Critical Thinking...Critical Thinking –Working Consensus The process of reflective judgment which...

Carol Ann Gittens, Ph.D.

June 8, 2016

Critical

Thinking

Proven predictors of

academic &

workplace success:

Sponsors of the 2016 National Institute

on the Assessment of Adult Learning

I cannot teach

anybody anything,

I can only make

them think.Socrates (469-399 BCE)

Philosopher

+ Goals for the Session

Engage and Affirm critical thinking

skills and positive critical thinking

habits of mind.

Augment understanding of the

definition of critical thinking & how

it relates to student success.

Expand repertoire of strategies for

promoting and assessing students’

critical thinking.

+Critical Thinking –

Working Consensus

The process of reflective judgment

which manifests itself in

reasoned consideration

of evidence, context, methods, standards,

and conceptualizations for the purpose of

deciding what to believe or what to do.

The Delphi Report: Executive Summary: (1990), ERIC Doc ED315 423

+ Critical Thinking Skills

FRAMING QUESTIONS:

Analysis

Interpretation

Evaluation

Explanation

Inference

Self-Regulation

+How do we build our skills and the disciplined

intention to use those skills in any endeavor?

Sports

Management

Science

Ministry

Healthcare

Teaching

Engineering

How do we go from “novice, confused, disorganized, overwhelmed

and ineffective” to “experienced, immediate, focused, disciplined,

Active Learning Approach

Constructivist Perspective

Self-reinforced learning

Considerable energy, enthusiasm and effort

Student as “partner”

Teacher as “resource, guide, motivator”

Increases retention & transfer

Application of prior knowledge and skills to novel,

real-life contexts

What critical thinking activity could

students do to demonstrate mastery of the

following learning objective?

+Questions to Ignite CT Skills

Skill Area

Interpretation

Analysis

Inference

Evaluation

Explanation

Self-Regulation

Potential Prompt

What does this mean? Why is it happening?

What are the arguments, pro and con? What assumptions must we make to accept that conclusion?

Given what we know, what can we conclude? (can we rule out?)

How credible is the claim?

Why do you think that? Why is that conclusion correct?

How good is the evidence?

+ Novel Questions and Human

Reflective Response Time

Humans need 11 - 16 seconds

to process a novel question.

TickTick Tick

TickTick

What does this mean for a student faced with an novel question?

How can an instructor use this to teach for thinking?

How does this impact decisions made in time-limited situations of

risk, uncertainty?

THE NAME ON THE FRONT OF YOUR

JERSEY REPRESENTS WHO YOU PLAY FOR.

THE NAME ON THE BACK OF YOUR JERSEY

REPRESENTS WHO RAISED YOU. DO THEM

BOTH JUSTICE.

A 5-Step Critical Thinking General Problem

Solving Process

I = IDENTIFY the Problem and Set Priorities (Step 1)

D = DETERMINE Relevant Information and Deepen

Understanding (Step 2)

E = ENUMERATE Options and Anticipate Consequence (Step 3)

A = ASSESS the Situation and Make a Preliminary Decision (Step

S = SCRUTINIZE the Process and Self-Correct as Needed (Step 5)

THINK Critically 3rd Ed. (2016) Facione & Gittens, Pearson Education

+ The first and most important question:

“What exactly is the

problem?”

+“Caitlin and the Pacemaker”

Context:

Unfamiliar

High Stakes

Uncertainty

Urgency

Facts constant

No opposing interests

Suppose you are the parent.

Which pacemaker will you

• Identify contextual factors

• Acquire relevant

information

• Identify and evaluate

options

• Select the option with that

appears to offer the best

balance of maximum

benefit and minimum risk

• No simple rule to apply

• Both choices were “right”

• The outcome does not

validate the quality of the

decision process

• Emotion and reason can

work together

• Human tendency to “lock

in.”

OBVIOUS NOT SO OBVIOUS

Learning from Caitlin’s Case

+ Human Decision Making and

“Dominance Structuring”

Pre-edit

Define the problem

List decision-critical factors

Identify a promising option

Search until finding an option that’s good enough.

Test the promising option against others

Ask if that option is no worse than any other

Structure the dominance of the to be chosen option

Marshal our facts and reasons to support our choice

Note: Here we are at risk of renegotiating the factors, redefining the problem, exaggerating the virtues of our preferred option, or magnifying the defects of all other possible options.

