------------------- Critical Thinking Critical thinking is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines (by referencing their respective sets of permissible questions, evidence sources, criteria, etc.). Within the framework of scientific skepticism, the process of critical thinking involves the careful acquisition and interpretation of information and use of it to reach a well-justified conclusion. The concepts and principles of critical thinking can be applied to any context or case but only by reflecting upon the nature of that application. Critical thinking forms, therefore, a system of related, and overlapping, modes of thought such as anthropological thinking, sociological thinking, historical thinking, political thinking, psychological thinking, philosophical thinking, mathematical thinking, chemical thinking, biological thinking, ecological thinking, legal thinking, ethical thinking, musical thinking, thinking like a painter, sculptor, engineer, business person, etc. In other words, though critical thinking principles are universal, their application to disciplines requires a process of reflective contextualization. Critical thinking is considered important in the academic fields because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief. However, even with knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, mistakes can happen due to a thinker's inability to apply the methods or because of character traits such as egocentrism. Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Given research in cognitive psychology, some educators believe that schools should focus on teaching their students critical thinking skills and cultivation of intellectual traits. ------------------- The positive habits of mind which characterize a person strongly disposed toward critical thinking include a courageous desire to follow reason and evidence wherever they may lead, open-mindedness, foresight attention to the possible consequences of choices, a systematic approach to problem solving, inquisitiveness, fair-mindedness and maturity of judgment, and confidence in reasoning. When individuals possess intellectual skills alone, without the intellectual traits of mind, weak sense critical thinking results. Fair-minded or strong sense critical thinking requires intellectual humility, empathy, integrity, perseverance, courage, autonomy, confidence in reason and other intellectual traits. Thus, critical thinking without essential intellectual traits often results in clever, but manipulative and often unethical or subjective thought. ------------------- Research suggests a widespread skepticism about universities' effectiveness in fostering critical thinking. For example, in a three year study of 68 public and private colleges in California, though the overwhelming majority claimed critical thinking to be a primary objective of their instruction, only a small minority could give a clear explanation of what critical thinking is. Furthermore, although the overwhelming majority claimed that their students lacked appropriate intellectual standards (to use in assessing their thinking), and considered that students learning to assess their own work was of primary importance, only a very small minority could enumerate any intellectual criteria or standards they required of students or could give an intelligible explanation of what those criteria and standards were. According to a meta-analysis of the literature on teaching effectiveness in higher education, critical reports by authorities on higher education, political leaders and business people have claimed that higher education is failing to respond to the needs of students and that many of our graduates' knowledge and skills do not meet society's requirements for well-educated citizens. Thus, the meta-analysis focused on the question: "How valid are these claims?" Researchers concluded: 1. "Faculty aspire to develop students' thinking skills, but research consistently shows that in practice they tend to aim at facts and concepts in the disciplines, at the lowest cognitive levels, rather than development of intellect or values." 2. "Faculty agree almost universally that the development of students' higher-order intellectual or cognitive abilities is the most important educational task of colleges and universities." 3. "... critical thinking - the capacity to evaluate skillfully and fairly the quality of evidence and detect error, hypocrisy, manipulation, dissembling and bias - is central to both personal success and national needs." 4. Process-oriented instructional orientations "have long been more successful than conventional instruction in fostering effective movement from concrete to formal reasoning. Such programs emphasize students' active involvement in learning and cooperative work with other students and de-emphasize lectures..." 5. "Numerous studies of college classrooms reveal that, rather than actively involving students in learning, [we] lecture, even though lectures are not nearly as effective as other means for developing cognitive skills." 6. "Studies suggest these methods often fail to dislodge students' misconceptions and ensure learning of complex, abstract concepts. Capacity for problem solving is limited by our use of inappropriately simple practice exercises." 7. "Classroom tests often set the standard for students' learning. As with instruction, however, these tend to emphasize recall of memorized factual information rather than intellectual challenge." 