Critical Thinking in
Democracy EducationMatthew Hiebert
Bethesda, Maryland
April 4, 2014
Opening ReflectionConsider this
• Manipulative language
• Be afraid
• Grand generalizations
• Ad populum argument
• Listen carefully
• This is important
• I’m an expert
• Logical fallacies
• Ad hominem arguments
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc
• Appeal to authority
• Cliches
• Convoluted
points
• Unfair and
one-sided• Dodging the
question
• Straw man
arguments
• Emotionally laden
• Over-
simplifications
• Sound bites
• Misuse of statistics• Out of context
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
• Propaganda
•Manipulation
•Manipulation
•Manipulation
•Manipulation
Overview
1. First principles
2. Rationale for critical thinking
3. Teaching critical thinking explicitly
4. Teaching critical thinking tacitly
1. First Principles
What do we mean by critical thinking?
First Things First
Don’t take my word for it.
Clarifying Our Terms
Starting points:
• Critical versus uncritical thinking
• Higher and lower level thinking
• Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives (cognitive)…
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Strengths and appropriate uses:
• Clearly articulates learning above the
knowledge level
• Helps scaffold instruction to engage
higher levels
• Useful in developing assessments and
lesson plans with a range of cognitive
tasks
• Very well developed base of literature
and resources
Considerations…
Be careful of hidden
biases and embedded
assumptions…
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Clarifying Our Terms
Bloom’s Taxonomy (cognitive)
Lower Level Thinking Higher Level Thinking
Knowledge Analysis
Comprehension Synthesis
Application Evaluation
Knowledge
Comprehension
ApplicationAnalysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Other assumptions that might be inferred:
• Discrete levels/ activities
• Hierarchy of value
• Implied directionality for teaching
• Assumptions about the nature of learning
– Oversimplifies complex activities
– Suggests teaching and learning can be
reduced to objectives
– Narrows potential scope of learning to
predefined list … and of course…
Lateral thinking
Argumentation
Bias detection
Infering
DeterminingPerception Intuition
Emotional intelligence
Critical reasoning
Inquiry
Curiosity
Creativity
Credibility
Clarity
Making connections
Strategic
Beyond Bloom’s Taxonomy
… back to our task…
Characteristics of Critical Thinking
Common characteristics associated
with critical thinking:
• Multifaceted
• Higher order (meta)
• Reflective and self-reflective
• Deals with validity,
appropriateness, and ethics
• Partly discipline-dependent
Defining Critical Thinking
Points that come up often in definitions:
• Disciplined, rational, open-minded,
informed by evidence
• Purposeful, self-regulatory
• Results in interpretation, analysis,
evaluation, inference
• Applies valid criteria and evidence to
form judgments
• Considers alternative perspectives
• Integrates new information/ perspectives
Putting It All Together
Potential criteria:
• Disciplined, rational, open-minded,
informed by evidence
• Purposeful, self-regulatory
• Results in interpretation, analysis,
evaluation, inference
• Applies valid criteria and evidence to
form judgments
• Considers alternative perspectives
• Integrates new information/ perspectives
Characteristics of critical thinking:
• Higher order (meta)
• Reflective and self-reflective
• Deals with validity,
appropriateness, and ethics
• Discipline-appropriate
• Multifaceted
Lateral thinking
Argumentation
Bias detection
Infering
DeterminingPerception Intuition
Emotional intelligence
Critical reasoning
Inquiry
Curiosity
Creativity
Credibility
Clarity
Making connections
Strategic
Putting It All Together
Potential criteria:
• Disciplined, rational, open-minded,
informed by evidence
• Purposeful, self-regulatory
• Results in interpretation, analysis,
evaluation, inference
• Applies valid criteria and evidence to
form judgments
• Considers alternative perspectives
• Integrates new information/ perspectives
Characteristics of critical thinking:
• Higher order (meta)
• Reflective and self-reflective
• Deals with validity,
appropriateness, and ethics
• Discipline-appropriate
• Multifaceted
Lateral thinking
Argumentation
Bias detection
Infering
DeterminingPerception Intuition
Emotional intelligence
Critical reasoning
Inquiry
Curiosity
Creativity
Credibility
Clarity
Making connections
Strategic
Potential criteria:
• Disciplined, rational, open-minded,
informed by evidence
• Purposeful, self-regulatory
• Results in interpretation, analysis,
evaluation, inference
• Applies valid criteria and evidence to
form judgments
• Considers alternative perspectives
• Integrates new information/ perspectives
Characteristics of critical thinking:
• Higher order (meta)
• Reflective and self-reflective
• Deals with validity,
appropriateness, and ethics
• Discipline-appropriate
• Multifaceted
Lateral thinking
Argumentation
Bias detection
Infering
DeterminingIntuition
Emotional intelligence
Critical reasoning
Inquiry
Curiosity
Creativity
Credibility
Clarity
MakingStrategic
Critical Thinking
Standards of Quality Thinking
Rather than getting preoccupied with
“Critical Thinking”, consider:
• Clarity
• Accuracy
• Precision
• Depth
• Significance
• Relevance
• Breadth
• Logic
• Fairness
• Sufficiency
• (Congruence)Adapted from Paul, R. & Elder, L (2006) The Foundation for Critical Thinking
3. Rationale
Why is critical thinking so important in
democracy education?
