Critical Thinking and Reading

What is critical thinking?

Problems involve two central activities including identifying and challenging assumptions and exploring alternative ways of thinking and acting. (Brooksfield)
Problems invite consideration of opposing views. (Paul)
Problems lead to both a tentative solution and a justifying argument by first considering all assumptions, aggressively seeking divergent views, and resisting bias in favor of a pre-determined outcome. (Kurfiss)
Thinking begins with good problems, which, in principle, we don’t know how to solve. (Heller)

Faculty can design problem-based assignments and activities.

The assigned problem may be context rich, narrated in a scene with characters, time limits, and situational constraints. See what physicists Patricia and Ken Heller have developed at Minnesota
The assigned problem may demand that students determine which information or which standards of evidence are most relevant in solving or evaluating the problem.
The assigned problem may demand that students justify their choice of a problem-solving method. See Aaron Krawitz’s revision of an engineering assignment: The Writery, Vol. 3, no. 3 (1997)

Faculty can design assignments and activities that encourage students to move from absolutism to discipline-specific, evidence-based reasoning.

Consider the positions of intellectual development that William Perry identifies in Forms of Intellectual Development.
For suggestions to move students beyond absolutism, see
http://www.csubak.edu/tlc/options/resources/handouts/scholarship_teaching/perrystheory.html
Consider MU’s writing-intensive guideline to have at least one assignment addressing a topic "on which reasonable people might disagree" (a phrase from Perry). Go to http://cwp.missouri.edu for the writing guidelines and for sample assignments.

How can students develop their critical thinking by reading and writing arguments?

Encourage students to read texts critically, particularly web-based texts. See the guide for critically evaluating texts. See in addition the site developed by the University of Oregon library.
Design assignments or activities that ask students to seek and test both stated and unstated premises in somebody else’s argument. If the premises (warrant, in Toulmin’s scheme) are not widely shared, have students identify the backing and justification for the premises/warrants.
Ask students to write arguments. Real world arguments seldom prove anything but make a best case, based on a claim and grounds (reason, evidence). This is a guideline for a classical argument, an opposition/refutation argument, and a Rogerian argument
Too good to miss: John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.

Think of tasks that would let students link concepts in your course to their personal experiences or prior knowledge.
Ask students to teach difficult concepts in your course to a new learner.
Think of controversial theses in your field (for thesis support assignments or believer-versus-doubter exercises) and ask students to provide reasons and evidence to support or refute a position.
Think of problems, puzzles, or questions you could ask students to address.
Give students raw data (such as lists, graphs, or tables) and ask them to write an argument or analysis based on the data.
Think of opening ‘frame sentences’ for the start of a paragraph or short essay; students have to complete the paragraph by fleshing out the frame with generalizations and supporting details.
Have students role-play unfamiliar points of view (imagine X from perspective of Y) or “what if” situations.
Select important articles in your field, and ask students to write summaries or abstracts of them.
Think of an unresolved issue in your field and ask students to write a dialogue between characters (possibly experts) with different points of view.
Develop cases by writing scenarios that place students in realistic situations relevant to your discipline, where they must reach a decision to resolve a conflict.

*John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Chapter 7, page 131.

Develop guided journal tasks keyed to your lectures
Conduct feedback lectures (stop at an appropriate time during the lecture and ask students to write for several minutes on what is currently puzzling them)
Deliver narrative lectures that model the thinking process
Ask students to question your lectures
Use interest generating questionnaires to stimulate discussions
Have students generate questions to be discussed.
Early in the course, hold a discussion about discussions and establish criteria for good discussions.
Hold in-class debates.
Use a modified form of Professor Kingsfield’s method (in Paper Chase) of randomly calling on students with questions that require reason and evidence-based responses, not just “yes” or “no.”
Conduct a “fishbowl,” in which a small number of students are selected to sit in “hot seats” in the center of class. They respond to critical thinking questions about subject matter that have been passed out several days in advance. The rest of the class, seated around the students in the fishbowl, gets to critique the performance of the fishbowl students after the session.
Use case studies and simulation games.

*John Bean’s Engaging Ideas, Chapter 8, page 171-179.

An excellent web-based clearinghouse with links to the most well-known centers for critical thinking.

Contributed by Dr. Marty Patton, Assistant Professor, Department of English