Critical Thinking and Psychology

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Critical Thinking and Psychology

• Carol McGuinness
• School of Psychology
• QUB
• BPS Psychology of Education Section
• Annual Conference University of Glasgow
• 7 November 2004

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Critical Thinking a central aim for higher
education

• Benchmarking what graduates know and can do.
• Subject and generic skills
• Employ evidence-based reasoning
• Problem solve and reason scientifically
• Make critical judgements and evaluations
• Use multiple perspectives
• Critical thinking - and what it means for
  psychology learning and teaching

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What has philosophy got to say?

• Critical thinking movement
• in US, Robert Ennis, Richard Paul
• in UK. Alex Fisher/Michael Scriven
• AS in Critical Thinking (OCR Examining Board)
• Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective
  thinking that is focused on what to believe and
  do (Ennis, 1982)
• Truth-seeking
• Critical thinking is skilled and active
  interpretation and evaluation of observations and
  communications, information and argumentation
  (Fisher Scriven, 1997)
• Evaluation and argumentation

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What has psychology got to say..the research
base?

• Thinking processes and strategies errors in
  deductive reasoning, cognitive biases,
  problem-solving heuristics, mental sets.
• Related constructs
• Dispositions for thinking open-mindedness,
  flexibility, setting truth standards (Facione)
• Epistemological beliefs (Perry, Kuhn)
• Pedagogy methods for enhancing thinking
• Assessing critical thinking.

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Transforming the knowledge.

• Halpern (1996, 3rd ed)
• Provides a conceptual framework with pedagogical
  implications
• Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive
  skills and strategies that increase the
  probability of a desirable outcomepurposeful,
  reasoned and goal directed the kind of thinking
  involved in solving problems, formulating
  inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making
  decisions..

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Halpern - chapter headings

• Reasoning - drawing deductively valid conclusions
• Analysing arguments
• Thinking as hypothesis testing
• Understanding probabilities
• Decision making
• Developing problem solving
• Creative thinking

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General critical thinking vs disciplinary
specific

• Theoretical dispute about nature of knowing -
  critical thinking
• as a general competence
• as deeply embedded in disciplinary knowledge
• A curriculum decision
• General courses on critical thinking (e.g., cross
  faculty) - transfer can be problematic
• Critical thinking in subject areas - knowledge
  tends to dominate
• Assessment
• General ability psychometric testing
• Domain specific level of argument in essay
  writing

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Developing critical thinking pedagogy?

• Making thinking more explicit (vocabulary,
  knowledge about, modeling)
• Tasks that require critical thinking
• Dialogue
• Socratic dialogue
• Questioning (teacher-student)
• Peer interaction about reasons and explanations
  (scaffolding)
• Cognitive conflict (contradictions,
  inconsistencies)
• Evaluating and monitoring thinking -
  metacognition

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Key Concepts

• Be explicit about what you mean by critical
  thinking - settle on a provisional list
• Examine tasks to ensure that they do require some
  higher order thinking (beyond memory or even good
  summarising)
• Give opportunities to students to talk and
  discuss the nature of the thinking required by
  tasks
• Ask them to evaluate their own thinking (logs,
  journals, reflective pieces)
• Start early.dont leave it to final year!!!
  Look for development across the years