As part of its commitment to offering holistic education and building a strong academic foundation among children, Eye Level has recently launched the Critical Thinking Math Intensive Program. But why would you want your child to build their critical thinking skills?

A Vital Life Skill

It is critical thinking that helps us make informed decisions, foresee the consequences of our behavior and actions and solve problems. The sooner this skill is inculcated, the more effectively the child learns to make decisions and assess circumstances for themselves. In fact, youngsters with sharp minds develop mental alertness and are able to mature faster than their peers if taught critical thinking. From putting together puzzles and solving riddles to finishing math homework without errors, critical thinking skills can help the child take in information, make judgments and produce accurate results.

 

Childhood is the ideal time to foster critical thinking skills, given the natural curiosity that leads children to explore their environment, assimilate information, analyze new inputs and make judgments about the new things they learn. Such active involvement requires not just inquisitiveness, but also imagination. Children don’t simply accumulate information, they think about how the new data fits into what they already know.

 

Critical thinking plays a key role in learning languages and making the most of education, since it helps children understand concepts better.

 

So, critical thinking essentially helps children:

 

·         Compare and contrast inputs

·         Assess ideas and form their own opinions

·         Explain why and how things happen

·         Predict how a situation will unfold in the future

·         Understand others’ perspectives

·         Solve problems creatively.

 

These are exactly the focus areas of the Eye Level Critical Thinking Math Intensive Program. Each lesson and learning material has been carefully designed to inculcate and strengthen each of the above aspects of critical thinking.

 

How to Instill Creative Thinking

The Eye Level Critical Thinking Math Intensive Program aims at developing problem solving skills and mastering basic mathematics concepts. The program comes in Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Levels to suit the needs of children from Nursery to Grade 6. With this program, children master concepts like:

 

·   Pattern & Relationships: Focuses on developing fundamental knowledge of functions by learning about patterns of numbers, objects and figures.

·   Geometry: Focuses on improving depth perception through observation and practice, and the use of manipulatives

·   Measurement: Focuses on comparing length, volume and area in an intuitive manner, in order to develop measurement skills through an understanding of conservation of area, length and volume.

·    Problem Solving: Focuses on teaching students the eight key problem solving strategies of pattern recognition, drawing diagrams, data analysis, deduction, reverse calculation, tree diagrams, trial and error and alternative methods.

·   Reasoning: Focuses on enhancing logical thinking by fostering comprehension and analytic skills through specific activities, such as analogy and classification.

 

The program has been specifically designed, based on studies that prove that students become better problem-solvers when taught to:

·         Create categories and classify items appropriately

·         Analyze analogies

·         Identify relevant information

·         Test hypotheses

·         Construct and recognize valid deductive arguments

·         distinguish between evidence and interpretations of evidence

·         Recognize common reasoning fallacies

 

Through a mix of online and offline tools, the Eye Level Critical Thinking Math Intensive Program ensures that every student gets hands-on experience of each concept being taught:

 

·   Teaching Tools: Blocks and Shapes, Clear Papers, Colored Blocks, Mirrors, Wooden Blocks, Thinking Bricks, Thinking Pentos and Thinking Cube allow children to physically manipulate objects to develop an understanding of spatial relations, logic and creativity, symmetry of shapes, understand 3D figures and parallel translation, as well as abstract concepts.

·   Booklets: The booklet structure is divided into Concept Story and Concept Comic. These broaden thinking and build interest in math. The books cover topics like Pattern and Relationship, Geometry, Problem Solving, Measurement and Reasoning. This develops mathematical thinking, while teaching quantities, helping children recognize and analyze patterns and recognize spatial allocation. It further helps the child create equations and number sentences, creating a strong foundation in the subject.

 

Education today focuses more on helping children learn to apply knowledge to real life situations, rather than only teaching theory and evaluating rote learning. The Eye Level Critical Thinking Math Intensive Program uses interactive materials and personalized instruction to build a strong foundation in concepts that will stand every student in good stead throughout their life.

 

Click here to Register for a demo class and free trial of Critical Thinking Intensive Program