Rethinking thinking

Rather than trying to "cover the material" in a class and force-feed terms and concepts to undergraduates, she says in an interview that she tries to cultivate open-mindedness, reflection, and a questioning attitude.

She might, for instance, begin a class using Plato's Republic as an occasion for "thinking practice."

Before the students are even assigned to read the Republic, she explains to her class the confusing mixture of tongues and nationalities Socrates and his friends would encounter at the port of Athens. For help, they turned to an old man, Cephalus, to ask questions.

"Then I ask the students, 'To whom would you take a question raised for you by an encounter with people(s) whose differences suddenly make you unsure of your own, hitherto unquestioned, values? Would you take it to an old person? A religious authority? A political leader? Your mother or father? A scientist? A friend?' "

Rather than just downloading content of the Republic, she wants to be sure "the students are bringing something to it."

The idea is that the students then begin to read Plato as if reading it through the lens of their own experience.

She often asks at some point: "What would you do if you were an Aristotelian? How would you see that tree, or how would you listen to your friend when they are trying to tell you their problem?"

There are, of course, a number of liberal arts college and a few public universities that consciously pursue critical thinking across the curriculum.

George Nagel is a professor of communications at Ferris State University, just north of Grand Rapids, Mich.

"I was pretty skeptical, probably a little cynical, like a lot of our faculty," he says. "I had the attitude [three years ago] - 'Hey, I'm already doing that and doing it well.' But it's funny, when you ask [the faculty] what they're doing so well, they can't really explicate it for you."

Now he and a growing number of faculty on campus are warming to the idea of specifically and intentionally teaching critical thinking in every discipline. Professor Nagel has received training from the Center for Critical Thinking in Dillon, Calif., and is now teaching others at Ferris to do the same.

But such notions are not always immediately welcomed on campus.

At Ohio University, Wyatt at first had to buck the tide of opinion among some colleagues when she retooled her courses to focus on critical thinking.

"What I'm doing is different than what normally is done," she says. "When I first started, people said that's going to be a lot more work and students won't get it. This is the way you do lab: You run the lab, the cook book, and this is what you get."

Today, instead of being in the academic doghouse, Dr. Wyatt finds her thinking-based classes are a hit - popular with both students and a growing number of faculty who believe she offers something of genuine value.

"They like the product we're turning out," she says, "kids who are actually thinkers."

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4