TRANSCRIPT: Developing Critical Thinking Skills
Speaker: Laurie Hazard
Developing Critical Thinking Skills
[host, Laurie Hazard, on the left]
[figure of person with multicolored arrows coming out]
Hi, my name's Laurie Hazard and I'm a researcher and practitioner in the field of student success. My research has been mainly focused on the personality traits, habits, and attitudes that contribute to academic success and achievement. Today, I'm going to be talking to you about a skill that's necessary for you to cultivate in college, they're called critical thinking skills. Indeed, critical thinking skills will help you achieve academically, in college, and beyond.
Objectives
[Host on left]
[number 3] Text on screen: 3 Steps Toward Cultivating Critical Thinking
• What is learning?
• The relationship among humility, arrogance, and ignorance
• Understanding metacognition
[paper and magnifying glass] Text on screen: Definition of Critical Thinking [building blocks] Text on screen: Vocabulary for Critical Thinking [clipboard] Text on screen: Qualities of Critical Thinkers
[pen] Text on screen: Critical Thinking in Practice
To begin our discussion of critical thinking, we're first going to take three steps toward cultivating critical thinking skills. We're first going to talk about what is learning, the relationship among humility, arrogance, and ignorance, and understanding metacognition. We are then going to move on to understanding the definition of critical thinking. Once we get that under our belts, we're going to learn the vocabulary for critical thinking, think about the qualities of critical thinkers, and finally we're going to take an example and put our critical thinking skills into practice.
What is Learning?
[host on the right]
[icon of head] Text on screen: Step 1
[multidirectional arrows] Text on screen: A relatively permanent change in:
• Thinking
• Feeling
• Behaviors
[icon of man and woman with equals sign] [frowny face] [exclamation mark]
Our first step toward critical thinking is to understand the definition of learning. So, what is learning? Learning is a relatively permanent change in thinking, feeling, and your behaviors. I'm going to tell you a story about when I was in college. My first year of college, I took a women's studies class. At that time, I pretty much thought that there was gender equity and I was equal to my male counterparts. I learned in that class that at the time, women made 78 cents for every dollar that men made for equal paying jobs. I thought I was really upset about that, I couldn't believe that there was a difference and it changed my feelings. I got pretty angry about it. How it changed my behavior is, I became a feminist and I began to go to demonstrations and march on Washington. I want you to think about learning in terms of a permanent change in your thoughts, feelings and behaviors and reflect on a time when you learned something and it mobilized your behavior and it made you think differently than you had before.
Ignorance, Humility & Arrogance
[host on right]
[3 rings] Text on screen: Step 2
Text on screen: Ignorance: the state of being unaware or uninformed;; lacking education or knowledge.
• You don’t know what you don’t know
• The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know Text on screen: Humility: Being modest
• Being open to learning
• Asking questions
Text on screen: Arrogance: ‘know it all'
• Convinced of one’s self importance
• Don’t let pride get in the way
The second step toward understanding and cultivating critical thinking skills is to know the relationship among ignorance, humility, and arrogance. Let's go over those three definitions. First, ignorance. Ignorance is the state of being unaware or uninformed, lacking education or knowledge. You really don't know what you don't know, and the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. I remember first learning in college about actuarial science. It was a major I had never heard of. I didn't know it was in the field of mathematics, so I didn't know what I didn't know and when I realized that there was a field called actuary science, I wanted to learn more about it.
Humility is being modest. Being open to learning new things, so when I heard that there was a field called actuary science, I asked questions and I wanted to know what it was all about. I learned that people in the insurance field majored in actuary science, so I didn't let my pride get in the way when I was feeling a little bit embarrassed that I didn't know what actuary science was, and I was able to ask questions. Arrogance is the "I know it all" attitude that you're convinced of your own self-importance and you let pride get in the way. Someone who lets pride get in the way wouldn't be open to asking questions.
Example of Arrogance
[host on left] [thought cloud] [School icon] [typewriter]
[University letter U] [person at desk icon] [computer]
[keyboard with slash through it]
Text on screen: Think of a time you let arrogance get in the way of your openness to learning.
