Willingham’s article shows what educators have known for years; that our students need to think critically. He recalls the 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education that showed 17-year olds did not show higher level thinking skills that the country needed. This report was so important that by 1990 the majority of states had curriculum in place for teachers to teach their students critical thinking skills. Willingham contends that these programs were ineffective and that is why students still struggle with critical thinking skills. The author unloads his bombshell and asks the reader this question: “Can critical thinking actually be taught?” This caused me to pause and think. We have been told for years that critical thinking is important for learning and that it should be part of any teacher’s lesson plans. I, along with other teachers, thought that we were teaching critical thinking skills. However, Willingham states that critical thinking is not a skill that can be easily taught. He explains why thinking critically is so hard and starts with problem solving, a component of critical thinking that has been studied at length. The author illustrates with examples that students can indeed think critically when thought processes are mixed in with the subject being taught. Willingham shows us that students tend to “focus on a problem’s surface structure” and “fail to apply familiar solutions to problems that appear new.” In one example students in a math class are working on word problems. They have two different problems that require the same mathematical knowledge. They can solve the first problem but struggle with the second one. Willingham believes the...
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