Advantages:We do, in fact, act. We are not frozen in perpetual

analysis and reevaluation.

We sustain efforts and persist with confidence.

Disadvantages:

Tend not to re-examine our assumptions or question prior decisions.

Tend to dismiss counter-evidence unless it is forceful not only in its content but in its psychological impact or potential for adverse consequences.

Risk: Lock-In Prematurely.

Search for Dominance

+Core Competencies

Critical Thinking

Oral Communication

Quantitative Literacy

Written Communication

Information Literacy

+Why Assess for Critical

Thinking?

Three Basic Options for Measuring Learning Outcomes

1. Locally Developed Assignments and Activities

Tests, Essays, Lab Reports, Case Studies

Embedded / Authentic / Qualitative Rating Forms, Typological

Matches, Checklists

Requires rubrics or scoring tools / practiced judgment

and inter-rater calibration

2. Commercial Tests &

Performance Assessments

Fixed Response / Narrative Response

Case Studies / Authentic / Standardized

Baseline / Cross-Sectional / Longitudinal

Potential for comparisons & data integration

3. Self Reports

Journals, Self Critiques, Focus Groups,

Questionnaires / Reflective Essays

Insights about personal progress and deficiency

May require significant resources for data

analysis

Are we consistently getting a valid and reliable measure of the phenomenon we intended to target?

Critical Thinking Reflective Log:

Strong or Weak, and Why? W2: Why do you think that? ASK: Another student, not in this

course

W3: Seriously, how good is the evidence for that? ASK: Anyone,

not yourself

W4: What else did you consider? ASK: Someone who has

completed college

W5: Exactly why do you say that’s the problem? ASK: Your best

friend

W6: What does making this decision imply? ASK: Yourself

W7: How sound is the reason they’re giving? ASK: Yourself,

relative to TV commercial

W8: What’s really the problem here? ASK: A professor

W9: What evidence would disconfirm our view? ASK: Someone

who agrees with you.

+ Critical Thinking Tests

Two people in bathing suits and cotton T-shirts are enjoying a

beautifully sunny day at the beach. One person, concerned

about the skin cancer risks from too much exposure to direct

sunlight, goes to sit in the shade under a beach umbrella. The

other stays sitting in the sun saying, “It’s too late to sit under

an umbrella, we’ve been in the sun for an hour already, so the

umbrella will do me no good.” What would be the best

evaluation of this person’s reason?

A. Poor reason, because the umbrella’s shade does not

reduce the cancer risks anyway.

B. Poor reason, because sitting in the shade of the

umbrella should limit any further damage.

C. Good reason, because the cooler shade will repair the

damage already done by the sun.

D. Good reason, because the cancer risk of sunlight has

been exaggerated by the media.

+BENCHMARKING ~ What do these results

mean in our programs? On our campus?

+ Closing the Loop

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Pretest

Posttest

What are these data telling us about our

students? About our curriculum?

Emotional

Social

Spiritual

Academic

Vocational

Physical

+Truth-Seeking

The courageous desire for the best possible knowledge in any given context;

The inclination to ask hard questions, and to follow reason and evidence where ever they lead.

To get people to agree with me I’d

give any reason that worked.

I look for facts that support my views,

not facts that disagree.

Truth-seekers would NOT agree

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

Mean = 35.7s.d. = 5.6

Weak disposition

Toward truth-seeking

Strong disposition

Toward truth-

seeking

A Look across Four Years at the Disposition toward Critical Thinking Among

Undergraduate Students, Giancarlo & Facione (2001). The Journal of General

Education, 50(1), 29-55.

Truth-seeking: A Profile of

155 Entering Freshmen 1992

Truth-seeking: Exiting Seniors 1996

The same 155 students 4 years later

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

Positive movement across categories 38.8%

Negative movement across categories 10.9%

Mean = 38.5s.d. = 6.2

A Look across Four Years at the Disposition toward Critical Thinking Among

Undergraduate Students, Giancarlo & Facione (2001). The Journal of General Education,

50(1), 29-55.

