Teaching Critical Thinking
Dr John Peters
Academic development and
practice
Session blurb
• This session will share the way in we
already, often implicitly, address critical
thinking and offer some alternative
ideas and practical exercises for
embedding the teaching of critically
thinking skills in subject programmes.
Learning Outcomes
• Offer definitions and models of critical thinking
• Explore reasons for teaching critical thinking
• Make more explicit current support for student
critical thinking
• Consider the possibilities of explicitly teaching
critical thinking
• Deploy practical exercises to support student
learning of critical thinking skills
What is critical thinking?
• Reviewing from different perspectives in order to
formulate own personalised judgement / view point
and to be able to apply it to the matter in hand and
engage in development
• Stepping back & recognising different perspectives
• Comprehending & valuing different viewpoints
• Appreciating someone else’s viewpoint and logic but
not necessarily agreeing
• Being able to underpin your argument with evidence
• Reviewing and developing – a constant cycle of
reflection and adaptation
• Analysis – taking things to pieces
What is critical thinking?
• an ability to present, evaluate, and
interpret data, to develop lines of
argument and make sound judgements.
– QAA, Framework for Higher Education
Qualifications, Certificate level
Issues
•
•
•
•
•
Requiring
Defining
Teaching
Learning
What do we do already?
Defining Critical Thinking 1
• Critical thinking is about uncovering the
truth by attacking and removing all that
is false.
• Therefore it’s reactive, destructive and
adversarial
• It is thus a small part of thinking and too
much emphasis is already placed on it
– (De Bono, 1993)
Defining Critical Thinking 2
• Critical thinking is a rational and
purposeful attempt to use thought to
move towards a future goal (Halpern
1984 in Brookfield, 1987)
• Therefore it is productive, positive,
open, engaged and humble (Brookfield,
1987)
Defining critical thinking 3
• Four traditions of critical thinking
– Analytical philosophy & logic
– psycho-analytical & personal criticality
– Ideology critique – critiquing the dominant
ideology and challenging hegemony
– Pragmatic constructivism
• (Brookfield 2005)
Components of critical thinking
• Identifying and challenging assumptions:
notice differences between assumptions and
experience
• Awareness & exploration of context:
everything is contextual
• Imagining and exploring alternatives:
divergence & diversity
• Analysis, judgement, resolution & action
• Reflective scepticism: particularly to claims of
universal truth
– Brookfield 1987
An example of reactive critical
thinking
• Christopher
Columbus
discovered
America in 1492 –
Discuss?!?
• What’s so wrong with that fact?!
• Who was Christopher Columbus?
– Anglicized version of Latin version of Castilian name Cristóbal
Colón
– Led expedition but land sighted by one of his sailors
• What do we mean by discovered?
– Europeans found it [euro-centric]
– Viking archaeological evidence
– Indigenous population
• Where and what is America?
– Didn’t land on mainland until 1498 and never in North America
– Thought it was the East Indies
– Who called it America? Probably Martin Waldseemüller in 1507
after a later explorer Amerigo Vespucci
• What do we mean by 1492?
– Whose calendar? Etc. etc.
Teaching critical thinking 1
• Identifying arguments
• Structure, logic, consistency & reasoning
• Identifying assumptions
– premises & connotations
• Identifying flaws in arguments
– False analogies, emotive, tautology,
misrepresentation
• Providing evidence
– Authentic, valid, reliable, robust & current
• Cottrell (2005)
Ideas for teaching the application
of critical thinking to the work of
others
• Reading texts using structured critical
thinking questions
• Analysis then evaluation
• Assessing example assignments
• .
So what’s an argument?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv
3ripSM
• Could this be used with students?!
An Example of Constructive
Critical Thinking
• An argument: an attempt to persuade by
offering reason[s] and a conclusion
• Reason: Students are not very good at critical
thinking
• Conclusion: So we should teach critical
thinking skills
• Two key questions
– Is the reason acceptable / valid / well-founded?
– Does the conclusion follow logically from the
reason?
Issues
• No evidence of the assertion
• Issue of struggling with academic critical
thinking
• It’s the context and constraints that are the
problem – confidence?!
• Reason doesn’t follow
• We need to know why?
Constructing a better
argument
• ‘We should teach critical thinking skills
because…’ or better
• ‘Students should learn to be critical thinkers
because...’ or better still, perhaps,
• ‘We should encourage student to value and
deploy critical thinking because....’
• Because its fundamental / a good thing /
makes them better professionals / learners
• Because it’ll get them a good degree and a
job
Helping others think critically
• Recognise that questioning assumptions can be
threatening and emotional
• Model assumption analysis
– Encourage critique of assumptions in assignments
– Encourage critique of our own work
– Encourage self-evaluation
• Model risk taking
• Model openness, hold real conversations
• Encourage divergence & creativity
– Brookfield
Ideas for teaching the application
of critical thinking to own work
• Self assessment
• Peer assessment
• Argument construction in sessions
– More non-team sport should be done in
schools because…
– Nurses should engage in CPD because…
– Germany was responsible for the second
world war because…
De Bono, 5 stage general structure
• TO: focus & objectives, define the problem
• LO: look around, explore, gather information,
examine factors, assess context
• PO: generate possibilities, speculations,
options, ideas, propose alternatives
• SO: compare, sift, check & decide
• GO: action plan
Teaching creativity
• Sternberg, R. & Williams, W. 24
Teaching for creativity: two dozen tips
• http://www.cdl.org/resourcelibrary/articles/teaching_creativity.php
• Norman Jackson, ‘Tackling the wicked
problem of creativity in HE’
• http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sceptre/docume
nts/TACKLINGTHEWICKEDPROBLEM
09.pdf
References
• Allen, M. (1997) Smart thinking, Oxford UP
• Brookfield, S. (1987) Developing critical thinkers, Open
UP
• Brookfield, S. (2005) The power of critical theory for
adult learning and teaching, Open UP
• Cottrell, S. (2005) Critical thinking skills, Palgrave
• De Bono, E. (1993) Teach your child how to think,
Penguin
• Rubenfeld, M & Scheffer, B. (1999) Critical thinking in
Nursing, Lippincott, USA
• Thompson, A. (1996) Critical Reasoning, Routledge