6 Ways That Critical Thinking Can Help With Learning Loss

Has my child fallen behind?

The last two years have been disruptive and difficult in many ways, including from an educational perspective. Worries over safety and healthy have been amplified by a lack of consistency in learning for kids, as well as extra strain on teachers and parents. Learners who were thriving before the pandemic may have lost their rhythm, and those who were struggling may have been faced with even greater challenges. There’s an awful lot on all of our plates at the moment, and not a lot of predictability to be found.

It’s our job as caregivers and educators to worry about whether our kids are getting what they need, and that they’re able to catch up and keep up, no matter what happens. It may take some time for us to fully understand the impact the past two years have had on young minds, but while we watch and wait, there is one vital skill that we should be helping our kids to cultivate, one that can help all kinds of learners to bridge gaps in education.

It's critical thinking. There are so many reasons to add it to our kids’ “must learn” list. Here are just a handful:

1. Being a critical thinker helps with all subject areas. There isn’t one topic or unit at school that isn’t made a little easier with well-honed critical thinking skills.

2. Critical thinking goes beyond academic pursuits and helps kids deal with the anxiety and stress of catching up, learning to learn in a new reality, an understanding their feelings.

3. Critical thinkers are better equipped to understand the events and changes that have been happening all over the world, and to think about their long-term impact.

4. Thinking critically provides opportunities to help make things better. It can be very empowering to not only understand the challenges they face as learners, but also to have the skills to be able to come up with solutions, and to be part of the rebuilding process.

5. These skills aren’t just a temporary, band-aid solution to help kids catch up and find their footing again. Critical thinking is something that will serve children throughout their lives. In challenging and equipping a child with them, you open doors for their entire education, their career, and their personal lives. You give them lifelong tools with which to navigate the world.

6. Critical thinking, if approached the right way, is actually fun. Kids, in general, delight in asking big questions and in digging into answers. It is possible (and recommended) to play our way into these skills. After everything that’s happened over the past two years, don’t our kids deserve a little bit of joy in their learning?

Critical thinking isn’t another subject that needs to be introduced at school, but rather a new approach to existing curriculum. But bringing it into school lessons isn’t enough. If critical thinking is going to help mitigate learning loss, it has to happen at home as well. It needs to be a joint effort between kids, parents, and teachers, and it needs to become part of a child’s daily routine. It needs to become part of all of our daily routines.

If this seems a little daunting, and you’re not sure where to start, that’s okay. There are resources to help (fun ones too), and you’ll find a number of them here. They could be as close as your child’s bookshelf, mobile device, or laptop.

Happy thinking on the road ahead. You got this.