Critical thinking webquest for parents who wish to develop their knowledge of this area

1. Critical Thinking Webquest

2. Introduction
This webquest is designed to develop your knowledge of critical
thinking and how it develops. During the quest you will
• Explore the components of Critical Thinking and why they are
important
• Gain an understanding of Bloom's Taxonomy; the different thinking
levels
• Develop your own checklist of powerful questions to help move
your child’s thinking to the next level.
The quest will take around 1 hour to complete.
To successfully complete this webquest you should complete the tasks
outlined in the quest. But first a look at the aim of this quest.

3. Learning Outcomes
Through this webquest you will:
• examine the core components of critical
thinking, including Bloom's taxonomy of thinking
• Explore tools which can help support the
development of critical thinking
• Use your knowledge of critical thinking to
develop a series of questions which can be used
to help move thinking to the next level

4. Task 1: Defining Critical Thinking
1. How would you define “critical thinking"? Use
www.criticalthinking.net especially the pages
“What is critical thinking?” and “for parents” to
help fill in the blanks in the following paragraph.
“ Thinking critically means asking ............... , instead of
accepting ‘at face value’ what you read or hear, critical
thinkers look for ........ and for ......... before believing
something to be true.”

5. Task 2: The 21st Century Thinker
Reflects on
learning
Image adapted from
www.mentoringminds.com
Read this blog post
which provides a
good insight into the
skills a 21st Century
Thinker requires and
the reasons they
have become so
important.

6. Task 3: The core components of
critical thinking
What are the core components of critical
thinking?
Familiarise yourself with each of the
components included in the critical thinking
circle. (Tip – click each element in turn to
reveal further information about this aspect)

7. Task 3: Bloom’s Taxonomy
“ Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably
the reason why so few engage in it. “ Henry Ford
Benjamin Bloom developed a model (taxonomy) to classify the
various levels of thinking complexity.
Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Applying
Use the following links to develop
your knowledge of Bloom’s
taxonomy:
This video provides a general
outline of all 6 levels
Understanding
Remembering
This site provides an example of
Bloom being applied

8. Task 4: Using Bloom’s taxonomy to
help develop critical thinking
The final task in this web quest is to develop a series of
prompt questions you can use to help move your
child’s thinking to the next “deeper” level.
A template to help you record these is available here.
The following links may provide further sources of help:
Bloom Questions
14 brilliant blooms taxonomy posters for teachers
25 questions based around Bloom's taxonomy