Rationale for Critical Thinking
Different ways of looking at why
critical thinking is important:
• Critical thinking and humanization
• Critical thinking and autonomy
• Critical thinking and community
• Critical thinking in a democracy
• Others…
Critical Thinking and Humanization
For humanization and self realization:
• Inherent value to the individual
• Enriched consciousness and awareness
• Not just critical – also enhances our
capacity for appreciation!
• Development of identity and sense of self
• Overcoming ethical servility
• Inherent value to individual freedom
Critical Thinking and Autonomy
Developing autonomy and personal
agency:
• Capacity for greater independence
of thought and action
• “Intellectual self defense”
• Ability to develop and support a
position, course of action etc.
Critical Thinking and Community
Developing community and social
cohesion:
• Capacity to empathize with others
• To understand and respect other
perspectives
• To recognize one’s own assumptions
and biases
• Ability to work collectively and
collaboratively with others
Critical Thinking and Democracy
In relation to democratic values,
principles, and processes:
• Supports deliberative discussion and
debate.. Working things out together
• Helps maintain accountability and
balance of power
• Necessary countermeasure to forces
that affect public opinion (state and
corporate media, lobbyists, group
think, stereotypes etc.)
Critical Thinking and Democracy
But more fundamentally:
• Democracy is predicated on governance
by informed consent, which is in turn
predicated on personal agency
• Therefore…
• Capacity for critical thinking is a
necessary precondition for the legitimacy
of a democratic government
–Along with others, such as access to
relevant information
3. Teaching critical
thinking explicitly
Approaches for direct instruction on
critical thinking skills
Direct Instruction on Critical Thinking
Metacognition:
• Refers to awareness and understanding
of one’s own thought processes
• Improves analytical capacity
• Can be facilitated by instruction related
to thinking processes themselves
– Some of this stuff is “teachable”!
Teaching Metacognition
Teaching metacognition:
• Involves observing, revealing and
discussing thought processes
• Provides structure to our thinking about
thinking (i.e., Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Involves practice and application of new
skills
• May be subtle and indirect
• Involves a variety of tools, techniques,
and terms
Teachable Tools, Techniques,
and Terminology
Creating lenses
Evaluating evidence
Detecting bias
Asking
critical questions
Understanding
fallacies and heuristics
Identifying red flags
Understanding
language issues
Standards
of quality thinking
Critical
thinking tools
Knowing a
few key terms
Teachable Techniques
Consider the things that critical
thinkers do, which are “teachable”:
• Ask probing questions
• Consider the source
• Seek to understand the perspective
• Pinpoint vague or cliché points
• Look for irony/ contradiction
Asking Key Questions
Critical thinkers probe ideas and assumptions
through questions, which can be taught:
• Why? … and peeling back the layers
• What is missing from this?
• What would be another way of looking at
this?
• What is being assumed or taken for granted?
• What does the author or speaker have to
gain by presenting this, and not something
else?
Knowing a Few Key Terms
Language is cognitive scaffolding, and
new words give students power over
abstract concepts:
• Evaluation
• Standards
• Evidence
• Bias
• Parsimony
• Criteria
• Perspective
• Paradigm
• Theory
• Logical
• Coherence
• Assumption etc.
Criteria and Indicators
Teaching the development and
application of criteria/ indicators:
• Thinking in any domain/ subject/
professional field can be judged on
the basis of certain merits or criteria
• These criteria can be articulated,
debated, and agreed upon, leading to
greater clarity and mutual
understanding
Cognitive Models and Visuals
The application of models and
conceptual frameworks can contribute
to more sophisticated reasoning:
• Visual models help us to organize and
categorize elements of thought
• Conceptual models help us identify
gaps and deficiencies
• Examples…
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Knowledge
Comprehension
ApplicationAnalysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Strengt
h
Weakness
Opportunity ? ?
Threat ? ?
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Cognitive Models and Visuals
Other kinds of “lenses” also fit into
this family of tools:
• Scientific standards
• Academic rigor
• Journalistic integrity
• Ethical frameworks
• Legal reasoning
• Qualitative evaluation rubrics etc.
