logical reasoning.
"True False"
Some of the techniques that develop children's critical thinking ability are based on the intuition of students and the application of their own experience. One of them is the one that bears the name "True-False." Most often it is used at the beginning of the lesson. The teacher offers students some statements that relate to a specific topic. Among them, children choose the faithful. A similar principle allows schoolchildren to learn new material. The competition element that is present allows the teacher to keep the attention of the class until the end of the lesson. After that, at the stage of reflection, the teacher returns to this technique. Then it turns out which of the initial statements is true.
Consider an example of how this principle is used when studying a new topic on the technology of RCMCHP in the lessons of the Russian language. Children are invited to answer a number of questions in the form of “yes” or “no”:
- Third declension nouns are written with a soft mark at the end.
- After the letter “e” and hissing “e” is written in the endings under stress.
- Nouns vary by gender.
- The section that studies parts of speech is morphology.
Insert
When working with this technique of critical thinking development technology, the teacher uses two steps. The first of these is reading, during which the student makes notes. The second step is to fill in the table.
In the process of reading the text, students need to make some notes in the margins. «v», « », «-», , , «+», , «?», , . . , . .
. , , .
The next step in the lesson is to fill out the table. It should have as many columns as the student indicated marking icons. After that, the text data is entered into the table. The Insert technique is considered quite effective at the stage of reflection.
Fishbone
This technique of the development of critical thinking in children is used while working with problematic texts. Translated from English, the word "fishbone" means "fish bone."
At the heart of this principle is a schematic diagram that has the shape of a fish skeleton. Depending on the age of the students, the imagination and desire of the teacher, this pattern can be vertical or horizontal. For example, elementary school students better draw a fish skeleton in its natural form. That is, the image should be horizontal.
The scheme includes four blocks interconnected by a link in the form of the main bone, namely:
- the head, that is, the problem, topic or question that is being analyzed;
- the upper bones (with a horizontal image of the skeleton) record those causes of the basic concept of the topic that led to the problem;
- lower bones indicate facts that confirm the existing causes or essence of the concepts depicted in the diagram;
- the tail serves for generalizations and conclusions when answering the question posed.
There are many other principles of RKMCHP technology, which are quite effective ways of developing critical thinking in children.