About college students not learning to think critically..

[Stuart G]

Why?

Simple, Teachers do not take the time to teach it. Critical thinking is a skill one needs to learn by itself, and teaching this skill is not easy..I used to try to teach this in high school to my students, and it was difficult. Now it was a while ago, but I recall how uninterested many were, and how difficult it was. Nevertheless, I thought this was very important to learn in my courses in United States History, and Contemporary History which I taught in the 70s, 80s and 90s. But you needed a plan, and specific time set aside to teach the skills. There was so much else to cover that I thought was important, that it was difficult to fit in.

I do not defend college and university teachers. This is more of an explanation as to why this may be true.

[hobbit709]

1. Critical thinking should be learned long before college.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. +1 and then some... n/t

[GoCubsGo]

13. Exactly right.

It should be learned long before a person even starts formal education.

[Dappleganger]

32. Agreed. Know that golden age when kids know it all and get mouthy?

That's the perfect time to teach logic and reasoning.

[seabeyond]

33. gosh, if they start younger, they will already know how to do it and the mouthy and know it all

wont be nearly as hard to wade thru

[Myrina]

2. ... because for the last 15 years or so, "school" has been about test scores ...

... the only thing kids are 'learning' is how to take standardized tests. Individual, creative and critical thought aren't going to get a higher score on a standardized test - standardized thinking is. Now be a nice little robot and go play with your X-box.

[indepat]

24. Heaven and all earth surely realize a nation of critical thinkers would reject the whole of

RW ideology and their agenda in their entirety. ;)

[Stuart G]

29. I agree with this....standardized test..and I might add this:

Even though I stopped teaching in the 90s, these stupid tests took up huge amounts of time.....even then

We had to stop whatever we had planned, and taught the kind of stuff that we thought would be on those idiotic tests..everything else went to the back burnner..now it must be much worse. So if three or four weeks of critical thinking skills were in the plann, then they were put back and other more important ideas were taught..

Now with performance goals as they put it, who the hell would sacrifice those goals,(since they may determine whether or not you kept your job).. for say..
critical thinking skills..

Think about it..

[Locrian]

3. critical thinking

Critical thinking requires a critique of authority. Call it rebellion.
It's part of the process of becoming responsible for yourself. (of course you can go to far etc)

But in this new era of authoritarianism, (not to mention overprotection) - it's all about conformity and fitting in.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I wanted to engage in critical thinking in high school, but it was regarded as

the arbitrary challenging of authority and I was highly discouraged from doing it.

When I was enrolled in a liberal arts program in undergraduate years, some of my classes had less than 10 students in them, nowhere to "hide" and you had to participate in discussions of material you had to know before class.

When I was enrolled in law school, you needed critical thinking to survive. The professors employed the Socratic Method to challenge every nuance of your responses. You had to be able to defend your position by knowing all the facts, using logic, and arguing the extension of that logic through hypothetical examples.

When I taught as a substitute teacher, I used to rhetorically ask the students what I was doing "wrong" as nobody asked me any questions, nobody challenged the validity of whatever I was teaching, nobody asked me to prove anything. Questions were the key to education and I wasn't getting any.

[seabeyond]

5. whatever happened to having it IN HOME and the child raised with it, first....

second.... my kids have classes that are a lot more outside the box, allowing discussion and different views, than ever before. in an all red area, i am so impressed with the teachers insistence on respect and diverse thinking. if a child does not pick it up in school, it is because the child is not afforded the opportunity at home, where they 'get it".

[RegieRocker]

6. Critical thinking comes from doing things other than

playing computer games or watching TV.

[jeff47]

50. Not always

A very large number of computer games require problem solving to complete the game.

Now, if the kid just looks up what they're supposed to do on the Internet, they're not going to learn anything. But there's a lot of puzzles to solve and tactics to work out in a lot of games.

[RegieRocker]

82. Most of them play rpg' s and when it comers to strategy

it is seriously lacking. I agree with stand alone games that would be true.

[dshadoin]

7. There has been a generalized dumbing down of students

that has been exacerbated by "no child left behind". Add to that the reduction in non-core activities, music, art, physical education, and the willingness of school districts to serve mind-numbing slop instead of nutritious meals, and you get entire generations of blobs with no creativity.

