EDD 5229

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EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Topic 10 Understanding the Curriculum Aim of
Liberal Studies How Critical is Critical
Thinking?
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Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum
Liberal Studies of HKSAR

• In Sept, 2001, Learning to Learning The Way
  Forwards in Curriculum Development
• Critical Thinking is identified as one of the
  nine generic skills within the framework of the
  curriculum reform
• Critical thinking has been defined as one of the
  three generic skills that should be prioritized
  among the nine skills.
• Since public feedback indicated that the
  curriculum reform envisaged is too broad, a
  priority focus will be placed on the development
  of three of these generic skills, namely
  communication skills, creativity and critical
  thinking skills, though the others should not be
  neglected. (Curriculum Development Council,
  2001, p. 25)

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Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum
Liberal Studies of HKSAR

• In Sept, 2001, Learning to Learning The Way
  Forwards in Curriculum Development
• The idea of critical thinking In the document,
  critical thinking is depicted as
• Critical thinking skills help students to
  draw out meaning from given data or statements,
  generate and evaluate arguments, and make their
  own judgement. (CDC, 2001, p. 24)

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Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum
Liberal Studies of HKSAR

• In July, 2007 Liberal Studies Curriculum and
  Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6)
• Curriculum Aims
• The aims of Liberal Studies at the Senior
  Secondary Level are ...
• (d) to develop in students a range of skills
  for life-long learning, including critical
  thinking skills, creativity, problem-solving
  skills, communication skills and information
  technology skills (CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 5)
  

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Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum
Liberal Studies of HKSAR

• In July, 2007 Liberal Studies Curriculum and
  Assessment Guide (Secondary 4-6)
• Learning Outcomes
• By the end of the course, students should
  be able to
• (d) identify the values underlying
  different views and judgments on personal and
  social issues, and apply critical thinking
  skills, creativity and different perspectives in
  making decisions and judgments on issues and
  problems at both personal and social levels.
  (CDC and HKEAA, 2007, p. 6)

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Critical Thinking in Senior-Secondary Curriculum
Liberal Studies of HKSAR

• In 2009, Package on The Learning and Teaching of
  Critical Thinking Skills (Senior Secondary)

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Although it sometimes seems that there is very
little that academics can agree upon, there is
considerable agreement among experts in the field
regarding the definition of critical thinking.
Different authors use different terms and vary
in the breadth of their definition, but overall
there are no major disagreements about the sorts
of skills that are included under a critical
thinking rubric. (Halpern, 2003 Quoted in Ku et
al., 2009, p.2)
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The term critical thinking is the use of those
cognitive skills or strategies that increase the
probability of a desirable outcome. It is
purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. It is
the kind of thinking involved in solving
problems, formulating inferences, calculating
likelihoods, and making decisions. Critical
thinkers use these skills appropriately, without
prompting, and usually with conscious intent, in
a variety of settings. That is, they are
predisposed to think critically. When we think
critically, we are evaluating the outcomes of our
thought processes how good a decision is or how
well a problem is solved. Critical thinking also
involves evaluating the thinking process the
reasoning that went into the conclusion weve
arrived at or the kinds of factors considered in
making a decision. (Halpern, 2003 Quoted in Ku
et al., 2009, p.2)
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The five categories of critical thinking
skills 1. Verbal Reasoning Skills 2.
Argument Analysis Skills 3. Skills in Thinking
as Hypothesis Testing 4. Using Likelihood and
Uncertainty, and 5. Decision Making and
Problem Solving Skills
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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The idea of critical thinking in education can be
  traced back to John Deweys concept of
  reflective thinking (Dewey, 1933 1939).
  Throughout its short history of development,
  particularly in the US, the field is filled with
  contentions and disagreements. It is far from a
  field of considerable agreement or no major
  disagreement.

