SAGE

"Social sciences tend to be more interdisciplinary than STEM, with inherently more 'sciency' disciplines, such as human geography or social psychology" (Dunleavy et al. 2014). These disciplines offer a widre range of new viewpoints and skills that will further students' future careers, skills that the STEM curricula can only dream of providing students. TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING Many institutions expect that critical thinking is a skill set that will be taught in the everyday classroom. Though many instructors are not sure how to best address their students and their need for critical thinking skills, they understand its importance. "If there is one thing that we know for sure, it is that thinking skills, general or otherwise, can't be learned if they're not taught in as overt a manner as other content in college courses" (Schlueter 2016). 10 Tips and Suggestions* 1. Take breaks 2. Challenge students, but give them slack if they struggle 3. Have students participate 4. Create interactive course content and have students interact with one another 5. Provide positive reinforcement 6. Have students collaborate 7. Allow students to question everything 8. Keep background knowledge in mind 9. Consider different approaches a. Prioritize different points within the assignment and throughout the course b. Recognize other points of view c. Reverse engineer 10. Teach students to accept outside opinions without letting things become too personal, allowing the topic at hand to surface to be discussed successfully * Bellaera, 2017; Bowman, 2016; Nold, 2017; Watanabe-Crockett, 2018 CONCLUSION While teaching critical thinking is crucial in higher education, doing it successfully can be tricky. Every discipline is different in terms of the critical thinking skills necessary, but all disciplines should teach self-regulation and strategic thinking. There are numerous techniques instructors can use in their classrooms, all dependent on teaching styles and the course. However, a common research finding is that critical thinking skills can be influenced and enhanced to a point where students themselves can notice their advancement in just a semester (Nold 2017, Schnieder-Cline 2017 and Pawlak 2016). Self-regulation and strategic thinking play fundamental roles in these results and are essential to successful critical thinking skill development, academic achievement, and career readiness.

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