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EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society Topic 10

EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society Topic 10 Understanding the Curriculum Aim of Liberal Studies: How Critical is Critical Thinking?. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR.

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EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society Topic 10

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  1. EDD 5229 • Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society • Topic 10 • Understanding the Curriculum Aim of Liberal Studies: • How Critical is Critical Thinking?

  2. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR • In Sept, 2001, Learning to Learning: The Way Forwards in Curriculum Development • Critical Thinking is identified as one of the nine generic skills within the framework of the curriculum reform • Critical thinking has been defined as one of the three generic skills that should be prioritized among the nine skills. “Since public feedback indicated that the curriculum reform envisaged is too broad, a priority focus will be placed on the development of three of these generic skills, namely communication skills, creativity and critical thinking skills, though the others should not be neglected.” (Curriculum Development Council, 2001, p. 25)

  3. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR • In Sept, 2001, Learning to Learning: The Way Forwards in Curriculum Development • The idea of critical thinking: In the document, critical thinking is depicted as “Critical thinking skills help students to draw out meaning from given data or statements, generate and evaluate arguments, and make their own judgement.” (CDC, 2001, p. 24)

  4. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR • In July, 2007 Liberal Studies Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6) • Curriculum Aims “The aims of Liberal Studies at the Senior Secondary Level are: ... (d) to develop in students a range of skills for life-long learning, including critical thinking skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, communication skills and information technology skills; …” (CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 5)

  5. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR • In July, 2007 Liberal Studies Curriculum and Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6) • Learning Outcomes “By the end of the course, students should be able to: … (d) identify the values underlying different views and judgments on personal and social issues, and apply critical thinking skills, creativity and different perspectives in making decisions and judgments on issues and problems at both personal and social levels. …”(CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 6)

  6. Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum Liberal Studies of HKSAR • In 2009, Package on The Learning and Teaching of Critical Thinking Skills” (Senior Secondary)

  7. “Although it sometimes seems that there is very little that academics can agree upon, there is considerable agreement among experts in the field regarding the definition of critical thinking. …Different authors use different terms and vary in the breadth of their definition, but overall there are no major disagreements about the sorts of skills that are included under a critical thinking rubric.” (Halpern, 2003 Quoted in Ku et al., 2009, p.2)

  8. “The term critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. It is the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions. Critical thinkers use these skills appropriately, without prompting, and usually with conscious intent, in a variety of settings. That is, they are predisposed to think critically. When we think critically, we are evaluating the outcomes of our thought processes — how good a decision is or how well a problem is solved. Critical thinking also involves evaluating the thinking process — the reasoning that went into the conclusion we’ve arrived at or the kinds of factors considered in making a decision.” (Halpern, 2003 Quoted in Ku et al., 2009, p.2)

  9. The five categories of critical thinking skills : 1. Verbal Reasoning Skills 2. Argument Analysis Skills 3. Skills in Thinking as Hypothesis Testing 4. Using Likelihood and Uncertainty, and 5. Decision Making and Problem Solving Skills

  10. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The idea of critical thinking in education can be traced back to John Dewey’s concept of “reflective thinking” (Dewey, 1933; 1939). Throughout its short history of development, particularly in the US, the field is filled with contentions and disagreements. It is far from a field of “considerable agreement” or “no major disagreement”.

  11. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • First round of debate: • In 1962, Robert Ennis’ paper entitled “A concept of critical thinking” was published in Harvard Educational Review. In the paper, critical thinking was defined as “a correct assessing of statement.” (Ennis, 1962, p. 81) Ennis further conceptualizes that “twelve aspects of critical thinking are:

  12. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • First round of debate: • …“twelve aspects of critical thinking are: • Grasping the meaning of a statement. • Judging whether there is ambiguity in a line of reasoning. • Judging whether certain statements contradict each other. • Judging whether a conclusion follows necessarily. • Judging whether a statement is specific enough. • Judging whether is actually the application of a certain principle. • Judging whether an observation statement is reliable. • Judging whether an inductive conclusion is warranted. • Judging whether the problem has been identified. • Judging whether something is an assumption. • Judging whether a definition is adequate. • Judging whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable.” (Ennis, 1962, 83)

