Study Skills for Master's Level Students, revised edition. Sally Hayes Tyler

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      WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING?

      There is a considerable body of literature on the concept of critical thinking and there is a wide range of definitions.There does not, however, appear to be one universally accepted definition of what the concept is, although within the literature some defining characteristics emerge.

      The concept of critical thinking is widely acknowledged to have its origins in the historical work of John Dewey, an educationalist and psychologist who wrote his seminal work How We Think in 1910. Dewey described critical thinking as reflective thinking that is:

      Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends.

      (Dewey, 1910, cited in McGregor, 2007)

      We will return to the concept of reflection and its relationship to critical thinking at the end of this chapter, but it is worth analysing some of the key words in Dewey’s definition.

      Active

      The critical thinker is fully engaged in the process – the individual must personally consider the issues, question the underlying assumptions and scrutinise the evidence, as opposed to learning in a passive way by being told by someone else. Indeed, much of the literature on critical thinking is about challenging educators to adopt and develop innovative teaching methodologies to promote critical thinking skills in students.

ACTIVITY

      Consider the ways in which the lecturers on your postgraduate course facilitate your learning to support your active engagement in the learning process – consider the teaching style, the educational approaches, methodologies and activities, and the assessment processes.

      Persistent

      This echoes Daly’s point, referred to earlier, that the skills of critical thinking are not used intermittently or selectively (Daly, 2001) but that they are integrated into all aspects of learning and become a way of engaging with the world.

      There seems to be another implication in the use of the word ‘persistent’ that suggests the critical thinker does not give up the quest to find the right answer easily, but doggedly pursues a subject until satisfied that all possible questions have been answered.

      Grounds that support it

      This refers to the evidence base that must be subject to a healthy scepticism and carefully evaluated. This may include the need to utilise critical appraisal skills. Critical appraisal has been described as the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context (Burls, 2009). A range of tools are available to support the process – the use of these will be discussed in Chapter 4 on ‘Finding and critiquing literature’.

      The further conclusion

      Critical thinking is therefore outcome-orientated in that, through reasoned thinking, a conclusion is pursued. However, it is important to be aware that the conclusion may not in itself provide an unequivocal answer to a question or a resolution to an issue. The conclusion may be an increased understanding of the issue and acceptance of ambiguity (Daly, 1998).

      This latter point is well illustrated if we consider the example of a researcher undertaking a systematic review of the evidence of the effectiveness of a particular intervention or treatment. This process will include:

•		identifying all relevant published and unpublished evidence;
•		selecting the studies or reports by assessing their individual quality against specific inclusion criteria;
•		synthesising the findings from individual studies or reports in an unbiased way;
•		interpreting the findings and presenting a balanced and impartial summary of the findings with due consideration of any flaws in the evidence.

      However, even though the critical process of reaching an objective conclusion has clearly been undertaken in a systematic way, it may be that there is inadequate evidence to extrapolate a definitive conclusion on the effectiveness of the intervention or treatment. That is not to say that the intervention is ineffective – but that there is an absence of evidence demonstrating its effectiveness. Hence the need to tolerate ambiguity while, of course, being aware that the implications are that there is a need for further robust research to provide a definitive answer.

      This leads us to consider the differences between pure problem-solving and critical thinking. Critical thinking may be part of the process of problem-solving but may not lead to a solution. To the critical thinker, assumptions about the outcome do not exist; therefore problem-solving follows a different process. Facione et al. (1994) summarise this by suggesting that critical thinking is ultimately a cognitive engine that drives problem-solving and decision-making.

      Therefore, if we accept Dewey’s definition, critical thinking is essentially about evaluating the worth, accuracy or authenticity of something through a critical review of the evidence. This is likely to lead to a supportable decision or direction for action.

      More recent definitions of what critical thinking is echo Dewey’s definition and include:

      Critical thinking is not one single way of thinking, but rather it is multi-dimensional cognitive process. It demands a skilful application of knowledge and experience in making discriminating judgements and evaluations.

      (Jones and Brown, 1991, p. 530)

      And:

      the rational examination of ideas, inferences, principles, arguments, conclusions, issues, structures, beliefs and actions.

      (Bandman and Bandman, 1995, p. 7)

      Bandman and Bandman (1995) add a qualifying statement to their definition in which they say that critical thinkers are also self-aware and sympathetic to others. They need to be open-minded in that there needs to be a willingness to respect the rights of others to hold different opinions. This is interesting because it adds a human dimension to the definition. This makes sense if we consider that to think critically means the individual must be aware of the problems of bias or incomplete reasoning. If we are to be logical, we must therefore recognise our own biases and engage in some critique of our own reasoning processes. In this way there is an element of being self-regulatory by monitoring one’s own thinking.

ACTIVITY

      Have a look at some of the wider literature on critical thinking and review some of the definitions. Are there any emerging themes or commonalities?

      The diverse and differing number of definitions may seem daunting initially. However, it is worth considering what the different definitions have in common. Daly (2001) has suggested that there are four fundamental constituents of critical thinking and these provide a useful starting point for understanding what it means. They are:

•		a pre-requisite knowledge base;
•		a series of intellectual СКАЧАТЬ В начало < 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > В конец