Critical Thinking Caryn Bell and Carolyn Morin

 

Outline

Introduction

Definition of critical thinking

Types of Critical Thinking

Leading Research in Critical Thinking

Strides in Critical Thinking

Importance of critical thinking

Implications of critical thinking

Summary

Reference

 

Introduction

 

By and large, critical thinking is one of the proponents of education that many teachers dare to aspire for but few ever actually reach this most coveted mark. In many classrooms, it is an uncharted territory, a lofty aim that never fully comes into fruition. The question is why? Why are students not taught to become critical thinkers, when it is arguably the highest form of learning? There is no definite answer, but some probable answers might be, but certainly are not exclusive to, a lack of knowledge about the governing ideas behind critical thinking, a lack of work ethic, a fear of the power that students might possess should they stop being tongue less, eyeless conveniences, and possibly one of the major reasons students are not taught to be critical thinkers is because their leaders are not critical thinkers themselves. To become a critical thinker, one must first know what critical thinking is and what critical thinking looks like.

 

 

Definition of Critical Thinking

 

Critical thinking has been defined in several different ways. A generic definition is simply this. Critical thinking is thinking that hinges upon the notion of problem solving, recognizing errors in faulty language or biases, and understanding that solutions are not always concrete]. Adherers to critical thinking can usually problem solve, approach something in a logical way, generate a hypothesis, clarify assumptions, support opinions using evidence, look at a problem from various angles, and are not perpetually bothered by life’s ambiguities. Thus, the very construction of this article is a tangible testimony of critical thinking. Critical thinking is a skill that empowers individuals to become world changers, revolutionaries, and free thinkers. The paradox is that the chief goal of education is the greatest fear of some educators. Such is the theory espoused in the works of Gregory Bateson, one of the leading researchers in the field of Critical Thinking.

 

Leading Research

 

Much of anthropologist and researcher, Bateson’s work is paralleled to Alfred North Whitehead’s work. Like Whitehead, author of The Aims of Education published in 1929, Bateson suggests that schooling in America tends to avoid “critical issues.” He even states, “We offer children Algebra, from which nothing follows: Geometry from which nothing follows, History from which nothing follows, and the dreary of them all, Shakespearean plays whith short analyses and portions of text that must be committed to memory. From this lists, none of them have to do with real life (Apple 28). Sadly, a library littered with literally thousands of books on research and years and years of educational theories of practice and technique has not transformed the world of education. As a whole, educators are still using some of the same stagnate practices that failed for our predecessors. The paradigm of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results has deceived many educators. And, why? Because it is likely the way in which they were taught. The old adage we parent the way we were parented, and we teach the way in which we were taught still reigns supreme. The idea of the banking model of education in which students are empty vessels that teachers must fill is one of the leading agents in the gradual decline in interest (Apple 28). This lack of interest in turn acts as a catalyst for ignorance.

 

 

Bateson is just one of a plethora of theorists who have analyzed the issue of critical thinking. Similarly, theorist, Michael Collins has argued the drudgery and danger of busy work. William Faulkner once said, “Seeming to do is not the same as doing.” This is the philosophy of Collins in a nut shell. According to Collins, public school students are commended again and again for their completion and busyness, all the while they fall by the wayside and lack the unction or skill to problem solve, relate a concept to life experiences, or move beyond the often suffocating cinder block walls of a confining classroom. Thus they become disillusioned, apathetic, and often times educated in names sake only (Collins 85).

 

Strides in Critical Thinking

 

None of these theories are to suggest that strides are not being taken to ameliorate the displacement and apathy among students. One way in which this is being done is removing students from the traditional classroom and placing them in areas where they can begin to discover information for themselves, namely in libraries or on the Internet. This idea of informational literacy is becoming increasing popular in the field of research. In this Information Age that we now live in, students are slowly progressing beyond rote memorization. In a matter of minutes, at a single click, they have a wealth of knowledge at their disposals. This, in and of itself, lays the foundation for a lesson in critical thinking if educators will recognize the implications of Internet use. Sifting, weeding, analyzing, and eliminating are all rudimentary concepts of critical thinking that can become the very heartbeat of Internet based research, if teachers will learn to teach students to evaluate, judge, and compare various sources to determine merit or authenticity (Daspit 71). Below is a graph that shows the gradual shift from a mostly agrarian society to one that is dependent upon information.

As stated by Florida International University Libraries, “Technology and in particular the phenomenon of “Web Publishing” gives students access to large amounts of un-refereed, unfiltered literature, thus increasing the need for critical faculties in the choosing and interpreting of “published “ information.”

 

Importance of Critical Thinking

 

Critical thinking is important wherever the quality of human thinking significantly impacts the quality of life. For example, success in human life is tied to success in learning. At the same time, every phase in the learning process is tied to critical thinking. Thus, reading, writing, speaking and listening can all be done critically or uncritically. Critical thinking is crucial to becoming a close reader and a substantive writer. Critical thinking is a way of taking up the problems of life.

