Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking: an unskilled inquiry into Quinn and McPeck

Victor Quinn advocates teaching critical thinking as a curriculum subject. He has accused Professor John E. McPeck, a vehement critic of such proposals, not only of being wrong but also of being in need of such a critical thinking course himself. In this paper we examine the five supposed critical thinking weaknesses of which McPeck is accused and consider what Quinn's arguments tell us about critical thinking, its skills, its priorities and its claims to subject status.     

Critical Thinking as a Source of Respect for Persons: A critique

Critical thinking has come to be defined as and aligned with ‘good’ thinking. It connects to the value placed on rationality and agency and is woven into conceptions of what it means to become a person and hence deserve respect. Challenges to the supremacy of critical thinking have helped to provoke richer and fuller interpretations and critical thought is prevalent in talk of what it is to become a person and more fundamentally to educate. The capacity for critical thought may indeed be one significant aspect of developed personhood; however an emphasis on critical thought as the main source of respect for persons raises a number of issues about what might therefore be excluded or neglected. A number of alternative views that try to retrieve a more ‘humanised’ view of how we exist in the world are examined and are found to suggest that human consciousness as a mark of personhood should be seen as rooted in bodily senses and a more aesthetic orientation towards the world that moves us away from critical thought and rationality as the single indicators of ‘good’ thinking.     

Improving Critical Thinking: a review

Abstract This review paper sets out some of the questions that arise when considering critical thinking and its place in the process of education. Key issues are identified and discussed including the meaning of the term ‘critical thought’, the possibility of devising effective ways of facilitating critical thinking skills and the generalisability of those skills. This review is followed by an analysis of how children use thinking skills in problem‐solving situations and the kind of factors that teachers need to consider when designing problem‐solving activities. In conclusion, observations are made about the direction of research.     

Critical Thinking as a Normative Practice in Life: A Wittgensteinian Groundwork

On the point that, in practices of critical thinking, we respond spontaneously in concrete situations, this paper presents an account on behalf of Wittgenstein. I argue that the ‘seeing‐things‐aright’ model of Luntley's Wittgenstein is not adequate, since it pays insufficient attention to radically new circumstances, in which the content of norms is updated. While endorsing Bailin's emphasis on criteria of critical thinking, Wittgenstein would agree with Papastephanou and Angeli's demand to look behind criteriology. He maintains the primacy of the practical, and yet contends that a reasonable person lets rules of rationality compel her. These rules are not mere heuristics. I further examine Burbules' conception of communicative reason, and, among others, his interpretation of Wittgenstein's sign‐post example.     

基于信息技术学科的批判性思维能力培养研究

文章在厘清批判性思维概念、本质及与中学生信息素养关系的基础上,针对中学生素养要求进行适当"翻转"重构,设计了教学流程四大环节十小步骤,通过教学案例进行具体教学实施,旨在探寻信息化社会环境中学生批判性思维技能培养的注意事项:信息技术教师须遵循信息技术学科特点,逐步深入渗透批判性思维;发挥团队学习的作用、明确分工,避免学生在网络学习中迷航,让每个学生都参与进来;适当使用支架式的搭建,可以帮助学生理解案例情境,为思维寻找突破口;信息技术环境下,批判性思维的培养要防止技术异化。     

解法错还是题错?

水平面上放置平行光滑导轨,导轨相距L=014m,如图所示,匀强磁场在导轨Ⅰ部分磁感应强度B1=015T,导轨Ⅱ部分磁感应强度B2=1T,两部分磁场方向相反,在导轨Ⅰ部分和导轨Ⅱ部分分别平行静止放置金属棒ab和cd,两棒的质量均为m=011kg,电阻均为R=1Ω,棒与导轨接触良好,导轨电阻不计,现使棒ab以v0=10m/s初速度开始向右运动。求:(1)ab棒和cd棒最大加速度;(2)若ab棒在导轨Ⅰ部分时,cd棒在导轨Ⅱ部分已达到稳定速度,在此过程中两棒产生4J热量,求cd棒稳定速度多大?解(1)ab棒受向左的安培力必作向右的减速运动,开始时速度最大,感应电动势最大,感应电流最…     

In Defence of Ideas,or Why 'What Works' is Not Enough

The debate surrounding educational research in the UK has been fuelled by four recent government-funded publications that have thrown doubt on the validity, relevance and applicability of educational research. In this paper, the author offers a critique of these publications and questions their privileged role in informing government policy. She challenges the current trend towards instrumentalism in funded educational research, and explores the ways in which theories, rather than evidence, provide an essential infrastructure to teachers' day-to-day thinking and practice. Finally, she compares the restrictive effect of a narrow focus on 'what works' with the opportunities offered by postmodernism for broadening the scope, purpose and interpretation of the research of the future.     

