In order to carry out critical thinking, what must the students actually do ?

The basis of critical thinking must be the asking of questions. Questions start the whole process of inquiry – ‘critical thinking’ is reflective, feed-back inquiry. So, the development of critical thinking skills rests on acquiring the habit / custom of asking questions, as a normal standard procedure.

However, asking single, discreet questions is merely a starting point. True critical thinking involves asking sequences of questions, where each question provokes a response which in turn provokes another question.

Such sequences will work best when they are guided by a conscious sense of purpose or focus – i.e. what the critical thinking process is aiming to explore.

More precisely, we can consider that critical thinking can be focused on three inter-related areas or purposes: clarity… confirmation/checking … creativity ...

Clarity = “What do you mean by …XXX… ?” This means, to start with, getting a clear view of the ideas to which you are going to apply critical thinking – i.e. grasping the basis, the given. But it can also involve delving into fundamentals – in other words, it may involve questioning the very basics of what is the given starting point.

Checking/confirmation = two main aspects: the support/evidence for the statement being critically discussed + the logic / reasoning built on that evidence

Support/evidence … “Is the evidence reliable? Sufficient? Limited? Selective? Biased?...”

Logic / reasoning … “Are the links between thoughts logical? Convincing? Coherent? Consistent?....”

Creativity = thinking outside the box – “What other ways could we see this issue? … Are we missing something obvious?... Are we applying the wrong or limited assumptions / axioms?...”

This can be seen as a thinking frame (i.e. an easily remembered standard procedure or check list), and can be summarized like this:

The CCC tool

Clarity = getting a clear view of the ideas– i.e. grasping the basis, the given.

Checking/confirmation = exploring the support/evidence + the logic / reasoning

Creativity = thinking outside the box – “What other ways could we see this issue?”

Tasks for students

Everything above consists of theory, and generalised tools in the form of thinking frames. Which is all very well, and should be presented clearly to the students, but in the end, students will only become genuine critical thinkers through practice... and practice means giving them specific concrete tasks.

Here is a list of suggestions for such tasks. Note that the list is ranked from simple/basic tasks to introduce critical thinking... to complex/advanced tasks for experienced students to demonstrate sophisticated skills.

1.  basic questions

– “write 2 / 3 / 5 questions about this stimulus”

2. linked questions

– “write one question about each of the areas in the stimulus which need exploring further”

3. probing sequence

– “take one aspect of the stimulus, and write a sequence of 2 / 3 / 5 questions which will probe deeply into the aspect”

(BUT – really useful probing sequences depend upon asking questions about each answer in turn i.e. to write an abstract series of discrete is a rather theoretical exercise, not realistic)

4. applying CCC

- apply the tasks 1 / 2 / 3 above, but focusing in turn on the three CCC areas:-

Clarity = getting a clear view of the ideas– i.e. grasping the basis, the given.

Checking/confirmation = exploring the support/evidence + the logic / reasoning

Creativity = thinking outside the box – “What other ways could we see this issue?”

5. write a dialogue

– “imagine a Q&A conversation in which two people discuss one aspect of the stimulus … write 5 / 6 questions, in which each question inquires more deeply into the response to the previous question”

6. a developed ‘Personal response’

– take any stimulus text (preferably reasonably debateable) … require planning notes, applying the skills in 1/2/3/4 above … then EITHER write a brief explanatory text, embodying the important ideas from the planning notes … OR write a text in a given / appropriate text type, expressing the developed ideas as effectively as possible

7. ‘new oral’ #1 - 'student questioning'

– in Part 3, the teacher makes a statement … student then asks critical thinking questions to explore that statement

8. ‘new oral’ #2 - ‘pair interviews’

– the interview is student > student... restricted to Parts 1 & 2... (teacher purely observes & marks)

> student A gives his/her presentation while student B listens

> student B then asks questions about the presentation, using critical thinking skills

THEN

> student B gives his/her presentation while student A listens

> student A then asks questions about the presentation, using critical thinking skills

9. 'new oral' #3 - 'chain interviews'

– the interview is student > student... all three parts of the interview are involved, but with each student taking different roles, in sequence... (teacher purely observes & marks)

Interview 1 – students A + B

> student A gives Part 1 presentation while student B listens

> student B then asks questions about the presentation (Part 2), using critical thinking skills

> Part 3: student B makes a general statement (probably drawn from some aspect of the Themes), and student A takes over the critical questioning role, guiding the conversation

Interview 2 – students B + C

> student B gives Part 1 presentation while student C listens

> student C then asks questions about the presentation (Part 2), using critical thinking skills

> Part 3: student C makes a general statement (probably drawn from some aspect of the Themes), and student B takes over the critical questioning role, guiding the conversation

Interview 3 … students C + D, and so on…