CRITICAL THINKING IN CLASSROOMS

“Critical thinking is a pervasive academic literature term that is seldom clearly or comprehensively defined” (Ken Petress, 2011). In the academic environment like university, we often hear the term “critical thinking” but we even understand it not clearly. In my opinion, critical thinking is what required the most by students for their works in the university as well as for the other aspects in their life. So what is critical thinking. According to Scriven and Paul (2003): Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising andor evaluating information gathered from, or generalised by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief or action In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. (Scriven Paul, 2001, p.1). This definition is full with involving many different factors that influence on our ability to critically think but it is also quite complex to be able to understand clearly.

CRITICAL THINKING IN CLASSROOMS

Dinh Thi Lich International Studies Department College of Foreign Languages

I INTRODUCTION

Becoming a student of a university is the first big move in a learner’s life It also brings to them great changes and challenges as they begin a quite new environment of education as well as of living that is affected by different factors However, entering a college does not mean that all students are successful in the new educative environment It bases on not only instructors or knowledge from documents It also depends on the ability to think and how to acquire knowledge

of learners - students In a class, acquiring knowledge is not merely listening, looking, and writing We ourselves need to own the private thinking and ideas on everything and contact with others Especially, in an increasingly changing world, critical thinking ability has become a crucial attribute that is expected of university students However, critical thinking is also difficult skills and it is affected by many factors such as culture, society, personality, habits, and learning environment The differences of these factors especially are of culture will cause cross-cultural matters that influence on teaching and learning task

II CRITICAL THINKING IN CLASSROOMS

1 What is critical thinking?

“Critical thinking is a pervasive academic literature term that is seldom clearly or comprehensively defined” (Ken Petress, 2011) In the academic environment like university, we often hear the term “critical thinking” but we even understand it not clearly In my opinion, critical thinking is what required the most

by students for their works in the university as well as for the other aspects in their life So what is critical thinking

According to Scriven and Paul (2003):

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generalised by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief or

action In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that

transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness." (Scriven & Paul, 2001, p.1)

This definition is full with involving many different factors that influence on our ability to critically think but it is also quite complex to be able to understand clearly

One definition of critical thinking is of Edward Glaser in 1941 He defined

critical thinking that

“The ability to think critically, as conceived in this volume, involves three things: ( 1 ) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful

way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experiences, (2) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and (3) some skill in applying those methods” (Glaser, 1941)

Critical thinking requires us a thoughtful attitude in considering any matter Besides, experience and skills are also necessary that can help us have ability of critical thinking in our life, which will support our knowledge and creation

"Critical Thinking means that the critical person has not only the capacity (the skills) to seek reasons, truth, and evidence, but also that he or she has the drive (disposition) to seek them” (Burbules and Berk, 1999)

In general, critical thinking is the process of actively applying intelligence and all our skills we have to analyze, synthesize and evaluate the works, ideas, and theories as well as to make judgments on other things, make decisions, and form the individual behavior of us

2 Critical thinking in classrooms

The same with critical thinking in any context of life, critical thinking in classrooms also involves a variety of skills that can help students improve their classroom performance such as "understanding the arguments and views of others; critically evaluating those arguments and views; developing and defending one's own well-supported arguments and views" (Bassham et al., 2002, p.9)

Although critical thinking is so difficult, it is important and need to be broadened in classrooms Debra J and Paul N have made a survey of faculty at 38

public and 28 private California universities about critical thinking of students Their survey has showed that:

"Nearly 90% of respondents claimed that critical thinking constituted a primary objective of their teaching Yet, only a small minority (9%) clearly taught critical thinking skills on any given day The first statistic shows just how important critical thinking is in the eyes of instructors, but the second indicates that you must acquire those vital skills before you get to the discipline-based courses."(Jackson, Newberry, 2010, p.3)

Obliviously, when students learn the higher levels they are required to be self-educated more than Instead of acquiring passively knowledge from teachers and books, they themselves have to study, make choices and decisions for everything So critical thinking is a meaningful tool "Critical thinking can be used

to foster student learning in many courses, such as science and English, and thus can be an element that helps tie the students’ education together in a way that encourages the transfer of knowledge." (Dr Davis, 2011)

According to Rudd, "critical thinking involves skills that students can best

learn through a teacher's effective instructional practices" (Rudd, 2007, p 46 -49)

In a classroom, all students and instructor share together a climate, in fact,

is their responsibility to make a quality class The author Bell Hooks expressed that “Feminist thinking in the classroom brought an energy of opposition and dialectical exchange to the forefront in higher education” (Hooks, 2009, p.94)

When teacher give an issue, each student is completely be able to evaluate, analyze, and express his or her own ideas on it Besides, “students have open discussions with each other, and learn not only each other’s ideas, but each other’s ways of thinking” (Crawford, Saul, Mathews, & Makinster, 2005 , p.7)

"In college you are expected not only to learn more advanced material than you learn in high school, but also to do things with that material that are more cognitively sophisticated and demanding than has been expected of you up to this point." (Jackson, Newberry, 2010, p.3) That is right Although all basic information are very important knowledge, in college, we need to "go far beyond these basics both in content and in what you are asked to do with the information you learn" (Jackson, Newberry, 2010, p.3) Critical thinking creates thinking interaction between students and teacher as well as between students to each other and thus helps to narrow the gap in classrooms Moreover, when we look at a class, "the level of students' cognitive development plays a large part in determining how well they understand, learn, and later use critical thinking concepts" (Dunn, Halonen, & Smith, 2008, p.3)