  13. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • First round of debate: • Ennis' conception of critical thinking has been criticized as “pure skills conception (Siegel, 1988, p. 6) and it is but a “battery of atomic technical skills.” (Paul, 1994, p. 185; see also Burbules and Berk, 1999; Walters, 1994; Thayer-Bacon, 2000)

  14. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The second round of debate: • In the 1980s, Ennis took two further initiations in developing his conception of critical thinking • He developed two sets of standardized-test instruments, i.e. Cornell Critical Thinking Tests (Ennis and Millman, 1982) to measure levels of critical thinking performance. • Ennis published a paper entitled “A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Disposition and Ability”. In the paper, Ennis responded to the criticism of skill-bias by adding disposition into the conception of critical thinking. According, he developed a taxonomy consisting of 14 levels of dispositions and 12 levels of ability. (Ennis, 1987)

  15. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The second round of debate: • Ennis’ efforts triggered another round of criticism. • John McPeck criticizes that “critical thinking cannot be reduced to a few mechanical ‘decoding’ skills” and more specifically “the major shortcomings of both the Cornell tests is that the format of a standardized multiple-choice test does not permit the comprehensive or circumspect judgements that are required by the concept of critical thinking.” (McPeck, 1981, p.145)

  16. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The second round of debate: • Ennis’ efforts triggered another round of criticism. • Harvey Siegel also criticizes “So instead of two roughly equal components of critical thinking, proficiencies (skills) and tendencies (dispositions), what Ennis’s conceptionamounts to is actually a highly complex list of proficiencies coupled with the simple admonition to exercise the proficiencies. …(T)he tendencies to utilize critical thinking skills is under-analyzed and under-attended to in Ennis’s work.” (Siegel, 1988, p.7) Siegel specifically criticizes the Cornel Critical Thinking Tests as “the one-sided heroic effort to develop effective tests for the proficiencies (skills) in the total absence of effort to develop effective tests for the tendency (disposition)” (Siegel, 1988, p.8)

  17. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The second round of debate: • Ennis’ efforts triggered another round of criticism. • More recently, Burbules (1993; Burbeles & Beck,1999) and Walters (1994) criticize that critical thinking may plausibly be reduced to examination skills of mechanical logicism.

  18. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The third round of the debate • John McPeck queries whether it is possible to teach critical thinking as generalized skills without relating it to specific subject content. He criticizes the content-free approach to critical-thinking instruction commonly adopted in the 1970s. He underlines that “thinking is always thinking about something. To think about nothing is a conceptual impossibility.” (1981, p.3) More specifically, McPeck contends that

  19. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The third round of the debate • …“In isolation from a particular subject, the phrase ‘critical thinking’ neither refers to nor denotes any particular skill. It follows from this that it makes no sense to talk about critical thinking as a distinct subject and that it therefore cannot profitably be taught as such. To the extent that critical thinking is not about a specific subject X, it is both conceptually and practically empty. The statement ‘I teach critical thinking’, simpliciter, is vacuous because there is no generalized skill properly call critical thinking.” (p. 5)

  20. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The third round of the debate • McPeck’s criticism meets with forceful counter-arguments from Stephen Norris (1990), Richard Paul, and Harvey Siegel (1990). Norris and Paul defend that critical-thinking instruction is content-free, while Siegel provides a more balanced view of suggesting that some aspect of critical thinking can be taught in terms of generalized skills, while some are subject and content specific. (Siegel, 1988; 1990)

  21. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking by injecting the concept of reason into critical thinking instruction. • He suggests that “to be a critical thinker is to be appropriately moved by reasons…. A critical thinker is one who appreciates and accepts the importance, and convicting force, of reasons. When assessing claims, making judgments, evaluating procedures, or contemplating alternative actions, the critical thinker seeks reasons on which to base her assessments, judgments, and actions. To seek reasons, moreover, is to recognize and commit oneself to principles.” (Siegel, 1988, p.32-33)

  22. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking by injecting the concept of reason into critical thinking instruction. • By reason, Siegel makes use the conception put forth by Scheffler. He indicates that “reason is always a matter of abiding by general rules or principles… reason is always a matter of treating equal reasons equally, and of judging the issues in the light of general principles to which one has bound oneself… if I could judge reasons differently when they bear on my interests, or disregard my principles when they conflict with my own advantage, I should have no principles at all. The concepts of principles, reasons and consistency thus go together.” (Scheffler, 1973; quoted in Siegel, 1988, p.33)

