Critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration are among the skills students need to be successful in life after high school. To foster those skills, local educational agencies must cultivate deeper learning and encourage students to be active participants in their education — but that can be easier said than done.
A recent report from Rand Corp. summarizes how district leaders believe middle and high schoolers’ critical-thinking skills are best developed in their schools, whether student input about teaching and learning is collected and acted upon, examples of some of the most effective forms of project-based learning and more.
The report defines critical thinking as “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanations of the considerations on which that judgment is based.”
According to the report, “A throughline in district leaders’ reports about their districts’ promotion of students’ critical thinking was the centrality of engaging students in activities in which they were active designers or participants in learning rather than passive consumers of information.”
Researchers analyzed responses from surveys administered to American School District Panel district leaders in fall 2023 and spring 2024 — 421 in all. Authors of the report noted that a single school district might have responded to one or both surveys, and that districts represented comprise a very small share of the roughly 13,000 school districts across the country. However, their responses can provide a steppingstone for other LEAs wondering where to start when it comes to promoting deeper learning.
“Although the examples and themes in district leaders’ answers varied, most responses related to students being at least an active participant in, if not the designer of, their learning,” according to the report. “District leaders frequently mentioned different forms of students’ active participation in academic learning as promoting critical thinking.”
The four most common examples provided of rigorous academic instruction involved students answering high-level, open-ended questions from teachers and having to explain their reasoning; students engaging in inquiry-based learning; students performing close readings and analysis of text; and students producing writing that explains their thinking.
Other common responses included providing:
- Real-world, applied, authentic or hands-on learning opportunities
- Experiential learning through science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses and career technical education (CTE)
- Choices for students related to course options, individual plans of study, dual-enrollment courses and more to give them some sense of agency in their learning.
Incorporating student input
Involving students as active participants in their education necessarily requires gathering and including their input in the decision-making process. Among the districts surveyed, 71 percent reported having one or more activities to collect student input. The most common was distributing one or more surveys each year to students. Other common responses included working with variations of youth advisory boards, participating in a “shadow a student” day, working with non-voting youth membership on the school board and hosting student focus groups with six-week improvement cycles.
Common themes also emerged regarding how student input was acted upon by district leaders. Often, LEAs used student input related to making instruction more hands-on and engaging by allowing pupils opportunities to choose or shape the courses they take. Others reported making changes to the school schedule, with one LEA switching to block scheduling at the high school because of student input.
Other changes made in response to student input revolved around school climate, adding more project-based instruction and shaping curriculum.
