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Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking. Empirical Understanding Critical thinking is the use of reason to arrive at a conclusion based on the available evidence. Review of Reasoning Behind Proposal For First Year CT Course. 1. Centrality of Critical Thinking as a Higher

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Critical Thinking

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  1. Critical Thinking

  2. Critical Thinking Empirical Understanding Critical thinking is the use of reason to arrive at a conclusion based on the available evidence.

  3. Review of Reasoning Behind Proposal For First Year CT Course 1. Centrality of Critical Thinking as a Higher Education Outcome • Calls for Accountability in Higher Education Specifically Targeting Critical Thinking • Assessment Data Raises Serious Concerns About The Extent To Which We Are Achieving This Outcome 4. The Nature Of Our Students

  4. Centrality Of CT • Deep historical roots associated with the teaching of logic and reasoning well (trivium: rhetoric, logic and grammar) • Nearly universal outcome in university goal statements • Highest faculty support of any outcome: 93% supporting outcome of “Thinking critically and analytically.” (Liberal Education Outcomes, AAC&U 2005) • Widely required assessments of CT by accrediting bodies (e.g.,National League for Nursing, 1990; Western Association of Schools and Colleges, 1990; North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, 1992)

  5. Articulated in Government Education Policy: e.g. 1990 President Bush and governors of all 50 states articulated five national education goals. Goal 2 states that “the proportion of college graduates who demonstrate an advanced ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and solve problems will increase substantially.”

  6. Calls for Accountability • Commission on the Future of Higher Education (The Spellings Commission) final report states that “Colleges and universities must become more transparent about cost, price, and student success outcomes, and must willingly share this information with students and families.” (USDOE 2006: 4) The commission called for “value added” measurements particularly in the areas of “critical thinking, writing, and problem solving.” (3)

  7. Assessment Data Raises Concern • Self reporting Data indicate a high degree of confidence amongst faculty that they are teaching CT and students that they are improving CT skills: e.g. NSSE data shows that 87% of students credit their college experience with improving CT “Quite a bit” (36%) or “Very much” (51%) • However, in a study of 24,000 students across a variety of institutions Astin found that 2/3 of students did not report substantial gains in analytic reasoning skills (What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited, 1993). • ETS Academic Profile data shows that only 6% of seniors at a “proficient” level and 77% at “not proficient.”

  8. ACT CAAP data show less than one standard deviation gain in CT from freshman to senior year. • Washington State University study showed that significant improvements in writing proficiency were not accompanied by improvements in CT: 1996 review of junior level writing portfolios resulted in 92% receiving a passing grade or better. However, in 1999 a pilot study of senior level papers assessing CT resulted in an average score of 2.3 out of 6.

  9. In the latest review of the CT literature, Pascarella and Terenzini conclude that while there are some gains in some cognitive skills associated with CT in college, the average senior merely raises their ability from the 50th to the 69th percentile of their entering freshman cohort, about ½ a standard deviation (How College Affects Students, Vol. 2: A Third Decade of Research, 2005). • Astin found that whatever advancement in CT that is made occurs in the first two years of college raising very real questions about the relationship of intense studies in majors and development of CT (What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited, 1993).

  10. A wide array of studies indicate that advanced CT skills are best develop in classes employing active learning techniques, yet studies continue to show that the vast majority of teaching in college still utilizes passive methods, and numerous studies point out that less than 20% of tested material in college actually tests for CT (see Bok, Our Underachieving Colleges, 2006).

  11. Our Students • Do not come with well developed CT skills • They do not come from backgrounds embracing CT • Their empirical development is generally at the lowest level of “dualism” or sometimes called “ignorant certainty” • During their college career, most students will move from “ignorant certainty” to “naïve relativism,” however few students move to the highest stage of “commitment” (see Bok, 2006). • Advanced CT skills and development of associated dispositions are necessary to get them there (Facione, et al, “The Disposition Toward Critical Thinking,” 1995).

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