COVER STORY
high school Design teacher George Baxter, as he explained how
students should not only fill up on information and knowledge, but
also understand and be able to apply that which they have acquired.
Mr. Baxter feels that students should be able to form opinions on
what they have learned, be able to discuss issues around it, and even
challenge the knowledge they receive. This is critical thinking; it is
not about filling the mind, but about liberating it. The other side of
the critical thinking coin is ‘inquiry.’ Together with guiding students
on critically analyzing knowledge, teachers also train them in
information gathering through inquiry and research, or as in primary
school by first piquing their curiosity.
Creativity: Energizing the Body
The primary school uses the International Primary Curriculum (read
Gary Bradshaw’s article on the IPC in this issue), which is theme
based and executed through units and concepts. The start of every
IPC unit is inquiry through the first stage – Entry Point. This is
inevitably linked to critical thinking as primary school teacher Virva
Palosaari explains: “I was very impressed to hear my grade 2 students
come to the conclusion that ‘living together’ meant working together
and cooperating. Some even said that they needed to listen to each
other, and avoid fighting.” These observations were made at the end
of a couple of entry-point activities of the unit ‘Living Together.’
The entry-point activities are mostly collective exercises, which lead
them to inquire and think critically together.
Creativity is not restricted to the Arts subjects. It is the lifeline
of every subject taught at Keystone – from Music to Math and
Science to Social Studies. Middle and high school English Language
Acquisition teacher Audrey Moh gave her grade 7 students one
such opportunity in their unit on poetry: “The unit was ‘Poetry
and Song,’ and students learned about how poetry and song can
be used to express one’s personal, social and cultural experiences
creatively. The aim of the unit is to allow students, at the end, to
be able to experiment with language, and come up with different
forms of expression. After they learned how to write with structure
and how to adhere to some of the conventions of English, this unit
created a playground for them to be risk-takers, and experiment with
expression,” explained Ms. Moh.
Primary school Chinese Teacher, Shi Mei could not agree more:
“Critical thinking is very important, and it must be nurtured from a
very young age. I try to teach my students that they must understand,
reflect and question the information they research. However, I also
teach them that people have a right to opinions, which they may
or may not choose to agree with.” Variety of opinions is something
Wesley Wu from grade 10 has also become familiar with: “What
stood out for me when researching for my history project on
nationalist leaders is how different historians have different opinions
about the same leader. This assignment made me think more
critically about history.”
14 THE KEYSTONE MAGAZINE
Whether researching in History or following a line of inquiry in
Science, critical thinking lays the foundation for creativity. From
presenting what students have learned in innovative ways to
using the lessons to create something entirely new, students are
consistently urged and given plenty of opportunities to create and
be creative. “It is a question of getting students to the ‘what if ’ stage,”
says middle and high school Design teacher Jenny Small adding, “to
get students to want to try and experiment instead of just repeating
the taught processes.”
Character Development: Nurturing the Soul
However, all the creative and critical thinking lessons cannot make
up for one important ingredient in a person’s education – character
development. Speaking on ‘The Future of Education,’ at a Harvard
Business School Alumni event in Beijing, Head of School Malcolm
McKenzie emphasized this very point: “The future of education
is here. Schools like Keystone are blending the best pedagogies
and curricula to cater to a changing world. But the real future of
education cannot be realized without also focusing on the character
development of students.”