Critical Thinking Traits

I wanted to spend some more time considering critical thinking. As instructional designers the pressure to incorporate critical thinking is a trend that will not be going away anytime soon. Although the term 'critical thinking' is quite a recent invention, the underlying value it represents is at least 2500 years old. Throughout Western Philosophy, this type of thinking has been regarded as a merging of specific skills and attitudes – critical abilities and critical dispositions

Critical abilities (skills) are skills in analyzing arguments, relationships between ideas and reasoning from the perspective of a theoretical framework – now you can start to see how this ties back to our research.

Critical dispositions (attitudes) are inherent qualities of mind and character. They are a combination of rational and emotional habits of thought that lead to critical thinking.

Additionally, the Foundation for Critical Thinking identifies seven habits which are conductive to good reasoning – yes, there is such a thing a Foundation dedicated to Critical Thinking! The full descriptions can be found at https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/valuable-intellectual-traits/528

•     Intellectual Humility: Intellectual humility is the practice of not claiming to know more than you do. It is a lack of pretentiousness, combined with an understanding logical foundations.
•     Intellectual Courage: Intellectual Courage is the process of exploring difficult ideas or viewpoints as well as those which we take for granted.
•     Intellectual Empathy: Intellectual Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes in order to understand their ideas and viewpoints. It is also the willingness remember times when we have been wrong.
•     Intellectual Integrity: Intellectual Integrity is the standards by which we hold ourselves and the process of being “true to one’s own thinking”.
•     Intellectual Perseverance: Intellectual Perseverance is the continued use of rational thinking in the face of challenges and irrational thinking.
•     Faith In Reason: Faith in Reason refers to the deep beliefs that reason and the promotion of reason can positively influence people and society.
•      Fair/Open-mindedness: Open-mindedness is the willingness to consider all ideas and viewpoints equally regardless of personal biases or previous conceptions.

You will find these seven traits/habits in different versions across the Internet. While the terms might look a little different the overarching concept is the same.Which of these habits do you have?

Thinking for Success

I spent some time today reviewing the upcoming Assignment 4, which is an annotated bibliography and critical review. The support materials for this assignments weigh heavily on critical thinking. Critical thinking is always an important topic in undergraduate programs, not only because it is an important, transferable job-related skill but also because it is directly related to problem solving – which is a critical skill for success in all facets of life. Critical thinking has become one of the standard requirements on program and course outcomes and it is rare to see any sort of curriculum development at the undergraduate level not make reference to it.

Last year I had the opportunity to manage a large project which developed a series of student modules – on of them being critical thinking. Each of the modules was chosen based on it being a skill that first year professors reported as lacking in new students and one that they had to take time from their discipline to teach. The module was originally called critical thinking but one a business professor insisted that we rename it to “Thinking for Success” to better inform students on the topic of the module.

The module varies from some of the resources provided in this course in that it addressed attitudes, arguments and fallacies. One of the most interesting sections referenced https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com, which is a fun look at a common logical fallacies.They also produce some nifty posters - which would probably been equally useful in the previous course.

Theoretical Framework

Currently we are working on a group project in my course. It is a review and comparison of academic publications. One particular question has thrown us all for a loop – theoretical framework. I went to the colleagues and the Internet in an effort to make the topic clear. I found a great video (below) which used this great imagery.

If you start with the discipline and examine all of the current literature that will help you to define the problem you want to look at. The Theoretical Framework is how you look at the problem.

 

Additionally, I found a second video which gives even more concrete examples.

Academic Writing

This week I had the opportunity to address a brand new group of M.Ed students. I was asked to speak about academic writing and APA. After writing an extensive summary and presentation of both I decided at the last minute to stick with core definitions to avoid overwhelming them on their first day. All students are required to complete one online learning module on each topic so I’m not concerned that will get the information – at a time they are better able to process it. For my presentation, I differentiated academic writing from personal or fiction writing in that it:

•    Concerns underlying theories and causes as well as alternate explanations
•    Follows a formal structure
•    Requires referencing and citation
•    Academic tone
•    Academic audience
•    Traditionally focuses on abstract thought


Additionally, I talked about how the key to academic writing was to provide complete clarity and no surprises for the reader. While this was a great introduction to academic writing the research I did on the topic also provided me with some great tips, that I thought I would share here.
•    Present the goal of your paper – early and clearly
•    Use concrete examples – especially for abstract theoretical concepts
•    Avoid excessive language
•    Provide interpretation of results – not just a summary
•    Add structure
•    Consistency
•    Headings
•    Transitional Phrases
•    Start sentences with old information and end with new information – this helps with follow and transition
•    Limit ideas to one per sentence

References
Wagenmakers, E. (2009, April) Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly. Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2009/april-09/teaching-graduate-students-how-to-write-clearly.html