"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." ------> this blog has been moved to SoCalESL.com
Socrates, the father of critical thinking.lentina_x, CC BY-NC-SA
Many teachers say they strive to teach their students to be critical thinkers. They even pride themselves on it; after all, who wants children to just take in knowledge passively?
But there is a problem with this widespread belief. The truth is that you can’t teach people to be critical unless you are critical yourself. This involves more than asking young people to “look critically” at something, as if criticism was a mechanical task.
As a teacher, you have to have a critical spirit. This does not mean moaning endlessly about education policies you dislike or telling students what they should think. It means first and foremost that you are capable of engaging in deep conversation. This means debate and discussion based on considerable knowledge – something that is almost entirely absent in the educational world. It also has to take place in public, with parents and others who are not teachers, not just in the classroom or staffroom.
The need for teachers to engage in this kind of deep conversation has been forgotten, because they think that being critical is a skill. But the Australian philosopher John Passmore criticised this idea nearly half a century ago:
If being critical consisted simply in the application of a skill then it could in principle be taught by teachers who never engaged in it except as a game or defensive device, somewhat as a crack rifle shot who happened to be a pacifist might nevertheless be able to teach rifle-shooting to soldiers. But in fact being critical can be taught only by men who can themselves freely partake in critical discussion.
The misuses of ‘criticism’
The misuse of the idea of “criticism” first became clear to me when I gave a talk about critical thinking to a large group of first-year students. One student said that the lecturers she most disliked were the ones who banged on about the importance of being critical. She longed for one of them to assert or say something, so she could learn from them and perhaps challenge what they say.
The idea that critical thinking is a skill is the first of three popular, but false views that all do disservice to the idea of being critical. They also allow many teachers to believe they are critical thinkers when they are the opposite:
“Critical thinking” is a skill. No it is not. At best this view reduces criticism to second-rate or elementary instruction in informal and some formal logic. It is usually second-rate logic and poor philosophy offered in bite-sized nuggets. Seen as a skill, critical thinking can also mean subjection to the conformism of an ideological yoke. If a feminist or Marxist teacher demands a certain perspective be adopted this may seem like it is “criticism” or acquiring a “critical perspective”, but it is actually a training in feminism or Marxism which could be done through tick box techniques. It almost acquires the character of a mental drill.
“Critical thinking” means indoctrination. When teachers talk about the need to be “critical” they often mean instead that students must “conform”. It is often actually teaching students to be “critical” of their unacceptable ideas and adopt the right ones. Having to support multiculturalism and diversity are the most common of the “correct ideas” that everyone has to adopt. Professional programmes in education, nursing, social work and others often promote this sort of “criticism”. It used to be called “indoctrination”.
“Critical theories” are “uncritical theories”. When some theory has the prefix “critical” it requires the uncritical acceptance of a certain political perspective. Critical theory, critical race theory, critical race philosophy, critical realism, critical reflective practice all explicitly have political aims.
What is criticism?
Criticism, according to Victorian cultural critic Matthew Arnold, is a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. We should all be as “bound” by that definition as he was. We need only to teach the best that is known and thought and “criticism” will take care of itself. That is a lesson from 100 years ago that every teacher should learn.
Matthew Arnold knew how to be critical.Elliott & Fry, via Wikimedia Commons
Critical thinking seen as Arnold defined it is more like a character trait – like having “a critical spirit”, or a willingness to engage in the “give and take of critical discussion”. Criticism is always about the world and not about you.
The philosopher most associated with the critical spirit is Socrates. In the 1930s, another Australian philosopher John Anderson put the Socratic view of education most clearly when he wrote: “The Socratic education begins … with the awakening of the mind to the need for criticism, to the uncertainty of the principles by which it supposed itself to be guided.”
But when I discuss Socratic criticism with teachers and teacher trainers I miss out Anderson’s mention of the word “uncertainty”. This is because many teachers will assume that this “uncertainty” means questioning those bad ideas you have and conforming to an agreed version of events, or an agreed theory.
Becoming a truly critical thinker is more difficult today because so many people want to be a Socrates. But Socrates only sought knowledge and to be a Socrates today means putting knowledge first.
"If
you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and
don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the
endless immensity of the sea."
"1. Self-Portrait.
Have your students draw themselves. After they have done this,
collect the papers and hang them up for the whole class to see.
Now have students try to guess who the artists was for each picture.
2. Letter Writing.
At the beginning of the year, write a short letter about yourself
as the teacher. Tell the students where you live, what your hobbies
are, and if you have any children, pets, etc. Hand out your letter
to each student in your class and ask them to write you back with
similar information about themselves.
3. The Mingle Game.
Give each student an index card. Have them write a question that
they would like to ask the other students in the class. Examples
might include, "What is your favorite song?" or "What is your
favorite sport?" Next, have the students get up and walk around
the room. When you say, "stop," students have to stand beside
the person closest to them and ask the question that is on their
own card. Both students have to answer the questions. Now have
them mingle again and meet a new person.
4. The "What Am I?" Game.
Have the students get into a circle. Give each student a post-it
note. Have each person write a noun on the post-it note. Then
stick the post-it on the forehead of the person standing to right
of them with the noun showing. Now have student take a turn to
ask the group a "yes/no" question that will help them guess the
noun on their forehead. If they do not guess correctly, the person
on their right gets to ask a question. Keep going until all of
the noun have been guessed, or your time limit has expired.
5. These are a few of my favorite things.
Pass around a sheet of paper and some pens. Ask the students
to write their name and their favorite TV shows (you can come
up with your own topic for favorite things). Collect the papers
and pens. Begin reading the answers, but have the class guess
who wrote the response.
6. Birthday Lineup.
Call out any month of the year and have all students born in
that month come up to the front of the room. It is up to the students
to decide who stands first, second, etc., so they are standing
from the first day of the month to the last day of the month.
Now call out another month (don't call the months in order), and
have those students try to position themselves correctly by day
and by where they should stand as an entire month. This is a great
way to get kids working together and knowing each other. Once
all of the kids have lined up, test them to see if they are correct.
7. Icebreaker Pictionary.
Have the students draw pictures about what they like to do, what
their favorite foods are, and what is their favorite subject in
school. Have each student come up and show their pictures to the
class. See if the students can guess what each student drew that
tells a little bit about themselves. For instance, if a student
draws a yellow M, can anyone guess that she likes McDonalds?
8. Show and Tell.
Don't forget about this old time favorite part of class. Instruct
students to bring in something that they cherish, or just want
to share with the class. Give each student a turn to come up and
tell about the item that they brought in. This way the class will
get to know each other and something that makes each student happy.
9. The Snowball Activity.
Have students write three things about themselves on a piece
of paper. Then have them crumble up the paper to resemble a snowball.
Let the students have a snowball fight for about one minute. Now
everyone grabs one of the snowballs and has to try and find the
person who wrote on it. Once they find their partner, they have
to bring that person up in front of the class and explain what
they learned about their new friend with the three facts written
on the piece of paper.
10. The Observation Game.
Line up the students in two lines facing each other. If there
is an odd number of students, you can play the game, too. Give
students 30 seconds to look each other over really good, paying
attention to all details about their partner. The students in
one line now turn facing the other way while the other line of
students changes something about themselves. For example, a girl
might take off a hair bow, or a boy might un-tuck his shirt. When
the kids in the first line turn back around, they have to guess
what their partner changed. Now switch and let the first line
make the change and the second line guess the difference."
