Critical Thinking in the Classroom and Debate Club

One of the most important skills for our children to be learning in today’s world is critical thinking. This is a skill which is undervalued at many school, and ignored in different age groups, all the way from Primary to University levels.

As a former university teacher, I was often astounded at the number of 18 to 23 year old who were unable to apply critical thinking in the classroom. In my ethics classes, I ran regular sessions which had students debate different complex ethical issues such as assisted suicide, abortion, or various areas of business ethics. I found that many students had no idea about how to think about a topic from various perspectives. They had simply never thought to see the issue from someone else’s viewpoint.

Now, as a Year 6 teacher, sometimes I get the comment from many people that this age group is not able to learn critical thinking. This mindset sells our children short significantly. I include these skills every year, from our propaganda posters, to our video interviews to our discussions on graffiti and street art. This also occurs naturally as different events and happenings occur at the school.

But I view the upper primary students as being capable of so much more. This is why I will be starting a debate and critical thinking club specifically for Upper Primary Students in January. I hope that this club will be a success and of great benefit to our students. Please contact me if you may be interested, though the official signup will not happen for a handful of weeks yet.

Thanks for reading.