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• First round of debate
• In 1962, Robert Ennis paper entitled A concept
  of critical thinking was published in Harvard
  Educational Review. In the paper, critical
  thinking was defined as a correct assessing of
  statement. (Ennis, 1962, p. 81) Ennis further
  conceptualizes that twelve aspects of critical
  thinking are

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• First round of debate
• twelve aspects of critical thinking are
• Grasping the meaning of a statement.
• Judging whether there is ambiguity in a line of
  reasoning.
• Judging whether certain statements contradict
  each other.
• Judging whether a conclusion follows necessarily.
• Judging whether a statement is specific enough.
• Judging whether is actually the application of a
  certain principle.
• Judging whether an observation statement is
  reliable.
• Judging whether an inductive conclusion is
  warranted.
• Judging whether the problem has been identified.
• Judging whether something is an assumption.
• Judging whether a definition is adequate.
• Judging whether a statement made by an alleged
  authority is acceptable. (Ennis, 1962, 83)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• First round of debate
• Ennis' conception of critical thinking has been
  criticized as pure skills conception (Siegel,
  1988, p. 6) and it is but a battery of atomic
  technical skills. (Paul, 1994, p. 185 see also
  Burbules and Berk, 1999 Walters, 1994
  Thayer-Bacon, 2000)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The second round of debate
• In the 1980s, Ennis took two further initiations
  in developing his conception of critical thinking
• He developed two sets of standardized-test
  instruments, i.e. Cornell Critical Thinking Tests
  (Ennis and Millman, 1982) to measure levels of
  critical thinking performance.
• Ennis published a paper entitled A Taxonomy of
  Critical Thinking Disposition and Ability. In
  the paper, Ennis responded to the criticism of
  skill-bias by adding disposition into the
  conception of critical thinking. According, he
  developed a taxonomy consisting of 14 levels of
  dispositions and 12 levels of ability. (Ennis,
  1987)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The second round of debate
• Ennis efforts triggered another round of
  criticism.
• John McPeck criticizes that critical thinking
  cannot be reduced to a few mechanical decoding
  skills and more specifically the major
  shortcomings of both the Cornell tests is that
  the format of a standardized multiple-choice test
  does not permit the comprehensive or circumspect
  judgements that are required by the concept of
  critical thinking. (McPeck, 1981, p.145)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The second round of debate
• Ennis efforts triggered another round of
  criticism.
• Harvey Siegel also criticizes So instead of two
  roughly equal components of critical thinking,
  proficiencies (skills) and tendencies
  (dispositions), what Enniss conceptionamounts to
  is actually a highly complex list of
  proficiencies coupled with the simple admonition
  to exercise the proficiencies. (T)he tendencies
  to utilize critical thinking skills is
  under-analyzed and under-attended to in Enniss
  work. (Siegel, 1988, p.7)
• Siegel specifically criticizes the Cornel
  Critical Thinking Tests as the one-sided heroic
  effort to develop effective tests for the
  proficiencies (skills) in the total absence of
  effort to develop effective tests for the
  tendency (disposition) (Siegel, 1988, p.8)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The second round of debate
• Ennis efforts triggered another round of
  criticism.
• More recently, Burbules (1993 Burbeles
  Beck,1999) and Walters (1994) criticize that
  critical thinking may plausibly be reduced to
  examination skills of mechanical logicism.

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The third round of the debate
• John McPeck queries whether it is possible to
  teach critical thinking as generalized skills
  without relating it to specific subject content.
  He criticizes the content-free approach to
  critical-thinking instruction commonly adopted in
  the 1970s. He underlines that thinking is always
  thinking about something. To think about nothing
  is a conceptual impossibility. (1981, p.3) More
  specifically, McPeck contends that

