A strong influence in shaping methods of teaching in the Thirty Schools has been the conviction that young people in a democracy should develop the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems. Instead of a lesson to be learned, the work is more often a problem to be solved. As the curriculum came to consist more and more of youth's problems of living, emphasis upon techniques of problem solving inevitably grew stronger. Since the solution of difficult problems involves reflective thinking, much of the work in all subjects and courses, especially in mathematics and science, was designed to give pupils experience in clear, logical thinking in problem solving. One of the participating schools gives unusual emphasis in its report to the development of critical thinking:

Critical or reflective thinking originates with the sensing of a problem. It is a quality of thought operating in an effort to solve the problem and to reach a tentative conclusion which is supported by all available data. It is really a process of problem solving requiring the use of creative insight, intellectual honesty, and sound judgment. It is the basis of the method of scientific inquiry. The success of democracy depends to a large extent on the disposition and ability of citizens to think critically and reflectively about the problems which must of necessity confront them, and to improve the quality of their thinking is one of the major goals of education.

The faculty recognizes that the acceptance of this responsibility has very important implications for both content and method. The problems studied should have their origin in the daily living experience of the students, and they sliould be studied in a manner conducive to the free play of intelligence. A student is not likely to enter actively into discussion on any point unless he knows that his honest opinions will receive respectful consideration. Nor is the cultivation of reflective thinking the special responsibility of any one subject matter area. It is rather the concern of all areas in the school . . . .²⁹

Then follow illustrations showing how experience in critical thinking is constantly involved in all areas of this school's work. Here are two instances:

In the arts area, for example, an individual student or a group of students selects a problem on the basis of carefully considered values which have been defined through the combined thinking of both student and teachers. Before undertaking a project in any one of the arts laboratories such questions as the following are considered:

Will it provide a new and worthwhile experience? Will it serve the purpose for which it was intended? Will the completion of this project require more time than can be justified? Will the needed materials and equipment, such as tools and machinery, be available? What will be the cost of the materials and how will it be met?

Once a student has an idea which he would like to express through the medium of the arts, such practical questions as these require him to exercise judgment in defining the actual nature of his problem.

An illustration will show how reflective thinking develops in social studies. The members of one class became conscious that their prejudices, attitudes, and beliefs were operating to obstruct their thinking about certain socioeconomic problems. Some one raised the question as to how these ideas originated and this led to a study of public opinion. The problem was defined as "Understanding How Public Opinion is Formed, and particularly How our own Opinions Came About." Once the problem bad been defined, students took active part in planning for its solution. Suggestions were carefully considered, ideas awkwardly expressed were refined and clarified, and the whole process was utilized as an opportunity for teaching effective methods of problem solving.³⁰

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