As a child, my parents insisted on the success of their kids in school. We were not allowed to slough off. But too many children are latch-key, too many schools are over crowded, and frankly too many teachers are unqualified to combat the changed environment. What college or university now teaches the teachers to demand critical thinking?

It's systemic and endemic. It's also another eroding force undermining this nation.

[seabeyond]

15. and here i am a parent that has that expectation of children and see my kids are well advanced

in all the subjects. learning more than we ever did in our day.

maybe it has more to do with opportunity there for kid to learn, if he is willing to take that opportunity

[WinkyDink]

18. Wrong-o, sorry! Facts (trust me on this) are anathema in today's schools, per "experts"

who have convinced Administrators who have instructed teachers who must obey.

No, today's students will NEVER learn as much as students did, ca. 1940-1975. (Use "history" as one test subject.)

[seabeyond]

19. not true. you do not have the facts. they are doing more advanced courses and they are

doing them in earlier grades.

[readmoreoften]

74. If you live in a well-funded area or have your kids in a private school.

It really depends on where you live. And that "where" is also always changing depending on property taxes and the flow of public monies to charter schools.

[seabeyond]

78. my kids had a worse academic challenges in private school. they have been in poor public, rich

underfunded public and a very diverse high school.

i have found the the AP courses to be well beyond what we ever had in our day. it seems like the students that are not much in learning hang in the regular classes adn just make it thru. the serious students go into the ap courses.

if a student is out of a home that have high academic expectations, they take the ap courses. those are also the students that have been using the critical thinking for a long time. the opportunities are there.

i cant really even say that about the normal classes. my son dropped his ap algrebra 2 class and is taking a normal alg 2 class and is getting a good education with it. a teacher that is there for the kids.

my kids arent problem kids. they go to learn because that is what is expected out of them.

i am so pissed at the dissing of the public schools that we are to the point of allowing monies go to charter and out of public.

[renate]

28. welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Crankie Avalon]

8. How many students take their degrees in "business" disciplines as opposed to academic ones...

...these days.

I run into a lot of young college grads in my workplace. They were all business majors and I'm shocked sometimes by how uneducated they seem. Almost any literary or historical reference goes over their heads. Even just their vocabularies...I was in an all employee assembly the other day and a kid leaned over to me and whispered "what's 'tethered to' mean?" when he heard the speaker use that phrase. Unbelievable. And this kid went to SUNY Binghamton, mind you, quite a well-regarded school.

[xchrom]

10. +1 -- the epidemic of MBAs is horrifying. nt

[HereSince1628]

12. Students and employers want 'training' not liberal educations.

The market place of higher education has given these stake holders what they requested.

[closeupready]

20. Sadly agree.

n/t

[Taitertots]

30. Big surprise, Business majors don't know about stuff unrelated to their degree

And when they say things related to business, those go right over your head.

[Crankie Avalon]

84. Um, a reasonably sophisticated command of English is something ANY educated American ought to have

...sorry if this makes you feel a little defensive. We're talking about very, very basic core curriculum here, NOT, for example, whether or not a kid who wasn't a science major should know the entire table of periodic elements.

Jesus.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. Business majors were mostly kids who didn't belong in college in the first place

because they had no intellectual interests whatsoever. There were a few exceptions, smart kids whose parents forced them to major in business, but for most part, it was the default major for the students who were just marking time.

They didn't want to learn; they just wanted to pass the test. They wanted an "A" in Japanese to impress future employers, but they didn't want to do the considerable amount of studying that it takes to earn that "A," nor did they show an interest in Japanese culture or Japanese people, even when opportunities were available right on campus (Japanese movies, welcome party for Japanese exchange students, TV programs about Japan, performances by a koto ensemble, tea ceremony demonstration in one conference room off the cafeteria during lunch hour--six students out of 150 bothered to pick up their lunch trays and go into the conference room).

When I made culture credits a part of the curriculum and told the students that they could borrow from my extensive library of English translations of Japanese literature and non-fiction books about every aspect of the country, the typical business major came in and said, "Do you have any books about Japanese business?" To which I was glad to reply, "No, but I have 25 translated novels, several books on history, anthropology, archaeology, art, music, education, sports, and everything except business."