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The third round of the debate
• In isolation from a particular subject, the
  phrase critical thinking neither refers to nor
  denotes any particular skill. It follows from
  this that it makes no sense to talk about
  critical thinking as a distinct subject and that
  it therefore cannot profitably be taught as such.
  To the extent that critical thinking is not about
  a specific subject X, it is both conceptually and
  practically empty. The statement I teach
  critical thinking, simpliciter, is vacuous
  because there is no generalized skill properly
  call critical thinking. (p. 5)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The third round of the debate
• McPecks criticism meets with forceful
  counter-arguments from Stephen Norris (1990),
  Richard Paul, and Harvey Siegel (1990). Norris
  and Paul defend that critical-thinking
  instruction is content-free, while Siegel
  provides a more balanced view of suggesting that
  some aspect of critical thinking can be taught in
  terms of generalized skills, while some are
  subject and content specific. (Siegel, 1988
  1990)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking
  by injecting the concept of reason into critical
  thinking instruction.
• He suggests that to be a critical thinker is to
  be appropriately moved by reasons. A critical
  thinker is one who appreciates and accepts the
  importance, and convicting force, of reasons.
  When assessing claims, making judgments,
  evaluating procedures, or contemplating
  alternative actions, the critical thinker seeks
  reasons on which to base her assessments,
  judgments, and actions. To seek reasons,
  moreover, is to recognize and commit oneself to
  principles. (Siegel, 1988, p.32-33)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking
  by injecting the concept of reason into critical
  thinking instruction.
• By reason, Siegel makes use the conception put
  forth by Scheffler. He indicates that reason is
  always a matter of abiding by general rules or
  principles reason is always a matter of treating
  equal reasons equally, and of judging the issues
  in the light of general principles to which one
  has bound oneself if I could judge reasons
  differently when they bear on my interests, or
  disregard my principles when they conflict with
  my own advantage, I should have no principles at
  all. The concepts of principles, reasons and
  consistency thus go together. (Scheffler, 1973
  quoted in Siegel, 1988, p.33)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Harvey Siegel re-conceptualizes critical thinking
  by injecting the concept of reason into critical
  thinking instruction.
• Siegel further differentiates critical thinking
  into two dimensions, namely proficiency and
  spirit. The former refers to the capacities of
  making use of "reason" in assessing one's
  thinking, while the later signifies " a
  willingness to conform judgment and action to
  principle, not simply a ability to so conform. On
  who has the critical attitude has a certain
  character as well as certain skills a character
  which is inclined to seek, and to base judgment
  and action upon, reasons which rejects
  partiality and arbitrariness which is committed
  to the objective evaluation of relevant evidence
  and which values such aspects of critical
  thinking as intellectual honesty justice to
  evidence, sympathetic and impartial consideration
  of interests, objectivity, and impartiality."
  (Siegel, 1988, p. 39)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak
  sense and the strong sense of critical thinking
• By weal sense of critical thinking, it refers to
  training of atomic technical skills of logical
  thinking. As a result, students studying
  critical thinking at the university level have
  highly developed belief systems buttressed by
  deep-seated uncritical, egocentric, and
  sociocentric habits of thought by which they
  interpret and process their experiences, whether
  academic or not, and place them into some larger
  perspective. those students become sophistic
  rather ten less so, more skilled in rationalizing
  and intellectualizing their biases. (Paul, 1994,
  184)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak
  sense and the strong sense of critical thinking
• By strong sense of critical thinking, it refers
  to the view which rejects the idea that critical
  thinking can be taught as a battery of atomic
  technical skills independent of egocentricbelief
  and commitments. Instead of atomic arguments it
  emphasizes argument network (points of view,
  frames of reference, worldviews, systems of
  thought) instead of merely teaching evaluation
  of atomic arguments it emphasizes a more
  dialectical and dialogical approaches. (1994, p.
  185-6)
• Teaching critical thinking in a strong sense
  helps students develop reasoning skills precisely
  in those areas where they are most likely to have
  egocentric and sociocentric biases. Such biases
  exist most profoundly in areas of their
  identities and vested interests. (p. 190)

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Round four Reformulations and elaborations.
• Richard Paul makes a distinction between the weak
  sense and the strong sense of critical thinking
• Subsequently, Richard Paul established The Center
  for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State University
  in North California.
• http//www.criticalthinking.org/about/ce
  nterforCT.cfm

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• The Delphi Report A statement of expert
  consensus for purpose of educational assessment
  and instruction, American Philosophical
  Association.
• http//www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/DEXad
  obe.PDF

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Definition of critical thinking
• We understand critical thinking to be
  purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which
  results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation,
  and inference, as well as explanation of the
  evidential, conceptual, methodological,
  criteriological, or contextual consideration upon
  which that judgment is based. CT is essential as
  a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating
  force in education and a powerful resource in
  ones personal and civic life. While not
  synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive
  and self rectifying human phenomenon.

