TC² @ 25
Focus for This Month
Success Stories
Next Steps
Media Release
TC² @ 25
Focus for This Month
Success Stories
Next Steps
Media Release

The Perfect Fit for the Meandering but Wonderful
Thinking Process of the Grade 4 Student


David Markus

Ready to go

My name is David Markus, and I have been a teacher for 30 years. Over the course of those three decades, I have taught multiple grade levels; most recently, settling down to learn with Grade 4 students.

Full disclosure: I love teaching Grade 4. I am known to remark “Grade 4? Ain’t no bore!” Why? Students at this age are ready to go. They have acquired elementary language and math skills and are eager to try out their new wheels. They are open minded and fair and willing to listen. At the same time—and this is important—they understand the concept of contradiction.


Long years mired in traditional problem-solving models

I have found this particular setting to be a rich soil for growing the critical thinking encouraged by the TC² framework. To be honest, I spent a good deal of effort in past years teaching traditional problem-solving models, particularly within the math segment of the curriculum. Alas, I found that we—teacher and students alike—became slaves to the model. This was most unfortunate, as Grade 4 student thinking tends to meander about, exploring and wondering. The problem-solving models were not harnessing that fearless creative energy.


A new framework makes learning purposeful

Then I discovered critical inquiry, in which I found a framework that allows for openness of thought and trajectory for action. At the same time, the framework offers guiding principles that make learning purposeful. In my classroom, students form their conclusions independently as I become more of a facilitator, and less of a leading instructor. My students are free to choose best ideas, best initiatives, and best answers, as long as they can defend their choices with reasoned judgment.


Equipping our young people with the ability to make reasoned judgments

I believe that making choices and defending those choices with reasoned judgments is a vital skill for today’s young people. Not only can it open possibilities, it can also help them to navigate the complex and—dare I say it—manipulative world in which they reside.

I do often think of the world in which our young students will come of age. Even today, they are exposed to a wealth of information and ideas. One computer search yields a busload of information, far surpassing what I obtained from endless searches deep among the bookshelves of my youth. Yet, as we are discovering, the information nuggets students find today are often fool’s gold. This sobering reality increases our responsibility to alert our students to the pitfalls of this information age, and to equip them with the ability to apply reasoned judgment in all their future endeavours.

David Markus
Grade 4 Teacher, Castlebridge Public School
Administrator, John Fraser International Languages
Mississauga, Ontario