EDD 5229
Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Lecture 8
Understanding the Curriculum Aim of Liberal Studies:
How Critical is Critical Thinking?
A. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR
1. In Sept, 2001, Learning to Learning: The Way Forwards in Curriculum Development
a. Critical Thinking is identified as one of the nine generic skills within the
framework of the curriculum reform
b. Critical thinking has been defined as one of the three generic skills that should
be prioritized among the nine skills.
“Since public feedback indicated that the curriculum reform envisaged is too
broad, a priority focus will be placed on the development of three of these
generic skills, namely communication skills, creativity and critical thinking skills,
though the others should not be neglected.” (Curriculum Development Council,
2001, p. 25)
c. The idea of critical thinking: In the document, critical thinking is depicted as
“Critical thinking skills help students to draw out meaning from given data or
statements, generate and evaluate arguments, and make their own
judgement.” (CDC, 2001, p. 24)
2. In July, 2007 Liberal Studies Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6)
a. Curriculum Aims
“The aims of Liberal Studies at the Senior Secondary Level are: ...
(d) to develop in students a range of skills for life-long learning, including
critical thinking skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, communication skills
and information technology skills; …” (CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 5)
b. Learning Outcomes
“By the end of the course, students should be able to: …
(d) identify the values underlying different views and judgments on personal
and social issues, and apply critical thinking skills, creativity and different
perspectives in making decisions and judgments on issues and problems at
both personal and social levels. …”(CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 6)
3. In 2009, Package on The Learning and Teaching of Critical Thinking Skills” (Senior
Secondary)
a. Critical thinking is treated as a formalized and normalized idea of education
and instruction:
“Although it sometimes seems that there is very little that academics can agree
upon, there is considerable agreement among experts in the field regarding
the definition of critical thinking. …. Different authors use different terms and
vary in the breadth of their definition, but overall there are no major
disagreements about the sorts of skills that are included under a critical
thinking rubric.” (Ku et al., 2009, p. 2; my emphases)
b. Definition of critical thinking
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“The term critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that
increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is purposeful, reasoned, and
goal directed. It is the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating
inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions. Critical thinkers use
these skills appropriately, without prompting, and usually with conscious intent,
in a variety of settings. That is, they are predisposed to think critically. When
we think critically, we are evaluating the outcomes of our thought processes —
how good a decision is or how well a problem is solved. Critical thinking also
involves evaluating the thinking process — the reasoning that went into the
conclusion we’ve arrived at or the kinds of factors considered in making a
decision.”(Halpern, 2003 Quoted in Ku et al., 2009, p.2)
c. Categorization of critical thinking: The package categorized critical thinking into
i. Verbal reasoning skills
ii. Argument analysis skills
iii. Skills in thinking as hypothesis testing
iv. Using likelihood and uncertainty
v. Decision making and problem solving skills
B. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation
1. The idea of critical thinking in education can be traced back to John Dewey’s
concept of “reflective thinking” (Dewey, 1933; 1939). Throughout its short history
of development, particularly in the US, the field is filled with contentions and
disagreements. It is far from a field of “considerable agreement” or “no major
disagreement”.
2. First round of debate:
a. In 1962, Robert Ennis’ paper entitled “A concept of critical thinking” was
published in Harvard Educational Review. In the paper, critical thinking was
defined as “a correct assessing of statement.” (Ennis, 1962, p. 81) Ennis
further conceptualizes that “twelve aspects of critical thinking are:
1. Grasping the meaning of a statement.
2. Judging whether there is ambiguity in a line of reasoning.
3. Judging whether certain statements contradict each other.
4. Judging whether a conclusion follows necessarily.
5. Judging whether a statement is specific enough.
6. Judging whether is actually the application of a certain principle.
7. Judging whether an observation statement is reliable.
8. Judging whether an inductive conclusion is warranted.
9. Judging whether the problem has been identified.
10. Judging whether something is an assumption.
11. Judging whether a definition is adequate.
12. Judging whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable.”
(Ennis, 1962, 83)
b. Ennis’ conception of critical thinking has been criticized as “pure skills
conception (Siegel, 1988, p. 6) and it is but a “battery of atomic technical
skills.” (Paul, 1994, p. 185; see also Burbules and Berk, 1999; Walters, 1994;
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Thayer-Bacon, 2000)
3. The second round of debate:
a. In the 1980s, Ennis took two further initiations in developing his conception of
critical thinking
i. He developed two sets of standardized-test instruments, i.e. Cornell Critical
Thinking Tests (Ennis and Millman, 1982) to measure levels of critical
thinking performance.
