Critical thinking

Critical thinking for kids: five 10-minute routines

Critical thinking is a habit, not a lesson. These five routines give your child a few simple questions to ask about anything: a photo, a news story, an advert.

Where these come from

Each routine is a published "thinking routine" from Project Zero, a research centre at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Many IB schools use them in class. The questions are theirs. The home examples are mine.

How to use them

  1. Pick one routine a week. Use the same one until the questions feel normal.
  2. Use something real. A photo, a cereal box, a headline, a page from a picture book.
  3. Ask, then wait. Give at least ten seconds of quiet before you help.
  4. No wrong answers, only reasons. Ask "why do you think that?" instead of correcting.
Look closely

See, Think, Wonder

  1. What do you see?
  2. What do you think about that?
  3. What does it make you wonder?

At home: show a photo from today's news, with the caption covered. Your child describes only what's there before guessing what's going on.

Builds: careful looking before deciding. Project Zero's page

Back it up

Claim, Support, Question

  1. Make a claim about the topic.
  2. What supports your claim?
  3. What question does it leave? What isn't explained?

At home: read a claim on a food box, like "healthy" or "natural". Is it true? What on the box backs it up? What does the box leave out?

Builds: reasoning with evidence. Project Zero's page

Start curious

Think, Puzzle, Explore

  1. What do you think you know about this?
  2. What questions or puzzles do you have?
  3. How might you explore them?

At home: use it before a new school topic, a museum trip or a documentary. Keep the list and check it afterwards: what changed?

Builds: curiosity and a plan to find out. Project Zero's page

Other views

Circle of Viewpoints

  1. Who might see this differently? List them.
  2. Pick one: "I'm thinking of ___ from the viewpoint of ___."
  3. "I think…" and "A question I have from this viewpoint is…"

At home: a new playground is planned. How does it look to a child, a neighbour, a shop owner, a bird in the tree?

Builds: seeing more than one side. Project Zero's page

Join the dots

Connect, Extend, Challenge

  1. How does this connect to what you already know?
  2. What new idea extended your thinking?
  3. What is still a challenge or a puzzle?

At home: after a book, a film or a trip, ask the three questions over dinner. Each person answers one.

Builds: linking new ideas to old ones. Project Zero's page

Fridge card: five routines

  • See, Think, Wonder: What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder?
  • Claim, Support, Question: What's the claim? What backs it up? What's missing?
  • Think, Puzzle, Explore: What do I know? What puzzles me? How can I find out?
  • Circle of Viewpoints: Who sees this differently? What would they think?
  • Connect, Extend, Challenge: What's familiar? What's new? What's still puzzling?

Routines: Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. pz.harvard.edu

Part of a bigger set of skills

Critical thinking is one of the five skill areas IB schools build. See all five, with home ideas for each.

Norman Go is independent and not connected to Project Zero or the International Baccalaureate Organization. General ideas, not educational advice.

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