teaching critical thinking some lessons from cognitive science

This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in critical thinking is hard; practice in critical-thinking skills themselves enhances skills; the transfer of skills must be practiced; some theoretical knowledge is required; diagramming arguments ("argument mapping") promotes skill; and students are prone to belief preservation. The article provides some guidelines for teaching practice in light of these lessons.

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teaching critical thinking some lessons from cognitive science

College Teaching

Teaching critical thinking: some lessons from cognitive science.

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Original Article

This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in critical thinking is hard; practice in critical-thinking skills themselves enhances skills; the transfer of skills must be practiced; some theoretical knowledge is required; diagramming arguments (“argument mapping”) promotes skill; and students are prone to belief preservation. The article provides some guidelines for teaching practice in light of these lessons.

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TITLE: A Cognitive Emotional Methodology for Critical Thinking

KEYWORDS: Critical Thinking; Decision Making; Social Work; Social Work Education

JOURNAL NAME: Advances in Applied Sociology , Vol.3 No.1 , March 18, 2013

ABSTRACT: This essay provides a theoretical foundation for a cognitive emotional methodology for critical thinking that is currently being utilized by the author in undergraduate and graduate social work advanced seminar classes. Through a review of the literature, the paper suggests that most approaches to teaching critical thinking do not integrate cognitive emotional criteria in the teaching method, and this is problematic for social work education. Citing recent literature about teaching empathy and values, and merging that work with clinical theory and practice, a theoretical foundation is established for a methodology that is in its formative stages. The methodology and its constructs are described. Although the methodology is presented though the vehicle of social work education, it is asserted that the methodology has broader utility.

In a survey conducted by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, 99.6% of university teachers agreed that critical thinking is an "very important" or "essential" goal for undergraduate education. (HERI (2009) The American College Teacher: National Norms for 2007–2008 . Higher Education Research Institute, University of California.)

But how should critical thinking be taught? There are lots of different issues to be investigated, such as:

Research from education psychology and cognitive science are very much relevant when designing an effective pedagogy for teaching critical thinking. Here is a research article on this topic commissioned by our website:

Tim van Gelder (2004) "Teaching Critical Thinking: Lessons from Cognitive Science"

A later version is published as van Gelder, T. J. (2005). Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science. College Teaching , 53, 41-6.

Abstract: This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in critical thinking is hard; practice in critical thinking skills themselves enhances skills; the transfer of skills must be practiced; some theoretical knowledge is required; diagramming arguments ("argument mapping") promotes skill; and students are prone to belief preservation. The article provides some guidelines for teaching practice in light of these lessons.

Colorado State University

College of natural sciences, the cognitive science on teaching critical thinking.

November 12, 2020

Good morning CNS Instructors,

I trust you are all staying healthy and sane. We are in the home stretch for the fall semester.

This week’s teaching tip focuses on the cognitive science on teaching critical thinking . This tip draws from an “Ask the Cognitive Scientist article by Daniel T. Willingham (American Educator fall 2020, attached) suggested to me by Ben Clegg (Psychology).

Most of us consider critical thinking as a skill/ability we would like our program majors to have at least improved, upon graduation. Daniel Willingham puts forward this definition of critical thinking:

“You are thinking critically if (1) your thinking is novel—that is, you aren’t simply drawing a conclusion from a memory of a previous situation; (2) your thinking is self-directed—that is, you are not merely executing instructions given by someone else; and (3) your thinking is effective—that is, you respect certain conventions that make thinking more likely to yield useful conclusions. These conventions include ‘consider both sides of an issue,’ ‘offer evidence for claims made,’ and ‘don’t let emotion interfere with reason’.” A more succinct definition he offers is the ability to “analyze, synthesize, and evaluate” information. His article focuses on effective thinking producing useful conclusions. He contends that research indicates that critical thinking ability applied to specific problems can be taught. However, teaching the ability to apply critical thinking more generally, to new problems and across fields appears more challenging. Research findings indicate that even experts do not perform critical thinking well outside their specialties. One solution is teaching recognition of the key stepsT in solving a problem. However, it is not clear that general, non-field specific critical thinking skills even exist.

To teach more field-specific teaching skills Willingham suggests these four steps:

· Identify what’s meant by critical thinking in your domain.

· Identify the domain content that students must know.

· Select the best sequence for students to learn the critical thinking skills.

· Decide which skills should be revisited across years in the curriculum.

Finally, Willingham suggests considering student age, the type of student and how critical thinking will be assessed. He also cautions that student have difficulty learning critical thinking and instructors need to maintain patience through the process. Sounds like we have our work cut out for us.

Joseph F. Brown, Director of the TILT Academic Integrity Program asked me to share student-focused resources found at this site: https://tilt.colostate.edu/Integrity/StudentResources and the attached handout.

Thanks to Ben Clegg for suggesting this article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Just one more week until fall break!

Cheers, Paul

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COMMENTS

Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science
SOME LESSONS FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE. Tim van Gelder. Abstract. This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking.
TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING: SOME LESSONS FROM
TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING: SOME LESSONS FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE. Tim van Gelder. College Teaching; Winter 2005; 53, 1; ERIC®.
Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons From Cognitive Science
This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in
Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science
This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in
Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons From Cognitive Science
Request PDF | Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons From Cognitive Science | This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of
Teaching Critical Thinking
van Gelder, T. J. (2005). Teaching critical thinking: some lessons from cognitive science. College Teaching, 53, 41-6. ... This article draws six
Journals AZ
van Gelder, T. (2005). Teaching critical thinking Some lessons from cognitive science. College Teaching, 53, 41-46.doi10.3200/CTCH.53.1.41-48.
Teaching Critical Thinking
A later version is published as van Gelder, T. J. (2005). Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science. College Teaching, 53, 41-6.
The Cognitive Science on Teaching Critical Thinking
His article focuses on effective thinking producing useful conclusions. He contends that research indicates that critical thinking ability applied to specific
Insights From Research on How Best to Teach Critical Thinking Skills
Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED272882.pdf. Van Gelder, T. (2005). Teaching critical thinking: Some lessons from cognitive science. College Teaching
Reference List
van Gelder, T. (2005). "Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science." College Teaching 53(1): 41-46.