If you are an IB DP Psychology student, you have probably been wondering how to add critical thinking to your IB Extended Response Questions. After all, it is the critical thinking that differentiates the strong essays from the rest.
Let’s take a look at what critical thinking is and how you can incorporate it in your essays.
What is critical thinking?
Simply put, it is the process of a learner actively processing information – by evaluating it, breaking down its assumptions, thinking about its implications as well as its applications.
Critical thinking is asking questions such as:
- What are some assumptions that the theory is making?
- Are there any situations or circumstances where the findings would be different?
- What are some factors that could have biased the results?
- What are the strengths of the methodology used to create this knowledge?
- What are the limitations of the methodology used to create this knowledge?
- How credible is the source of the knowledge?
- Can the findings be replicated under different circumstances or with different populations?
- Where can we use the findings? Are there any real world applications of the findings?
- What behaviours or phenomena can the theory explain?
- What behaviours or phenomena can’t the theory explain?
- What are some conclusions from the theory that are not explicitly stated?
- What are some of the consequences of the conclusions drawn from the study or theory?
Why is critical thinking so difficult?
It is difficult as it takes time and effort! It is easier to learn content description than to think about analysis, evaluation and application.
But you can make it slightly easier by:
- Keeping the above list of questions handy for ALL your lessons and simply asking yourself these questions when you have learnt a new research study or theory.
- For each theory, try and answer at least some of these questions and keep them ready in your notes! This way, come IB exam time, you will not have to spend any time pondering over critical thinking points as you will have them ready.
- Spend your lesson and study time to hone your Critical thinking skills and that will help improve your ability to incorporate it in your IB essays. Critical thinking cannot and should not be done the night before the IB exam.
It is more of a habit and skill that needs to be practiced and developed, like riding a bicycle.