When preparing lessons, almost without exception, good teachers seek to help students acquire thinking skills that relate to the content of the lesson and, if possible, extend beyond it. Something to remember is that if your students aren't thinking about what you're saying or doing, you are not communicating effectively. The vocabulary below can help you sort out some of this so that it makes sense to you. Metacognition - metacognition refers to awareness and control of one's thinking, including commitment, attitudes and attention. Critical thinking - critical thinking refers to reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do.
Critical thinkers try to be aware of their own biases, to be objective and logical.
Creative thinking - refers to the ability to form new combinations of ideas to fulfill a need, or to get original or otherwise appropriate results by the criteria of the domain in question. Certain dispositions are associated with critical and creative thinking. Concept formation - organizing information about an entity and associating that information with a label. A concept may be defined a perceived relationship between two or more facts. Principle formation - recognizing a relationship between or among concepts.