ENHANCING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

Аннотация

Critical thinking is essential to effective learning and productive living. Since critical thinking can be defined in a number of different ways consistent with each other, we should not put a lot of weight on any one definition. Definitions are at best scaffolding for the mind. Critical thinking is thinking about humans thinking while they are thinking in order to make thinking better. Two things are crucial: critical thinking is not just thinking, but thinking which entails self-improvement; this improvement comes from skill in using standards by which one appropriately assesses thinking. Key words: Critical thinking, enhancing, task based learning, tool, aspects, goals. Critical thinking is the study of clear and unclear thinking. It is primarily used in the field of education, and not in psychology, because it does not refer to a theory of thinking. Benjamin Bloom's contribution for the development of Critical Thinking for academic purposes was grate. Bloom’s taxonomy was first developed in 1956 by a group of educational psychologists headed by Benjamin Bloom. Since that time it has been utilized by teachers in the presentation of curriculum. In 2001, Bloom’s taxonomy underwent some modifications by educators, L.W. Anderson and D.R. Krathwohl. Although these educators changed the vocabulary, the underlying intent remains the same and is still used by teachers to encourage critical thinking and learning in the classroom. Researchers Teresa, Annie and Grahamster say that our thinking can only be effective if it is based on reality. Reality is objective it exists independently of your desires, wishes, whims, and objectives. Your thinking will be productive to the extent Выпуск журнала №-24 Часть–2_ Апрель –2025 126 MODERN EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT that you are able to accurately perceive and interpret this reality. This requires objectivity–the ability to separate "what is" from what you might want to believe or what might be more comforting to believe. A closed mind is cut off from reality. The closed mind thinker can easily be recognized; he or she has a rigid set of opinions and attitudes that are not open to discussion. Such a thinker cannot be reasoned with, since this process involves processing new input. If you feel as if you are talking to a brick wall, you are probably dealing with a closed mind thinker. However, being open minded does not mean that you should not stand by the truth as you know it, or that you must accept every point of view. Truth will withstand questioning; only illusion is threatened by the exchange of thought. An entrepreneur and veteran journalist Jen Saunders writes that if one hasn't developed any critical thinking skills, he or she won't get too far in college. Academics orchestrate the way in which people research and write at the college and university levels. Critical thinking skills help to promote respect for truth and knowledge within the folds of scholarship. Critical thinking skills not only stand behind a set of principles, they also make people successful in their ability to grasp and comprehend academic subjects at higher levels.Flynn (1989) describes an instructional model for problem solving which promotes analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of ideas. She states that, "when we ask students to analyze we expect them to clarify information by examining the component parts. Beck (1989) adopts a similar perspective, using the term "reasoning" to imply higher order thinking skills. To put it briefly, it is self-improvement (in thinking) through standards (that assess thinking). To think well is to impose discipline and restraint on our thinking-by means of intellectual standards — in order to raise our thinking to a level of "perfection" or quality that is not natural or likely in undisciplined, spontaneous thought. The dimension of critical thinking least understood is that of "intellectual standards." Most teachers were not taught how to assess thinking through standards; indeed, often the thinking of teachers themselves is very "undisciplined" and reflects a lack of internalized intellectual standards. One of the most important distinctions that teachers need to routinely make, and which takes disciplined thinking to make, is that Выпуск журнала №-24 Часть–2_ Апрель –2025 127 MODERN EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT between reasoning and subjective reaction. If we are trying to foster quality thinking, we don't want students simply to assert things; we want them to try to reason things out on the basis of evidence and good reasons. Often, teachers are unclear about this basic difference. Many teachers are apt to take student writing or speech which is fluent and witty or glib and amusing as good thinking. They are often unclear about the constituents of good reasoning. Hence, even though a student may just be asserting things, not reasoning things out at all, if she is doing so with vivacity and flamboyance, teachers are apt to take this to be equivalent to good reason