For myself, when I reflect back on times when I let arrogance get in the way of my being open to learn, I think about an example when I was in high school. When I was in high school, I had to take a typing class and I remember thinking when I was taking typing that I was never going to have to learn how to type because I was going to go to college, and if I went to college, I would go into a field where I'd have a secretary. So I kind of bluffed my way through typing, and when I got to college, the advent of the personal computer was born and the joke was on me, because I never learned how to keyboard. As an arrogant young high school student, assuming that I was going to have a secretary, I failed to learn something that was a skill that would be really important for my future. I really want you to think about a time when you let arrogance get in the way of your openness to learning and when you weren't humble.
Metacognition Reflection
[host on left]
[icon of head with gears inside] Text on screen: Step 3
Text on screen: Metacognition: thinking about how you think, thinking about how you learn.
• Think about the relationship among ignorance, humility, and arrogance
Step three toward cultivating critical thinking is going to be a metacognitive reflection. So let's first think of the definition of metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about how you think and thinking about how you learn, so what I want you to do is begin to think about the relationship among ignorance, humility, and arrogance, and think about my typing example where I allowed my arrogance in high school to get in the way of me gaining the skill of keyboarding. Now what I have to do is I have to ask people for help in keyboarding because I can't do it quickly enough.
Question 1
[host on left]
[head icon with question mark, hands, and pumped arm in thought bubbles]
Text on screen: What topic/concept do I lack education or knowledge? (Ignorance) [sailboat]
Take a moment and ask yourself three questions related to ignorance, humility, and arrogance, and I want you to jot down your answers. First let's take the topic and concept of ignorance. Think about an area where you lack education or knowledge. I remember when I first started learning how to sail and somebody told me to move the winch, and I didn't know what a winch was and they said, "Just move it like a ratchet, Laurie", and I didn't know what a ratchet was. So I realized that I lacked education and knowledge in sailing, and unless I humbled myself and asked questions, I would never be able to learn that skill.
Question 2
[host on left]
[head icon with hands in thought bubble]
Text on screen: When have you admitted that you didn't know something? When have you had to ask for help?
When have you admitted that you didn't know or understand something? When it was clear to me that I didn't understand the vocabulary of sailing, I had to humble myself and ask questions so that I could learn that skill. Take some time to think about a time where you had to humble yourself and ask questions.
Question 3
[host on right]
[head icon with pumped arm in thought bubble]
Text on screen: When was a time you let arrogance roadblock your learning? (arrogance)
Lastly, when have you let pride get in the way of your learning and when have you displayed arrogance. When I was learning typing, I displayed arrogance, thus my keyboarding skills still aren't that great 'til today. When it came to learning how to sail, I humbled myself and asked a lot of questions and I learned that skill better than I learned keyboarding. Lastly, think about a time when you let arrogance roadblock your learning.
Critical Thinking: The First Part
[host on left]
[brain icon] Text on screen: PART 1
Text on screen: Critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion
Text on screen: What do we mean by ability?
• Cognitive ability
• Open to learning
What we're going to do right now is we are going to take the American Association of Colleges and Universities definition of critical thinking, and we're going to break it down. Critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion. Let's look at the first part, ability.
What do we mean by ability here? We're going to talk about cognitive ability, that thinking ability. That ability is to think and think about how you think and then adjust your thinking when you gather new information. Ability also means that openness to learning that we've already talked about, and not allowing arrogance to become a roadblock to your ability to think and adjust your thinking once you've learned new information.
Critical Thinking: The Second Part
[host on left]
[brain icon] Text on screen: PART 2
Text on screen: Critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion.
Text on screen: Taking notes by hand or on laptop? [light bulb] Text on screen: Idea
• Try both methods [Phone icon] Text on screen: Artifact
• Laptop/iPad/phone/software [pencil icon] Text on screen: Event
• Exam performance
The second part of the definition of critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion. Let's say you're a college student and you're trying to decide whether it's more useful to take notes on your laptop or the old fashioned way by using longhand. We're going to look at that issue, idea, artifact, and event. The issue at hand is do I take notes longhand or do I do it on a laptop. The idea is I'm going to approach it by doing both methods and see what happens. The artifacts that I'm going to use or consider are my laptop, should I do it on an iPad, will I take notes on my phone, do I need a certain kind of software, maybe I should tape my lectures, those would be the artifacts. The event is taking a look perhaps at your exam performance after you test both methods, and see which one serves you better for memory retention.
