Critical Thinking in a World of Accelerating Change and Complexity.

We live closely intertwined with our fellow humans in a world in which we must learn to think critically about important social issues. As we move into the future, the issues before us will become more and more complex, making increased demands on our thinking skills. The most important challenge facing educators is an intellectual one-developing the minds of our students to promote skilled reasoning and intellectual self-discipline. Acquiring critical thinking skills will enable students to make critical distinctions between the real and unreal, the true and the false, the deep and the superficial. It also enables students to take the high ground, to systematically foster fair-mindedness, and to develop ethical reasoning In this brief article, we will focus on two important critical thinking conceptual sets--the analysis and assessment of thought. Our objective is to identify ways in which teachers can develop thinking skills among their students in classroom interaction and through their responses to students' written work. We present the kinds of questions teachers can ask to advance student thinking skills. With enough practice, these questions will eventually come naturally to students, moving them further along the road to thinking clearly and reasonably about major issues. Targeting the Analysis of Thought Let us first consider the analysis of thought. If we want students to take command of how they think through social issues and problems, they must be skilled in deconstructing their thought process. To take their thinking apart, they need to have command of the elements of reasoning. They need to understand, in other words, that whenever we think, * we think for a purpose; * within a point of view; * based on assumptions; * leading to implications and consequences. * we use concepts, ideas and theories; * to interpret information (data, facts, experiences and evidence) Here are some questions teachers can ask, and that students need to learn to ask, which target the analysis of thought. Some of these sample questions are general in nature; others target the social disciplines: 1. Questioning Goals and Purposes. All thought reflects an agenda or purpose. Assume you do not fully understand a person's thought until you understand its goals and purposes. Some of the many questions that focus on purpose in thinking include: * What is your purpose right now? * What was your purpose when you made that comment? * Why are you writing this? Who is your audience? What do you want to persuade them of? * What is the purpose of this assignment? * What are we trying to accomplish here? * What is our central aim or task in this line of thought? * What is the purpose of this chapter, relationship, policy, law? * What is our central agenda? What other goals do we need to consider? 2. Questioning Questions. All thought is responsive to or guided by a question. Assume you do not fully understand a thought until you understand the question that gave rise to it. Questions that focus on questions in thinking include: * I am not sure exactly what question you are raising. Could you explain it? * Is this question the best one to focus on at this point, or is there a more pressing question we need to address? * The question in my mind is this ... Do you agree or do you see another question at issue? * Should we put the question (problem or issue) this way ... or that way? * What is the most insightful way to frame the question, from your perspective? * What questions might we be failing to ask that we should be asking? * What are some essential questions at the heart of social studies (of history, civics, geography, etc.)? 3. Questioning Information, Data, and Experience. …