Using Writing to develop critical thinking

Most faculty want students to be able to think critically about the topics they are teaching. The American Philosophical Association’s 1990 Delphi Report defines critical thinking as the abilityto interpret, analyze, evaluate, and infer based on evidence, concepts, criteria, and data.In other words, faculty want students to be able to make decisions based on evidence, facts, logical conclusions, and reasons, not on unsupported assertions and emotions.You foster critical thinking in your students when you encourage curiosity by setting up situations and problems that promote careful examination, logical consistency, looking beneath the surface, and acknowledging biases.

John Bean, author of Engaging Ideas,suggests two strategies to promote critical thinking. The first is by “decentering,” an activity that makes students look at an issue from an unfamiliar point of view.For example, students might know about gun control from the point of view of law enforcement, victims, and gun rights activists. They might deepen their knowledge if you asked them to think and write about it from an historian’s point of view, an environmentalist’s point of view, and/ora perspective of their choosing.

Bean’s secondstrategy involves undermining “students’ confidence in their own settled beliefs or assumptions by creating cognitive dissonance” (27).Peter Elbow’s believing and doubting game—where students write for one minute supporting a controversial issue you proposed, and then they write for a minute opposing it—works very well with this.

Students benefit when youconsciously model your critical thinking process in the classroom. You explicitly show students the many steps in the reasoning process (often unconscious and automatic) that you use to solve problems, interpret data, determine the relevancy of evidence, reach conclusions, look at contrary viewpoints, project into the future, and evaluate arguments. For example, a soil science professor might describethe steps—forwards, backwards, and sideways—that she took to come to a counter-intuitive conclusion about soil erosion. As an added benefit, she could show her students the many drafts and revisions she wrote before she published her research.

Questions can expand students’ thinking skills

Students cansee the value of thoughtful questionswhen they see you question them, the text, and issues raised in class. Further, you can improve students’ thinking if you require them to jot down their answers with some supporting evidence or background before they speak up. This writing-to-learn strategy has several benefits: it slows impulsive speakers and encourages them to think before they speak; it gives students time to go beyond the easy surface answers; and it helps shy students because they can read from their notes.

The following types of questions can be used to help promote critical thinking.

  • Questions that are open ended
  • Questions that identify the biases of an author
  • Questions that askstudents to identify their biases
  • Questions that require clarification, evidence, reasoning
  • Questions that require a fair and rational evaluation of another viewpoint
  • Questions that dig for inconsistencies and contradictions
  • Questions that require breaking the whole into parts (analysis)
  • Questions that require prediction or inferences leading to a new whole (synthesis)
  • Questions that require judgments or opinions based on certain criteria (evaluation)

You can also show students that good questions generate further questions. Often it is the second, third, or even the fourth level of questions that leads to really good thinking. For example, in an ancient history class, the professor might ask students to describe the ways roads were planned and developed in Ancient Greece and Rome. This could lead into questions about why planning was different and how that difference reflects the role of government, and so on.

Low-Stakes WRiting can develop thinking skills

You benefit your students when you provide a range of critical thinking activities that move them through increasingly more challenging cognitive tasks, as described in Bloom’s taxonomy, beginning with knowing, and understanding, then moving into application, synthesis, analysis, and evaluation.

There are a number of low-stakes writing strategies that can help students deepen their understanding of materials and concepts. One advantage is that these strategies do not add huge amounts of grading time to your workload. Some you don’t even need to collect. Others you can skim for content and grade with a plus, a check, or a zero. Please note, the goal here is not for students to write perfect prose, but to dig for ideas and reflect productively.

  • Half-way through your lecture, havestudents jot down two questions or insights they have about the information you have covered. Then call on students.When students know this is likely to happen, they pay attention, and if you acknowledge really good questions and insights,you encourage thoughtful and active learning.
  • Have studentsunpacka point of view in an informal 5-minute paper.Students then look beneath the surface and search for meaning and supporting information.You can collect responses randomly.
  • Ask students to develop three questions based on the assigned reading and bring them to class. Then have them find at least two subquestions in each of the questions. This helps them develop analytical skills as they practice breaking the whole into parts. Collect randomly or use during discussion.
  • Have students develop a question for an essay test and then on a 5x8 card explain why it is a good question. These you might read and choose one for extra credit.
  • Just before the end of class, have students hand in a question on a 3x5 card that can be a jumping off point for the next class. Review these quickly, referring to one or two in the next class.
  • Ask students to write a poem about the day’s lecture, telling them that you will grade on content and originality, not the formal qualities of the poem.
  • Randomly assign students a pro or con position, and have them defend their position on a 5x8 card.
  • Use guided journals, discussion boards, or a class blog where students think about their own thinking. They respond to your prompts such as the following:What has been puzzling you about this assignment? What haveyou learned from the reading that will be useful in your daily life or that has a counterpart in politics, etc.? What do you need to learn more about?
  • Provide students with the finale of a case study, and ask them to create the events/data/assumptions leading up to the case study. This works well as a group project in class.
  • Have students write an imagined interview with an author or an expert in the field.
  • Have students outline on a 5x8 card the steps they would take to explain a concept to an 8th grader.
  • Provide students with data/information/artifacts from your field and ask them what they can infer from that data.For example,an anthropology professor could give each student a penny and ask the class to pretend that they just landed on a desolate Earth from a distant planetand couldn’t read English. However, the explorers did find a penny onthe beach. What could they infer about our society from thispenny? (Students might determine that we had metallurgy, that we had stamping machines, and that we could build buildings, etc.)
  • Next, ask them to evaluate the same thing in terms of its usefulness and limitations. This is where they could determine that they don’t know whether it’s a coin, a medal, a piece of jewelry, etc.
  • Have students do a think-pair-share activity. This is a four-step process. First, the instructor poses a thought-provoking question. Second, students have a short time to think about the question and jot down their answers. Third, each student shares his or her ideas with another student; they then try reach consensus. Finally, the students share their ideaswith the rest of the class.One obvious strength of this activity is that students can see the same issue expressed and possibly solved in many ways.
  • Ask groups of students to brainstorm an issue or problem the class is studying. Then have them list the three best ones, with a sentence describing each.

For detailed information on designing longer writing assignments that develop critical thinking, please see the following tipsheetsat

Using Writing in Large Classes; Sequencing Writing Assignments; Alternative Paper Assignments; Managing the Paper Load

Useful Sources

Bean, J.C.Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

Elbow, P. Writing Without Teachers. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1973.

Facione, Peter, A. Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction (The Delphi Report). Millbrae, CA.: The California Academic Press. 1990.

Paul, R.W. “Socratic Questioning.” Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World. Santa Rosa, CA.: Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1993.

Useful Websites

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Believing-doubting game:

Description of Bloom’s taxonomy:

Questions for Bloom’s taxonomy:

Think-pair-share game:

Explanation of blogs:

/ Developed by William Peirceof Prince George’sCountyCommunity College and the University of Delaware Writing Center / 1
August 2005 / Distributed by the
WAC Clearinghouse /