Preparing Creative and Critical Thinkers

This from ASCD:

Teachers can help students become 21st-century problem solvers by introducing them to a broad range of thinking tools.

If you doubt that we live in a world of accelerating change, just consider the everyday life experiences of millions of children and teenagers today:

• They can view live images from every corner of the world and talk with or exchange video images with other young people who live many time zones away.


• They have more technology in their classrooms (and in many cases, in their
  backpacks) than existed in the workplaces of their parents 20 years ago.


• They will study subjects that were unknown when their teachers and parents
  were students, and they may well enter careers that do not exist today.


• In contrast with most of their parents, more of today's young people will
  routinely come into contact with other people of diverse backgrounds and
  experiences. They will grow up to interact, collaborate, and compete with others around the globe.

Once upon a time, educators might have said to their students, "If you'll pay close attention to what I'm going to teach you, you'll learn everything you need to know for a successful life." It's doubtful that this message was ever entirely true, but it's certainly not true today. We don't know all the information that today's students will need or all the answers to the questions they will face. Indeed, increasingly, we don't even know the questions.

These realities mean that we must empower students to become creative thinkers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers—people who are continually learning and who can apply their new knowledge to complex, novel, open-ended challenges; people who will proceed confidently and competently into the new horizons of life and work...