ii. Ennis published a paper entitled “A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking
Disposition and Ability”. In the paper, Ennis responded to the criticism of
skill-bias by adding disposition into the conception of critical thinking.
According, he developed a taxonomy consisting of 14 levels of dispositions
and 12 levels of ability. (Ennis, 1987)
b. Ennis’ efforts triggered another round of criticism.
i. John McPeck criticizes that “critical thinking cannot be reduced to a few
mechanical ‘decoding’ skills” and more specifically “the major shortcomings
of both the Cornell tests is that the format of a standardized multiple-choice
test does not permit the comprehensive or circumspect judgements that are
required by the concept of critical thinking.” (McPeck, 1981, p.145)
ii. Harvey Siegel also criticizes “So instead of two roughly equal components
of critical thinking, proficiencies (skills) and tendencies (dispositions), what
Ennis’s conceptionamounts to is actually a highly complex list of
proficiencies coupled with the simple admonition to exercise the
proficiencies. …(T)he tendencies to utilize critical thinking skills is
under-analyzed and under-attended to in Ennis’s work.” (Siegel, 1988, p.7)
Siegel specifically criticizes the Cornel Critical Thinking Tests as “the
one-sided heroic effort to develop effective tests for the proficiencies (skills)
in the total absence of effort to develop effective tests for the tendency
(disposition)” (Siegel, 1988, p.8)
iii. More recently, Burbules (1993; Burbeles & Beck,1999) and Walters (1994)
criticize that critical thinking may plausibly be reduced to examination skills
of mechanical logicism.
4. The third round of the debate
a. John McPeck queries whether it is possible to teach critical thinking as
generalized skills without relating it to specific subject content. He criticizes the
content-free approach to critical-thinking instruction commonly adopted in the
1970s. He underlines that “thinking is always thinking about something. To
think about nothing is a conceptual impossibility.” (1981, p.3) More specifically,
McPeck contends that
“In isolation from a particular subject, the phrase ‘critical thinking’ neither refers
to nor denotes any particular skill. It follows from this that it makes no sense to
talk about critical thinking as a distinct subject and that it therefore cannot
profitably be taught as such. To the extent that critical thinking is not about a
specific subject X, it is both conceptually and practically empty. The statement
‘I teach critical thinking’, simpliciter, is vacuous because there is no
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generalized skill properly call critical thinking.” (p. 5)
b. McPeck’s criticism meets with forceful counter-arguments from Stephen Norris
(1990), Richard Paul, and Harvey Siegel (1990). Norris and Paul defend that
critical-thinking instruction is content-free, while Siegel provides a more
balanced view of suggesting that some aspect of critical thinking can be taught
in terms of generalized skills, while some are subject and content specific.
5. Round four: Reformulations and elaborations.
a. Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking by injecting the concept of
reason into critical thinking instruction.
