Jesus and Critical Thinking

It is instructive to consult the Master Teacher when we are considering “teaching and learning.”
To be sure, Jesus in His humanity did not know about Bloom’s Taxonomy nor the upgrade by Anderson and Krathwohl, so He did not think about getting his audience to evaluate, or analyze, or apply following the terms we use. Nor did he use active learning strategies—no think/pair/share in the Sermon on the Mount.
However, if you look carefully at what Jesus did, you see that he often challenged thinking including challenging presuppositions, and correcting the illogic of the Pharisees. So, while he imparted a lot of information, he also used phrases like “You have heard. . . but I tell you this.” His audience had to consider that the Old Testament laws on divorce really did not get to the heart of the matter. Jesus offered that correction in his challenge to think about God’s original intent for a husband and wife to stay together as “one flesh” and that only men and women’s hardness of heart led to God’s concession in allowing divorce. The same challenge of thinking applied to misconceptions about hatred (tantamount to “murder”), and many other legalistic presuppositions. His use of parables also challenged thinking and was actually a learning technique that led to personal application.
For this Discussion, we want to explore Jesus’ teaching through the lens of the teaching taxonomies we have explored this term (Bloom and Anderson and Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom).
1. Review Jesus’ major teaching discourses, such as the Sermon on the Mount
2. Review Jesus’ use of parables and storytelling
3. Jesus’ engagement with the Pharisees and those who opposed him
4. Jesus’ engagement with those who sought him
All the Gospels contain great demonstrations of Jesus’ teaching but you could review in particular Jesus’ teaching in the book of John.
Your task in this Discussion is to identify how Jesus demonstrated HOTS in his teaching. Pick out several examples from Jesus’ teaching that illustrate at least three of the higher levels of thought from Bloom/Anderson and Krathwohl. Explain the link and suggest why those examples showed how Jesus challenged thinking.
Then think of the active learning strategies we have reviewed this term. While you will not find examples of many of the active learning strategies mentioned in our texts, can you identify some elements of active learning in Jesus’ teaching?