Creating a Teaching and Learning Environment in Criminal Justice Courses that Promotes Higher Order Thinking*

Abstract

Active learning techniques have long been shown to increase the extent to which students are able to think critically about problems and solutions to them. The extant research suggests that efforts to engage students in higher order thinking should extend beyond the typical setting in which the more advanced students are introduced to active learning techniques. White and Frederiksen (2000) have found that most students, regardless of achievement levels, can reach a higher order thinking level when they are encouraged to do so. This paper explores several issues associated with active learning techniques in the general sense and then uses examples to demonstrate how such techniques can and are being used on the criminal justice classroom. The pros and cons of using active learning techniques are also discussed. *An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology. The author would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on this paper. The paper is much improved because of their insights.