How to Teach Critical Thinking with Thinking Routines

Thinking Routines Are Structures, Not Worksheets

A thinking routine is a small sequence of prompts designed to support a particular kind of thinking. Its purpose is not to make every lesson look the same. It gives learners a familiar pathway into a demanding task.

For example, See, Think, Wonder separates observation from interpretation. Learners first describe what they can actually see, then explain what they think may be happening, and finally identify questions raised by the material. This can be used with an artwork, photograph, graph, object, text extract or scientific demonstration.

Make Observation More Precise

Learners frequently move from a first impression to a conclusion without noticing enough detail. An observation routine slows that movement and creates a shared base of evidence.

In art, learners might list colours, shapes, positions and visible actions before discussing mood or meaning. In science, they can describe a change before proposing its cause. In geography, they can identify patterns in a map before explaining why those patterns may exist.

Connect Claims with Evidence

Critical thinking includes explaining why an idea is plausible. The prompt “What makes you say that?” encourages learners to connect a claim with the evidence or reasoning behind it.

The same prompt can work across subjects. A learner can support an interpretation of a character’s motivation, explain a conclusion drawn from a historical source, justify a mathematical strategy or refer to observations from an experiment.

Generate Better Questions

Asking learners whether they have any questions often produces silence or requests for missing facts. Questions usually improve when learners first have time to notice, connect and identify uncertainty.

After exploring a phenomenon, source or problem, ask learners to generate questions and sort them into useful groups: clarification, cause, consequence, evidence, perspective and possibility. The categories help them recognise that questions can serve different purposes.

Explore Perspectives Responsibly

Perspective-taking can deepen understanding, but it must be grounded in evidence and context. Asking learners to imagine a viewpoint without sufficient information can encourage stereotypes rather than thoughtful interpretation.

In history, learners can examine what different people knew, valued, feared and were able to do at a particular moment. In literature, they can compare how characters understand the same event. In citizenship education, they can examine how a decision affects different groups.

Make Changes in Thinking Visible

Critical thinking is not only about defending an initial answer. It also includes recognising when new evidence requires a change. A reflection routine can make this intellectual development visible.

At the end of a lesson or unit, learners can complete “I used to think… Now I think… Because…”. The final part matters: it asks learners to identify what caused their thinking to change rather than merely reporting two different opinions.

Avoid Routine Fatigue

A useful routine can lose its value when it appears mechanically in every lesson. Repetition should help learners internalise a kind of thinking, but the content and format can still vary.

Evidence-based reasoning might happen through paired conversation, individual notes, a diagram, a shared board or a whole-group discussion. The visible activity changes while the underlying mental move remains consistent.

Facilitate Without Taking Over

The teacher’s response influences whether thinking remains open. A quick “correct” or “incorrect” can close discussion before learners compare ideas, examine conditions or notice a contradiction.

Neutral prompts can press for greater clarity without taking ownership away from learners. Ask: “What evidence supports that?”, “Can you say that in another way?”, “Who sees a connection?” or “Under what conditions might that claim not be true?”

Build a Culture of Visible Thinking

Thinking routines are most powerful in a classroom where curiosity, evidence, uncertainty and respectful challenge are valued every day. Learners need to know that questions are welcome and that an unfinished idea can be examined without embarrassment.

Keep selected thinking visible in notebooks, displays or shared boards. Return to earlier ideas and ask what has been strengthened, complicated or changed. This helps learners see thinking as a process that develops over time.

Teachers can also model the process by explaining when they need more evidence, acknowledging uncertainty and showing how feedback changes a decision. This makes critical thinking part of the classroom culture rather than an isolated activity.

A Practical Next Step

Critical thinking becomes more teachable when its moves are named, practised and revisited through meaningful subject content. Choose one current learning goal and one routine that supports it. Decide what you will listen for or collect as evidence of learners’ thinking.

After trying it, ask what the routine made visible. Did learners notice more detail, provide stronger reasons, ask better questions or revise an idea? Keep what helped, adapt what was unclear and avoid expanding the approach until its purpose is understood.

Source and Further Reading

The examples in this article are informed by the work of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero. Its free toolbox explains the purposes of different thinking routines and provides guidance for using and attributing them correctly.

• Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routines Toolbox