| Selikow, T (July 1999) 'Policy, pedagogy, and practice: contributing to the development of
Critical Thinking Skills' in
SAIDE Open Learning Through Distance Education, Vol. ?, No. ?, SAIDE:
Johannesburg |
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| South Africa | Contents | ||
Freire: ‘There is no such a thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes "practice of freedom", the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world’(emphasis added)
It is widely accepted that distance education has an important social and political role to play in terms of redress and equity, and in providing education to groups that would not otherwise have access to education. Terry-Ann Selikow, SAIDE’s coordinator of learning systems and processes, argues that distance education has a far broader political role to play. By contributing to the development of Critical Thinking Skills, distance education can empower individuals to participate actively in civil society, thereby contributing to building a democratic society. In this article, the author defines her understanding of Critical Thinking Skills and explains why it is a political necessity. She then shares some of the ways in which she has tried to incorporate Critical Thinking Skills into distance learning materials.
So what is ‘critical thinking’?
To have a narrow and predefined answer to this question would negate the very notion of critical thinking. There are many terms that are associated with Critical Thinking, and many areas that could be included under the broad rubric of Critical Thinking Skills. Although there are ongoing debates about its exact nature, there is general congruence that some elements or aspects of Critical Thinking are captured in the following statements:
v Critical Thinking is different from and contrary to assimilating a previously defined and outside set of facts. v Critical Thinking is not about rote learning and passively absorbing information. v Critical Thinking involves the ongoing questioning and rethinking of previously taken for granted views and assumptions. v Critical Thinking involves a willingness to re-examine ideas from different perspectives. v Critical Thinking means analysing and evaluating ideas based on evidence they offer. v Critical Thinking involves the ability to construct an argument, with well-substantiated evidence, and to show why a particular conclusion was reached. v Critical Thinking involves abstract thinking. v Critical Thinking involves the ability to transfer ideas and thinking from one context to another. v Critical Thinking implies that dogmas should be removed from our discourse and that we need to entertain the idea that nothing is ultimate or final, that there is no ‘one truth’, but a range of options and possibilities.
Most importantly, individuals who think critically are able to adopt a committed position, which they are prepared to act on in order to transform society. Kurfis (pg v) sums up the ultimate development stage which epitomizes Critical Thinking as follows: ‘The final development task is to make rational, caring commitments in a relativistic world. For many educators it is the mature epistemology of commitment, not isolated analytical skills, that is the true aim of instruction for critical thinking’.
This understanding of Critical Thinking is closely linked to applied competence, which is described by the Education Training Development Practioners (ETDP) Project as the overarching term for three interconnected kinds of competence. The first of these is practical competence, which is the demonstrated ability to consider a range of options and make decisions about practice. Practical competence is grounded in foundational competence, which can be defined as the demonstrated understanding of what others or we are doing and why. Both of these competences are integrated through reflexive competence – the demonstrated ability to integrate or connect our performances and decision-making with our understanding, so that we learn from our actions and are able to adapt to change and to unforeseen circumstances.1If the ultimate aim of developing Critical Thinking Skills is for political change and active engagement in society, developing this higher order level of thinking so that individuals can make informed commitments to transform society becomes a central challenge for distance educators.
CTS as a political necessity
There is a plethora of literature that vividly depicts how the notorious Bantu Education and Department of Education and Training (DET) system was used as a weapon by a racist regime to perpetuate rote learning and passive acceptance of ‘the facts’2. There are many examples, both overt and covert (the hidden curriculum), that illustrate ways in which apartheid education tried to maintain and reinforce the status quo. It would not be an exaggeration to state that this education system not only encouraged the idea of the passive learner, but also actively discouraged critical thinking.The call for Critical Thinking to be centrally integrated into the curriculum is not a new one. The importance of Critical Thinking has for a long time been associated with an alternative curriculum and was articulated in SA as early as 1986 in the demand for ‘People’s Education’. Although couched in different discourse, the youth, then organized under the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), in demanding ‘people’s education’, were challenging the hegemonic and oppressive syllabus which characterized the Department of Education and Training (DET) curriculum. Father Smangaliso Mkatshwa, in defining people’s education, referred to it as an education ‘which prepares people for total human liberation; one which helps people to be creative, to develop a critical mind, to help people to analyse; one that prepares people for full participation in all social, political, or cultural spheres’. (emphasis added)
In direct contrast to the previous government, the ANC-led government has incorporated Critical Thinking Skills as an integral part of its education programme and of its drive towards lifelong learning. This is clearly articulated in many policy documents, such as the National Basic Education and Training Framework (1995:1), which states that ‘[a]dult basic education and training have been successfully used and can be used to help promote the principles of cooperation, critical thinking, and civic responsibility and equip people for participation in a high skills economy and society as a whole’. (emphasis added)
It is not only at the level of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) that the developing of Critical Thinking is taken seriously. At the other end of the education continuum, the National Qualifications Framework (NQF)3 lists as a major goal for higher education ‘the production of graduates with the skills and competencies that build the foundations for lifelong learning, including critical, analytical, problem-solving and communication skills, as well as the ability to deal with change and diversity and in particular, the tolerance of different views and ideas’.4How can distance educators play a role in developing CriTical thinking?