  23. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking by injecting the concept of reason into critical thinking instruction. • Siegel further differentiates critical thinking into two dimensions, namely proficiency and spirit. The former refers to the capacities of making use of "reason" in assessing one's thinking, while the later signifies " a willingness to conform judgment and action to principle, not simply a ability to so conform. On who has the critical attitude has a certain character as well as certain skills: a character which is inclined to seek, and to base judgment and action upon, reasons; which rejects partiality and arbitrariness; which is committed to the objective evaluation of relevant evidence; and which values such aspects of critical thinking as intellectual honesty; justice to evidence, sympathetic and impartial consideration of interests, objectivity, and impartiality." (Siegel, 1988, p. 39)

  24. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak sense and the strong sense of critical thinking • By weal sense of critical thinking, it refers to training of “atomic technical skills of logical thinking. As a result, “students studying critical thinking at the university level have highly developed belief systems buttressed by deep-seated uncritical, egocentric, and sociocentric habits of thought by which they interpret and process their experiences, whether academic or not, and place them into some larger perspective. …those students …become sophistic rather ten less so, more skilled in rationalizing and intellectualizing their biases.” (Paul, 1994, 184)

  25. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak sense and the strong sense of critical thinking • By strong sense of critical thinking, it refers to the view which rejects the idea that critical thinking can be taught as a battery of atomic technical skills independent of egocentricbelief and commitments. Instead of “atomic arguments …it emphasizes argument network (points of view, frames of reference, worldviews, systems of thought); instead of merely teaching evaluation of atomic arguments it emphasizes a more dialectical and dialogical approaches.” (1994, p. 185-6) “Teaching critical thinking in a strong sense helps students develop reasoning skills precisely in those areas where they are most likely to have egocentric and sociocentric biases. Such biases exist most profoundly in areas of their identities and vested interests.” (p. 190)

  26. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Round four: Reformulations and elaborations. • Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak sense and the strong sense of critical thinking • Subsequently, Richard Paul established The Center for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State University in North California. http://www.criticalthinking.org/about/centerforCT.cfm

  27. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • The Delphi Report: A statement of expert consensus for purpose of educational assessment and instruction, American Philosophical Association. http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/DEXadobe.PDF

  28. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Definition of critical thinking: “We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual consideration upon which that judgment is based. CT is essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in one’s personal and civic life. While not synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive and self rectifying human phenomenon.

  29. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Definition of critical thinking: (cont’d) “The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in face of personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this ideal. It combines developing CT skills with nurturing those dispositions which consistently yield useful insights and which are the basis of a rational and democratic society.”

  30. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Definition of critical thinking: (cont’d) “The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in face of personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this ideal. It combines developing CT skills with nurturing those dispositions which consistently yield useful insights and which are the basis of a rational and democratic society.”

  31. CT cognitive skills and sub-skills

  32. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Constituents of Critical Thinking: Affective dispositions • Approaches to life and living in general • inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of issues, • concern to become and remain generally well-informed, • alertness to opportunities to use CT, • trust in the processes of reasoned inquiry, • self-confidence in one’s own ability to reason, • open-mindedness regarding divergent world view, • flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions, • understanding of the opinions of other people, • fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning, • honesty in facing one’s own biases, prejudices, stereotypes, egocentric or sociocentric tendencies, • prudence in suspending, making or altering judgments, • willingness to consider and revise views where honest reflection suggests that change is warranted,

  33. Critical Thinking: An Intrinsic Evaluation • Constituents of Critical Thinking: Affective dispositions • Approaches to specific issues, questions or problems: • clarity in stating the question or concern, • orderliness in working with complexity, • diligence in seeking relevant information, • reasonableness in selecting and applying criteria, • care in focusing attention on the concern at hand, • persistence though difficulties are encountered • precision to the degree permitted by the subject and the circumstance.

  34. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • In the late 1970s, two theoretical perspectives have emerged and invoked new critical conceptions in educational study. They have invoked profound challenges to the conventional conception of critical-thinking instruction. They are critical literacy and critical pedagogy. Both perspectives owe their theoretical origins from two similar sources, on Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and the conception of The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972) from a Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.

