Thinking Criticallyabout the Teaching of Critical Thinking

The College at BrockportState University of New York

January 22, 2010

Are we really successful at teaching critical thinking? How do we move from talking about critical thinking to doing it in the classroom? This first of 3 workshops serves as an introduction to the challenges of inducing students to think more rigorously, systematically, and reflectively both within and across disciplines. Participants will step into the role of critical thinking learners, in order to experience and reflect upon the precise structures and formats of university teaching that induce students to think.

Bill Roberson, Ph.D.Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic LeadershipState University of NY at Albany

A note about the slides….

They will be made available to you electronically after the workshop.

Take a minute and write:

What words occur to you when you hear “Critical Thinking”?

Learning as information-reception

VS

Learning as problem-solving(analyzing & using information intention)

It’s easy to change what people know.

It’s much harder to change how people think.

“Critical Thinking is… self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.”

(Richard Paul and Linda Elder)

Dimensions of Critical Thinking(it’s more than just reasoning skills)

A self-awareness of your operating assumptions and dominant values

A self-awareness of your thought process—of how you came up with an answer

A self-awareness of change in your way of thinking

An attitude of inquiry (this can be learned!!!)

T

Let’s explore analytically and critically a few elements of the teaching-learning process…

The research problem:

Which student study and preparation practices lead to highest performance on a simple test of knowledge (understanding and recall).

B

A formal study conducted by a professor of Psychology

(McKelvie) from U Michigan….

Beginning psychology course

200 “normed” students

All students covered the exact same material

All students took identical exam

5 Groups of students; 5 different preps

The Experiment

_____Group A: Listened to the lecture, did not take notes, and took the exam one week later.

_____Group B: Did not listen to the lecture, were given a copy of professor’s lecture notes, reviewed notes before taking exam one week later.

_____Group C: Listened to the lecture, took notes, reviewed notes before taking exam one week later.

_____Group D: Listened to the lecture, took notes, but did not review notes before taking the exam one week later.

_____Group E : Did not attend lecture, did not receive a copy of the lecture notes, were not enrolled in the course, had never taken the course, and took the exam cold.

(Adapted from the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Vol. 18, no. 1) B

Work alone:

Rank the performance of the student groups from best to worst:

1 = Best 5 = Worst

WRITE DOWN YOUR RANKINGS on a piece of paper

Work in groups of 4-6. As a group now combine your thinking to reach consensus on your prediction.

1 = Best 5 = Worst

Record your team’s final answers on the purple sheet of paper (one set of answers only)

Based on your team’s answers, what are your assumptions about what students need to do to retain information?

B

Time out!!Facilitating critical thinking

1. Task (ser ious but playful): Ask for a decision requiring students to work with incomplete information (e.g., interpretation; prediction; assessment of new situations)

2. Structure the decision as a “choice” among limited options

3. Encourage an analysis of the decision (by asking for group consensus).

4. Make explicit the assumptions, concepts, understanding driving decisions.

5. Provoke reflection: Compare thinking with actual results; look at additional information

T

The Experiment

_____Group C: Listened to lecture, took notes, reviewed notes before taking exam.

_____Group B: Did not listen to lecture, were given professor’s notes, reviewed notes before taking exam.

Differences between these groups were statistically insignificant:

Group A: Listened to the lecture, did not take notes, and took exam.

Group D: Listened to the lecture, took notes, did not review notes before taking exam.

Group E : Were not in the course, had never taken course, did not attend lecture, took the exam cold.

B

In light of this experiment, which of the following practices proved more or less important for retaining information and performing well on exams:

Listening to a lectureAttending classTaking notesTaking time off to let memory do its workReviewing notes before an examHaving accurate notes to study

B

Time out!!Facilitating critical thinking

1. Task (ser ious but playful): Ask for a decision requiring students to work with incomplete information (e.g., interpretation; prediction; assessment of new situations)

2. Structure the decision as a “choice” among limited options

3. Encourage an analysis of the decision (by asking for consensus).

4. Make explicit the assumptions driving decisions.

5. Provoke reflection: Compare thinking with actual results; look at additional information

6. Make explicit any changes in thinking

T

Attitude development is the goal

1. Frequent experiences (practice) making decisions and explaining/defending them. (takes time—see Mazur, Felder)

2. Group/Team-based tasks that allow candid analysis without the presence of an authority (see Michaelsen and Fink)

3. Public comparisons of group decisions to model critical reflective process (see Michaelsen)

4. Challenging tasks (and grading schemes) that do not overly penalize failures for experimental and speculative thinking

Speculative inquiries that model and foster critical thinking(“reflective guess” BEFORE coverage)

Psychology: Which of these practices aids memory?

Art: Which of these 4 artists is mostly likely to have painted this picture. Why?

Chemistry: If you add Ajax Detergent to this solution, which of the following is most likely to happen? Why?

History: Which of the following persons is the most likely author of this document? Or, When was this document most likely to have been written?

Why? (This question works when it follows a decision!!)

The role of incomplete information and data

Gaps in information force judgments that uncover students’ assumptions.

Observing how students fill in gaps allows us to assess their thinking process and not merely the accuracy of their answer.

Some critical thinking questions raised by McKelvie’s study

1. What’s the real function of a lecture? A reading assignment?

2. If McKelvie’s data is valid, and it doesn’t matter much whether students read or listen to a lecture on the same content, what are the implications for course design?

3. What’s the best use of class time?

4. Big challenge: How do we ensure that students cover the material on their own before class, so class time can be “quality time” rather than “seat time,” to be used for more ambitious goals?

