Critical Thinking

1. Critical Thinking Dr. Roe Darnell Dr. John Eigenauer Taft College, Taft, CA

2. Questions about global competitiveness have moved

3. From assembly and manufacturing

4. To offshore outsourcing of services

5. To knowledge production and innovation

6. Patents Granted Worldwide

7. Role of Community Colleges • Community colleges are uniquely positioned to respond by: • Building and improving access • Improving scientific, technical, engineering, and math education • Encouraging continuous learning, AND • Teaching critical thinking

8. The State of CT in CCs

9. Fundamental Student Problems • Understanding an author’s main point. • Understanding an author’s argument. • Distinguishing between what an author is trying to prove and the data he uses to prove it.

10. Fundamental Student Problems • Creating reasonable objections to an author’s argument. • Detecting faulty reasoning. • Detecting missing information. • Assessing the validity of an argument.

11. Fundamental Student Problems • Constructing an argument that is logically and evidentially supported. • Clearly presenting and supporting ideas in prose.

12. As if that weren’t bad enough…

13. Fundamental Teacher Problems • 89% of college instructors said that critical thinking was “a primary object of their instruction”. • 19% “could give a clear explanation of what critical thinking is.” • 8% “could enumerate ANY intellectual criteria or standards they required of students or could give an intelligible explanation of what those criteria and standards were.”

14. Summary • Other countries are gaining educational and technological advantage. • The US is falling behind. • US students badly lack CT skills. • College and university instructors generally do not know what CT is, nor do they know how to teach it.

15. Why teach critical thinking? • Strong correlation between trained critical thinking skills and GPA. • Critical thinking improves with correct training. • Strong correlation between trained critical thinking and reading skills. • One critical thinking course is roughly equivalent to four years of undergraduate education.

16. How should Critical Thinking be taught? By Doing What WORKS

17. What Works?

18. “I’ve been skeptical about claims for various approaches to critical thinking, including those for argument maps coming from the University of Melbourne. Indeed, confident in our skepticism, we at Monash Philosophy accepted a challenge to compare our methods with theirs on pre- and post-test gains on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test developed by Peter Facione (1990, 1992). The Monash students did a bit better than theirs on the pre-test, raising our hopes. But when Melbourne University’s post-test results showed far higher performance gains, I thought their method worth a closer look.” Charles Twardy, Monash University Published in Teaching Philosophy

19. What is to be done? Dr. Tim van Gelder • Practice. Practice should be deliberate, exercise-focused. • Guidance. Students need to know what to do next. • Scaffolding. Structures in place to avoid inappropriate or ineffective activity (software). • Graduatedtasks. A graduated increase in complexity. • Feedback. Student should be able to tell whether an activity is successful.

20. Software • Reason!Able • www.goreason.com • CMap • Cmap.ihmc.us/download

21. Introduction to Argument Mapping

22. Arguments and Assertions • The best way to distinguish an argument from an assertion is to create a map. If the map has a conclusion and a reason, it is an argument. If it lacks a reason, it is an assertion.

23. Practice with Mapping • Is the following statement an argument or an assertion? • There is a God. • Map the statement to determine if it is an argument or an assertion.

24. Map of an Assertion • This is an assertion because it has a conclusion, but it lacks supporting reasons.

25. Practice with Mapping • Is the following statement an argument or an assertion? • The New York Yankees will win the pennant; after all, they are the best team in baseball.

26. Map of an Argument • This is an argument because it has two parts: a conclusion and a reason that supports it:

27. Support Reasons with Evidence

28. Practice with Mapping • Map the following statement by breaking it down into a conclusion and a reason: • The US economy is going to continue growing. Unemployment is down, the stock market is up, and consumer sentiment is high, all of which indicate growth.

29. Map of Practice Problem

30. Map with Multiple Reasons

31. Example of an argument

32. Results of Argument Mapping • Students understand what they read. • Students know when they understand and when they don’t understand. • Students analyze. • Students plan their writing. • Students understand complex issues.

33. Results of Argument Mapping • Students see what’s missing and what is wrong with arguments. • Students work hard on problems. • Students are engaged in their work.

36. This presentation and more information about Critical Thinking can be found at: http://www.eigenauer.com/criticalthinking Phone: 661.763.7722 Email: jeigenauer@yahoo.com Dr. John Eigenauer

37. 100 Year Bloom Dialogue In The Desert

38. National Dialog Website • Create a compelling vision of community colleges as the leading partner in a “flat world” • Focus existing innovations toward retaining the U.S. advantage in global competitiveness.

39. Join the Dialogue • Contact: • Roe Darnell • roe@taft.org • Taft College • 29 Emmons Park Blvd. • Taft, CA 93268