Context Is a Must for Developing Critical Thinkin

I think the author makes an excellent case for the need to have students consider context. In too many classrooms students look to teachers for the "one right answer" rather than thinking mo... See More

I think the author makes an excellent case for the need to have students consider context. In too many classrooms students look to teachers for the "one right answer" rather than thinking more deeply about the subject at hand. Having students consider the context for observations they have made and engaging in dialogue with their peers to share and consider ideas that might be different underscores the idea of a shared understanding of phenomenon. A personal example occurred as a result of a local grant I received to bring the tropical rain forest of Belize alive to my rural, Title 1 students via a missionary friend who was also photographer. As I looked at the first batch of pictures she'd taken, I realized that while she had captured great shots of the living rain forest, my students were at a loss because they did not have a context for them. As a result, she included familiar objects and tools for measuring size in subsequent pictures to help students get a sense of the relative