 

According to Elder (2006),irrespective of the sphere of thought, "a welll cultivated critical thinker":

 

• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
• comes to well- reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
• thinks open mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing as need be, their assumptions, implications and practical consequences; and
• communnicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

 

Critical thinking enables an individual to be a responsible citizen who contributes to society and not be merely a consumer of society's distractions. Children are not born with the power to think critically, nor do they develop this ability naturally beyond survival level thinking. Critical thinking is a learned ability that must be taught. Most individual never learn it.

 

Implications of Critical Thinking

 

Critical thinking is based on concepts and principles. It has a purpose, raises particular questions, accesses information, makes inferences, utilizes concepts, make assumptions, generates implications, embodies a point of view. Nevertheless there is no pre-designed sequence of thought or method, that can be said to apply across all domains of thoughts. There are, in other words, universal critical concepts, values and principles but not universal methods and procedures. Critical thinking is principle but not procedure based.

 

The key to seeing the significance of critical thinking in the classroom is in understanding the significance of critical thinking in learning. To learn is to think. To think poorly is to learn poorly. To think well is to learn well. All content, to be learned, must be intellectually constructed. To learn the content of history, I must engage myself in the process of think historically.

 

There are two phases to the learning of content. The first occurs when learners construct in their minds the basic ideas, prinicples, theories that are inherent in that content. The second occurs when learners effectively use those ideas, principles, and theories as they become relevant in learners' lives. Good teachers cultivate critical thinking (intellectually engaged thinking) at every stage of learning.

 

Summary

 

Critical thinking is very important, as it allows purposes, questions, information, inferences, concepts, assumptions, implications, point of view, beliefs, and situations to be analyzed, evaluated and restructured, decreasing the risk of acting on a false premise. However, even with the use of critical thinking skiils, mistakes can happen due to a thinker's egocentrism or sociocentrism or failure to be in possession.

 

 

Reference

Collins, Michael. (1998). Critical cross currents in education. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing, Company.

 

Elder, L. (2006). Foundation For Critical Thinking, online at website: www.criticalthinking.org)

 

Kanpol, Marry. (1994). Critical pedagogy. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey Publishing.

 

Provenzo, Eugene. (2005). Critical literacy: What every American ought to know. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

 

Daspit, Toby. (1999). Popular culture and critical pedagogy. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.

 

 

 

External Links

 

Critical literacy across the curriculum

 

Critical literacy when using the internet

 

Information literacy

 

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Commentary by Stacee Jennings

 

Hi girls. Excellent job discussing critical thinking. I agree that this is one of the most difficult things to instill in students. I especially liked your discussion of the Information Age and its impact on critical thinking. I fear that the importance of high-stakes testing has caused critical thinking skills to take a backseat. Overall, I think you covered the concept very well. It would be helpful to include some instructional strategies to promote critical thinking in students. This website has some suggestions for the classroom that I think could help your paper Instructional Strategies. Also, I found the following editing errors that you may want to correct. I think some of your sentences were a little wordy, causing confusion for the reader.

 

1. There is no definite answer, but some probable answers might be, but certainly are not exclusive to, a lack of knowledge about the governing ideas behind critical thinking, a lack of work ethic, a fear of the power that students might possess should they stop being tongue less, eyeless conveniences, and possibly one of the major reasons students are not taught to be critical thinkers is because their leaders are not critical thinkers themselves.

This sentence is a little long and confusing to me.

 

2. A generic definition is simply this: (use a colon)

 

3. ...are not always concrete]. (remove bracket)

 

4. In the research section...unction (I think this should be function)

 

5. To learn the content of history, I must engage myself in the process of think historically.

(think should be thinking)

 

Great job!

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Comment by Annette Gebhardt

I appreciated that you included the experts' opinions about "the drudgery and dangers of busy work." I hope this is reinforced in every teaching program in the country. Students do not always understand the importance of critical thinking, but if they learn it while they are young, they will use it for the rest of their lives.

 

I also appreciated the use of the English language in your wiki. I found myself utilizing critical thinking skills while reading it because of the level of words that you used. After reading it and Stacee's comment, I looked up "unction" because I thought I knew what you meant. I realized that you used "unction" to mean fervor and it was the word that you intended. Several other words made me think and that seemed to illustrate the importance of your wiki topic.

 

In the paragraph "Importance of Critical Thinking" an extra "l" was added to well.

 

You did an excellent job and I will think about the importance of Critical Thinking often!

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Comments by Sara Sewell

 

Shakespearean plays whith short/Shakespearean plays with short: the with was spelled incorrectly

 

From this lists/From this list

 

 

I think that there is some good information in this article, but it is very hard to grasp the real meat of the topic. I found the article somewhat hard to read and the wordiness distracted me from the actual information. As Annette said, you have to use some critical thinking skills to read this wiki.

 

Critical thinking is a very important area of teaching that is often neglected by teachers and I would have liked to have sen some instructional strategies or a breakdown of the levels of critical thinking. I went to your source at criticalthinking.org and found a wealth of information on instructional strategies and and research that would have been nice to have in this article. The link to this article Making Critical Thinking Intuitive: Using Drama, Examples, and Images has some great examples of putting critical thinking into place.