According to John C. Bean, author of Engaging Ideas, there are several practices that promote critical thinking. By assigning tasks that encourage students to apply their understanding, students begin to formulate an solid foundation of the content. Bean suggests these strategies:
- Increasing Active Learning in Lecture Classes – provide a question or problem students have to solve, use technology to support content, and use formal and informal writing assignments
- Develop Exploratory Writing Tasks Keyed to Your Lectures – the trick is to create low-risk activities where students have to apply their knowledge from their assigned readings
- Ask Student to Write Summaries of One or More of Your Lectures – have students write a paragraph or a page summarizing the lecture you gave
- Break the Pace of a Lecture Using “Minute Papers” – at an appropriate break in your lecture, stop and have students freewrite in response to a question