 Santoso makes sure that, in every discussion, he asks

questions when he does not understand what is being

said. He asks the speaker to elaborate, or he repeats
what he has heard based on his own comprehension
just to make sure that he and the speaker have a
common understanding about what is being
discussed. Here are some of the questions that
Santoso uses to make sure what is being discussed is
clear:
 • “Can you clarify what you just said?”
 • “If I understand it correctly, do you mean…?”
 • “Can you clarify some of the terms you
mentioned?”
 Santoso also makes sure that people clearly understand
what he is saying. When he is talking to others, he checks
for any misunderstanding and tries to clarify things.
Here are some of the questions that he asks:
 • “Was my discussion clear enough?”
 • “May I ask how you understand what I just
explained?”
 • “Is there anything that is not clear?”
 Santoso also likes hearing different viewpoints. During a
discussion, he will encourage others to share their
viewpoints and ideas. If he hears a new idea, he likes
thinking and talking about it. He has often been able to
find new ways of teaching certain subjects by listening to
the ideas of others.
Critical Thinking - Seeking
Clarity and Accuracy
 You encounter issues, problems and ideas in
your daily life, and you often react to them
based on your limited understanding. One of
the ways you can develop your thinking skills
is to seek clarity and understanding when
encountering an issue, problem or idea.
 Practicing critical thinking by seeking
clarity and being open to new ideas is
one way of integrating higher order
thinking skills in your life as a teacher.
 What specific instances in your life as a
teacher have you encountered that you
needed to seek clarity and accuracy,
particularly in resolving issues or problems,
or in generating ideas, or even in considering
different arguments when making decisions?
Here are some ways that you can
develop your critical thinking by
seeking clarity and accuracy in your
thoughts and discussions (Epstein,
1999):

• Ask for more explanation when

statements are too vague.
• Seek clarity when the
statement is ambiguous.
•Ask for definitions of
certain concepts or terms.
•Consider the
viewpoints of others.
 Can you think of situations in your life as a
teacher where you can benefit from seeking
clarity and accuracy and by having an open
mind? How might this help you become a
better teacher?
 When faced with a problem or challenge, Alona keeps
trying to address or solve the problem until she finds
a workable solution. Sometimes it takes many days or
weeks before she gets the “inspiration” for a certain
solution. Even if a challenge is very difficult, she does
not give up – she looks at the challenge from many
different angles, and tries to think of as many ideas as
she can. She often tries to search for additional
information about the problem or issue in order to
understand more about it.
 Many times, Alona has asked for help from colleagues
for solving a problem, or in finding new ways to
make learning Math more exciting. She uses a
technique to generate as many ideas as she can from
herself and her colleagues, and she considers all the
ideas as possible solutions. She encourages herself
and others to think of ideas that may seem strange or
weird at first – she likes finding “out-of-the-box”
ideas.
 Didyou get a good idea of the type of
thinking skills that Alona manifests as a
teacher?

 Wereyou able to see these same skills in

yourself or in other colleagues?
Here are some ways by which you
can improve your creative thinking:

• Always persevere.
•Do not be content with what you already
know.
• Think of new and unconventional ways to
look at the problem.
 To develop your creative thinking, you need
to open yourself up to exploring a subject or
issue so you can generate many alternatives
to address the situation. Once you are open to
exploring a subject, you can use powerful
thinking tools to help you think critically and
creatively about a situation, generate
appropriate alternatives, and make decisions.
There are different tools for developing
thinking skills.
Metacognition,

 which involves thinking about your

own thinking. When you practice
metacognition, you understand better
how you learn and how you think.
Knowing this, you can adapt to
different situations to maximize your
learning and understanding of a
subject.
• Critical thinking,
 whichincludes seeking clarity and examining
statements as to their truth value.
• Asking questions,
 which should be done when statements are
vague, and by asking for definitions when
statements are ambiguous or are understood
differently by different people.
• Plus, Minus, Interesting
(PMI),
 whichhelps in weighing the “pros” and
“cons” and implications of a decision.
The steps in doing a PMI are actually
quite simple:

 Step1: Think about all the Plus or good

points of the subject.

 Think of as many good points as you can. Let

the ideas flow even if they may seem contrary
or unconventional. Be open to each idea and
resist the temptation to judge any idea as you
think of it. Put it down on paper right away.
 Step2: Think about all the Minus or bad
points of the subject.

 Again,think of as many minus points as you

can. Keep the ideas flowing and do not
immediately judge any of the ideas that you
come up with.
 Step 3: Think of all the Interesting points.

 You may put down all the points that are

neither positive nor negative under the
interesting category. You can use a simple
phrase in scanning the interesting points by
saying: “It would be interesting to see if…”
Let’s take a look at how you might
work out the idea above using PMI:
 Idea: Allow students to construct their own tests

 Plus:Less work for the teacher, students will know

exactly what to focus on for study, students will likely
perform well on the tests, teachers will get a better
gauge of what the students already know and
understand, students will provide feedback on the
topics that interest them the most and the topics
they find difficult
 Minus: Students may likely make the test too
easy, teacher can’t control coverage of the
subject matter on the test, standardization of
assessment is difficult across different classes
 Interesting to see: level of difficulty the students will set
for the test, the coverage of the test, student motivation
to study and perform well, level of achievement of
learning objectives
• Idea mapping,
 which involves exploring ideas and problems
in a visual way.
• Reflective thinking,
 which helps you assess your actions and
thoughts to help in your decision making.
 involves stepping back and looking at how
you solved a particular problem or how you
approached a particular situation. You can
use reflective thinking to determine what you
did right and what you did wrong in a
particular situation.