Strong disposition

Toward truth-

seekingWeak disposition

Toward truth-seeking

Poor CT Skills Moderate CT Skills Strong CT Skills

100 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34

Strong Dispositions /

Strong Skills

Negative Dispositions /

Poor Skills

Neutral Dispositions /

Moderate Skills

Strong Dispositions /

Moderate Skills

WHAT WOULD WE DO DIFFERENTLY, IF ANYTHING, KNOWING THESE

OUTCOMES?

+Light Sentence for

Brock Turner in

Stanford Rape Case

Draws Outrage

New York Times, June 6 , 2016

TASK-BASED CT ASSESSMENT

Four questions:

1. What is the issue AND what are

the key arguments made by

each side?

2. Which of the arguments are

strong and which are weak?

EXPLAIN

3. Key considerations

overlooked?

4. Which side has most merit?

EXPLAIN

RELEVANCE

EMOTIONALITY

FORMAT

FAMILIARITY

AUTHORITY

Scoring RubricsHolistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric (HCTSR)

www.InsightAssessment.com Measuring Critical Thinking Worldwide

Describe the

levels of

performance

• Odd or Even?

• Holistic or

Analytic?

• Thresholds?

Aggregate Data Tell a Story

By exit, what

percentage of

students should

be at a given

performance

level?

• CT Performance Standards:

• Normal Distribution

• Modal performance: Level 3

• Average ≥ 3

22%19%

1 2 3 4

CT Rubric Scores (Percentages)

1 2 3 4

CT Rubric Scores (Percentages)

Keisha

“There can be as much value

in the blink of an eye as in

months of rational analysis.”

―Malcolm Gladwell, Blink:

The Power of Thinking Without

Thinking

“Intelligence is not only the ability to

reason; it is also the ability to find relevant

material in memory and to deploy

attention when needed.”

- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and

Reaction ------- Reflection“Training” leading to

reactive responses

best enables humans

to ….

“Education” leading to

reflective problem

solving best enables

humans to ….

Why does this work?

In part because, no matter what our age,

we are “of two minds”

unless we close one of them!

+ Two Parallel-Functioning, Rational,

Decision Making Systems

SYSTEM 1

Renders quick, holistic associational, judgments.

Automatic, well-trained, reactive.

** Can block out or derive support from system 2.

SYSTEM 2

Renders considered, criterion-based, judgments.

Reflective, reasoned, systematic.

** Can bolster or over-ride system 1.

+Cognitive Heuristics

Shortcuts to decisions

Often function at pre-reflective (System-1) level.

Manifested in our reason giving explanations, questions, and choices.

Can be overridden by reflective judgment.

+The Heuristics

in Action…

Simulation – Mental Movie gives emotional valence to event

Us versus Them – In group / out group: To trust or Not; They favor so we must reject!

Availability – a vivid personal experience to estimate likelihood of future events

Loss / Risk Aversion – favor status quo, give up a gain in order to avoid a loss

Elimination by Aspect – drop an option based on a single negative or flaw

Representativeness – it happened to a person like me so it could happen to me!

+Heuristic Tendencies May Result in

Critical Thinking Errors

Misunderstand the problem entirely

Wrongly estimate probabilities of possible outcomes

Generate resistance to the kind and the degree of innovation needed

Introduce irrelevant considerations & distractions

Affectively impact perceptions of options

Wrongly evaluate options based on their sources or their similarities with previous events

… etc. etc.

2016 Gittens Educational Consulting, Morgan Hill, CA

+What Can We Do?

Heuristic influences are mostly advantageous.

Reflective System-2 critical thinking can override.

Short version: “Stop and think!”

+ Which CT Skill Protects Against

Prematurely Locking-In to a Mistaken

Decision?

Meta-cognitive self-regulation is the critical

thinking skill we use to monitor and to correct our

own problem solving and decision making.

This skill makes CT a reflective process.

Strong critical thinkers use it to set the conditions

for decision making and for the systematic review of

prior assumptions, priorities, and decisions.

deep and disciplined

learning,

everyday problem solving,

professional success, and

sensible democratic

decision making. And it can

be …

Usefully Defined

Readily Learned

Effectively Taught

Objectively

Measured

Critical Thinking Enables…

And It Can Be…

Critical Thinking...Critical Thinking –Working Consensus The process of reflective judgment which...

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