The following blog post was written by Rebecca Stobaugh.To read more newsworthy blog posts from Eye On Education, subscribe to our Insights eNewsletters.

The importance of critical thinking is noted in the new national standards. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative directly identifies higher-order thinking skills as critical to achieving career and college readiness for all students. As educators pursue CCSS alignment, it is crucial to design curricula and assessment systems that engage students in higher-level thinking tasks that provide opportunities for students to evaluate information. This white paper will focus on one critical thinking skill that students need to learn—how to evaluate.

Level 5: Evaluate
Evaluate is the fifth level of Bloom's taxonomy; typically the Analyze level and other lower cognitive processes are employed to engage in Evaluate-level thinking. In a courtroom, the judge makes a decision by weighing the evidence and deciding the best outcome. At the Evaluate level, informational sources are examined to assess their quality and decisions are made based on the identifies criteria. There are two processes in the Evaluate level: Checking and Critiquing.

 

To read more about how to teach students to evaluate information, download
"How to Teach Students to Evaluate Information: A Key Common Core Skill."