i. He suggests that “to be a critical thinker is to be appropriately moved by
reasons…. A critical thinker is one who appreciates and accepts the
importance, and convicting force, of reasons. When assessing claims,
making judgments, evaluating procedures, or contemplating alternative
actions, the critical thinker seeks reasons on which to base her
assessments, judgments, and actions. To seek reasons, moreover, is to
recognize and commit oneself to principles.” (Siegel, 1988, p.32-33)
ii. By reason, Siegel makes use the conception put forth by Scheffler. He
indicates that “reason is always a matter of abiding by general rules or
principles… reason is always a matter of treating equal reasons equally,
and of judging the issues in the light of general principles to which one has
bound oneself… if I could judge reasons differently when they bear on my
interests, or disregard my principles when they conflict with my own
advantage, I should have no principles at all. The concepts of principles,
reasons and consistency thus go together.” (Scheffler, 1973; quoted in
Siegel, 1988, p.33)
iii. Siegel further differentiates critical thinking into two dimensions, namely
proficiency and spirit. The former refers to the capacities of making use of
"reason" in assessing one's thinking, while the later signifies "a willingness
to conform judgment and action to principle, not simply a ability to so
conform. On who has the critical attitude has a certain character as well as
certain skills: a character which is inclined to seek, and to base judgment
and action upon, reasons; which rejects partiality and arbitrariness; which is
committed to the objective evaluation of relevant evidence; and which
values such aspects of critical thinking as intellectual honesty; justice to
evidence, sympathetic and impartial consideration of interests, objectivity,
and impartiality." (Siegel, 1988, p. 39)
b. Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak sense and the strong
sense of critical thinking
i. By weal sense of critical thinking, it refers to training of “atomic technical
skills of logical thinking. As a result, “students studying critical thinking at
the university level have highly developed belief systems buttressed by
deep-seated uncritical, egocentric, and sociocentric habits of thought by
which they interpret and process their experiences, whether academic or
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not, and place them into some larger perspective. …those
students …become sophistic rather ten less so, more skilled in rationalizing
and intellectualizing their biases.” (Paul, 1994, 184)
ii. By strong sense of critical thinking, it refers to the view which rejects the
idea that critical thinking can be taught as a battery of atomic technical
skills independent of egocentricbelief and commitments. Instead of “atomic
arguments …it emphasizes argument network (points of view, frames of
reference, worldviews, systems of thought); instead of merely teaching
evaluation of atomic arguments it emphasizes a more dialectical and
dialogical approaches.” (1994, p. 185-6)
“Teaching critical thinking in a strong sense helps students develop
reasoning skills precisely in those areas where they are most likely to have
egocentric and sociocentric biases. Such biases exist most profoundly in
areas of their identities and vested interests.” (p. 190)
iii. Subsequently, Richard Paul established The Center for Critical Thinking at
Sonoma State University in North California.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/about/centerforCT.cfm
c. The Delphi Report: A statement of expert consensus for purpose of
educational assessment and instruction, American Philosophical Association.
http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/DEXadobe.PDF
i. Definition of critical thinking:
“We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment
which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well
as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological,
or contextual consideration upon which that judgment is based. CT is
essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating force in education
and a powerful resource in one’s personal and civic life. While not
synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive and self rectifying
human phenomenon. The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive,
well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in
evaluation, honest in face of personal biases, prudent in making judgments,
willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent
in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria,
focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as
the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good
critical thinkers means working toward this ideal. It combines developing
CT skills with nurturing those dispositions which consistently yield useful
insights and which are the basis of a rational and democratic society.”
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ii. Constituents of Critical Thinking I: Cognitive skills and sub-skills
Skill
1. Interpretation
2. Analysis
3. Evaluation
4. Inference
5. Explanation
6. Self-regulation
Sub-skills
Categorization
Decoding significance
Clarifying meaning
Examining ideas
Identifying arguments
Analyzing arguments
Assessing claims
Assessing arguments
Querying evidence
Conjecturing alternatives
Drawing conclusions
Stating results
Justifying procedures
Presenting arguments
Self-examining
Self-correcting
iii. Constituents of Critical Thinking: Affective dispositions
- Approaches to life and living in general
+ inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of issues,
+ concern to become and remain generally well-informed,
+ alertness to opportunities to use CT,
+ trust in the processes of reasoned inquiry,
+ self-confidence in one’s own ability to reason,
+ open-mindedness regarding divergent world view,
+ flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions,
+ understanding of the opinions of other people,
+ fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning,
+ honesty in facing one’s own biases, prejudices, stereotypes, egocentric
or sociocentric tendencies,
+ prudence in suspending, making or altering judgments,
+ willingness to consider and revise views where honest reflection
suggests that change is warranted,
- Approaches to specific issues, questions or problems:
+ clarity in stating the question or concern,
+ orderliness in working with complexity,
+ diligence in seeking relevant information,
+ reasonableness in selecting and applying criteria,
+ care in focusing attention on the concern at hand,
+ persistence though difficulties are encountered
+ precision to the degree permitted by the subject and the circumstance.
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C. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation
In the late 1970s, two theoretical perspectives have emerged and invoked new critical
conceptions in educational study. They have invoked profound challenges to the
conventional conception of critical-thinking instruction. They are critical literacy and
critical pedagogy. Both perspectives owe their theoretical origins from two similar
sources, on Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and the conception of The
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972) from a Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.
1. Critical literacy perspective:
a. According to Freire's experiences in the program of literacy for Brazilian
farmers, he expends the concept of literacy from merely reading and writing of
words to reading and writing of the world. In his own words
“It is impossible to carry out my literacy work or to understand literacy… by
divorcing the reading of the word from the reading of the world. Reading the
word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it are preceded
by learning how to write the world, that is, having the experience of changing
the world and touching the world.” (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p.49)
b. Subsequently, Green (1988), Lankshear and Knobel (2003) reconceptualize
literacy into three levels
i. Operational literacy: It refers to the mastery of the decoding (reading) and
encoding (writing) operations of systems of language or of other media. It
indicates the ability to relate the words with the worlds “represented”.
ii. Cultural literacy: It refers to the mastery of the "system of meanings" and
cultural system underlying a specific linguistic system. It indicates the
capacity to interpreting the meanings "signified" in media.
iii. Critical literacy: Based on the perspectives of the Critical Theory and
constructionism, critical-literacy theorists begin with the assumption of
"social construction of reality". And they emphasize that there are
hypostatized power relations and frozen ideological relation at work
underlying these realities and they in turn serve as legitimation and
reproduction mechanism of particular institutional configuration. (Habermas,
1971; 1979）
- Accordingly. Critical literacy is defined as ability to unveil the legitmation
bases underlying particular linguistic and cultural systems.
- Furthermore, in Freire's conception, it is
+ To read the words and the read the world
+ To write the words and to write the world
+ To rewrite the world and to transform and improve the world
2. Critical pedagogy perspective: By applying the conception of social construction,
legitimation and reproduction to education in general, the critical pedagogy put
forth critical analysis beyond the conception of literacy and look into different
aspects of pedagogy, such as (1) pedagogical content, (2) the pedagogical
relationship, and (3) the pedagogical process,
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a. Pedagogical content:
i. This perspective can be traced back to Basil Bernstien thesis “How a
society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates the
educational knowledge it considers to be public, reflects both the
distribution of power and the principles of social control." (Bernstein, 1970,
p.74)
ii. Accordingly, the concerns about pedagogical content is to reveal how a
particular curriculum “legitimatizes” and “reproduces” a particular
institutional configuration.
iii. At the same time, how it "marginalizes", "suppressed" and “silences” the
“others”
b. Pedagogical relationship
i. This aspect of inquiry in critical pedagogical can best be illustrated with
Freire's conception of "the banking education".
“Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are
the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating,
the teacher issues communiqués and 'makes deposits', which the students
patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the 'banking' concept of
education.… The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic,
accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher's existence…" (Freire, 1972,
p.45-46)
ii. To rectify, Freire advocates a dialogical relation through which students are
encourage to reflect and re-write the world in which they find themselves.
And in the process to liberate themselves from the situated and submerged
contexts
iii. These aspect of inquiry has initiated researches in both the perspectives of
feminism and post-colonialism.
c. Pedagogical process
i. This aspect of inquiry can be illustrated with Freire's conception of
"problem-posing education."
ii. By rejecting the banking concept of education, teachers and students can
engage in a dialogical relation and "pose problem" to each others and more
importantly to "the world" in which they are embedded.