[tabbycat31]

48. people are told an "academic" major is not marketable

[NashVegas]

54. Well Ya Know, Power Point Is An Important Skill ...

[HereSince1628]

9. It's more foundational than critical thinking. It's also words

Critical thinking requires many things, including curiosity, which would make this rant much longer if I addressed them. But, one of the things I found as a faculty member in undergraduate science departments is that critical thinking depends upon words, particularly words of advanced vocabulary. An advanced lexicon include words rarely encountered in American vernacular speech.

In the last years of my undergraduate teaching career my activity was largely interpreting these words to students and writing exams and laboratory handouts that minimized the use of the following:

abandon
abstract
access
accommodate
accompany
accumulate
accurate
achieve
acknowledge
acquire
adapt
adequate
adjacent
adjust
administer
advocate
affect
aggregate
aid
albeit
allocate
alter
alternative
ambiguous
amend
analogy
analyze
annual
anticipate
apparent
append
appreciate
approach
appropriate
approximate
arbitrary
area
aspect
assemble
assess
assign
assist
assume
assure
attach
attain
attitude
attribute
author
authority
automate
available
aware
behalf
benefit
bias
bond
brief
bulk
capable
capacity
category
cease
challenge
channel
chapter
chart
chemical
circumstance
cite
civil
clarify
classic
clause
code
coherent
coincide
collapse
colleague
commence
comment
commission
commit
commodity
communicate
community
compatible
compensate
compile
complement
complex
component
compound
comprehensive
comprise
compute
conceive
concentrate
concept
conclude
concurrent
conduct
confer
confine
confirm
conflict
conform
consent
consequent
considerable
consist
constant
constitute
constrain
construct
consult
consume
contact
contemporary
context
contract
contradict
contrary
contrast
contribute
controversy
convene
converse
convert
convince
cooperate
coordinate
core
corporate
correspond
couple
create
credit
criteria
crucial
culture
currency
cycle
data
debate
decade
decline
deduce
define
definite
demonstrate
denote
deny
depress
derive
design
despite
detect
deviate
device
devote
differentiate
dimension
diminish
discrete
discriminate
displace
display
dispose
distinct
distort
distribute
diverse
document
domain
domestic
dominate
draft
drama
duration
dynamic
economy
edit
element
eliminate
emerge
emphasis
empirical
enable
encounter
energy
enforce
enhance
enormous
ensure
entity
environment
equate
equip
equivalent
erode
error
establish
estate
estimate
ethic
ethnic
evaluate
eventual
evident
evolve
exceed
exclude
exhibit
expand
expert
explicit
exploit
export
expose
external
extract
facilitate
factor
feature
federal
fee
file
final
finance
finite
flexible
fluctuate
focus
format
formula
forthcoming
found
foundation
framework
function
fund
fundamental
furthermore
gender
generate
generation
globe
goal
grade
grant
guarantee
guideline
hence
hierarchy
highlight
hypothesis
identical
identify
ideology
ignorant
illustrate
image
immigrate
impact
implement
implicate
implicit
imply
impose
incentive
incidence
incline
income
incorporate
index
indicate
individual
induce
inevitable
infer
infrastructure
inherent
inhibit
initial
initiate
injure
innovate
input
insert
insight
inspect
instance
institute
instruct
integral
integrate
integrity
intelligent
intense
interact
intermediate
internal
interpret
interval
intervene
intrinsic
invest
investigate
invoke
involve
isolate
issue
item
job
journal
justify
label
labour
layer
lecture
legal
legislate
levy
liberal
license
likewise
link
locate
logic
maintain
major
manipulate
manual
margin
mature
maximise
mechanism
media
mediate
medical
medium
mental
method
migrate
military
minimal
minimise
minimum
ministry
minor
mode
modify
monitor
motive
mutual
negate
network
neutral
nevertheless
nonetheless
norm
normal
notion
notwithstanding
nuclear
objective
obtain
obvious
occupy
occur
odd
offset
ongoing
option
orient
outcome
output
overall
overlap
overseas
panel
paradigm
paragraph
parallel
parameter
participate
partner
passive
perceive
percent
period
persist
perspective
phase
phenomenon
philosophy
physical
plus
policy
portion
pose
positive
potential
practitioner
precede
precise
predict
predominant
preliminary
presume
previous
primary
prime
principal
principle
prior
priority
proceed
process
professional
prohibit
project
promote
proportion
prospect
protocol
psychology
publication
publish
purchase
pursue
qualitative
quote
radical
random
range
ratio
rational
react
recover
refine
regime
region
register
regulate
reinforce
reject
relax
release
relevant
reluctance
rely
remove
require
research
reside
resolve
resource
respond
restore
restrain
restrict
retain
reveal
revenue
reverse
revise
revolution
rigid
role
route
scenario
schedule
scheme
scope
section
sector
secure
seek
select
sequence
series
sex
shift
significant
similar
simulate
site
so-called
sole
somewhat
source
specific
specify
sphere
stable
statistic
status
straightforward
strategy
stress
structure
style
submit
subordinate
subsequent
subsidy
substitute
successor
sufficient
sum
summary
supplement
survey
survive
suspend
sustain
symbol
tape
target
task
team
technical
technique
technology
temporary
tense
terminate
text
theme
theory
thereby
thesis
topic
trace
tradition
transfer
transform
transit
transmit
transport
trend
trigger
ultimate
undergo
underlie
undertake
uniform
unify
unique
utilize
valid
vary
vehicle
version
via
violate
virtual
visible
vision
visual
volume
voluntary
welfare
whereas
whereby
widespread