Evaluating Evidence
Part of critical thinking involves evaluating
evidence on which positions are based:
• Criteria for evaluating evidence may be
general (like sufficiency),
• Or domain specific (legal, statistical etc.)
• Identify validity requirements
–Content validity
–Construct/ internal validity
– External validity
Detecting Bias and Propaganda
Bias is unavoidable, and we can raise
students’ awareness of this:
• The nature of propaganda and its
relationship to media in general
• How to identify sources in media
• How to identify sources of funding
• Techniques for detecting biases,
fallacies, and unbalanced
manipulative works
Heuristics and Fallacies
Fallacies and heuristics, by their nature,
may be difficult to pick up on, but can
be taught:
• Fallacies – failures in reasoning that
renders an argument invalid
• Heuristics – cognitive short-cuts which
omit logical steps, sometimes leading
to errors
Red flagsCritical thinkers are adept at picking up on
“red flags”, which can be taught:
• Stating opinion as fact, or citing an
unnamed “experts”
• Unnecessarily complicated language
• Long sentences that lead to confusion
• Citing statistics without sources
• Use of “thought-terminating clichés”
• Emotionally laden language
• “Leading” language
Other Language Issues
Critical thinkers are also attuned to
language, and the loopholes it can create.
Consider:
• Management speak
• Loaded phrases
• Judgmental phrases
• Emotionally laden or manipulative
• Leading questions – Don’t you think?
• How phrasing can lead and frame a
debate (setting the “rules”)
Language Issues
Consider the following:
“What do students need to learn about
democracy, in order to participate
effectively as citizens?”
• How does the question “lead”?
• What assumptions are embedded?
• How does it limit the possible
responses?
The ChallengeWith all this…
The ChallengeWhat is “learned” is not limited to what is
“taught” explicitly.
We want to cultivate habits and
behaviors as critical thinkers, not just
skills.
Therefore…
4. Teaching Critical
Thinking Tacitly
Cultivating a critical mindset
Conventional Perspective
Tacit Teaching
Tacit Teaching
Tacit teaching goes beyond the limits of
“explicit” instruction. Tacit teaching:
• Is the intentional arrangement of
contextual factors in students’
experiences to produce a learning effect
• Relates to “socialization” as much as
“education”
• Focuses on cultivating habits and
dispositions more than knowledge
Tacit Teaching Strategies
Using
criteria and standards
Facilitation Environmental design
Questioning
Scaffolding
Norming
Role modeling
Facilitation
Rather than teaching by explicit
instruction (lecture), facilitation works by:
• Giving students space and time to work
things out
• Using questions to push thinking
• Using suggestions sparingly and
thoughtfully
• Structuring learning experiences
effectively
Questioning (Socratic Method)
The effective use of questioning in class can:
• Challenge and guide students’ thinking to
deeper levels
• Serve as an example/ model of what
critical thinkers do and how they work
… try to emphasize higher-level, open-
ended questions, as well as probing,
successive questioning
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is the provision of structures that
allow students to go beyond their current
capacity. This involves:
• Structuring tasks in appropriate sizes and
stages
• Breaking down complex activities into
manageable units
• Providing guidelines, approaches,
models, outlines etc. which help students
learn how to be effective
Role Modeling
Every adult in a school is a role model,
whether positive or negative. Consider the
power of this influence:
• How you (as a teacher, or a faculty) are
demonstrating critical thinking?
• How transparent and open you are with your
own thinking processes?
• Do you create opportunities for students to
learn from your approach?
• Are you willing to admit your own mistakes,
and learn from them?
Norming
Norming is a process whereby critical
thinking becomes internalized as a habit
or disposition. This can be facilitated by:
• Repeated exposure over time
• Practice, with feedback, until it become
second nature
• Reinforcement
• Adoption of associated vocabulary
(standards, evidence etc.) into daily use
Assessing Critical Thinking
Actually assessing critical thinking is a
good way of building metacognitive
awareness. Consider:
• What assignments should be graded, in
part, based on critical thinking?
• What kinds of test questions would allow
students to demonstrate these skills?
• What criteria or standards should apply?
• How should students be involved in their
own assessment?
Scaffolding
Role modeling
Creating lenses
Evaluating evidence
Detecting
Knowing a
few key termsPutting It All Together
Creating lenses
Evaluating evidence
Detecting bias
Asking
critical questions
Understanding
fallacies and heuristics
Identifying red flags
Understanding
language issues
Standards
of quality thinking
Critical
thinking tools
Using
criteria and standards
Facilitation
Environmental design
Questioning
Scaffolding
Norming
Role modeling
Knowing a
few key terms
Putting It All Together
Closing ReflectionIn contexts were critical thinking may not
be officially supported, or where certain
topics are “off limits” for debate, what
are the best entry points for cultivating a
critical mindset among students?
Thank youMatthew Hiebert