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Definition of critical thinking (contd)
• The ideal critical thinker is habitually
  inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason,
  open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation,
  honest in face of personal biases, prudent in
  making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear
  about issues, orderly in complex matters,
  diligent in seeking relevant information,
  reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused
  in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results
  which are as precise as the subject and the
  circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating
  good critical thinkers means working toward this
  ideal. It combines developing CT skills with
  nurturing those dispositions which consistently
  yield useful insights and which are the basis of
  a rational and democratic society.

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Definition of critical thinking (contd)
• The ideal critical thinker is habitually
  inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason,
  open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation,
  honest in face of personal biases, prudent in
  making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear
  about issues, orderly in complex matters,
  diligent in seeking relevant information,
  reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused
  in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results
  which are as precise as the subject and the
  circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating
  good critical thinkers means working toward this
  ideal. It combines developing CT skills with
  nurturing those dispositions which consistently
  yield useful insights and which are the basis of
  a rational and democratic society.

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CT cognitive skills and sub-skills
Skill Sub-skills
1. Interpretation Categorization Decoding significance Clarifying meaning
2. Analysis Examining ideas Identifying arguments Analyzing arguments
3. Evaluation Assessing claims Assessing arguments
4. Inference Querying evidence Conjecturing alternatives Drawing conclusions
5. Explanation Stating results Justifying procedures Presenting arguments
6. Self-regulation Self-examining Self-correcting
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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Constituents of Critical Thinking Affective
  dispositions
• Approaches to life and living in general
• inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of
  issues,
• concern to become and remain generally
  well-informed,
• alertness to opportunities to use CT,
• trust in the processes of reasoned inquiry,
• self-confidence in ones own ability to reason,
• open-mindedness regarding divergent world view,
• flexibility in considering alternatives and
  opinions,
• understanding of the opinions of other people,
• fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning,
• honesty in facing ones own biases, prejudices,
  stereotypes, egocentric or sociocentric
  tendencies,
• prudence in suspending, making or altering
  judgments,
• willingness to consider and revise views where
  honest reflection suggests that change is
  warranted,

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Critical Thinking An Intrinsic Evaluation

• Constituents of Critical Thinking Affective
  dispositions
• Approaches to specific issues, questions or
  problems
• clarity in stating the question or concern,
• orderliness in working with complexity,
• diligence in seeking relevant information,
• reasonableness in selecting and applying
  criteria,
• care in focusing attention on the concern at
  hand,
• persistence though difficulties are encountered
• precision to the degree permitted by the subject
  and the circumstance.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• In the late 1970s, two theoretical perspectives
  have emerged and invoked new critical conceptions
  in educational study. They have invoked profound
  challenges to the conventional conception of
  critical-thinking instruction. They are critical
  literacy and critical pedagogy. Both perspectives
  owe their theoretical origins from two similar
  sources, on Critical Theory of the Frankfurt
  School and the conception of The Pedagogy of the
  Oppressed (1972) from a Brazilian educator Paulo
  Freire.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical literacy perspective
• According to Freire's experiences in the program
  of literacy for Brazilian farmers, he expends the
  concept of literacy from merely reading and
  writing of words to reading and writing of the
  world. In his own words
• It is impossible to carry out my literacy
  work or to understand literacy by divorcing the
  reading of the word from the reading of the
  world. Reading the word and learning how to write
  the word so one can later read it are preceded by
  learning how to write the world, that is, having
  the experience of changing the world and touching
  the world. (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p.49)

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical literacy perspective
• Subsequently, Green (1988), Lankshear and Knobel
  (2003) reconceptualize literacy into three levels
  
• Operational literacy It refers to the mastery of
  the decoding (reading) and encoding (writing)
  operations of systems of language or of other
  media. It indicates the ability to relate the
  words with the worlds represented.
• Cultural literacy It refers to the mastery of
  the "system of meanings" and cultural system
  underlying a specific linguistic system. It
  indicates the capacity to interpreting the
  meanings "signified" in media.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical literacy perspective
• Subsequently, Green (1988), Lankshear and Knobel
  (2003) reconceptualize literacy into three levels
  