[patrice]

41. e.g. Have you ever seen what passes for a 3 on the written portion of a college board?

I have seen examples of what a 3 is in AP Psychology writing. I imagine writing for Literature is pretty demanding, but if the other content areas were similar to how writing for Psychology was evaluated . . . . !

My MS Ed research incorporated findings that illustrated a quarter of a century of grade inflation that has, in effect, lowered all brackets by 10 percentage points. Part of what I think is going on here is that there are more than just a few critical roles in what passes for the learning process in this country who don't know the difference between "could" and "did".

[Stuart G]

83. Yes, analyze ....this word was very difficult to difine,

as was the word ......."fact"..Sometimes it took a whole day to discuss those two words.

[HereSince1628]

85. I gave up on short answer essays when "contrast" failed.

Compare and contrast was a pretty good approach, until the students coming to me no longer knew what contrast meant. When I suggested that the idea of a comparison contrast was to demostrate that they could discriminate between two similar things they huddled and then marched off to the department chair.

After that it was all about the expedient expunging of erudition from academic intercourse.

[WinkyDink]

14. Funny, we didn't need such a course pre-1970's, OP.

[MadHound]

16. Wow, you guys are falling for this, again.

Thirty years ago the demonization of public schools began, which inevitably led to where we are now, public schools under attack, teachers under attack, and the beginning of the switch from public education to privatized education.

Now we're getting the demonization of colleges. This is going to lead to attacks on colleges, professors, curriculum, etc. This is going to lead to a radical, and not positive change in higher education.

This has happened before, it is happening again. Don't fall for this bullshit, it is designed to destroy our higher education system. After all, an uneducated populace is a much more compliant populace.

[seabeyond]

17. +1. nt

[ProdigalJunkMail]

21. then what do you propose to do about the deficiency?

in my work i am bombarded by 'fresh out of college' sorts that cannot think beyond facts...ask them to solve a problem and they look at you like you have a forked tongue hanging out of your mouth. they have little to no ability to apply the knowledge they have acquired. i would rather hire someone with some curiosity and troubleshooting ability than someone with a college degree these days...

sP

[NashVegas]

55. Colleges SHOULD Be Demonized, IMO

For becoming little more than degree factories.

Very expensive degree factories turning out dull people.

[a la izquierda]

76. Thank you!

From a soon-to-be college professor (if I get a job).

[montanto]

22. Simple, teachers do not take the time to . . .

Interesting that a post on critical thinking should begin with a logical fallacy I think.

As a teacher I can tell you that it isn't quite that "simple." I think of my classes as being critical thinking classes, but in this case I am not merely defensive on behalf of myself and other teachers. You seem to be missing the fact that teachers are governed by certain things, constrained in many ways by policies beyond their control. To a certain extent NCLB and Race to the Top dictate that we teach to he test. That is not critical thinking. My continuing employment at this time is almost exclusively tied to how students do on the standardized tests, NOT on how well prepared the student is for college. When students perform poorly on standards tests the whole school suffers in the form of reduced funding, additional pressures to meet API, lower morale due to teachers with advanced students getting bonuses while those who choose to teach traditionally under-performing student get stiffed AND blamed for the whole problem. The poster who talked about vocabulary also has a valid point. Words are ideas, and if you don't possess the words, you can't master the ideas. Many teachers (me, for instance) struggle with students who read 5 grade levels lower than the grade they are in. Getting that vocabulary into the students is no "simple" matter either, as kids these days do not learn by rote as we did when I was that age.

