Overview

It’s About Time: Critical Thinking Project Summary

  Our project focused on developing learning experiences for our grade 8 students that allow them to develop their critical thinking abilities. We looked at developing activities, games and exercises that support the curriculum and are challenging and engaging to the learner. We were especially interested in developing critical thinking resources that engage our reluctant and struggling learners. Among the resources used was “The Timber Game”, which is a role-playing game allowing students to explore the various viewpoints of stakeholders in economic development. The various stakeholders have conflicting points of view. Students role-play with different groups and learn to collaborate and resolve conflict situations. In order to resolve conflict, students need to understand all points of view presented in role as well as understand their own values and the values of others. They learn to empathize and/or respect the values of groups presented in role. We have included a resource template that can be adapted for a variety of different applications for role-playing, viewing media texts, and with written texts in a literacy context. This resource template can be used for assessment for, as, and of learning. It provided prompts to encourage critical thought.