5. ???

Another perspective:Some data collected recently from several university professors

“No, I will not share my lecture notes with colleagues—I spent years developing these.”

“I have to lecture because students won’t be able to understand these concepts on their own when they read.”

“If I post my lectures on the web, students won’t have a reason to come to class anymore.”

“___(my specialization here)___ is so complex and difficult that students have to learn all the basics first, before they can even begin to…”

“If I post all my notes on the web, the students will have all the answers for the test.”

T

You are anthropologists who study university culture: make a group with 2 or 3 other anthropologists at your table.

Together, create a single hypothesis about university culture to explain how ALL of these data might be connected.

“No, I will not share my lecture notes with colleagues—I spent years developing these.”

“___(my discipline here)___ is so complex and difficult that students have to learn all the basics first, before they can even begin to…”

“If I post my lectures on the web, students won’t have a reason to come to class anymore.”

“I have to lecture because students won’t be able to understand these concepts on their own when they read.”

“If I post all my notes on the web, the students will have all the answers for the test.”

T

You have just experienced a

“Data-Splash”

Raw data = basis for activity design

Compare and contrast individual data points (analysis)

Construct hypothesis (synthesis, prediction)

Imagine, speculate, guess (attitudinal development)

B

The professors’ statements reflect aspects of traditional university culture

Information-transfer approach to teaching (knowledge is property and power)

Non-dynamic relationship with content(student passively waits for teacher to give information)

How did we get here?

B

One root is medieval

In Europe of 1200 AD…

Not many books Not many readers Not much “information” Information is “sacred” & owned by a few Professor-priest = guardian of knowledge

B

…plus, a modern source of the problem

The enormous amount of available information leads to…

“the panic of coverage”

B

Higher Ed’s “Perfect Storm”

The medieval sacredness of information confronts the modern deluge of information.

B

Higher Ed’s “Perfect Storm”

Consequence: the “insanity” of the modern university course:

We press harder and harder to teach more and more information, while students seem to achieve less and less.

B

One professor’s personal insanity:

“Since my students only remember 10% of what I tell them, I have to tell them 10 times the amount that I want to tell them, so that the 10% they remember is 100% of what I really want them to learn.”

B

Every professor’s dilemma and every student’s nightmare:

EVERYTHINGMUSTBETAUGHTANDEVERYTHINGMUSTBEREMEMBEREDBECAUSEEVERYTHINGISESSENTIAL

B

EVERYTHINGMUSTBETAUGHTANDEVERYTHINGMUSTBEREMEMBEREDBECAUSEEVERYTHINGISESSENTIAL

If you were in this class, wouldn’t you be inclined to ask constantly,

“Professor, what’s going to be on the test?”

B

Frustrated Student:

“You want me to try to guess the answer? How can I? You haven’t even covered that chapter yet!”

How do we escape the insanity?

One assumption and one strategy

Assumption:The goal of instruction is to create dynamic conditions for student

inquiry.

Strategy: Dynamic conditions are created by subverting the traditional “academic (scholastic) model” for learning.

What is the Academic model?

1. Instructors think: my students need to know a lot before they can think for themselves

2. Students think: I need to know a lot before I can think for myself

(translation: students should not be asking questions until they know lots of answers!!)

General effects of the academic model

Non-dynamic relationship with information: students have nothing to discover as beginners

No connectivity between individual data and concepts or theories (analytical thinking)

Students’ lack of independence, and lack of a sense of responsibility for their own learning and thinking skills

How do we subvert the academic model?

“problematize” the knowledge of the discipline…

…to inhibit easy consumption

…to reveal the originating questions/problems of the discipline

Work in groups to complete the following 3 tasks.

In the envelope you will see several small texts. Each text is a test question or assignment.

1. Identify a “reader” for your group, to read each statement out loud (or take turns reading out loud). As a group, order these questions from most difficult to least difficult. Do not sort according to discipline…pay attention ONLY to level of intellectual challenge

2. If possible, identify categories of questions according to difficulty. (group 1, group 2, etc.)

3. Invent a descriptive name for each category

An example of “Problematizing”

Reflection I

What difficulties did you have in trying to categorize these questions?

Reflection II

The question-sorting exercise is based on common educational concepts that inform course and assessment design (Bloom)

memorization comprehension application analysis synthesis evaluation

What are some benefits to asking experienced educators to have a “new” discussion about concepts and theories that are already very familiar?

Bloom’s Research

Collected thousands of questions and assignments to compare and sort

Created categories according to cognitive principles

The question exercise is a staged retracing of Bloom’s familiar research.

What did Socrates do to make his students think?

Problematize the familiar

Example: What is your definition of love, Phaedrus?

One way to problematize the familiar

1. Identify key concepts (my example: Bloom’s Taxonomy)

2. Find or invent “data” or representations of data that concretize the concepts (e.g. the test questions)

3. Ask students to work backward from examples to concepts (inductive reasoning) i.e. discover/uncover the original question(s) that made the data relevant

Development of a critical thinking ATTITUDE

Traditional teaching is DEDUCTIVEHere’s the concept/theory/principle; now apply it to situations.Problem: students learn to WAIT for meaning, rather than seek or construct it.

Compare: INDUCTIVELook at these data points; try to abstract meaningBenefit: students develop thinking habits practiced by scientists, scholars, professionals

T

Frustrated Student:

“You want me to try to guess the answer? How can I? You haven’t even covered that chapter yet!”

“Professor, is this going to be on the test?”

…to be continued at 11:45

materials

McKelvie handoutsBloom