That said, I find it "simple" enough to incorporate critical thinking skills into History and English core curriculum, by asking questions about motivation, student's personal perspective on others' actions or government policies, etc. Still, its a process, and it doesn't necessarily happen any more quickly than one grade level per year in under-performing students, though I have sometimes been able to raise students two or even three grade levels per year in those reflective skills. Blaming teachers for under-performance is not an answer to the problem at all. Not at all.

[seabeyond]

27. and do you find, there are students that simply enjoy critical thinking and students that do not

particpate regardless.

i am saying, from what i have seen, there are children raised in homes where it is part of their lives, and many kids where it is not there at all. my sons had a family with two boys the same age. they hung out often. when with me, we talked political and social issues. one of the boys would follow me around during the play time and discuss numerous things with me. talking to his mom, and later mentioning to the principal that this kid was interested in so much, they were both surprised. surprised he talked, surprised he was a thinker. i was amazed. his mother, not getting it. maybe it had something to do with opportunity given. where he would actually be listened to.

my kids love going beyond, thinking outside of box. but since the youngest of having opinion, i told them, they could not parrot me. they had to gain info, mull it and come up with thought of their own. nothing less was allowed or acceptable.

[Viking12]

34. +1

[callous taoboy]

51. I could not have said it better myself. I'm lucky to have time to pee during the school day.

[seabeyond]

57. i picked up son yest 5 pm and he wasnt out. called him, he was in chemistry being helped by teacher

and didnt get to the car until 5:45. the teachers are all in there at least by 7 am and will help the kids. two classes, alg 2 and chemistry have refrig and tell kids to leave lunch in fridge if they want help during lunch. they have always been accessable after school. son has track practice after school. so was surprised to see after that he was able to get help from the teacher.

seems pretty damn accomodating to me.

and i so GD tired of people razzing on the teachers and the academics as i see.... so much more from the systems

a huge amount of whine going on.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. I know why it's difficult to teach.

Most high school students learn just the fundamentals, enough to get through an S.A.T. test. You need to know how to read a chart and also how to read a paragraph and determine if it's fact based or opinion. But you need a special teacher to get you to the next level.

My college teacher, an old hippy, was exasperated when answers to his questions were all memorized from the material he handed out. He didn't even use textbooks. He would make copies of the latest researched material on the topics that he taught in class. What he was expecting were students who would review the material critically and reach their own conclusions.

So one day he was angry and told us that we all sounded like parrots. I was confused for a long time, not sure what he wanted because that system had worked for us for so long. Memorizing and regurgitating information. It was the only way to get an "A" with everyone else. But not with the hippy teacher. He wanted you to think and be argumentative. It took a little while longer to finally master the skill because a student needs to feel confident that he won't get docked for disagreeing with the teacher.

[Chisox08]

36. That is the problem

All throughout school from K-12 you are taught that the way to pass your class is to memorize the material and spit back out to the teacher. While I attended school the students who memorized and regurgitated the information was the students who received good grades. Those who challenged the information that was given were often silenced.
A couple of years ago I had an Ethics professor who used the text book he wrote. On his exams it seemed like the more of his book that you threw back to him the better your grade. AS a mater of fact I remember losing points for daring to disagree with him.
So as long as we continue down this path of standardized test and only rewarding those students who can memorize and regurgitate, we will continue to see the decline in critical thinking skills that we are seeing today.

[The Backlash Cometh]

42. The crazy part is that I went to school well over thirty years ago.

All these obstacles to critical thinking were known back then. If it was so important, why did it fall from use?

Business practices took over education when schools were measured by standardized exams.

[seabeyond]

58. i remember hearing the same bitching with less academics than today. yet we were great

and the kids today fail.

i call bullshit.

seems my kids get more interaction and critical thinking time than i ever did in school.