In the short words, critical thinking plays an important role in classrooms It

is the aim that education system trying to carry out Objective criticism will help students have a positive look to avoid the negative things and to tend the new things which are better, more perfect and more useful

However, critical thinking has to face with many complex barriers Bassham G and his colleagues (2002) has had a list of the most common barriers

to critical thinking including: lack of relevant background information; poor reading skills; bias; prejudice; superstition; egocentrism (sefl-centered thinking) ; sociocentrism (group-center thinking); peer pressure; conformism; provincialism; narrowmindedness; closemindedness, unwarranted assumptions, wishful thinking; and many other things else In that, four factors "play an especially powerful role

in hindering critical thinking" (Bassham et al., 2002, p.9) are egocentrism, sociocentrism, unwarranted assumptions, and wishful thinking Beside, there is another powerful barrier to critical thinking of students is relativistic thinking including subjectivism and cultural relativism (Zaid A Alsagoff, 2007) Moreover, culture and habit are the factors that strongly influence to critical thinking ability

3 Differences of critical thinking between Vietnamese students and American students

According to the definitions and the barriers of critical thinking, we can find that sociocultural factor strongly influences on it To prove for this, basing on studies of many authors as well as observation from means of communication, I would like to make a comparison on critical thinking of students between two completely different cultures They are a Vietnamese class – presents for the East culture- and an American class – the West culture

- Reproductive rote learning is popular - Analytical and speculative learning is

- Passive reception of information

- Always try to learning all information

given

- Activities of summarizing, identifying,

describing and applying formulas and

information

-Seldom challenge or question the

teacher.Characteristic question is What?

- Reading resource usually limited to

one text and teacher notes

- Circular pattern of thinking and

reasoning

- Less inclined to seek assistance and

clarification in learning process

- Students play role of listeners and the

recipient of written notes in class

expected

- Critical reception of information in all subjects

- Selective learning of key concepts and details

- Activities of questioning, judging, recombining ideas and information into

an argument

- Always ask Why? How? How valid? How important? or What if?

- Reading is widely

- Logical linear patterns of thinking and development of logical arguments and opinions

- Seek assistance as part of learning process

- Students play role of listeners in class but taking own notes simultaneously Only limited notes, they are provided the handouts

- Limited using eye contact with teacher

- Enjoy keeping silent in classrooms

- Tend to be afraid to voice their

opinions and to interact with others

- Use eye contact when speaking and listening

- Be active in learning style

- Make questions during class time

(Mezaer, 1992, pp 157-161)

Vietnamese and American belong to two completely different cultures while culture has powerful influence on the personality and thinking of people In the Eastern culture, people would like to get a peaceful life, quiet space They tend

to collectivism so always wish to keep the relations the best Meanwhile, Western culture is completely different People are independence and active They belong

to the individualism and always express their own thinking by speeches In other words, critical thinking ability of students is affected strongly by sociocultural factor

III CONCLUSION

Obliviously, critical thinking is important skills in the classrooms, and in general life It promotes people's brain develop and helps people be objective in every context For students, critical thinking is always a set of necessary skills as well as the aim that they catch

"Critical thinking requires a strange blend of humility and confidence" (Wiggins, 2011) We all must overcome the natural human instinct to defend anything they believe And student, like everyone else, can be wrong, and they

must be prepared to humbly face and admit it when they are The power of critical thinking is that it produces a self-reliant mind which is capable of great feats Instead of blindly accepting the conclusions of others, everyone will ask for the data and come up with your own conclusion (Wiggins, 2011)

In my opinion, students need to understand clearly about critical thinking and its barriers to adapt or to get good critical thinking ability Besides, teachers also need to understand the role of culture in the critical thinking ability of students to have appropriate teaching methods and to help students overcome the psychological barriers that are marked by cultural learning process

REFERENCES

1 Alsagoff, Z A (2007) Introduction to critical thinking Retrieved

December 10, 2011 from http://www.slideshare.net/zaid/introduction-to-critical-thinking

2 Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H & Wallace J M (2002) Critical thinking - A student's Introduction, p.9

3 Bassham, G., Irwin, W., Nardone, H & Wallace J M (2002) Critical thinking - A student's Introduction, p.11-24

4 Burbules, C N & Berk, R (1999) Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy: Relations, Differences, and Limits

5 Crawford, A., Saul, E W., Mathews, S., & Makinster, J (2005) Teaching and learning strategies for the thinking classroom, p.7

6 Dr Davis (2011) Critical Thinking: Importance in the Classroom

Retrieved December 10, 2011 from http://www.teachingcollegeenglish com/2011/02/24/critical-thinking-importance-in-the-classroom/

7 Dunn, D S., Halonen, J S., & Smith, R A (2008) Teaching critical thinking in psychology- A handbook of best practices, p.3

8 Gamble, T K & Gamble, M W (1998) Contacts Communicating Interpersonally

9 Glaser, E M (1941) An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking

10 Hooks, B (2009) Teaching critical thinking: practical wisdom, p.94

11 Jackson, D & Newberry, P (2010) Critical thinking – a user’s manual,

p.3

12 Mezaer, J (1992) Bridging the Intercultural Communication Gap TAFE International, pp 157-161

13 Myers, D G (2003) Exploring Psychology, 5th ed New York: Worth, xv,

pp 11

14 Parker, R & Moore, B N (2003) Critical thinking