-
Critical thinking
In
recent years
“
critical
thinking
”
has become
something of a buzz word not only in
education circles but also in economy
or any other areas. For many reasons, educators
have become very interested in teaching
“
thinking
skills
”
of various kinds in
contrast
with teaching information and
content. Of course, you can do both, but in the
past the
emphasis in most
people
?
s teaching has been
on the teaching content.
Everyone
thinks. It is our nature to do so. But much of our
thinking, left to itself, is
biased,distorted, partial, uninformed,
or downright prejudiced. Yet the quality of our
life and that of what we produce, make,
or build depends precisely on the quality of
our thinking is costly, both in money
and in quality of life. Excellence
in
thought, however,must be systematically
cultivated.
Critical thinking is that
mode of thinking
—
about any
subject, content, or
problem
—
in
which
the
thinker
improves
the
quality
of
his
or
her
thinking
by
skillfully
taking
charge of the
structures inherent in thinking and imposing
intellectual standards upon
them.
1 what is critical thinking and its
history
1.1 John Dewey and
‘
reflective
thinking
’
In
fact, people have been thinking about
?
critical
thinking
?
and have been
researching
how to teach it for about a
hundred years. In a way, Socrates began this
approach to
learning over 2000years
ago,but John Dewey, the American philosopher,
psychologist
and
educator,
is
widely
regarded
as
the <
/p>
?
father
?
of
the
modern
critical
thinking
tradition. He called it
?
reflective
thinking
?
and defined it as:
Active,
persistent,
and
careful
consideration
of
a
belief
or
supposed
form
of
knowledge
in
the
light
of
the
grounds
which
support
it
and
the
further
conclusions to which it
tends.
To
express
this
in
more
familiar
language,
he
is
saying
that
what
matters
are
the
reasons
we have for believing something and the
implications of our beliefs. It is no
exaggeration
to
say
that
critical
thinking
attaches
huge
importance
to
reasoning,
to
giving reasons and to evaluating
reasoning as well as possible.
1.2 Edward Glaser, building on
Dewey
’
s ideas
Edward Glaser, co-author of what has
become the world
?
s most
widely used test of
critical
thinking,
the
Watson-Glaser
Critical
Thinking
Appraisal,defined
critical
thinking as:
(1)an attitude of being disposed to
consider in a thoughtful way the problems
an subjects that come within the range
of one
’
s experience;
(2)Knowledge of the methods of logical
enquiry and reasoning;
(3)Some skill in
applying those methods.
Critical
thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine
any belief or supposed
form
of
knowledge
in
the
light
of
evidence
that
supports
it
and
the
further
conclusion to which it tends
1.3 Robert Ennis-a widely used
definition
One
of
the
most
famous
contributors
to
the
development
of
the
critical
thinking
tradition is Robert
Ennis; his definition, which has gained wide
currency in the field,
is:
Critical
thinking
is reasonable,
reflective
thinking
that
is
focused
on
deciding
what to believe or do.
Unlike
Dewey
?
s
definition,
this
definition
needs
no
further
explanation
because
the
words are familiar to
us.
1.4 Richard Paul and
‘
thinking about your
thinking
’
Richard
paul gave a definition of critical thinking which
looks rather different from
the other
definitions given above. It is:
Critical
thinking
is
that
mode
of
thinking-about
any
subject,
content
or
problem-in
which
the
thinker
improves
the
quality
of
his
or
her
thinking
by
skilfully
taking
charge of the
structures inherent in thinking and imposing
intellectual standards upon
them.
This definition is interesting because
it draws attention to a feature of critical
thinking
on
which
teachers
and
researchers
in
the
field
seem
to
be
largely
agreed,
that
the
only
realistic
way
to
develop
one’s
critical
thinking
ability
is
thr
ough
‘thinking about one’s thinking’, and consciously
aiming to improve it by
reference to
some model of good thinking in that domain.
1.5 A final definition of critical
thinking
One
last
definition
is
worth
reviewing.
Michael
Scriven
has
recently
argued
that
critical thinking is an ?academic
competency? akin to reading and writing? and is of
similarly fundamental importance. He
defines it thus:
Critical
thinking
is
skilled
and
active
interpretation
and
evaluation
of
observations and communications,
information and argumentation.
It
is
unusual
to
include
explicit
reference
to
?
observation
?
in
a
definition
of
critical
thinking, but what one sees or hears
often requires interpretation and evaluation and
this
may
well
require
the
use
of
critical
thinking
skills.
Scriven
takes
the
term
?
information<
/p>
?
to
refer
to
factual
claims,
and
the
term
?
communicati
ons
?
to
go
beyond
information
to
include
questions,
commands,
other
linguistic
utterance,
signals,
etc.
Finally
?
argument
ation
?
consists
of
language
presenting
reasons
for
conclusions.
Perhaps
the
most
striking
feature
of
this
definition
is
the
way
it
recognizes
that
?
observations
?
can be matters for critical
thinking.
To
summarize
all
the
contents
mentioned
above,
picture
can
best
describe
the
core
critical thinking skills: