Critical Thinking in Context

The Audience

The video Critical Thinking in Context is designed to be shown to first year students as they grapple with the requirements of critical thinking at university. Its challenge to teachers is to integrate the teaching of critical thinking into their subject areas; its challenge to course designers is to accommodate this skill development in their course design.

The Educational Aim

Most beginning university students are unaware of the nature of critical thinking. Their everyday conceptions of argument confuses their understanding of argument in an academic setting.

The video aims to raise students' awareness of the attitudes and skills necessary for critical thinking in group discussions, research and essay writing. This video is based on the assumption that if skills are taught within subject content, the skills will be more effectively transferred. By watching the students and teachers in this video, tutors will be challenged to integrate critical thinking into the study of subject content.

The producers would like users to understand that a thirty minute video and booklet cannot be expected to develop all or even most of the critical thinking skills required by students at university. Click for an example of what the video does not cover. Rather, it aims to provide a starting point for tutors to infuse specific critical thinking skills in their tutorials and into the writing tasks set for students.

The video shows the transfer of the skills learned at university into everyday life going beyond the notion of critical thinking as a private reflective activity. From a starting point of illuminating the nature of critical thinking, the video moves into critical thinking as a communal activity, one in which participants collectively share information and knowledge and engage in interdisciplinary dialogue. It is applicable to the ideas of such thinkers as Habermas and D'Agostino.

The video recognises that critical thinking skills are crucial in the public discussion, negotiation and decision-making process for many problems and concerns confronting us today. It demonstrates that critical thinking is essential to the very learning process itself.

The Structure

The video is made up of a story line interspersed with interviews with academics and students, that examine the interrelationships between the student, the skills and the content. Graphics highlight segments of the narrative and supporting documentary addressing themes for discussion.

This video although funded separately is part of a series.

The Issues Covered

It explores a number of issues including:

• the nature of critical thinking
• the role of critical thinking in everyday contexts
• the role of emotion and empathy in critical thinking
• the ground rules for community based inquiry
• the recognition and resolution of value conflicts
• the relationship between points of view and academic argument
• critical thinking in research and essay writing
• the transfer of critical thinking skills beyond university study.

Using the Video

The video is designed to be shown in its entirety, at one sitting, but lends itself to later being used in segments for follow-up discussion and activities that students can complete on their own. A booklet outlines a complete educational approach and suggestions on how to use the video in a one-hour teaching session.

Funding

Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT), National Teaching Development Grant

Producers

Project team: Lorraine Marshall, John de Reuck, Linda Butcher and David Lake
Production Company: Gripping Films. Director: Robert Bull

Booklet

Critical Thinking in Context: A Teacher's Guide to the Video
Written by: Lorraine Marshall, John de Reuck & David Lake
with the editorial assistance of Karen J. Warren
Published by
Murdoch University
© 1996 Lorraine Marshall
ISBN 0 86905 495 3

Booklet Contents

Section 1: Ways to use the video

1. Definitions of critical thinking and academic argument:
2. Setting ground rules for critical thinking
3. Examining different paradigms (world views)
4. Presenting opposing arguments
5. Essay writing

Section 2: A rationale for the video

Section 3: Aids and materials

Video Series

This video is part of a series, the other members of which are:

• From Life To Learning
• Collaborative Learning

For Example:

This video does not discuss the concept of validity as a formal, structural property of arguments. Nor does it show how one can test arguments for validity. In this way, the video does not distinguish between audiences which have had training in formal logic and those which have not. Furthermore, this video does not distinguish the order of presentation from the logic of the argument.

Story Line:

Critical Thinking in Context begins by taking the students' everyday notions of critical thinking and argument, and shows the development of students acquiring the critical thinking skills required for students to engage intellectually at university.

The main characters are two first year students, Kit and Rose, who are studying a broad-based course which aims to teach them to use critical thinking skills in their tutorial discussions and essay writing. They share a house with two 3rd year students: Jessica and Tan (an international student). Kit and Rose are required to write an essay on a contentious issue and the household's peace is threatened.

The action moves between their student household, the university campus and locations around Fremantle, a port city. The video explores the dynamics between the pair as they uncover, reflect on and examine their different positions.

The video is designed to assist university students to engage with the challenge of being self reflective. The main characters experience the empowerment of coming to terms with the concept of world views and discovering ways in which their views on a given topic fit within established academic paradigms.

The video depicts Rose and Kit as conscientious students developing their critical thinking abilities as they go about the day-to-day study activities associated with their research and writing. The video depicts different approaches to essay writing, the use of mind maps in learning, and composing on the computer. It focuses particularly on learning from peers and challenges students to take advantage of this informal assistance.

Documentary

Academics discuss their definitions of critical thinking, and it is clear that although emphasis may differ their is also strong consensus. For instance, the importance of establishing ground rules to enable effective critical thinking to occur in tutorials (eg., respect each others' opinions, uncover assumptions, avoid being dogmatic, be prepared to give reasons for your point of view) is a common theme.

Graphics

Graphic models are used within the drama, documentary and booklet to promote understanding. For instance , the following diagram is used to illustrate the relationship between a thesis and supporting evidence.

Habermas and d'Agostino

According to d'Agostino (1989), the development of a critical thinking approach requires that all participants in a dialogue should be committed to three basic principles: realism (or, that which is affirmed cannot be simultaneously denied), fallibilism (or, an acceptance that any of our beliefs may be false) and rationalism (or, a desire to form beliefs that are based on the best available reasons). These three principles require that participants in a debate actively seek out information on the issue under consideration that may affect their current position.

In order to do this, the participant must take the role of an investigator, seeking to draw out information for further evaluation, rather than a prosecutor who seeks to destroy all opposing points of view.

In the view of Habermas and d'Agostino, critical thinking is no longer a purely private activity. It can be argued that the change to the communal nature of critical thinking has resulted from the loss of notions of certainty in the Western world, which in turn has forced us to acknowledge we are all fallible. It is this fallibility that has led to a community-based search for solutions to the problems that concern us.

Sample QuickTime video clips

To illustrate the video and to give some idea of the content and design, several short clips are given below.

To view these QuickTime video clips, you will need to have QuickTime installed and have either the QuickTime plugin for your Web browser, or have an appropriate external helper application installed (such as MoviePlayer) and your browser correctly configured. To use the QuickTime plugin rather than an external helper application, you will need Netscape 2 or 3 on the Macintosh, or Netscape 3 for Windows.

To download the Quicktime extensions and plugins as well as the MoviePlayer helper application, see:

The clips:

• Sample 1: looking at beliefs - it's scary! (1.4MB)
• Sample 2: building a considered argument (1.4MB)
• Sample 3: who has the correct information? (870k)
• Sample 4: what is critical thinking? (640k)