Critical Thinking and the Educated Person: An Interdiscipli - PowerPoint Presentation

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Critical Thinking and the Educated Person: An Interdisciplinary Effort

John, Wolfe, PhD:

Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities.Matthew Morin, PhD: Assistant professor in the department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and chair of the General Education Committee at DSU. School of Education.Maria D. Ortiz, PhD: Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, and Assessment Coordinator, School of Business and Communication.

PresentersSlide2

John Wolfe

“Philosophical Basis and Thoughts on Critical Thinking”4/10/2015

1st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University2Slide3

Rene

Descartes, Discourse on Method

Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée

; car

chacun

pense

en

être si bien pourvu, que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose n'ont point coutume d'en désirer plus qu'ils en ont.Cress Translation (The letter of the text): Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for everyone thinks himself so well endowed with it, that even those most difficult to please in everything else are not at all want to desire more of it than they have.Bennett Translation (The spirit of the text): Good sense is the best shared-out thing in the world; for everyone thinks he has such a good supply of it that he doesn’t want more, even if he is extremely hard to please about other things.

Critical Thinking: A few thoughts, and warnings, about the subject before we begin.

4/10/2015

1st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University

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Critical Thinking: A few thoughts, and warnings, about the subject before we

begin. (Cont.)

John Dewey, Quest for CertaintyTo assume that anything can be known in isolation from its connections with other things is to identify knowing with merely having some object before perception or in feeling, and is thus to lose the key to the traits that distinguish an object as known. It is futile, even silly, to suppose that some quality that is direct present constitutes the whole of the thing presenting the quality… The more connections and interactions we ascertain, the more we KNOW the object in question. Thinking is search for these connections… The same is true of enjoyments. Enjoyments that issue from conduct directed by insight into relations have a meaning and validity due to the way in which they are experienced. (213)Iris Murdoch, The Idea of PerfectionWords may mislead us here since words are often stable while concepts alter; we have a different image of courage at forty than we had at twenty. A deepening process, at any rate an altering and complicating process takes place. There are two senses of ‘knowing what a word means’, one connected with ordinary language and the other very much less so. Knowledge of a value concept is something to be understood, as it were, in depth, and not in terms of switching on to some given impersonal network… we do not simply, through being rational and knowing ordinary language, ‘know’ the meaning of all necessary moral words

.

(322)

4/10/2015

1st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University

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A return to Descartes…

So, what is critical thinking? Or, better yet, what is a critical thinker?

-Learns well (486c)- Not forgetful (486d)- Moves from idea to idea easily (486d)- Not easily distracted (485b)ἔστιν οὖν ὅπῃ μέμψῃ τοιοῦτον ἐπιτήδευμα, ὃ μή ποτ᾽ ἄν τις οἷός τε γένοιτο ἱκανῶς ἐπιτηδεῦσαι, εἰ μὴ φύσει εἴη μνήμων, εὐμαθής, μεγαλοπρεπής, εὔχαρις, φίλος τε καὶ συγγενὴς ἀληθείας, δικαιοσύνης, ἀνδρείας, σωφροσύνης(Bloom Translation): Is there any way, then, in which you could blame a practice like this that a man could never adequately pursue if he were not by nature a rememberer, a good learner, magnificent, charming, and a friend and kinsmen to truth, justice, courage, and moderation? (487a)4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University5Slide6

Matthew Morin

How is the Term understood in General Education (GE), Liberal Education Arts Programs (LEAP, and the Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOS)?

4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University6Slide7

Maria D Ortiz

The Implications for Classroom Practice, Teaching and Learning.4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University

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“Everyone

thinks. We have no choice about that. But, not everybody thinks about their thinking. And not everyone who thinks about their thinking thinks about it well. You can worry about your thinking. You can think badly of your thinking. You can be embarrassed by your thinking. You can focus on it in a dysfunctional way --- that is not critical thinking

.”Richard Paul, Director and Co-founder, Center for Critical Thinking, July 23 -- 26, 2007“…the problems originate in basic ways of thinking and interacting, more than in peculiarities of organizational structure and policy”Senge, M. Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. 1990, NY, Double Day Currency Critical Thinking A Contemporary Perspective

4/10/2015

1st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University

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Systems Thinking: What is a System?

A system is any group of interactions

Interrelated parts, That form a complex and unified whole That has a purpose.Purpose

Point of View

Implications and Consequences

If I know the groups a person belongs to I can predict much of his her behavior.

Seeing human behavior as deeply shaped by the beliefs and values of groups

To learn how and why people act the way they do as a result of living with other groups

Question

How do humans behave in groups? InformationElements of ReasoningInformation about specific human groups and the characteristics they do and do not shareInterpretation and InferenceEssential ConceptsAssumptionsJudgments about groups that tells how humans behave in groups and whyA central determinant in the life of humans is the group to which we belongHumans as a herd or conforming animal4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University9Slide10

Purpose

Point of View

Implications and ConsequencesIf I know the groups a person belongs to I can predict much of his her behavior.

Seeing human behavior as deeply shaped by the beliefs and values of groups

To learn how and why people act the way they do as a result of living with other groups

Question

How do humans behave in groups?

Information

Elements of Reasoning

Information about specific human groups and the characteristics they do and do not shareInterpretation and InferenceEssential ConceptsAssumptionsJudgments about groups that tells how humans behave in groups and whyA central determinant in the life of humans is the group to which we belongHumans as a herd or conforming animalSystemic View of Sociological QuestionTo write a paper on How and why… How would the System change?How would the question change?4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University10What type of information do we need now?Slide11

Intellectual Standards

Apply to

Elements of Reasoning

To Develop Intellectual Traits

Critical Systems Thinking Model *

*

Adapted from original research by the Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2007

Intellectual Standards are about

A quality of our thinking:

Clarity. Accuracy. Precision. Relevance. Depth. Breath, Logic. Fairness. Elements of Reasoning Is a systemic approach to Identify and describe a process of reasoning: This process has: A purpose, to solve a problem or settle a question, it is based on assumptions, it originates from a point of view, it is based on evidence (data, experience, etc.); it is shaped and expressed by concepts and theories; it contains inferences or interpretations by which we draw conclusions; and it leads us to Implications and Consequences.The goal of this system is to develop essential Intellectual Traits : Intellectual Humility, Intellectual Courage, Intellectual Empathy, Intellectual Autonomy, Intellectual Integrity, Intellectual Perseverance, Confidence in Reason, Fairmindedness. These are characteristic of an educated person.4/10/20151st Annual Conference of Teaching and Learning, Dixie State University11