[kevinbgoode]

37. I constantly run across this teaching in my own classes. . .

students have been trained to look for the "angle". . .to attempt to guess what the professor believes and then play to it to get a better grade. I have to spend a lot of time breaking that down in them - and then reassuring them that thinking on their own is a positive in my class.

I do much of that by engaging in a short talk about how their education is supposed to be about them - not me. And to emphasize that, I point out that I know what I believe and what works in my own life, and that they need to use information and discussion in class to think about what works for them and in their own lives. It sounds very basic, but you'd be surprised how important that discussion is at the beginning of a semester.

Of course, in at least one course, I've changed the order of topics to begin with a critical LISTENING topic before even starting with the more complex material of a class. We use that topic to discuss what filters they've learned to block messages, challenge messages, or to cynically ignore messages and why they exist. We discuss their first experiences as students in grade school or as children and how they instituted filtering messages, how they form opinions and what ways messages are allowed into their heads. We also talk about why they don't enjoy reading textbooks and what parts of classes seem to be the most irrelevant to them. I do all of that just to get their minds moving and to surprise them that I am trying to orient the course material to focus on them.

I move right from that discussion into a conversation about lying - we poll the class and ask how many people have lied in the last week - then in the last 24 hours - and then we talk about the reasons we engaged in dishonest disclosure with others. As I develop that discussion with them, I start asking how they think that might affect their ability to critically engage the words of others - in textbooks, in the classroom, in their social/political environment and if it might affect their critical listening and thinking capabilities. It proves to be an interesting discussion.

But it is still unfortunate that I have to engage in that conversation on the college level, just to attempt to open students up to looking at course material. It is something that they should have down before they leave high school - but many have no exposure to it at all.

[The Backlash Cometh]

43. See, there it is.

I don't know why somebody, like you, isn't picked to come up with a teaching method that can be taught to other teachers.

You are way ahead of the game, sir. And I applaud you. You have no idea how positive your contribution is to those kids because it was my teacher in college that helped ground me when the whole world began to go insane in 1990 with the right-wing media movement.

[kevinbgoode]

52. Well, I think one reason why I choose this method is because. . .

I did almost all of my undergrad and graduate college work as an adult - and worked over 20 years outside academia while pursuing my degrees. So I think a lot of my style is based on my experiences inside and outside the classroom. Besides, it makes perfect sense that you start with a foundation that students have already inside them and work to build bridges to information and application of new knowledge and material.
Part of that is to help build self-confidence in the validity of their own thoughts - and then to let them use that confidence to not be wary of challenging those thoughts. . .and the thoughts/theories of others, including the textbook.

Still, I get the occasional criticism from a student who resists learning differently than the memorization and recitation method, especially if they have been savvy and successful at streamlining that pattern over the years. Critical thinking and listening requires work, no matter how "smart" someone is. . .

However, I just received an email that just made my day. A young man I had in two classes graduated in December and just started his first job out of state. . .and sent me a message this morning thanking me for my help during his undergrad years. That kind of message makes my day, week, month, year. . .and what a thoughtful and considerate student to take time out of his new life to give me such encouragement.

[The Backlash Cometh]

59. Find some way to collect your lectures to pass that teaching method on.

Seriously.

[mike_c]

25. don't forget the other results of that study....

College students spend about 20 percent of their time on academics and over 50 percent socializing. Also, students have a marked tendency to avoid academic risks, choosing fluff classes over those requiring substantial effort when given an opportunity.

Since most full-time students at four year institutions take four classes per term, that breaks down to no more than 5 percent of their time spent studying any particular topic, and while each of those classes is of varying quality, the tendency to favor easy classes makes it likely that their academic effort is diluted even further by low expectations of class difficulty.

The ironic thing is that faculty are under increasing pressure to provide positive experiences for students rather than academic rigor per se, and we're also under increasing pressure to take student course evaluations seriously, even for personnel and hiring decisions. Student evals are becoming dominated by disgruntled malcontents who grumble about the overwork they perceived in ways that reflect their failure to develop critical thinking skills. It's a mess.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend Derek Bok's book Our Underachieving Colleges. It sheds a lot of light on these issues.

