The critical thinking debate: how general are general thinking skills?

This paper takes up the issue of whether the skill of critical thinking in university education is best thought of as a broad universal generic skill or rather as only a loose category taking in a variety of modes of thought. Through the linguistic analysis of some sample texts, I argue that the discourse of general thinking programs should not be thought of as a generalist discourse at all, but in fact a quite specific one. The implications both for the teaching and testing of critical thinking are considered in the light of this position.     

Beyond critical thinking skills: Investigating the relationship between critical thinking skills and dispositions through different online instructional strategies

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) the relationship between critical thinking skills (CTS) and critical thinking dispositions (CTD), and (2) the effectiveness of different levels of instructional strategy (asynchronous online discussions (AODs), CTS instruction via AODs, and CTS instruction with CTD cultivation via AODs) in improving students' CTS and CTD. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design was employed to achieve this purpose. The participants in this study were 220 students enrolled in a general education course at a large university in Taiwan. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) the overall relationship between CTS and CTD was positive. However, further analysis of the relationship between the different levels of CTS and CTD showed that only the students with high CTS and medium CTD showed a significant correlation; (2) the enhancement in CTS reinforced CTD, but the improvement in CTD did not increase the level of CTS. In addition, it is recommended that to improve the CTS and CTD of all students (including the students with a high level of CTS), the instructional strategy, CTS instruction with CTD cultivation, be employed.     

Teaching critical thinking skills in a Hong Kong secondary school

Hong Kong education has always been regarded as examination-oriented and students were taught only to memorize and not to think. This paper gives an account of a school project in teaching critical thinking in the junior classes of a secondary school. This project is a collaboration between lecturers in teacher education and teachers working in the frontline. As a first attempt, the topic “fact and opinion” was chosen. In this paper, both the teaching approach and the teaching materials used are presented. Teachers ’ feedback was obtained through informal sharing of information and student ’s evaluation were obtained through a simple student survey. Through this process, a number of problems and insights related to this issue were revealed. This experience had implications for ways in which critical thinking in a cultural context like Hong Kong where memorization of facts is the norm can be developed and promoted.     

The relation between intellectual and metacognitive skills in early adolescence.

The first objective of this study was establishing to what extent metacognitive skill is associated with intelligence. As a second objective, the impact of hints on the execution of metacognitive skills was investigated. Both issues have major implications for the training and transferability of metacognitive skills during performance on a representative school task. First, a standardized intelligence-test was administered to a group of first-year secondary-school students. Next, these students solved six math word problems, three without metacognitive hints and three including these hints. Metacognitive skilfullness was assessed through systematical observation, while learning performance consisted of performance on a math task and grade point average (GPA). Results show that without hints metacognitive skilfulness is the main predictor of initial learning, while intelligence additionally enters the regression equation after the presentation of metacognitive hints. GPA also appears to be predicted by a combination of intellectual and metacognitive skills. Consequences for the early acquisition of metacognitive skills are discussed.     

Peer interaction and the learning of critical thinking skills in further education students

A teaching programme is reported in which criticalthinking skills (in the sense of reasonedjustification of arguments; see Kuhn, 1991, 1993) weretaught. The principal aims of the study were todevelop, implement and evaluate a programme forteaching evidence-based justification to vocationaleducation students in Further Education colleges. Teaching was via modelling and peer-based critiquingexercises in the context of the students' projectwork. Eighty-four Further Education college studentsunderwent a 10-session teaching intervention whichdovetailed with their Additional Assessmentintegrative project work. Students took part inpeer-based exercises in which they learned to critiqueimaginary examples of project outlines and plans,followed by similar peer-based critiquing of eachothers' proposed projects. Analysis of the students'dialogues with each other indicated that they hadlearned the importance of justifying arguments, andcontent analysis of their written work indicated thatthey engaged in justification of their arguments to asignificantly greater degree than control groups. Several key variables in the dialogues correlatedpositively with justification in the written work,suggesting that the dialogue had impacted on thewritten work. However, justification tended to be ofa weak kind (using anecdotes or experience-basedgeneralisations), and strong (i.e. formalresearch-based) evidence remained relativelyinfrequent and sometimes inappropriately used. Apsychometric test of general critical thinking skillsshowed no evidence of transfer of learning.     

英语专业批判性思维能力培养的课程群建设

大学英语专业教育一直比较关注让学生能够培养各项英语技能,却忽视了他们作为"人"的发展。作为批判性思维课程群内容体系建设之基础,指导英语专业批判性思维能力培养的宗旨为将教育重新定向于"意义与关系"之重建。这需要从课程内容体系、教学方法与手段、教材、师资、教学效果评价等多方面的分支建设加以支持。     

The fundamental skills of higher order thinking

It may be possible to teach reasoning strategies to subjects with poor reasoning, including many subjects with learning disabilities (LD), using curriculum designed around a sameness analysis. The higher order thinking skills of analogical and logical reasoning are defined using the sameness analysis methodology. The sameness in the strategy for forming a generalization from experience is called "reasoning by analogy," while the sameness in the strategy for applying generalizations is described by the syllogism (logical reasoning). The research base for effective instruction in analogical and logical reasoning, particularly with subjects with LD, is summarized. The wide applicability of reasoning by analogy and by syllogism as complementary strategies is illustrated through their use in a critical review of the editorial page of a daily newspaper, and in linking content material in several domains.     