Advocating Critical Thinking Skills in policy documents is a very positive step, but educators cannot passively accept that this will automatically happen: as committed educators we have to incorporate Critical Thinking Skills into teaching and learning processes.
One way of avoiding the above being an empty rhetorical statement is to explore ways of incorporating Critical Thinking Skills into our course materials. This is not easily achieved, as the development of materials that incorporate Critical Thinking Skills is a challenging task. There are no easy steps to follow, but to begin dialogue around this issue I would like to share some ideas on how I have tried to incorporate Critical Thinking Skills into materials I have been involved in developing.
Creating an environment of trust and openness
Thinking critically involves exposing yourself, your ideas and views and knowing they are open to discussion and disagreement. Hence the importance of setting up a climate of mutual trust as ‘without such a climate or culture, teaching-learning encounters run the risk of becoming nothing more than exchanges of entrenched opinion, with no element of challenge and no readiness to probe the assumptions, underlying beliefs, behaviours or values.’5 The assumption that the teacher / writer knows ‘the facts’ that s/he is imparting to empty vessels does not correlate with the goal of developing critical thinkers. To encourage Critical Thinking ‘the teacher’ must rid herself of the notion of being an expert and always being right. Course developers need to be open and self-critical. Rather than using phrases such as ‘the answer is’, writers could say ‘One possible view is …’ and then encourage learners to give their own ideas.Encourage debate
Course developers should avoid developing materials and activities that only transmit knowledge. Instead, through learning materials, they should strive for dialogue and shared creation of knowledge. This can be done by encouraging learners to question materials and respond to them, rather than passively receiving information.6 Course developers should allow the reader to disagree with their points of view, encourage and guide the reader to go beyond the prescribed readings, and - in this way - facilitate the development of their own opinions. Hutton7 stresses the importance of building learners’ confidence so that they can constructively question what they read.The learner and drawing on prior knowledge and experience
Central to NQF thinking is recognition of prior learning (RPL). Recognizing and drawing on previous learning and experience is central to developing Critical Thinking Skills, as learners’ ability to make links with their own experience is important. To build on learners’ experiences, materials can move from the known to the unknown (and back to the known). Ultimately, however, critical thinkers need to move away from experience and common-sense understandings to a more conceptual and abstract level. To not only draw on the experience of the individual learner, but also to use the shared experiences of all learners, methodology and techniques should encourage collective processes such as peer and group work.
Making skills explicit - teaching at a metacognitive level
Ironically, because so many educators are intent on covering content, they often do not make explicit thinking skills and processes by which conclusions are reached. Learners need to witness the process by which teachers or writers interrogate texts, compare conflicting interpretations, make sense of evidence, and reach conclusions. Critical Thinking will not happen by osmosis, and we need to make our Critical Thinking Skills explicit. Writers need to engage learners to constantly ask ‘what did I learn, why did I learn it, what helped me to learn it?’. Where appropriate, course developers need to identify for learners underlying structures and make their logic and reasoning transparent. In feedback to activities, do not just supply ‘answers’ but show how they were reached.
Arguing
Materials need to encourage learners’ ability to recognize arguments and to move beyond merely summarizing arguments. Critical thinkers need to be able to weigh up evidence and, based on this, make informed decisions and draw conclusions. Learners should recognize that there are different perspectives on the same issues and that arguments are not always ‘wrong’ or ‘right’. In moving away from this dualistic thinking, materials and activities should expose learners to weak reasoning and give them the opportunity to assess evidence. Ultimately, a critical thinker should also be able to put forward his or her own argument substantiated by evidence.
Self-Evaluation and Reflection
It is difficult to quantify and grade critical thinking and there is no yardstick against which to measure it. Although there are no easy answers as to how to evaluate Critical Thinking, learners should be encouraged to self-evaluate and be given tools to help self-evaluate. Materials should provide self-assessment questions to get learners to engage with, and reflect on, the real world outside of the text, and link the text back to the real world. When learners develop confidence in assessing their own performance they will become more self-directed.
