A Response to Critical Thinking and Critical Perspectives

As a teacher in a college classroom, I struggle with trying to get my students to think critically. I know that this is a skill that they need to master to be successful in the real world, but many of them come from a public school background where they have been taught to the test. Now that they are in college, we have to encourage them to strengthen their critical thinking skills “muscle.” To do this it is important to understand what critical thinking is. I found this wonderful video that explains critical thinking very well – in fact he uses the Socratic method to generate his definition.

When I was reading the chapter in the book, what jumped out at me was the list of abilities that critical thinkers possess – these are certainly the types of skills that I would like to foster in my classroom. They include:

•   Assume a position or change it based on the evidence
•   Remain relevant to the point
•    Seek information and precision in the information sought
•    Exhibit open-mindedness
•   Consider the big picture
•    Focus on the original problem
•    Search for reason
•    Orderly consider complex components of problems
•    Seek a clear statement of the problem
•    Seek options
•    Show sensitivity to others’ feelings and knowledge
•    Use credible sources

(this list is directly from Adult Learning by Merriam and Bierema)

I encourage, to the extent possible, all of these in my classroom, but I especially try to work on helping them to “Seek information and precision in the information sought,” “Orderly consider complex components of problems,” and “Use credible sources.”

After reading the chapter, I did a little research for ideas on how to further encourage critical thinking by my students. I found a web site called “The Critical Thinking Community.” They had a lot of resources to help you encourage critical thinking. I especially liked this list of teaching tactics:

Resources

Merriam, S.B. & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult learning:  Linking theory and practice.  San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (n.d.). Teaching Tactics that Encourage Active Learning. Retrieved April 26, 2015, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/tactics-that-encourage-active-learning/468

Stearns, P. [teachphilosophy]. (2012, December 26). What is critical thinking  [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oAf3g5_138