In Defence of Gay Lessons

Abstract

The arguments against the positive treatment of homosexuality depend on such false premises as that it is an illness or is socially subversive or that homosexuals are necessarily promiscuous. Since most of the problems are engendered by the intolerance and hostility which flow from unwarranted negative attitudes, these need to be countered by dissemination of correct information and constructive discussion.

The term positive image is a relative one without unambiguous denotation. However, many repellent images are projected by homosexuals themselves. Moral educators must not countenance irresponsible and decadent behaviour, but should guide people towards, and foster respect for, caring and committed relationships whether they be homosexual or heterosexual. So temperate and humane a proposal should command the support of all but bigoted and fanatical extremists.     

Multiculturalism: An as if phenomenon

Multiculturalism has come to have multiple meanings depending on the context and voice it is given. In higher education it has become a symbol for particular notions about minority and majority groups, and their places in the institution. While multicultural affairs and concerns at academic institutions appear to be genuinely supported and give the impression of commitment, they are, on closer inspection, a superficial and reactionary response to environmental pressures. Multicultural initiatives are not integrated into the very heart of the institution, but, rather, relegated to a cursory importance that, while genuinely intended, maintains the status quo. This paper attempts to closely examine the process of multiculturalism in small liberal arts colleges from the perspective of a minority faculty and administrator. That is, from a simultaneous position of subject and object.     

In Defence of the Naive Inductivist: As Well as Some of Their Not-so-Naive Brethren

Alan Chalmers, in What ius this thing called Science?, presents inductivism as a naïve view of science which has been disproved. However, the arguments he bases this conclusion on either depend upon a stilted view of inductivism or affect a very broad range of positions, including Chalmers' own. I argue that a broadly inductivist view of science, including its observational base, is precisely the approach required.

     

Instructional Design as Critical and Creative Thinking: A Journey Through a Jamestown-Era Native American Village

The role of critical and creative thinking has been debated within the field of instructional design. Through an instructional design and development project we have identified how critical and creative thinking are essential to the instructional design process. This paper highlights a recent project focused on a virtual Native American village and the development of supporting instructional materials. The materials combine instruction on content-area material, technology and critical and creative thinking skills. Our concept of critical and creative thinking skills is guided by a model that includes idea generation, reflective judgment, attitudes and dispositions and self-regulation. Through the process of designing instruction to teach critical and creative thinking skills, we recognized that these critical and creative thinking skills are essential in the design process.     

王海消费者身份之辩护

王海现象在法学界引发诸多争议,王海是否具有消费者身份是其中一个关键性问题。许多法学界和司法界人士从消费目的、经验法则以及对立法目的之法律解释等三个方面进行论证,认定王海不具有消费者身份,其行为不能适用《消法》。这种认识值得商榷,其理由不能成立。应当承认王海的消费者身份,以推进消法的私人执行。     

Learning and Teaching Critical Thinking: From a Peircean Perspective

The article will argue that Charles Sanders Peirce's concepts of the 'Dynamics of Belief and Doubt', the 'Fixation of Belief' as well as 'habits of belief' taken together comprise a theory of learning. The 'dynamics of belief and doubt' are Peirce's explanation for the process of changing from one belief to another. Teaching, then, would be an attempt to control that process. Teaching critical thinking represents an attempt to teach the learner to regulate and discipline his or her own 'settlement of belief'. The 'settlement of belief' takes four different forms based on doubt. Peirce's concept of the 'habits of belief' refers to the inner and outer constraints placed both on belief as such and belief as it becomes action. The article may be read as both an exegesis of learning and as a pedagogical guide for teaching critical thinking to college students.