  35. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical literacy perspective: • According to Freire's experiences in the program of literacy for Brazilian farmers, he expends the concept of literacy from merely reading and writing of words to reading and writing of the world. In his own words “It is impossible to carry out my literacy work or to understand literacy… by divorcing the reading of the word from the reading of the world. Reading the word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it are preceded by learning how to write the world, that is, having the experience of changing the world and touching the world.” (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p.49)

  36. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical literacy perspective: • Subsequently, Green (1988), Lankshear and Knobel (2003) reconceptualize literacy into three levels • Operational literacy: It refers to the mastery of the decoding (reading) and encoding (writing) operations of systems of language or of other media. It indicates the ability to relate the words with the worlds “represented”. • Cultural literacy: It refers to the mastery of the "system of meanings" and cultural system underlying a specific linguistic system. It indicates the capacity to interpreting the meanings "signified" in media.

  37. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical literacy perspective: • Subsequently, Green (1988), Lankshear and Knobel (2003) reconceptualize literacy into three levels • Critical literacy: Based on the perspectives of the Critical Theory and constructionism, critical-literacy theorists begin with the assumption of "social construction of reality". And they emphasize that there are hypostatized power relations and frozen ideological relation at work underlying these realities and they in turn serve as legitimation and reproduction mechanism of particular institutional configuration. (Habermas, 1971; 1979） • Accordingly. Critical literacy is defined as ability to unveil the legitmation bases underlying particular linguistic and cultural systems. • Furthermore, in Freire's conception, it is • To read the words and the read the world • To write the words and to write the world • To rewrite the world and to transform and improve the world

  38. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: By applying the conception of social construction, legitimation and reproduction to education in general, the critical pedagogy put forth critical analysis beyond the conception of literacy and look into different aspects of pedagogy, such as (1) pedagogical content, (2) the pedagogical relationship, and (3) the pedagogical process,

  39. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: • Pedagogical content: • This perspective can be traced back to Basil Bernstien thesis “How a society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates the educational knowledge it considers to be public, reflects both the distribution of power and the principles of social control." (Bernstein, 1970, p.74) • Accordingly, the concerns about pedagogical content is to reveal how a particular curriculum “legitimatizes” and “reproduces” a particular institutional configuration. • At the same time, how it "marginalizes", "suppressed" and “silences” the “others”

  40. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: • Pedagogical relationship • This aspect of inquiry in critical pedagogical can best be illustrated with Freire's conception of "the banking education". “Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and 'makes deposits', which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the 'banking' concept of education.… The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher's existence…" (Freire, 1972, p.45-46)

  41. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: • Pedagogical relationship • To rectify, Freire advocates a dialogical relation through which students are encourage to reflect and re-write the world in which they find themselves. And in the process to liberate themselves from the situated and submerged contexts • These aspect of inquiry has initiated researches in both the perspectives of feminism and post-colonialism.

  42. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: • Pedagogical process • This aspect of inquiry can be illustrated with Freire's conception of "problem-posing education." • By rejecting the banking concept of education, teachers and students can engage in a dialogical relation and "pose problem" to each others and more importantly to "the world" in which they are embedded. • "Problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality … (It) strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality." (Freire, 1972, p.54) • "In problem-posing education, men develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation." (Freire, 1972, p.56)

  43. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Critical pedagogy perspective: • Pedagogical process • "Problem-posing education affirms men as beings in the process of becoming - as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality." (Freire, 1972, p.56-57) • “This movement of inquiry must be directed towards humanization – man’s historical vocation. The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations between oppressors and oppressed…. Problem-posing education, as a humanist and liberating praxis, posits as fundamental that men subjected to domination mush fight for their emancipation.” (Freire, 1972, p.58)

  44. Critical Thinking: An Extrinsic Evaluation • Taking together, theorists of the critical literacy and critical pedagogy perspectives have waged some profound criticisms on critical thinking instruction. • Criticism on the decontextualization of the thinking process: • It is criticized that critical thinking has abstracted human thinking processes as "decontextualized" and "disembedded" activities of pure reasoning and simple logical operations. • It is suggested that to rectify this pitfall the contextuality and historicity of thought should be reintroduced into critical thinking instruction.

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