GUEST ESSAY
Critical Thinking and Environmental Studies
Jane Heinze–Fry
Jane Heinze–Fry has a Ph.D. in Environmental Education and
is the author of the instructor’s manual and several other
supplements that accompany this textbook. She is author of
Green Lives, Green Campuses and Critical Thinking and
Environmental Studies: A Beginner’s Guide (with G. Tyler
Miller as co–author). Previously, she taught and directed
environmental studies at Sweet Briar College. She also
taught biology to students at the junior high, high school, and college levels. and has
taught environmental science and biology at Emerson College and Bunker Hill
Community College in Boston. Her interdisciplinary orientation is reflected in her
concept maps.
Defining critical thinking is not easy. Critical thinking has come to mean different
things to different people. In my opinion, critical thinking is thinking that moves
learners (1) to more meaningful learning instead of rote learning; (2) to higher
levels of learning (application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation as opposed to
knowledge and comprehension); (3) to apply concepts and principles to real–world
experience and situations; (4) to make judgments about knowledge and values
claims; and (5) to enhance problem–solving skills.
Learners engaged in critical thinking make efforts to
•
Clarify their understanding of new concepts
•
Connect new knowledge to prior knowledge and experience
•
Make judgments about claims made by people in scientific articles, books,
advertisements
•
Develop creative thinking by learning how to exercise both right– and left– brain
capabilities
•
Relate what they have learned to their own life experiences
•
Understand and evaluate their environmental worldview
•
Take positions on issues
•
Engage in problem–solving processes
Copyright ©2005 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning
is a trademark used herein under license.
Whenever we are faced with new information, we need to evaluate it by using
critical thinking. Do we believe the information or not, and why? Do the claims seem
reasonable or exaggerated? Here are some rules for evaluating evidence and claims:
1. Gather all the information you can.
2. Be sure that all key terms and concepts are defined and that you understand
these definitions.
3. Question how the information (data) was obtained.
•
Were the studies involved well–designed and carried out?
•
Was there an experimental group and a control group? Were the control and
experimental groups treated identically except for the variable changed in the
experimental group?
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Did the investigators repeat their experiments several times and get
essentially the same results?
•
Were the results verified by one or more other investigators?
4. Question the conclusions derived from the data.
•
Do the data support the claims, conclusions, and predictions?
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Are there other possible interpretations? Are there more reasonable
interpretations?
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Do the conclusions involve a correlation or apparent connection between two
or more variables, or do they imply a strong cause and effect relationship between
such variables?
•
Are the conclusions based on the results of original research by experts in the
field involved, or are they conclusions drawn by reporters or scientists in other
fields?
5. Try to determine the assumptions and biases of the investigators and then
question them.
•
Do the investigators have a monetary or political advantage in the outcome of
the investigation or issue involved?
•
What are the underlying basic assumptions or worldviews of the
investigators? Would investigators with different basic assumptions or
worldviews take the same data and come to different conclusions?
6. Expect and tolerate uncertainty. Recognize that science is a dynamic process that
provides only a certain degree of probability or certainty and that the more complex
the system or process being investigated, the greater the degree of uncertainty.
Copyright ©2005 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning
is a trademark used herein under license.
•
Are the data, claims, and conclusions based on the tentative results of
frontier science or the more reliable and widely accepted results of consensus or
sound science?
7. Look at the big picture (think holistically).
•
How do the results and conclusions fit into the whole system (the earth,
ecosystem, economy, political system) involved?
•
What additional data and experiments are needed to relate the results to the
whole system?
8. Based on these steps, take a position by either rejecting or conditionally
accepting the claims.
•
Reject claims based on no evidence, insufficient evidence, or evidence coming
from questionable sources.
•
If evidence does not support a claim, reject it and state the conclusion you
would draw.
•
If the evidence supports the claims, conditionally accept the claims with the
understanding that your support may change if new evidence disproves the
claim.
In addition to these rules to enhance making reasoned judgments, there are a
number of other strategies to improve your critical thinking skills. Some strategies
focus on improving thinking; others on attitudes and values; others on actions.
Thinking strategies focus on learning how to use your left brain (which is good
at logic and analysis) and your right brain (which is good at visualizing and creating).
They include constructing models, clarifying concepts, brainstorming, defining
problems, creating alternative solutions, visualizing future possibilities, and
exercising your creative brain paths.
Attitudes and values focus on establishing an ecological identity, reflecting on
the interaction of lifestyle and the environment, understanding and evaluating your
worldview, and using values analysis for evaluating proposed environmental policies
and making personal environmental decisions. Action strategies focus on problem
solving. They include techniques for visualizing problems, redefining problems,
considering alternative solutions, creating plans of action, and developing strategies
for implementing action plans.
In the environmental course you are taking, there are many opportunities to
develop your critical thinking skills. Your textbook offers critical thinking questions at
the end of chapters, Guest Essays on the book’s website, and in most boxed
Copyright ©2005 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning
is a trademark used herein under license.
material. If your course uses the supplement Critical Thinking and Environmental
Studies: A Beginner’s Guide, you will learn the critical thinking strategies mentioned
here. Courses using the supplement Green Lives, Green Campuses can offer you
additional opportunities to use critical thinking in evaluating your environmental
lifestyle and making an environmental audit of your campus.
Learning how to think critically is essential in helping you evaluate the validity
and usefulness of what you read in newspapers, magazines, and books (such as this
textbook), what you hear in lectures and speeches, and what you see and hear on
the news and in advertisements.
Critical Thinking
1. Can you come up with an example in which critical thinking has helped you make
a major change in one or more of your beliefs or helped you make an important
personal decision? Can you think of a decision that may have come out better if you
had used critical thinking skills such as those discussed in this essay?
2. Rote learning often involves the "memorize and spit back" strategy. Meaningful
learning (including critical thinking) goes far beyond memorization and requires us to
evaluate the validity of what we learn. Currently, about what percentage of your
learning involves rote learning and what percentage involves critical thinking as
defined at the beginning of this essay?
Copyright ©2005 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning
is a trademark used herein under license.