"First Sit Down and Play the Piano Beautifully ... ": Reading Carefully for Critical Thinking

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moira Gutteridge
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Reading Skill ◽  
Critical Thinking Instruction

Students in critical thinking courses are often instructed to "read carefully" as a prerequisite to thinking critically. This instruction, which seems like a simple preliminary caution, in fact reveals controversial assumptions about how readers read, and whether critical thinking instruction presupposes the reading skill it purports to teach.

scholarly journals Examining the Influence of Culture on Critical Thinking in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vivian Miu-Chi Lun
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
European Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Critical Thinking Instruction

<p>In the midst of an increasingly changing world, the ability to think critically has become a crucial attribute expected of university graduates. However, the endorsement of critical thinking in higher education has been challenged by the growing cultural diversity in university classrooms. Concerns about Asian students' lack of critical thinking and the appropriateness of critical thinking instruction in international education have been raised by teaching professionals. The present dissertation sought to understand the influence of culture on the teaching and learning of critical thinking in higher education. Chapter 2 presented a study examining the instructional contexts of Hong Kong and New Zealand. It was found that similar assessment methods were employed in the university courses in both cultures, but university courses in Hong Kong placed more emphasis on knowledge development whereas those in New Zealand explicitly described critical thinking in the course objectives. Chinese international and New Zealand European postgraduate students were individually interviewed to investigate the exact influence of cultural-educational contexts in Asia and New Zealand on university students' conception and practice of critical thinking (Chapter 3). Both samples of students held similar conceptions of critical thinking, but reported differences in their socialization experiences regarding the practice of critical thinking in their respective cultures. Specifically, stronger inhibition on students' practice of critical thinking was noted in Asia than in New Zealand. In Chapter 4, two studies that investigated the differences in critical thinking skills between Asian and New Zealand European students are presented. In both studies, New Zealand European students were found to perform better than their Asian counterparts on an objective measure of critical thinking skills. The difference was explained by students English language ability but not cultural factors such as cultural differences in cognitive styles or behavioral adoption of New Zealand culture. It was suggested that observed cross-cultural difference in critical thinking skills is related more to language ability rather than cultural variables. A significantly positive relationship between critical thinking skills and academic performance was found, and the relationship was not significantly different between Asian and New Zealand European student samples (Chapter 5). The relationship was also not different as a function of students' adoption of New Zealand culture, indicating that pedagogy with an emphasis on critical thinking is similarly applicable to both Asian and New Zealand European students. Overall, the present findings indicated that culture has an important influence on students' practice of critical thinking. Although there is cross-cultural difference in critical thinking skills between Asian and Western student samples, the difference appears to be related more to language ability rather than cultural factors. The present thesis provided empirical evidence to show that culture influences the educational practice of critical thinking, but the influence of culture does not necessarily impede the application of critical thinking instruction in international classrooms. With appropriate adaptation, critical thinking instruction can be beneficial to the intellectual development of students regardless of their cultural backgrounds.</p>

scholarly journals The Impact of Surroundings on the Characters in Thomas Hardy’s Novels

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Suzana Rahman ◽  
Ratna Muntiningsih
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Reading Skill ◽  
Reading Habit ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Literature Reading ◽  
The Impact

The  THE  IMPACT  OF  SURROUNDINGS  ON  THE  CHARACTERS  INTHOMAS HARDY’S NOVELS” is to apply the writers’ knowledge on literature and toshow    their  interest  in    reading  novels.  The  writers transfered not  only    their limitedknowledge in analysing novels as literary works but also building the awareness of theimportance of reading habit  to their students of Unswagati because all of them take thesubject  of  Introduction  to English  Literature.    Reading  and  analyzing  novel  is  reallybeneficial  for  students that    both  can  improve  the  students  reading  skill  but  also  theirEnglish  ability,  moreover,  they  will  have  the  ability  in  criticizing  the  novel  fromdifferent  views.  In  brief,  it  will  also  improve  their  critical  thinking. Afterwards,  bydescribing the  characters  and  their  attitudes  toward  each  other  and  how  thesurroundings influence them, we also learn about their culture. The theory that is usedin analysing those novels is from Harvey, Murphy, Klarer, and Lodge. The method thatis applied in analysing the characters and the surroundings is descriptive qualiative inwhich the writers take the data by reading the three novels, explain in details about thecharacters  and  the  surroundings  involved  in  the  story and  some  other  elementssupported the completeness of the story.

scholarly journals Enhancing Rationality: Heuristics, Biases, and The Critical Thinking Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Battersby
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Critical Thinking Instruction

Abstract: This paper develops four related claims: 1. Critical thinking should focus more on decision making, 2. the heuristics and bias literature developed by cognitive psychologists and behavioral economists provides many insights into human irrationality which can be useful in critical thinking instruction, 3. unfortunately the “rational choice” norms used by behavioral economists to identify “biased” decision making narrowly equate rational decision making with the efficient pursuit of individual satisfaction; deviations from these norms should not be treated as an irrational bias, 4. a richer, procedural theory of rational decision making should be the basis for critical thinking instruction in decision making.

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