Belvins, R. (2009). Journal of Developmental Education, 27(1), 36-41.

Retrieved from
http://www.edarticle.com/articles/43448/the-importance-of-teaching-critical-
thinking.php#.VAVceZUcSm8 on 10 December 2015

Ronda Belvins generally touches on the fact that critical thinking skills are vital to students’
academic performance. The journal article aims to inform the educators as well as policy
makers on the importance of critical thinking skills in the education environment and the
ways to enhance them. Belvins (2009) lists various studies conducted on the need to
enhance critical thinking skills thus enabling students to perform better academically.
Students must be taught to focus on the ‘why’ instead of ‘what’. According to Vaniassel
Baska et. al. (2009) and Mc Collister & Sayler (2010), skills like examining information and
evaluating information and sources are crucial in many standardized assessments. Without
these skills, students will have difficulties answering questions posed while being assessed.
These skills can be incorporated into a teacher’s daily lesson (Snodgrass, 2011). Some of
the ways include incorporating the use of online activities. However, teachers need to be
trained on how to teach so as to achieve the target result. Therefore, there is a need to
create professional learning groups so that teachers can learn from one another and
uncover different techniques (Smith & Szymanski, 2013). Moreover, Belvins (2009) suggests
that critical thinking skills are not only employed in subjects such as reading, math, language
arts, science and social studies. In short, critical thinking skills can be taught to students in
all the subjects offered in schools. Overall, this article is conclusively written as it is
supported by many academic studies. Also, the article is very objective in nature as many
works are cited. The language used is also easy to understand and the arguments are
logically arranged. Those who are interested in the subject matter discussed will be able to
gain much interest in the studies cited.