Middle and High School Critical Thinking Report

 "This report focuses on several elements of students' deeper learning based on fall 2023 and spring 2024 surveys administered to American School District Panel member district leaders. It summarizes how district leaders believe middle and high schoolers' critical thinking skills are best developed in their schools, whether students' input about teaching and learning is collected in these schools, district leaders' examples of their schools' most effective forms of project-based learning, and districts' theories of action for teaching and learning.

Key Findings

• District leaders' examples of successful teaching of critical thinking skills fell into four main categories: teachers posing high-level questions, project-based learning, real-world problem-solving activities, and activities that students chose.
• These examples align with research on effective methods for teaching critical thinking.
• According to reports from district leaders, districts engaged in a wide variety of project-based learning, most commonly science, technology, engineering, math, and career and technical education classes.
• Seven of ten school district leaders reported formally collecting students’ input about teaching and learning, which is another element of deeper learning."

Schwartz, H., & Diliberti, M.  (2024). Encouraging deeper learning in middle and high school: Selected findings from America school district panel surveys. RAND.

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA900/RRA956-28/RAND_RRA956-28.pdf

Media Literacy Study

 "A new survey finds that most people did not learn to reflect on media messages in school, and few learned to use media literacy skills when considering science news. Only 38% of survey respondents reported learning to analyze media messaging in high school. However, a majority of respondents – 84% – said they supported required media literacy education in schools."

Media Literacy Now and Reboot Foundation. (2022). Science Fictions: Low Science Knowledge and Poor Critical Thinking Are Linked To Conspiracy Beliefs. Reboot Foundation. 

https://medialiteracynow.org/nationalsurvey2022/     https://reboot-foundation.org/research/science-fictions-low-science-knowledge-poor-critical-thinking-linked-to-conspiracy-beliefs/

Instruction Techniques in Libraries

Using data from the 2011-12 Colorado School Library Survey, this report examines how often endorsed school librarians engage in activities that foster students’ development of 21st-century skills. The results indicate that the most frequent activity across Colorado public school libraries with endorsed librarians, regardless of grade level or enrollment, was “teach students to use digital resources”; 7 in 10 respondents reported helping students develop this skill at least once a week. About 3 in 5 respondents reported that they help students apply critical thinking skills (roughly two thirds) and use technology to organize and share information (over half) at least once a week.

Colorado Department of Education (2012). 21st-century instruction strategies in Colorado school libraries. Colorado, U.S.: Colorado Department of Education. https://www.lrs.org/documents/fastfacts/314_21st_Century_Skills_School_Libraries.pdf

Library Resources Help Build Skills

A recent study at a large, public, research-extensive university “suggest(s) that first-year students who used a library resource at least once were significantly more likely than their peers who did not use the library to report development of critical thinking and analytical skills, written communication skills, and reading comprehension skills”.

Soria, K. M., Peterson, K., Fransen, J., Nackerud, S., & Association of Research Libraries (2017). Impact of academic library resources on first-year students’ learning outcomes. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries. http://publications.arl.org/rli290/5

Study on children's books that portray animals

Animals with human traits in children's books lead to less-factual learning
A recent study showed that children's books that portray animals with human characteristics hindered factual learning, abstract thinking and conceptual reasoning about animals. "Books that portray animals realistically lead to more learning and more accurate biological understanding," said the study's author Patricia Ganea, a psychologist at the University of Toronto.
Ganea, P.  et al. (2014). Do cavies talk? The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf