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Too much time and focus has been given to the ‘ end product ’ of assessment .
teachers to accurately assess them in this general capability .
Giving a voice to reason
Why you and your students shouldn ’ t be afraid of critical thinking .
By Wade Zaglas
To have adopted a rather pessimistic or ‘ tick the box ’ attitude towards the Australian Curriculum ’ s general capabilities – and in particular critical thinking – is not surprising when we consider the enormity of a teacher ’ s tasks on any day .
Two University of Queensland ( UQ ) academics are going against the grain . They are “ concerned schools are operating like factories , with far too much emphasis on churning out content , rather than teaching students vital thinking skills that will ground all other areas of their education ”.
Professor Debra Brown is a professor of philosophy at the university and the director of the University of Queensland ’ s Critical Thinking Project . Dr Peter Ellerton is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and the Curriculum Developer of the Critical Thinking Project .
“ One of the reasons that we have a very content-heavy curriculum is because it ’ s easy to write down a curriculum – that is , the things we would want to deliver in content ,” Ellerton said during an interview with Campus Review .
“ If you read most curriculum documents , while they might give a nod to thinking skills , there ’ s not a lot written about how you achieve them .
“ Whereas , when it comes to student thinking , the ability to assess that depends often on the judgements and markers and people who are watching students in action – doing the thinking if you like – and we have far less agreement over what that looks like or what it should look like between jurisdictions and between teachers than when it comes to content .”
Brown added that in Australia too much time and focus has been given to the “ end product ” of assessment , “ an artefact ” that is easier to focus on and assess against other student work samples .
“ It ’ s much harder to capture the reasoning process that they go through to produce that product ,” Brown adds .
“ Part of the work we are doing is trying to open a space so people can work more on that process and evaluate that process as well .”
TEACHER TRAINING Brown also highlights that the teaching degree program in Australia has heavily influenced the ways they teach content , often to the detriment of general capabilities such as critical thinking .
“ They ’ ll learn how to deliver content effectively , but nowhere in that education is there any requirements on teachers to engage with methods of reasoning and argumentation , that are the specialisations of philosophy ,” she said .
“ If you went back to the Middle Ages , every student coming to a university would have to spend their first year learning logic – no matter what course you were studying – on the not reasonable assumption that if you can ’ t think you can ’ t go on .
“ So when teachers are confronted with having to deliver on that general capability , it ’ s difficult if they haven ’ t had training in critical thinking or argumentation themselves .”
For Brown “ the gap the researchers are trying to fill in the project ” is teaching students to think critically and for their
CRITICAL THINKING IS TEACHABLE Ellerton asserts that some contemporary scholars believe critical thinking cannot be taught – it ’ s as if students simply ‘ pick up ’ such skills “ through immersion in deep content ” or osmosis .
Brown then interjects , stating : “ We know that if you don ’ t make critical thinking explicit it just doesn ’ t happen . It has to become , itself , something that is taught .
“ Students need to know that metalanguage around argumentation . They need to know what a premise is , what a logical conclusion is , and what the rules of inference are .”
The UQ researchers fondly recalled a critical thinking project they conducted at a local school to show teachers how it could be achieved . A simple yet surprisingly complex question was provided to the students and the assessment sheet contained no criteria . This , the class would have to sort out together .
Firstly , higher order thinking was required to define what being the best sports star in Australia meant ? Was it simply about career success , or did their attributes ( both positive and negative ) play a part , or did scandals weigh in ? Next , the students had to collaboratively design a marking criteria sheet , justifying the description given for each grade .
Both researchers are also avid fans of new whiteboard technologies that unveil the thoughts behind a person ’ s reasoned judgement , which is used to great effect in many activities .
“ Very importantly , we are not saying that there are not good teachers out there who do this , but what we are saying is what we lack is a kind of conceptualisation and language around this that makes it very hard for us to learn , and for those good teachers to better articulate their thinking and therefore improve it .”
Dr Ellerton is currently writing framing papers on teaching critical thinking to ACARA , QCAA and the NSW Education Department . ■
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