Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 14 Instructional Methods 311 Before you read the descriptions of these specific teaching strategies, how- ever, the chapter explores some essentials for success with any instructional method. Teachers build students’ development of critical-thinking skills at every level and in all subjects. There are also some skills directly related to effective teaching that you should add to your tool kit. These skills are keys to making instructional methods work in the classroom. The end of the chap- ter includes some guidelines for choosing the most appropriate instructional method for a particular situation. Together, these topics will give you a better understanding of considerations involved in teaching decisions. Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking Too often, people think about education in terms of the amount of infor- mation learned. Knowledge is certainly important however, in this age of swiftly changing information, well-developed thinking skills are even more essential. They prepare learners to deal with new situations and challenges far into the future. What kinds of thinking skills do different tasks require? As you learned in Chapter 13, Benjamin Bloom considered that question when developing Bloom’s Taxonomy. Many teachers still use his tax- onomy, or the Revised Taxonomy, as a basis for understanding and teaching various levels of cog- nitive complexity in learning objectives. As you know, Revised Bloom’s has six lev- els of thinking. The lower levels—Remember, Understand, and Apply—are the most basic. The upper levels—Analyze, Evaluate, and Create— are more difficult to learn but very important. Together, the complex combinations of skills in the three upper levels require higher-order thinking skills, or critical thinking. Critical thinking allows people to gather information, evaluate its quality, and use it effectively. Figure 14.2 identifies some verbs to use that indicate critical thinking or high- er-order thinking skills. Demonstration Skit/Presentation Discussion Examples of Instructional Methods Left to right: Stigur Már Karlsson/Heimsmyndir/E+/Getty Images kali9/E+/Getty Images asiseeit/E+/Getty Images Figure 14.1 Teachers choose instructional methods best suited to their topics, learning objectives, and class situations. Verbs for Higher-order Thinking Analyze Evaluate Create Analyze Compare Contrast Diagram Differentiate Distinguish Illustrate Outline Parse Predict Question Recognize Select Conclude Critique Deduce Defend Detect Discriminate Formulate Interpret Judge Justify Plan Predict Revise Assemble Categorize Compose Design Devise Explore Generate Hypothesize Infer Integrate Organize Rearrange Summarize Figure 14.2 The verbs teachers choose for objectives identify the cognitive processes for higher-order thinking skills they want students to develop.