[patrice]

40. Nailed it. nt

[kevinbgoode]

53. Thank you. I have felt that pressure. . .and dislike too much coddling

. . .we get lectured about grade inflation and then at the same time are encouraged to treat them as adolescents - even at the college level, and it makes no sense to me. These four years are their last chance to have some buffer between being children and fully-responsible adults, and I think we have a larger responsibility to push them toward the latter.

At the same time, I believe a positive approach is one that encourages responsible behavior but also strengthens their confidence in expressing and thinking for themselves. . .and that knowledge should be about building bridges, not constructing obstacles or challenges that are insurmountable or designed to discourage them from gaining enough interest to even try. . . Trying to create a balance between supporting honest work and making material relevant seems to be difficult for many professors. I shouldn't criticize too much because my background is different than most - but it sometimes appears that some (certainly not all) academics who have no other experience but the academy lost their ability to communicate at a level that can lead students into the more complicated ideas and material.

It is hard enough to cope with lazy habits - but by the time young people reach college, we better give them a good reason to break those habits than simply the pursuit of a grade.

[lumberjack_jeff]

26. Those who exit the educational alimentary canal are the least likely to be critical thinkers

Every digestive step along the way is designed to suppress independent thought in the name of classroom order. "Education" in the sense that everyone in the US uses the term, isn't supposed to make you capable of critical independent thought.

I think critical thinking can be taught, but not in an "educational system". The library is a better choice. The garage, even better.

[felix_numinous]

31. Not only students

display a lack of critical thinking, but the reductionist thinking that seeks a single cause to a complex social system. It is the blind leading the blind.

We have to think in whole systems, medically, socially and politically and ecologically--everything is connected.

[patrice]

44. Yes!!! system(s) + process(es) and we don't mean just computers! nt

[felix_numinous]

46. Like minds

:)

[patrice]

35. The industrial model of education is driven by time/body-count. Learning how to think requires

time/my-errors. When increasing the body-count is the objective of the system, curriculum content is managed so as to artificially limit the types of errors possible. Students, thus, learn how to obtain the "answers" that move them most quickly through the systems, rather than learning how to discover what their own questions are and how to discover answers to those questions.

The remedy to this situation would be to make all education free.

[The2ndWheel]

60. How does that remedy the situation?

Make all education free...of what?

[patrice]

61. Cost to students. It makes the industrial model un-necessary. People can take as much time

as it takes.

It also incidentally expresses the fact that some things, such as human development, don't have a price.

[readmoreoften]

72. You are correct.

[patrice]

77. There's all kinds of stuff that "we" never ask whether we can afford it; did anyone

say, "Whoa, hold up here! Can we afford TWO wars at the same time?"

Why is that considered a question no one should ask?

[patrice]

81. For example, does anyone EVER ask, "Can we afford another soldier?" nt

[patrice]

38. I don't think critical thinking should be taught separately, except as an elective. It should be

intrinsic to all knowledge.

[readmoreoften]

69. Good luck teaching critical thinking your 250 student Intro to Anatomy class.

If all schools were small liberal arts colleges that'd be fantastic. But teachers thrown into stadium courses at universities cannot teach critical thinking along with their course material. They aren't even trained to teach their course material, let alone critical thinking. You want critical thinking in schools? Fund education and promote low student to teacher ratios.

[Spike89]

45. Becoming unavoidable AND critical

Despite all the hurdles (standardized tests, de-emphasis on reading) there are more and more teachers finding that critical thinking is a crucial skill for students just to get by. The Internet, blamed/praised for way too much, really is central to this topic. In short, teachers are finding that they need to teach students how to evaluate sources of information. Libraries are divided into fiction and nonfiction sections, textbooks are heavily vetted, and old-style print encyclopedias were authoritative repositories of researched fact.
There is no automatic way to tell if you're on a fiction or nonfiction website, online encyclopedias may be "more accurate" than their print counterparts, but they also are prone to pranked entries, "majority bias", and increasingly, ideological bias by design. Wikipedia is pretty good, but it isn't hard to create a clone, spoof, or counter site (conservapedia, uncyclopedia).
Unlike when I was in elementary and high school, students today can easily turn in a report with copious references and not have a single fact correct. Teachers must integrate at the very least, rudimentary media literacy and critical thinking skills into virtually every subject. It isn't really an option when your students are exploring online.

[slackmaster]

47. I had one very good US History teacher in 8th grade who made it all click for me

He used concrete examples from history and from current events to get his students to understand the difference between fact and opinion, between things that can be empirically tested and those that cannot be, etc.

