Arctic Yearbook 2014
58
- Grade 10 Non-Indigenous Student, NWT
The student quoted described his family’s reaction to reading a memoir written by a former
residential school student. Students were tasked with writing a book review of survivor memoirs and
novels, which enabled them to empathize with the characters. Many students who participated in the
territorial pilot study demonstrated an enhanced capacity to think critically. Richard Paul and Linda
Elder define critical thinking as, “The art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to
improving it” (as cited in hooks 2010: 9). Paul and Elder remind us that critical thinkers, “seek to
think beneath the surface, to be logical and fair. They apply these skills to their reading and writing
as well as to their speaking and listening” (as cited in hooks 2010: 9). Students demonstrated
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