Critical thinking requires that students closely work with given information and apply it using higher level thinking skills.  This means that rote memorization and basic comprehension will not be enough.  In the Eduscape write up on critical thinking, it discussed how Benjamin Bloom developed six cognitive levels of thinking.  From basic to complex they are:  knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  The latter three levels demonstrate higher level thinking skills that must be utilized during critical thinking.  This is the type of thinking good teachers are engaging their students in daily so that they can prepare their students for the 21st century workforce.  This means that these teachers continually require their students to not only “know” tidbits of information, but rather students must do something with this information.  As the Eduscape article on critical thinking pointed out, this might mean students are hypothesizing, critiquing, planning, sequencing, classifying, comparing, and problem solving.  All of these skills will be necessary to compete in a job market that is becoming increasingly technological.  In other words, our students must possess these skills in order to compete internationally with others.

Technology definitely plays a role in getting students to look critically at their own learning.  This is because technology often sparks interest and is often hands-on in nature.  In yesterday’s classrooms, students often memorized facts and sat quietly until called upon to share.  Today’s classrooms are much different in that students are truly connected to the world outside of their classrooms.  As the NCREL article, A Critical Issue, pointed out, students can either learn with or from a computer.  Indeed,  computers have found their niche in modern day classrooms.  As stated before, this is in response to the demand for workers to possess such skills in the 21st century job market.  School districts not only want students to simply know certain facts, they want their students to possess technology skills along with an intellectual toolbox that they can draw upon at any moment in novel situations.  Computers are helping our students develop these necessary skills needed to problem solve.  In addition, technology has helped today’s students draw upon their newly acquired “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy.”  In other words, technology has helped students think more critically through the practice of six critical ICT literacy skills:  communicating effectively, analyzing and interpreting data, understanding computational modeling, prioritizing tasks, engaging in problem solving, and ensuring security and safety.  These skills translate into necessary traits in today’s workforce.  Also, technology access has helped student scores improve on several different assessments according to the NCREL article.  This means that students are benefiting from technology in the classroom.  Now, it is our job to make sure that all students have equal access to this technology so that all students may reap the benefits that technology has to offer.