iii. "Problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality … (It)
strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in
reality." (Freire, 1972, p.54)
iv. "In problem-posing education, men develop their power to perceive
critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find
themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a
reality in process, in transformation." (Freire, 1972, p.56)
v. "Problem-posing education affirms men as beings in the process of
becoming - as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise
unfinished reality." (Freire, 1972, p.56-57)
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vi. “This movement of inquiry must be directed towards humanization – man’s
historical vocation. The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried
out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity;
therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations between oppressors
and oppressed…. Problem-posing education, as a humanist and liberating
praxis, posits as fundamental that men subjected to domination mush fight
for their emancipation.” (Freire, 1972, p.58)
3. Taking together, theorists of the critical literacy and critical pedagogy perspectives
have waged some profound criticisms on critical thinking instruction.
a. Criticism on the decontextualization of the thinking process:
i. It is criticized that critical thinking has abstracted human thinking processes
as "decontextualized" and "disembedded" activities of pure reasoning and
simple logical operations.
ii. It is suggested that to rectify this pitfall the contextuality and historicity of
thought should be reintroduced into critical thinking instruction.
iii. The emphasis on the contextuality and historicity of thought has found echo
in Max Horkheimer's critique on Immanuel Kant's famous conceptions of
"pure reason" and " transcendental self"
"It is the human being who thinks, not the Ego or Reason…. [And that] is
not something abstract, such as the human essence, but always human
beings living in a particular historical epoch." (Horkheimer, 1968, p.145;
quoted in Hoy and McCarthy, 1995, p.9)
b. Criticism on the desubjectification of the thinker:
i. It is criticized that critical thinking has abstracted thinkers as “disembodied”
and “disinterest” individuals who are expected to provide assessment to
argumentative claims with regards to their logical validity.
ii. It is suggested that one way to rectify this fault, Habermas' thesis on the
"knowledge-constitutive interests" should be reintroduced
iii. Another way to rectify the fault of desubjectification, critical thinking
instruction should "re-subjectify” thinkers as “relational self”, “situated self”,
and “embodied self” and bring the conceptions of "care" and "recognition"
back into the critical thinking instruction.
c. Criticism on the objectification of the objects of thinking:
i. It is criticized that critical thinking has abstracted the objects of inquiry as
objectively existing realities and given facts. The primary concern is simply
to assess the validity of the logical connections between premises and
conclusions.
ii. It is suggested that to rectify this pitfall, critical thinkers should think of the
objects of inquiry as socially constructed realities, which are loaded with
hypostatized power relations, frozen ideological configurations, and
legitimatized systemic distortions.
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D. Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical Thinking for Liberal Studies
To summarize, it seems that the main difference among the fractions in the
controversy is the meanings each fraction gives to the concept of criticality. There
seems to be at least five different meanings of criticality at work in these debates and
criticisms on the meaning of critical thinking. These different meanings of criticality
are
a. Critical means evaluative: To most of the scholars within the field of critical
thinking, to be critical means to evaluate and assess. Accordingly, critical thinking
is simply discerned as evaluating the logical correctness of thinking or more
specifically argumentative claims. Critical thinking instruction is simply training of
logical- operational skills.
b. Criticality means critique on the contextuality and historicity of thinking: Most of
the topics and issues addressed in social studies and citizenship education are
socio-politically framed issues and phenomena. Hence, to examined the
discursive configuration at work behind each of these issues is vital in social
studies and citizenship education.
c. Critique on the subjectivity and the situation of the thinkers: Participants in the
discourse of social and political issues are "situated", "embodied" and
"interest-bearing" subjects, to reveal and reflect on the subjectivities of these
thinking participants is also vital in social studies and citizenship education.
d. Criticality means critique on the objects of inquiry: Critically thinking about social
and political issues in the teaching of social studies and citizenship education
should advance beyond logical validity of argumentative claim and penetrate to
the power relations hypostatized, ideological configurations frozen, and systemic
distortions legitimatized underlying the social and political phenomena in point.
e. Criticality means critical practice of social "re-writing" and transforming: The last
meaning of criticality in critical thinking points to the liberating and transformative
potentiality in critical thinking instruction. Critical thinking instruction should not be
stay at the level of contemplating and it should entail actions. In social studies and
citizenship education, it signifies initiations of social and participations which may
lead to improvement and transformation of social and political phenomena in
point.
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