One good teacher is sometimes all it takes.

[hfojvt]

49. I had an easy time teaching it

many of my students were thinking "this teacher sucks".

[readmoreoften]

65. :)

[Malikshah]

56. Have folks settled on a definition and methodology for teaching critical thinking yet?

Or are folks just rabble rousing and shaking their fists in the air ?? *rabblerabblerabblerabble*

[Prometheus Bound]

62. +1

Nice to see some critical thinking on board.

[readmoreoften]

73. As soon as you develop a "methodology" for teaching critical thinking

the professor will no longer be permitted to think critically about the subject itself. I think the definition is pretty clear in its simplest interpretation of the language.

[Malikshah]

75. Your second sentence, on the surface, appears to be quite idealistic.

Hence my question.

Define to think critically and then let the debate commence.

Until then, people are just blathering about any number of issues.

[Prometheus Bound]

80. I've found most people's definition of critical thinking boils down to "think like me".

When I examine curriculum developers' approach to courses whose intent is ostensibly to develop critical thinking skills, I find that they haven't really decided what these skills are, so they bluff their way through it.

Others think developing critical thinking skills involves only studying a Wikipedia-type list of logical fallacies.

[patrice]

79. IMHO, that definition would make process fundamental. In order to avoid teaching WHAT to think, we

need to help people learn HOW to think for themselves, what works and what doesn't work.

[county worker]

63. I was taught by my father and by my teachers to think critically.

I went to a Catholic grade school, high school and college. Of course when it came to Catholicism there was no critical thinking permitted in school but my father always taught me to question what the nuns said.

[seabeyond]

66. my kids went to a private christian school early on. that was an excellent time in lesson of

critical thinking, and they were so young. as much as bad at that time, i will always be thankful that they were a part of it so they could live and see and think thru the stuff that was happening to this nation at that time with the christian coalition. and do it respectfully, challenging and staying true to themselves with christian behaviors....

[readmoreoften]

64. I teach critical thinking as a course subject at a university.

I have 400 students per semester. Most of these students were "taught for the test" under NCLB. Why can't students think critically? Maybe a material examination of our educational system and its underfunding is a good place to start looking for that answer.

[seabeyond]

67. i cant get an answer but....

do you think it is the school that is not allowing critical thinking, or a home environment where it is not nurtured and encouraged?

i am finding that if children are encouraged, then they will take it on and the opportunity seems to be there in my boys school. i cannot believe that their schools are so much different than all those across the nation. they have been allowed much more flexibility in teaching style allowing open and diverse discussions than in my day.

and i think that is an excellent job to have, teaching a bunch of young adults critical thinking. so much to explore.

[readmoreoften]

70. My students largely grow up in rigid, religious households where critical thinking is not encouraged

This is coupled with an educational system that has devolved to the point where the only thing they learn is how to take a test. If your children are at schools where they are educated beyond how to take a test, then they are very different than the majority of schools in the nation. This has nothing to do with the quality of teachers but the administrative mandates, larger class sizes, lower pay, and increased poverty (fear/anxiety in the home). A manipulative media culture has not helped.

I can't say much about K-12 teaching other than everyone I've ever met involved isn't permitted to be much more than a jailor, although they deeply care about their students. A good portion of the problem is that so many parents are absent (usually working or untreated/poorly treated illness, sometimes drugs).

College professors generally do have flexibility in teaching and are desperate for critically-minded students. My job is to prepare them--and I love my job--but even I can only do so much because my course enrollment numbers are so high and I'm so outrageously underpaid. The bottom line for the problem at public universities is (depending on the state you live in) massive underfunding and enormous, impersonal classes.

[county worker]

68. I think that the tendency to follow the herd is part of the reason.

Go to mymsn.com and look at all the "what's hot" and "10 ways to do anything." You never have to think about what to wear or how to do something.

Or get in a crowd at a party and start a critical thinking conversation about today's consumerism or something. You'll get booed.

Or watch a "reality" tv show. No critical thinking permitted, it is "reality."

[readmoreoften]

71. I think those are symptoms, not the core of the problem.

The media problem is just a gloss to keep people entertained while living in a situation that's rather hostile and nerve-wracking.