The sad state of education in critical thinking

[skepticscott]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-oped-0325-page-20120325,0,3490586.column

That tends to confirm what reader Jerre Levy, a retired University of Chicago professor of psychology, wrote: "I wish with all my heart that a college degree implied that the person holding that degree was capable of critical thinking. However, this is, sadly, not true."

Among the jaw-dropping examples Levy related in her email to me and a later phone call was a senior who reacted with memorable resentment to a two-week take-home assignment to critically evaluate a scientific journal article.

The professor specifically requested a hard-eyed assessment of strengths and weaknesses in the article's sources, methods and conclusions. She did not, repeat, not want students simply to summarize the contents. She stipulated that last part in capital letters.

Yet when the students returned their papers, she recalled, one offered nothing but what Levy said she didn't want: "a content summary, without a single evaluative statement." When the student complained about her zero grade, Levy explained the goose egg. The student argued back indignantly, "But that would have required THINKING!"

It was the winter quarter of her senior year, the young woman explained, and she could memorize as much as any professor gave her and earn As and Bs but, until this course, she had "never been required to think!"

[MineralMan]

1. Absolutely.

And that failure to teach critical thinking is one of the main reasons people accept so much bullshit from media sources like Fox. Rather than ask the question: I wonder if that's true?, people have been taught to simply accept what is said.

It also is the cause of the willingness of people to accept all sorts of other woo. Some author writes a book, and immediately has followers for any wacky theory about anything. After all, someone took the time to write an entire book, so it must be true.

Sadly, I expect this to continue...

[zeemike]

2. so grades are for memory.

Good memory = A...bad memory = F...and critical thinking will just piss people off.
Yep they have us well trained.

[TrogL]

3. I got in trouble for teaching critical thinking

They said it wasn't on the curriculum.

[LWolf]

4. If you want us to do a better job teaching critical thinking,

then join us in fighting the neo-liberal efforts to dumb down curriculum through high stakes standardized tests and scripted, "scientific" teaching "methodology" that narrows learning and thinking.

Also, start building in professional safeguards for teachers. In the current climate, the teacher is the scapegoat. Critical thinking doesn't suddenly blossom when one gets to college; it has to be nurtured from the beginning. There's nothing more likely to bring outraged parents to the floor, calling for the dismissal of a teacher, than encouraging children to think, to question. Why? A large number of parents don't want their kids questioning the faith, the politics, and the world view of the family. They are trained to obedience and passive followers. If they start questioning, where will it end?

I have had administrators pull books from a board-approved curriculum because it encourages questioning of the status quo, and they were afraid of parental backlash. I have had parents question my methodology when I did not simply hand out answers and procedures and ask students to memorize them, but insisted on analysis. I have had a student stand in my room, when talking about media bias, which is a state standard for that grade level, and yell, "You're not trying to say that Glen Beck lies, are you? Because EVERYTHING he says is the TRUTH." I never referred to a specific media personality when discussing bias. That student's parent then spent several weeks observing my classroom, trying to find something unprofessional to bring to admins. It was a fruitless search, but still...it's hard to foster a classroom environment of respect and intellectual risk-taking like that.

You want thinking? Back us up.