{"id":4809,"date":"2019-07-15T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2019-07-13T19:59:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T00:59:28","slug":"critical-thoughts-on-teaching-critical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/critical-thoughts-on-teaching-critical-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Thoughts on Teaching Critical Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at The Learning Scientists,\u00a0Althea Need Kaminske asks if we can teach critical thinking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reasonably enough, she argues that it depends on our definition of “critical thinking.”<\/p>\n

Let’s consider two different kinds:<\/p>\n

Type I Critical Thinking: Within<\/em> Disciplines<\/p>\n

Type II Critical Thinking: Across<\/em> Disciplines<\/p>\n

Kaminske’s answer goes like this:<\/p>\n

Teaching critical thinking within<\/strong> disciplines (type I) is hard, but can be done.<\/p>\n

Teaching critical thinking across<\/strong> disciplines (type II) is really<\/em> hard, and can sort of be done.<\/p>\n

Type I: Critical Thinking Within<\/em> Disciplines<\/h2>\n

When we learn a lot about any particular subject, our increased knowledge of that subject allows us to think critically about it. Especially if we\u00a0practice<\/em> thinking critically.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, for example, I’ve spent most of my life acting in, directing, and studying plays. I can (and do) think critically about the theater quite often.<\/p>\n

I can tell you why the set worked, but the costumes didn’t. I can explain why this actor’s performance suited the first act of the play but not the second. I can opine that the director’s background (she does musicals more often than plays) has shaped her interpretation of this distinctly un-musical script.<\/p>\n

Important warning:<\/p>\n

This expertise takes quite a long time and explicit practice<\/em> to develop. In a famous foundational study from 1981<\/a>, Chi et al. found that graduate students<\/em>\u00a0(!) in physics thought more like undergrads than like professors.<\/p>\n

That is: after years of high-level physics study, they still weren’t proficient at seeing below the surface features of a problem to its deep structures. They hadn’t yet mastered critical thinking in their discipline.<\/p>\n

They still needed more practice.<\/p>\n

Type II: Critical Thinking Across<\/em> Disciplines<\/h2>\n

Important warning #2: the critical thinking skills I developed in the theater almost certainly don’t apply in other disciplines.<\/p>\n

My theater skill\/knowledge certainly won’t help me categorize physics problems<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They won’t help me — in Kaminske’s example — draw expert judgments about different types and qualities of beer<\/em>. (I’d need LOTS MORE beer expertise to do so. Care to join me?)<\/p>\n

Here’s a test you might try: watch 10 minutes of a rugby match. If you — like me — don’t know nothin’ about rugby, you’re unlikely to have much insight into the game you saw.<\/p>\n

Why? Because we need LOTS of specific knowledge about and experience in rugby to have critical rugby insights. Our ability to think critically about lesson plans doesn’t help here.<\/p>\n

For instance, Kaminske teaches a course on Statistics and Research Methods. For the course, her students have to do a literature review, and write it up as a persuasive essay. All of her students have taken a college course on persuasive writing:<\/p>\n

This writing course focuses on writing essays and constructing persuasive arguments. I know that my students know how to do this. I also know that they have no idea how to transfer those skills to my class.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is: demonstrated critical thinking in one kind of analytical college writing doesn’t transfer to another discipline. She has to teach them explicitly how to do so.<\/p>\n

To be clear: Kaminske holds out some hope about about cross-disciplinary critical thinking. Quoting research by van Gelder<\/a>, she argues that some strategies — such as visualization — promote critical thinking skills in many disciplines.<\/p>\n

And yet, that hope is tempered with caution. As a cognitive psychologist with an interest in science fiction movies, she has critical insights into the Matrix,\u00a0<\/em>and similar shows.<\/p>\n

However, my ability to think critically about cognitive psychology in these movies\/shows does not necessarily mean I can think critically about the cinematography or directing. …<\/p>\n

Or that I can think critically about any number of things outside of my very specific areas of training and experiences. My critical thinking is very good in a specific domains and less good outside of that domain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Classroom Implications<\/h2>\n

Teachers have a finite number of hours that we can spend helping our students think. We should choose the most effective strategies to get that job done.<\/p>\n

When we want students to think critically, we can help them do so in two ways.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: we can teach them more information and skills within a particular topic.<\/p>\n

If I want my students to think critically about poetry, they should read a lot of poems, and learn a lot about authors and genres and analytical strategies.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: we can give them many opportunities to engage in critical work.<\/p>\n

The more time they spend comparing poems, or figures of speech, or genres of love poetry, the more skilled they will become at the critical thinking necessary to do so.<\/p>\n

We might wish that cross-disciplinary critical thinking strategies (our type II) existed. Perhaps some — like visualization — do help.<\/p>\n

Given what we know about type II critical thinking, however, our most effective strategy will be to focus on type I.<\/p>\n

\n

A Final, Sheepish Confession<\/h2>\n

Honestly, I wish this conclusion weren’t true. I wish we could teach a general critical thinking skill that would apply to all realms of cognitive activity.<\/p>\n

I really like how that sounds.<\/p>\n

But, scholars starting with Daniel Willingham (back in\u00a0Why Don’t Students Like School?<\/em>) have shown that we need lots o’ disciplinary knowledge, and lots o’ specific practice.<\/p>\n

I think I serve my students — and my readers — best by acknowledging that frank truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can teach critical thinking within disciplines — especially when students master information, and practice core skills. Can we teach more general critical thinking skills?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-critical-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4814,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions\/4814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}