Teaching for transfer
Good learning materials should enable learners to apply their skills in new and different contexts, both within and outside of the educational context. Transfer has taken place when a person is able to generalize and apply skills used in one particular context to other situations and to contexts outside of the classroom.8 Transfer to different academic contexts is important, but the transfer of these skills to non-academic contexts is particularly important in the individual’s self- development and participation in civil society. To encourage transfer, writers should give learners the opportunity to practise and apply their learning. Course developers can build practical action in response to various contexts into learning materials, as well as giving learners a range of examples from different contexts. By de-contextualizing and re-representing knowledge appropriately in different context, the learner’s ability to transfer skills and knowledge will be enhanced.Concluding thoughts
If we answer in the affirmative to Spady’s question, ‘Do the outcomes we expect students to demonstrate matter in the long run - in life after formal schooling?’, then an important ‘real’ end or ‘exit outcome’ should be Critical Thinking Skills9. Ultimately, the extent to which Critical Thinking is deemed as important depends on the educator’s philosophical and political framework and rationale for education. If distance education courses have a narrowly defined aim (such as to teach facts or skills), then it will be likely that Critical Thinking Skills are not seen as integral to the educational process. On the other hand, for educators who see education in a far broader sense than just teaching content and knowledge - and who view education as a central process to empower people and to develop greater reasoning skills in order to cope with and make decisions about life - the development of Critical Thinking Skills becomes imperative.REFERENCES
v Ausubel, D.P et al (1978) Educational Psychology – A cognitive View. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. v Brookfield, SA (1991) Understanding and facilitating Adult Learning. Open University Learning. Milton Keynes. v Barner, S. and Bedau, H. (1993) Critical Thinking: Reading and Writing. Bedford books, St Martins Press, New York. v Blight, N (1985) WITS Arts Faculty Test in SAAAD (South African Association for Academic Development): The First Five Years 1986 – 1980, A selection of papers presented at SAAD conferences v Browne, M.N. and Keeley, SM (1990) Asking the Right questions (third edition) Prentice Hall, New Jersey. v Jants, R (1991) Concept Teaching; in Arends, R.I. (2nd ed) McGraw Hill, inc, USA/ v Ennis, R.h. (1985) A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities in Boykoff, J. and Sternberg, R.J. (eds) Teaching Thinking Skills, W.H. Freeman and Company, New York. v De Villiers (1990) An Evaluation of meta-learning in a first year student development programme in SAJHE vol. 4 no 2 v Freire, P, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York; Seabury press, 1986. 24th printing. Quoted v From Jansen, J (1990) Curriculum Policy in Nkomo, ed) v Gardiner, M (1990) Apartheid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans. Ravan press. JHB v Knowles, M.S. (1984) Rocky Roads to Transfer: Rethinking mechanisms of a neglected phenomenon. Paper presented at the conference on Thinking, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge. v Selikow, T, (1991) Teaching and Learning Sociology: problems as perceived by students. Based on interviews and surveys conducted with SOCL101 students:, Workshop presented to the Department of Sociology v Selikow, T, Dison, L. De Groote, M. and Friedman, M (1996) The Libra’s Dilemma. Per Linguam, vol. 14. v September, 1995: A National Adult Basic Education and Training and Framework: Interim Guidelines, prepared by Department of Education – Directorate: Adult Basic, Community Education and Training. v Selikow, T (1995) To Teach or To Facilitate: That is the Question. SAAAD Conference Proceedings. v Swartz, 1987 "Teaching for Thinking: A developmental model for the infusion of thinking skills into mainstream Instruction" for a comprehensive discussion on infusing skills and content in Baron and Sterberg although more in context of secondary schools in the states.
NOTES
1. ETDP Project, 1997: 106 and 1998: 147 cited in Luckett, K. 1998. Programmes Handbook: Guidelines for Programme Design, Specification, Approval and Registration at the University of Natal. University of Natal. Unpublished.
2. This being said, it would be misleading to assume that all students who were sentenced to DET and TED education thought uncritically. Bundy (1980) is one researcher who has documented how township youth challenged the hegemonic structures of apartheid. His analysis and concept of ‘’street sociology’’ aptly captures the critical thinking that developed as an unintended consequence of apartheid education.
3. The White Paper 3 Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education (August 1997 page 6)
4. (SAQA Bulletin, vol. 1, no.1. (May/June 1997) and NSB Regulations (March 1998)
5. Brookfield, S. 1980: Adult Learners.
6. Lockwood, F. 1994. "Encouraging Active Learning: models appropriate for self-instruction’’ In: Materials production in open and distance learning. London: Paul Chapman publishing.
7. Hutton, B … A manual for Writers of Learning Materials. Cape Town: Buchu Books.
8. Salmon, G. and Perkins, D.N 1989. Rocky Roads to transfer: rethinking mechanisms of a neglected phenomena. Educational Psychologist, 24
9. Spady, W. 1994. Choosing outcomes of significance’’, Educational Leadership, 51.
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