地方高校大学英语教师教学思辨训练关注调查

论文调查了大学英语教师在教学中对思辨能力训练的关注,以及大学英语教师思辨教学训练在教学过程中和教学方法上的特点.调查发现,大学英语改革班与非改革班教师在关注思辨训练中理解 、 分析和创造能力的训练对比差异较为显著,这说明大学英语改革班教师在英语教学中更倾向于关注学生高层次思辨能力训练,注重学生分析能力和创造性思维训练,而非改革班教师倾向于关注学生理解能力和应用能力的训练.改革班的教师根据教学要求在思辨训练中不仅关注学生对概念 、 事实和理论进行识记 、 理解,而且也会关注学生应用 、 分析 、 反思 、 创造的思辨能力训练.因此,思辨能力的发展是一个从低级思维向高级思维发展的过程,必须运用思辨的标准持之以恒地训练思维的各要素,使良好的思维习惯成为第二本能.大学英语教师在教学中不仅要夯实学生英语语言能力,而且要通过循序渐进的思辨教学训练培养学生思辨思维及解决问题的能力.     

The social implications of higher level thinking skills

This paper describes theoretical and empirical research suggesting that individuals who are capable of perceiving others in complex and divergent ways may be able to communicate more effectively, adapting verbal messages to fit the perspectives of listeners. This proposition represents a link between several fields of inquiry that researchers rarely interrelate: higher level thinking skills, social cognition, social competency, and communications. Key concepts within each field are historically defined, and directions for future research are outlined.     

TED talk comments to enhance critical thinking skills in an undergraduate reading and writing course

Education and Information Technologies - Commenting, liking and reacting on the Internet have become ubiquitous. In almost every online interaction, people have the opportunity to show their...     

Transfer of metacognitive skills in self-regulated learning: an experimental training study

Metacognition and Learning - Training interventions for self-regulated learning foster the use of strategies and skills as well as their transfer to new learning tasks. Because cognitive strategies...     

依托式外语教学对学生思辨能力和英语水平的影响

依托式外语将语言学习与学科内容学习融合在一起,已经成为国内外广泛采用的教学方法。依托式外语教学实验表明学生的思辨能力和英语水平均有显著性提高,即依托式外语教学对学生的思辨能力及英语水平提升有促进作用。     

Some reflections on thinking skills

This paper and the three which follow it, by Dijkstra, Klauer and Tennyson, are based upon a 1987 symposium of the American Educational Research Association: Metalearning theories and instructional design. This paper discusses the other three papers by posing the question “Are there any thinking skills?”, then considering points that need to be taken into account in arriving at a reasonable answer to this question. It concludes “There is thinking, and there are skills. But-are there any thinking skills?”.     

Psychological knowledge for teaching critical thinking: the agency of epistemic activity,metacognitive regulative behaviour and (student-centred) learning

This study considers the case of a tutor whose students repeatedly evidenced significantly superior critical thinking in summative assessment. For the purpose of surfacing appropriate pedagogical action to promote critical thinking (Bassey, Case Study Research in Educational Settings, 1999), the singularity of one tutor’s reported pedagogical practice was explored through focus-group discussion. Qualitative analysis of the data, theoretically informed by phenomenography, suggested that the tutor’s reported practice, when compared with that of two peers, revealed clear pedagogical intentions to be necessary for teaching critical thinking; and that these intentions can be explained through the literatures on epistemic activity, metacognitive regulative behaviour and student-centred learning. It is argued that a synthesised understanding of the literature that explores the nature and purpose of critical thinking —as outlined in the first part of this paper—is a prerequisite for constructing domain-specific pedagogical intentions for developing learners’ critical thinking, and that it is this extensive psychologically informed knowledge base which attenuates the risk of educationally important aspects of learning being overlooked. (De Corte, Learning and Instruction 10:249–266, 2000).     

批判性思维在大学英语教育中的重要性

我国传统的英语专业教学一直过于注重培养学生的英语语言知识及应用技能,而缺乏对学生批判性思维的培养。本文试图分析大学英语学习中批判性思维的重要性,并从教学方法和评价方法等方面对积极开拓批判性思维提出一些可行性建议。     

The use of assessment in the development of higher-order thinking skills

Abstract

In an increasingly complex and specialised society, it is imperative that individuals think critically and creatively. This kind of thinking is also required to achieve the critical outcomes as stated in the Revised National Curriculum Statement for South Africa. It seems, however, that higher-order thinking is unlikely to occur unless learners are engaged in activities that deliberately promote this kind of thinking. They should also be guided on how to engage in these complex thinking tasks. The aim of this article is to reflect on the use of assessment to promote learners' higher-order thinking skills. The role of assessment has implications for the nature of teacher training programmes. If lecturers model the way assessment can be done to develop higher-order thinking skills, it is hoped that teachers will have little difficulty in adapting it to their unique classroom situations. Examples from language modules of an in-service teacher training programme are used to show how assessment can be implemented to help learners develop higher-order thinking skills within the framework of outcomes-based education and the Revised National Curriculum Statement.