• Critical literacy Based on the perspectives of
  the Critical Theory and constructionism,
  critical-literacy theorists begin with the
  assumption of "social construction of reality".
  And they emphasize that there are hypostatized
  power relations and frozen ideological relation
  at work underlying these realities and they in
  turn serve as legitimation and reproduction
  mechanism of particular institutional
  configuration. (Habermas, 1971 1979)
• Accordingly. Critical literacy is defined as
  ability to unveil the legitmation bases
  underlying particular linguistic and cultural
  systems.
• Furthermore, in Freire's conception, it is
• To read the words and the read the world
• To write the words and to write the world
• To rewrite the world and to transform and improve
  the world

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective By applying the
  conception of social construction, legitimation
  and reproduction to education in general, the
  critical pedagogy put forth critical analysis
  beyond the conception of literacy and look into
  different aspects of pedagogy, such as (1)
  pedagogical content, (2) the pedagogical
  relationship, and (3) the pedagogical process,

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective
• Pedagogical content
• This perspective can be traced back to Basil
  Bernstien thesis How a society selects,
  classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates
  the educational knowledge it considers to be
  public, reflects both the distribution of power
  and the principles of social control."
  (Bernstein, 1970, p.74)
• Accordingly, the concerns about pedagogical
  content is to reveal how a particular curriculum
  legitimatizes and reproduces a particular
  institutional configuration.
• At the same time, how it "marginalizes",
  "suppressed" and silences the others

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective
• Pedagogical relationship
• This aspect of inquiry in critical pedagogical
  can best be illustrated with Freire's conception
  of "the banking education".
• Education thus becomes an act of depositing,
  in which the students are the depositories and
  the teacher is the depositor. Instead of
  communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and
  'makes deposits', which the students patiently
  receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the
  'banking' concept of education. The students,
  alienated like the slave in the Hegelian
  dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying
  the teacher's existence" (Freire, 1972, p.45-46)

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective
• Pedagogical relationship
• To rectify, Freire advocates a dialogical
  relation through which students are encourage to
  reflect and re-write the world in which they find
  themselves. And in the process to liberate
  themselves from the situated and submerged
  contexts
• These aspect of inquiry has initiated researches
  in both the perspectives of feminism and
  post-colonialism.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective
• Pedagogical process
• This aspect of inquiry can be illustrated with
  Freire's conception of "problem-posing
  education."
• By rejecting the banking concept of education,
  teachers and students can engage in a dialogical
  relation and "pose problem" to each others and
  more importantly to "the world" in which they are
  embedded.
• "Problem-posing education involves a constant
  unveiling of reality (It) strives for the
  emergence of consciousness and critical
  intervention in reality." (Freire, 1972, p.54)
• "In problem-posing education, men develop their
  power to perceive critically the way they exist
  in the world with which and in which they find
  themselves they come to see the world not as a
  static reality, but as a reality in process, in
  transformation." (Freire, 1972, p.56)

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Critical pedagogy perspective
• Pedagogical process
• "Problem-posing education affirms men as beings
  in the process of becoming - as unfinished,
  uncompleted beings in and with a likewise
  unfinished reality." (Freire, 1972, p.56-57)
• This movement of inquiry must be directed
  towards humanization mans historical vocation.
  The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be
  carried out in isolation or individualism, but
  only in fellowship and solidarity therefore it
  cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations
  between oppressors and oppressed. Problem-posing
  education, as a humanist and liberating praxis,
  posits as fundamental that men subjected to
  domination mush fight for their emancipation.
  (Freire, 1972, p.58)

