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> Colleges do. At least, liberal arts colleges do. Where's the evidence that they do? And how would we determine which schools/teachers/courses do this effecti
by bnralt 5y ago
> Colleges do. At least, liberal arts colleges do.
Where's the evidence that they do? And how would we determine which schools/teachers/courses do this effectively, and which don't?
It's not unusual that people who are taught to think less critically believe that they are thinking more critically (conspiracy theorists are a good example of this, as are most ideologues). So let's consider another possibility - perhaps colleges teach students to think less critically, but to believe that they are thinking more critically. It's worth at least considering whether or not this is the case, instead of simply assuming it's not.
I often see a lot of comments assuming that colleges teach critical thinking, but I rarely see much critical thinking applied to that assumption.
- andi999 5y agoProbably part of it is that (at least I think so) critical thinking is not a good word for the process. It might be better called evidence based analysis or fact based thinking.
- loki49152 5y agoThis should be what we expect to find, at least in US schools, because it was the explicitly stated, intended purpose of Progressive Education. They designed the entirety of their program after the Prussian model which was to produce workers trained enough to succeed in farms or factories but not smart enough to question the orders of their leaders. Read William James. Read John Dewey - but really read him, because he was more aware that he had to soft-sell the socialist indoctrination program to an individualistic culture that wasn’t interested in buying.
- MCllorf 5y agoProducing data for something like that sounds like an incredible ask and I'd be super interested to see how other people have tried to tackle that problem. My anecdotal experience is that they teach something close to that in philosophy departments, at least insofar as you need to be able to present the logical steps and connections you're making in a plain way so your paper is easier to engage with regardless of how abstract the topic is. I think the actual critical thinking is something that happens internally and you can't really correct or improve that as a teacher if the student isn't capable of explaining what they're thinking - and if you can teach the student to explain what's going on inside their head, they can learn more effectively from people more intelligent than them later on because then it's public knowledge what they're screwing up instead of private. So to that end good writing might be even more fundamental than critical thinking skills.