Think Critically, Be Your Own Student

In general, what we teach in educational institutions does not go beyond historical information. The theories, perspectives, experiments and thoughts of thinkers and scientists such as Aristotle, Plato, Freud, etc. are taught very well by teachers in almost all educational institutions, but students are not allowed to think, criticise and question them; thinking education or thinking exercises are not encountered at the required rate. When a teaching technique that forces the student to think and talk is used, a bad teacher may become a bad teacher in the eyes of students and educational administrators.

In classical education systems, the student is a receiver without participation. The information conveyed by the teacher is absolute truth, not open to discussion. The information conveyed is certain and unchangeable. The teacher is an authority, the authority in his/her field and it is not possible for a student to add anything new to his/her knowledge.

In most modern education systems, the student takes an active role. Instead of memorisation, learning by questioning is at the forefront. The teacher's task is to direct education and guide the provision of knowledge. In other words, education is student-centred. Student-centred education, as the name suggests, gives great initiative to the student. In other words, the student is both entitled and responsible for his/her own education. The teacher, textbook, laboratory materials, etc. are only auxiliary tools. 

In this article, I examine the issue of critical thinking, which is a prerequisite and one of the most important features of student-centred education, in terms of the educational process.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking, which includes cognitive (mental) processes such as reasoning and evaluation, is known as in-depth thinking, careful thinking, active thinking, open to self-criticism and a controlled way of thinking. Critical thinking is also defined as the process of making judgements objectively in order to identify both virtues and truths as well as errors and mistakes. 

Contrary to popular belief, critical thinking should not mean constantly criticising facts or findings or constantly finding mistakes. What is meant by critical thinking is to take into account that there may be different opinions instead of reaching an absolute conclusion about the information read, found or said.

Why is Critical Thinking Necessary in Education?

Research has found that students who can think critically express themselves better, are more successful in establishing cause-effect relationships and making inferences.

Critical thinking is necessary and important for students to reach the right information, to establish cause and effect relationships between events, to evaluate what they hear by filtering, interpreting and questioning instead of accepting what they hear exactly.

Critical thinking becomes even more important especially when it comes to social sciences. Social sciences are the sciences that have to try harder to find cause-effect relationships. The relationship between variables is complex and contains uncertainties. It would not be wrong to say that the decisions made in case of uncertainty need to be questioned more. The importance of critical thinking is to provide students with the ability to question, which should exist especially in social sciences. This kind of ability should be seen not only on a course basis but also as a life teaching.

How to Develop Critical Thinking in Education?

Critical thinking is not an innate characteristic, but an acquisition that can be learnt and applied. Let us briefly explain some methods that develop critical thinking skills:

Critical Reading: 

The first step in critical reading is to be sure of the subject being researched. The first thing to do in critical reading is to answer the questions "what is the question or task set by the teacher, should I define the topic myself, what are the points I need to know about the topic beforehand".

The SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recall, Review) approach is one of the most useful methods that can be used for critical reading.

Review (Survey): In this section, the title and summary are checked. The question "Is the subject I am studying the same as the subject I am reading" is asked. If the subject is the same, continue reading, if not, there is no need to read.

Question: The questions that need to be answered before reading should be determined. The questions should be noted down and it should be checked whether there are answers in the read passage or not.

Reading (Read): One should be active while reading. Continuous questions should be asked and answers should be sought. "Is the article I read what I need, does the article I read give me good examples" questions are asked.

Recall: The meaning of the main theme should be checked. The main themes of the article you read with your own sentences should be noted.

Review: The questions asked, the notes taken and the texts read should be checked again. The questions "Can I remember the main themes, what have I forgotten, what do I have that is not correct and necessary" should be asked. The sources of the texts used should always be noted.

Socratic Model: 

By analysing an idea, explanation or reading passage, strengths and weaknesses are usually addressed. In the Socratic model, the following questions are asked to decide whether an idea is sustainable or rejectable:

What is the source of the passage?

What are its bases, justifications, evidence and assumptions?

What are its similarities and differences with other ideas on the topic?

What are its effects and consequences?

Comparative Analysis: 

We cannot assume that the first article or book we read on any subject has all the information and ideas we need. We need second opinions to arrive at detailed ideas on the subject. Comparative analysis is carried out by comparing two or more articles written on a topic.

Comparative analysis is an effective method that should be used to analyse different views on a topic in a logical way. In this method, we can reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of different views as well as analyse their similarities and differences. When comparative analysis is applied, many possible outcomes can be encountered, which can raise the researcher's own critical questions.

Comparative analysis offers the opportunity to make an overall assessment of the information obtained together with the general agreement/disagreement and opposing voices on a topic.

An Example of Critical Thinking in Education

An application in the General Psychology / Introduction to Psychology courses of a faculty was a suitable example of critical thinking.

The application started with informing the students about scientific thinking and research methods through in-class exercises and readings. After that, the method applied was quite simple. Each week, students were presented with claims or opinions in the press or in books they had read and asked to look at these events from a different perspective and to find other explanations (if any) or to make logical criticisms. 

Naturally, the first attempts were surprising and challenging for the students. The general reactions were "do we need to refute what is written" or "can't we defend what is written". Students were also told that they would defend the claims or views if they thought they made sense. Two examples of students' responses in these exercises: 

Claim: A statement by one of the organisations related to UFOs: "Aliens will come to our world in the year 2000".

Responses: (selected from the students' responses) 

Two unproven judgements are being defended at the same time: in order to say that aliens will come to our world in the year 2000, we must first prove the existence of aliens.

Why the year 2000? I think saying that aliens will come to Earth in an important year like 2000 shows that they (if they exist) attach the same importance to the year 2000. Do they also use the Gregorian calendar?

Claim: Kasparov's loss to Deeper Blue in a chess match is actually the defeat of human intelligence by artificial intelligence.

Answer:

Yes, it is a defeat, but it is a very normal defeat. Psychological factors, which are used as a weapon in chess matches, did not work naturally on Deeper Blue. Deeper Blue was not angry or upset. 

My calculator can do arithmetic faster and easier than me. Smarter than me? 

Deeper Blue is not imaginary. It is a machine programmed by a group of engineers and coded with all kinds of information for chess. It's a human creation. That's why man defeated man again.

It is possible to increase these examples. As a result, students can do critical thinking very easily. In other words, students are open to critical thinking as a skill, but their thinking skills need to be developed in order to make it a reflex.

Conclusion and Discussion

In the current period when it is very easy to access information, the important thing is to distinguish between correct and incorrect information and to be able to use the information. It has become much more important to be able to transfer knowledge to new situations and to use knowledge in the problems encountered instead of accessing knowledge.

Teachers should also be open to critical thinking and not be afraid of being criticised in order to help students acquire characteristics such as a sense of curiosity, questioning the source and not being afraid of making mistakes.

Discussion: The information in the content of my article is in the nature of a claim (argument). It is inevitable to discuss and criticise this information through critical thinking process.

Bibliography

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