Critical Thinking: The Third Part
[host on right]
[brain icon] Text on screen: PART 3
Text on screen: Critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion.
Text on screen: Before you form an opinion
• Explore options
• Test methods
Critical thinking is the ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusions, so that's the last piece, the third part, before accepting or formulating an opinion or a conclusion. As a student, if you're faced with which is the best way to take notes that will serve memory retention, you're going to want to gather a lot of information before you formulate an opinion or a conclusion to determine which method will serve you best.
The Vocabulary
[host on right] [abc blocks icon]
[glasses icon] Text on screen: Context: historical, ethical, political, environmental, or circumstantial situation that influence considering an issue
[diverging arrows icon] Text on screen: Ambiguity: information that can be interpreted in more than one way
[check mark] Text on screen: Assumptions: information that is accepted as true without proof
[books icon] Text on screen: Levels of meaning: literal and metaphorical
[binoculars icon] Text on screen: Points of View: looking at situations from different reference points
Let's consider the vocabulary of critical thinking. First is the context. That is the historical, ethical, political, environmental, or circumstantial situation that influence us considering an issue. Next is ambiguity. This is information that can be interpreted in more than one way. The third is assumptions, information that is accepted as true without any proof. The fourth is levels of meaning, literal or metaphorical. Finally, the fifth is points of view looking at situations from different reference points.
Eight Qualities of Critical Thinkers
Text on screen: Critical Thinkers:
[owl icon] Text on screen: Are intellectually curious and love learning!
[magnifying glass icon] Text on screen: Evaluate statements & arguments [question icon] Text on screen: Ask relevant questions
[clipboard icon] Text on screen: Identify a set of criteria for analyzing ideas
[compass icon] Text on screen: Are open to examining their beliefs, assumptions, & opinions
[listening ear icon] Text on screen: practice active listening
[scales icon] Text on screen: Suspend decision-making and judgment until facts are weighed
[book icon] Text on screen: Look for evidence and proof that supports and disputes their thinking
Now let's think about the eight qualities of critical thinkers. Number one, they're intellectually curious and they love learning. Number two, they know how to evaluate statements and arguments. Number three, they ask relevant questions. Number four, they can identify a set of criteria for analyzing ideas. Number five, they're open to examining their beliefs, assumptions, and opinions, and weighing them against the facts that they've unearthed. Number six, they practice active listening. Seven, they suspend decision-making and judgment until all of the facts are weighed, and lastly number eight, they look for evidence and proof that supports and disputes their thinking.
Intellectual Curiosity
[host on right] [Owl icon]
[book icon] [light bulb] [pencil] [laptop]
Text on screen: Studies Text on screen: Research
Text on screen: Desire to know more
It's probably clear to you at this point that critical thinkers do research so that they can check their knowledge and information on different ideas, so the number one quality of critical thinkers is that their intellectually curious and they love learning. Let's think about the note taking example. You wonder whether or not taking notes in longhand or using a laptop is more effective for note taking, and if you're intellectually curious and you love learning, then hearing about the studies that point to the fact that longhand note taking helps you perform better on tests makes you curious. Then you start thinking, "Is it true? I'd like to learn more about that."
Evaluate Statements & Arguments
[host on left] [magnifying glass icon] [pencil] [laptop]
[book icon]
[pencil with happy face] [laptop with check mark] [shopping cart with dollar signs]
The second quality of a critical thinker is that they evaluate statements and arguments. As you can imagine, as a study skills expert, I was really curious about whether old fashioned note taking or taking notes on a laptop would be better for my students because I wanted to pass sound advice along to them. I started doing a little bit of research. I came across an article called The Best Way To Take Notes, by Elizabeth Harper on a website called TechLicious. When I began to look at the information, one of the statements that she made on her blog was "even if you have a fondness for old fashioned pen and paper note taking, digital note taking has a lot of advantages." And then she went on to list the advantages, and she was beginning to have me convinced. As I dug a little bit deeper into the website, I unearthed the fact that on the website, they were also trying to sell digital note taking things like software. It made me begin to think perhaps this website and blog is a little bit biased toward taking notes on laptops.
