Recently, New York City District 18 focused their professional development plan on helping their elementary and middle school principals deepen their understanding of critical thinking.  Although the leaders were working within their respective schools to deepen teachers’ understanding around questioning and discussion, there was no common understanding across all district schools regarding how critical thinking manifests itself in questioning, discourse and assessment.

LCI partnered with District 18 over the course of the school year to help build that common understanding.  The professional development took place over the course of six onsite sessions, two of which consisted of classroom walkthroughs in both an elementary and middle school.  During the classroom walkthroughs we identified both promising practices and opportunities for growth to promote critical thinking in the classroom. 

At the end of the six-day program the participants not only had a deeper understanding of how to define and recognize critical thinking in their schools, but they were able to implement what they learned at their schools in various ways. One principal explained that “the way in which we engage in providing students opportunities to engage in rigorous tasks and critical thinking has been greatly impacted.  It has driven a lot of learning and reflection.  We still have room to grow but have taken HUGE steps.” 

During the last session, various schools presented on how they were taking the concepts and skills learned during the sessions and implementing them to bring change in their schools.  One school provided artifacts of performance assessment tasks that were revised to include deeper thinking and an authentic audience.  Other schools explained how they were using the tools that were introduced during the sessions to review lessons and assessment tasks at their schools.

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