Nurture critical thinking skills and get students thinking like a scientist.

As educators, we know that encouraging our students to think critically is an essential life skill – and can be a challenge to teach.

CER, or the claim, evidence, and reasoning framework, is a scaffolded way to engage students to think critically and promote reasoning and deduction skills. While often times this framework is used to reinforce the scientific method, it is also used for math and writing too.

The CER acronym encourages students to have sound explanations, identifying gaps in their arguments and reasoning, promotes critical thinking and analysis of text that includes graphs, diagrams, charts, tables, etc., and formulate solid answers.

With a focus on STEM, we've put together two CER posters, one for science and one for math, that can be used in a variety of ways in your classroom. Use them:

  • as references for students using CER in the classroom,

  • as introductory handouts,

  • as binder/journal resources,

  • in small groups/ partner discussions,

  • and more.

Let us help you promote critical thinking skills with your students.

Note: They are geared towards upper elementary through high school.

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Download_CER Posters for Science and Math

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