Over the next few weeks, we will present 1-2 page articulations of the ILOs we’ve been developing this year in our ILO working groups. These are working drafts that are open to revision and development as we widen the conversation, develop a shared understanding of our ILOs, and prepare to teach these in meaningful ways. While these first passes at articulating our ILOs are brief, they are the product of significant research, collaboration and thought. Our aim here is to invite widening circles of interested faculty to join this collaborative inquiry towards developing ILO curriculum that can best serve our students. We’ll start with Critical Thinking. Articulations of our other ILOs will follow over the next few weeks.
We will meet on Thursday, March 13th at 2:30 to open up our conversation about Critical Thinking. There will be a second meeting on Tuesday, March 18th at 2:30. Here’s a Zoom link: https://bellevuecollege.zoom.us/j/86273225488
Critical Thinking
Proposed BC definition:
Careful assessment of any position by clarifying and evaluating reasons for and against the position.
Becoming a critical thinker is the long and arduous process of learning to yield to the better reason. There are excellent and well-established methods for evaluating reasons on their own merits. We will outline these skills in terms of the SEE (State, Explain, Evaluate) model. Developing these skills will be the central focus of any developed critical thinking curriculum. Less directly, developing some of these skills will be among the aims of much of the rest of a good education. We will outline these skills in terms of the SEE (State, Explain, Evaluate) model.
Inquiry aimed and understanding and knowledge proceeds by clarifying and examining the available reasons for holding one view or another. Along the way, we aim to surface unstated assumptions, clarify concepts, appreciate inferential relationships and evaluate the arguments under consideration. That is, our thinking proceeds by making arguments. An argument, in the context of critical thinking, is not an instrument of persuasion, it is a data point in a process of inquiry aimed at better understanding, better justified belief, or better planning and action. An argument consists of premises, our starting points, and an inference which leads us to a conclusion.
In practicing the reasoning skills central to the critical thinking curriculum, we cultivate a familiar set of intellectual character traits including intellectual humility, open mindedness, intellectual courage, persistence and thoroughness. As with virtues generally, these are not measurable outcomes that can be directly taught, but they can be instilled through mindful practice of reasoning skills. So, for instance, practicing intellectual humility and open-mindedness is implicit in evaluating arguments on their own merits, treating them as data points rather than mere assertions of one’s point of view or as instruments of persuasion. The qualities of mind we cultivate through critical thinking are essential not just to problem solving and truth-oriented inquiry, but also to fostering understanding across differing perspectives, engaging in productive disagreement, and sustaining democracy.
Whether we aim to clarify a concept, understand a view or a person, inquire into the truth of some matter, or solve a problem, arguments are the basic units of our thinking processes. The central kernel of a typical robust critical thinking curriculum focuses on examining and evaluating the arguments we make. Core critical thinking skills can be organized in terms of the SEE model:
State the Argument:
- Identify Premises and Conclusion
- Charitably fill in missing premises if necessary
- Map out the structure of complex arguments
Explain the Argument
- Clarify the elements of the argument (again, charitably)
- Analyze any concepts that might be unclear
- Explain how the premises are intended to support the conclusion.
Evaluate the Argument
- Determine whether the premises support the conclusion.
- Determine whether the premises are true.
There remains much to be said about each of the skills identified in this model, how developing the skills operative in this model cultivate the intellectual character traits of critical thinkers, and how inquiry aimed at understanding and truth is carried out through SEEing arguments. The SEE model provides a framework for organizing the various critical thinking skills that will be central to a robust meaningful critical thinking curriculum.
Some Critical Thinking resources:
Jonathan Haber, Critical Thinking
Interview with Aidan Kestigian