Ask Relevant Questions
[host on left]
[question icon]
[laptop with check mark] [warning icon]
[shopping cart with dollar signs] [several question marks]
When that website began to really convince me that laptops are better, and I reflected and I said wait, the information is from a place that's trying to take sell note taking products. It led me to the third quality of critical thinkers. Critical thinkers ask relevant questions. So you need to ask questions when you come across biased information and dig a little bit deeper.
Establish A Set of Criteria
[Host on right] [clipboard icon] [pencil] [laptop]
[two figures at a table] Text on screen: Interviews [certificate icon] Text on screen: Test results
[world with magnifying glass] Text on screen: Research studies
The fourth quality of a critical thinker is they identify a set of criteria for analyzing their ideas. If I'm trying to figure out what I really want to know is whether the claim of taking notes longhand is better than taking notes on a laptop, I'm going to have to establish a set of criteria. I decide I'm going to use interviews, my students' test results, and I'm going to take a look at some research studies. What I might do is interview my students who have used both methods and ask them questions about what they found better.
Then I'm going to ask them after they use those methods to share their exam and test and quiz results with me. Finally, I'm going to go to research studies. Instead of relying on a blog like I did before, I'm going to go to a peer review journal article. I find an article called The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking. So then I put those three criteria together and it begins to help me decide whether taking notes longhand is really better than taking notes on a laptop.
Examining Beliefs, Assumptions & Opinions
[host on left] [compass icon]
[scale with pencil on the left (Text on screen: older generation) and laptop on the right (Text on screen: younger generation)]
The fifth quality of critical thinkers is they're open to examining their beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them against facts that they unearth. In my interviews, I discovered that people in your generation tend to use their laptops more often. Myself and my parents' generation always use longhand. I always assumed that technology was better when I saw that students were beginning to bring laptops to class. I didn't necessarily trust the opinions of my generation and the older generation. I just thought everybody was a bunch of techno-dinosaurs like myself and technology really could be used to improve students and their note taking. Then I started thinking maybe taking notes on laptops are better, but the journal article said the longhand note taking is better.
Practice Active Listening
[host on left] [listening ear icon]
[pencil with calculator] [laptop] [question mark]
Text on screen: Ask Questions Text on screen: Summarize
The sixth quality of critical thinkers is they use active listening skills, so for example, in my interviews with my students, I really had to practice active listening skills. When I asked them which they thought was better, longhand note taking or taking notes on a laptop, they told me that in math, taking notes longhand really served them better than in some other classes. I questioned that a little bit more, and I asked them to identify which classes that they felt were better with taking longhand notes versus on the laptop.
Asking questions helped me clarify what they were trying to tell me. What I did was another active listening skill of summarizing. When you're trying to gather information form somebody, summarizing what they say is a helpful active listening tool that feeds into critical thinking.
Suspend Decision-Making & Judgment
[Host on Right] [scales icon]
[plus and minus] [paper icon] [computer] [checklist icon] Text on screen: Gather all your facts
The seventh quality of critical thinkers is that they suspend decision making and judgment until the facts are weighted. So now I've gathered information about the pros and cons, I've looked at blogs, I've looked at peer review journal articles, I've gone through my decision making criteria, and I'm still going to suspend my judgment until I gather all of my facts and look at them holistically.
Look for Evidence To Support/Dispute
[Host on Right] [book icon]
[scale with pencil on the left (Text on screen: older generation) and magnifying glass on the right (Text on screen: look for evidence). Scale is tilted to the left.]
Finally, the eighth quality of critical thinkers is they look for evidence and proof that supports and disputes their thinking. Now at this point, I'm really leaning on the point that longhand note taking is better for memory retention and will serve my students better, but I really want to look for evidence and proof that might dispute that because I want to be prudent and be able to be absolutely sure, so that I can feel comfortable when I'm passing advice along to my students.
Why Critical Thinking?
[host on left]
[bulls eye icon] Text on Screen: Helps solve complex problems
[scissors icon] Text on Screen: assists in eliminating biases & prejudices
[magnifying glass icon] Text on Screen: Motivates us to seek information & stay well- informed
[briefcase icon] Text on Screen: sought after by employers
So why critical thinking? Critical thinking helps us solve complex problems. It assists us in eliminating biases and prejudices. It motivates us to seek information and stay well-informed. In fact, it's a skill that's sought after by employers. The good news is it can be practiced and cultivated.