‘When students ask why they should understand how correlations or regressions work, the teacher should have a better response than simply telling them to “shut up and memorize the formula.”’
EDUCATION Secretary’s Sonny Angara’s announcement the other week about developing critical thinking skills among school children deserves a warm welcome, considering that today, a number of politicians will once again benefit from those who adhere to mindless voting.
What is critical thinking? To the philosopher John Dewey, who called it “reflective thinking,” it is the “active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds which support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.” According to Richard Paul and Linda Elder, critical thinking applies to every part of life, from financial matters to personal relationships, but always beginning with becoming a critic of one’s own thinking “with a view toward improving it.”
A company devoted to critical thinking says it is all about asking questions, “the right questions” or to another, asking “better questions.”
We will approach this issue with a number of questions about what has been also described as “fair-minded thinking.”
When should we start teaching critical thinking? Children remember what they are taught is right or wrong, and are very good at spotting contradictions. Psychologists call that cognitive dissonance, an inconvenient feeling that is resolved by restoring balance or consonance. Kids either challenge the inconsistency or grumpily accept it. Oftentimes, critical thinking begins with making sense of inconsistencies. Vice versa, constant inconsistencies can make them less grumpy in their acceptance.
Can we teach critical thinking in just one year? Values are formed over a lifetime, but it is believed that foundations are laid between ages 5 and 9. Ideally, adults should consciously be part of this effort: parents, relatives, and opinion leaders and “influencers” like teachers, celebrities, religious leaders, and politicians.
Are our teachers equipped to appreciate, encourage, develop and assess critical thinking? When they overemphasize rote memorization over processing, digesting and challenging what their pupils are taught, they are sending a very clear signal to learners.
Do we encourage young people to read? As in books of fiction, romance, thrillers, history, sciences, philosophy, novels, magazines, newspapers. Those that depend on the written word to tell a story or push an idea, with little or no pictures, sounds or videos.
Do available textbooks encourage critical thinking?
Do we encourage children to ask questions about what they have read, heard, been taught, as much as we expect them to memorize lessons?
When students ask why they should understand how correlations or regressions work, the teacher should have a better response than simply telling them to “shut up and memorize the formula.”
By discarding certain Senior High School subjects, like Media and Information Literacy, aren’t we depriving students of another opportunity to develop critical thinking? MIL can help combat naïveté, which does not demand proof, and cynicism, which does not accept evidence. The healthy balance lies between, in skepticism to which many scholars subscribe.
Do we reward — or punish — critical thinking? In the early 1980s, newspapers that weren’t chummy with authorities were called the “mosquito” press. Critical thinkers annoy because they make the comfortable uncomfortable. If young people learn that critical thinking will get them tagged as “pilosopo” or “makulit,” or otherwise get them in trouble, expelled, or jailed, they might simply retreat into the comfortable world of lazy acquiescence. Then again, we know a few of those who can’t live with the dissonance who do stand up for principles no matter what.
Finally, is the government ready for a nation of honest-to-goodness critical thinkers whose goal is “to find truth and avoid error”?
Perhaps there are more, and even better, questions.
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Gary Mariano taught full time for 35 years at De La Salle University where he once chaired the Department of Communication. A former chair of the Philippine Press Council, he was also a member of the CHED Technical Committee for Journalism. In retirement, he helps promote local media-citizen councils, teaches part time, and serves at Our Lady of Beautiful Love parish.