8. "Taken together with our preference for lecturing, our tests may be reinforcing our students' commonly fact-oriented memory learning, of limited value to either them or society." In contrast to these results, for students to excel at thinking critically, especially at the graduate level and in research, where it is crucial, they must be taught not how to know the answer but how to ask the question. As Schwartz explains ("The importance of stupidity in scientific research", 2008), scientists must embrace what they do not know. Critical thinking is a primary tool in approaching this. ------------------- The key to seeing the significance of critical thinking in academics is in understanding the significance of critical thinking in learning. There are two meanings to the learning of this content. The first occurs when learners (for the first time) construct in their minds the basic ideas, principles, and theories that are inherent in content. This is a process of internalization. The second occurs when learners effectively use those ideas, principles, and theories as they become relevant in learners' lives. This is a process of application. Good teachers cultivate critical thinking (intellectually engaged thinking) at every stage of learning, including initial learning. This process of intellectual engagement is at the heart of the Oxford, Durham, Cambridge and London School of Economics tutorials. The tutor questions the students, often in a Socratic manner. The key is that the teacher who fosters critical thinking fosters reflectiveness in students by asking questions that stimulate thinking essential to the construction of knowledge. As emphasized earlier, each discipline adapts its use of critical thinking concepts and principles. The core concepts are always there but they are embedded in subject-specific content. For students to learn content, intellectual engagement is crucial. All students must do their own thinking, their own construction of knowledge. Good teachers recognize this and therefore focus on the questions, readings, activities that stimulate the mind to take ownership of key concepts and principles underlying the subject. ------------------- ------------------- Socratic Questioning Socratic questioning is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know and to follow out logical implications of thought. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, and deep and usually focuses on foundational concepts, principles, theories, issues, or problems. According to Paul and Elder (The Art of Socratic Questioning, 2006), teachers, students, or indeed anyone interested in probing thinking at a deep level can and should construct Socratic questions and engage in Socratic dialogue. When teachers use Socratic questioning in teaching, their purpose may be to determine the extent of student knowledge on a given topic, issue or subject, to probe student thinking, to model Socratic questioning for students or to help students analyze a concept or line of reasoning. Students should learn the discipline of Socratic questioning so that they begin to use it in reasoning through complex issues, in understanding and assessing the thinking of others, and in following-out the implications of what they, and others think. In teaching, then, teachers can use Socratic questioning for at least two purposes: 1. To deeply probe student thinking, to help students begin to distinguish what they know or understand from what they do not know or understand (and to help them develop intellectual humility in the process). 2. To foster students' abilities to ask Socratic questions, to help students acquire the powerful tools of Socratic dialogue, so that they can use these tools in everyday life (in questioning themselves and others). To this end, teachers can model the questioning strategies they want students to emulate and employ. Moreover, teachers need to directly teach students how to construct and ask deep questions. Beyond that, students need practice to improve their questioning abilities. Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning (indeed Socrates himself thought that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching). It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds in cultivating deep learning. Cox and Griffith ("Outstanding Teaching", web), argue that integrating Socratic questioning techniques in the classroom is essential to developing active, independent learners. They identify six categories of questions: 1. Getting Students to clarify their thinking e.g. "Why do you say that?", "Could you explain further?" 2. Challenging students about assumptions e.g. "Is this always the case?", "Why do you think that this assumption holds here?" 3. Evidence as a basis for argument e.g. "Why do you say that?", "Is there reason to doubt this evidence?" 4. Alternative viewpoints and perspectives e.g. "What is the counter argument for?", "Can/did anyone see this another way?" 5. Implications and consequences e.g. "But if what happened, what else would result?", "How does...affect...?" 6. Question the question e.g."Why do you think that I asked that question?", "Why was that question important?", "Which of your questions turned out to be the most useful?" The art of Socratic questioning is intimately connected with critical thinking because the art of questioning is important to excellence of thought. What the word "Socratic" adds to the art of questioning is systematicity, depth, and an abiding interest in assessing the truth or plausibility of things. Both critical thinking and Socratic questioning share a common end. Critical thinking provides the conceptual tools for understanding how the mind functions in its pursuit of meaning and truth; Socratic questioning employs those tools in framing questions essential to the pursuit of meaning and truth. The goal of critical thinking is to establish an additional level of thinking to our thinking, a powerful inner voice of reason, that monitors, assesses, and reconstitutes-in a more rational direction-our thinking, feeling, and action. Socratic discussion cultivates that inner voice through an explicit focus on self-directed, disciplined questioning. Socratic questioning creates many more pits for students. This model can play a key role in transferring the responsibility for learning to the students and will force them to think more about their learning. -------------------