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Taking together, theorists of the critical
  literacy and critical pedagogy perspectives have
  waged some profound criticisms on critical
  thinking instruction.
• Criticism on the decontextualization of the
  thinking process
• It is criticized that critical thinking has
  abstracted human thinking processes as
  "decontextualized" and "disembedded" activities
  of pure reasoning and simple logical operations.
• It is suggested that to rectify this pitfall the
  contextuality and historicity of thought should
  be reintroduced into critical thinking
  instruction.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• Taking together, theorists of the critical
  literacy and critical pedagogy perspectives have
  waged some profound criticisms on critical
  thinking instruction.
• Criticism on the decontextualization of the
  thinking process
• The emphasis on the contextuality and historicity
  of thought has found echo in Max Horkheimer's
  critique on Immanuel Kant's famous conceptions of
  "pure reason" and " transcendental self"
• "It is the human being who thinks, not the
  Ego or Reason. And that is not something
  abstract, such as the human essence, but always
  human beings living in a particular historical
  epoch." (Horkheimer, 1968, p.145 quoted in Hoy
  and McCarthy, 1995, p.9)

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• some profound criticisms on critical thinking
  instruction.
• Criticism on the desubjectification of the
  thinker
• It is criticized that critical thinking has
  abstracted thinkers as disembodied and
  disinterest individuals who are expected to
  provide assessment to argumentative claims with
  regards to their logical validity.
• It is suggested that one way to rectify this
  fault, Habermas' thesis on the "knowledge-constitu
  tive interests" should be reintroduced
• Another way to rectify the fault of
  desubjectification, critical thinking instruction
  should "re-subjectify thinkers as relational
  self, situated self, and embodied self and
  bring the conceptions of "care" and "recognition"
  back into the critical thinking instruction.

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Critical Thinking An Extrinsic Evaluation

• some profound criticisms on critical thinking
  instruction.
• Criticism on the objectification of the objects
  of thinking
• It is criticized that critical thinking has
  abstracted the objects of inquiry as objectively
  existing realities and given facts. The primary
  concern is simply to assess the validity of the
  logical connections between premises and
  conclusions.
• It is suggested that to rectify this pitfall,
  critical thinkers should think of the objects of
  inquiry as socially constructed realities, which
  are loaded with hypostatized power relations,
  frozen ideological configurations, and
  legitimatized systemic distortions.

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• To summarize, it seems that the main difference
  among the fractions in the controversy is the
  meanings each fraction gives to the concept of
  criticality. There seems to be at least five
  different meanings of criticality at work in
  these debates and criticisms on the meaning of
  critical thinking. These different meanings of
  criticality are

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• Critical means evaluative To most of the
  scholars within the field of critical thinking,
  to be critical means to evaluate and assess.
  Accordingly, critical thinking is simply
  discerned as evaluating the logical correctness
  of thinking or more specifically argumentative
  claims. Critical thinking instruction is simply
  training of logical- operational skills.

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• Criticality means critique on the contextuality
  and historicity of thinking Most of the topics
  and issues addressed in social studies and
  citizenship education are socio-politically
  framed issues and phenomena. Hence, to examined
  the discursive configuration at work behind each
  of these issues is vital in social studies and
  citizenship education.

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• Critique on the subjectivity and the situation of
  the thinkers Participants in the discourse of
  social and political issues are "situated",
  "embodied" and "interest-bearing" subjects, to
  reveal and reflect on the subjectivities of these
  thinking participants is also vital in social
  studies and citizenship education.

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• Criticality means critique on the objects of
  inquiry Critically thinking about social and
  political issues in the teaching of social
  studies and citizenship education should advance
  beyond logical validity of argumentative claim
  and penetrate to the power relations
  hypostatized, ideological configurations frozen,
  and systemic distortions legitimatized underlying
  the social and political phenomena in point.

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Reconstructing of a Framework of Critical
Thinking for Liberal Studies

• Criticality means critical practice of social
  "re-writing" and transforming The last meaning
  of criticality in critical thinking points to the
  liberating and transformative potentiality in
  critical thinking instruction. Critical thinking
  instruction should not be stay at the level of
  contemplating and it should entail actions. In
  social studies and citizenship education, it
  signifies initiations of social and
  participations which may lead to improvement and
  transformation of social and political phenomena
  in point.

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Topic 8 Understanding the Curriculum Aim of
Liberal Studies How Critical is Critical
Thinking? End