Jan 25

Jan 25 Critical Thinking: Teach Early and Often

I. Introduction

Thesis

Critical thinking is a learnable fundamental human aptitude like reading, writing and math. As such, it should be taught in schools as a standalone subject with direct allocation of time and resources. Such early investment will result in a better citizenry and a stronger nation.

Disclaimer

This paper is not a scientific study. Much of the content is our opinion synthesized from prior readings, casual research, and personal experiences.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Definition:

According to Google.com: “Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.” (https://www.google.com/search?q=Critical+thinking)
According to CriticalThinking.org: “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.” (http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766)

For the purposes of this piece, let’s also keep in mind the following:

The goal of critical thinking instruction is an overall improvement in cognition and decision making akin to teaching a man how to fish instead of just giving him the fish.
Critical thinking is a fundamental skill like reading, writing and math. It can be improved, and not only through emergence based on other skills, but also through direct instruction and practice.

II. Why Is Critical Thinking Important?

Economy

As industry and technology advances, the types of skills required in the labor market has been increasingly weighted towards cognitive and away from physical labor. This shift in the demand for labor has not been sufficiently met by an accompanying improvement in human capital. Even during recessions many high paying employers report not being able to fill job openings while other lower paying industries report a glut of applicants. This imbalance is not just a symptom of the usual economic cycle dynamics, but points to a broad-based lack of investment in human capital. Considering that reading, writing and basic math skills are at near capacity levels (99%+ of the population knows how to read, write and count), what other generally applicable aptitude is lacking that is applicable across many industries? Bottom line is that people are not smart enough in the aggregate. Increased investment in general critical thinking education will increase the overall quality of human capital, reduce unemployment and underemployment, raise personal incomes, and raise overall national economic growth levels.

Society

Simple-Mindedness

Most of us know how to read, write and count. But how many are good at thinking in general, good at probing beyond the surface of things, to know which questions are relevant to ask? Much of society thinks about themselves and society in childish terms. Much of what is called “news” are quick soundbites that don’t deal with issues in a substantive way. That would change if the population demanded a different sort of news coverage. But they don’t because much of the population incorrectly considers that:

It’s expected or normal to think in simple terms
It’s psychologically and socially acceptable to be anti-intellectual
Events outside their community don’t affect them

Tribalism

A related effect of such ignorance is anti-social biased thinking. Human beings have innate tribal instincts that favor others with whom they share similarities to the detriment of those whom with whom they are different. Such is the state of nature. For complex and diverse human societies to flourish beyond a clan of, say, 100 people, such instincts need to be tempered with knowledge and development of higher-order habits. Just like humans undergo potty training at an early age and are instilled with socially accepted behavior so that they don’t defecate in the middle of the street, they also need to be instilled at an early age with social norms that counter bias and tribalism. Such beneficial pro-social mindset doesn’t come about by itself. It requires proactive effort, instruction and practice to become second nature. Social ills related to this include not only racism and ostracism, but also gang violence and terrorism.

National Security

Hundreds of years ago a deranged lunatic who tried to attack a castle on horseback would be taken by his scruff and thrown into the dungeon. Today the same lunatic can drive a truck full of explosives and destroy it. Or fly a plane into it. Think Oklahoma City bombings or 9/11 attacks. Technological progress has its benefits as well as risks. The ability of an individual to cause mass damage is one of these risks. If the lunatic from hundreds of years ago wasn’t a critical thinking intellectual, it’s a shame from an individual perspective, but so be it. Today ignorance and tribalism carries unacceptable existential risk.

III. Why Teach Critical Thinking from an Early Age?

Learnable at All Ages

Critical thinking can be taught and learned as a skill at various stages of development. Complexity of instruction can vary from the basic to the advanced. Research paper writing in high school isn’t the first time that students learn how to write. Writing instruction and practice starts early with learning the alphabet and writing basic words. Similarly, direct critical thinking instruction shouldn’t wait until the student participates in debates or writes thesis papers. Critical thinking instruction can and should start early with the basics.

Social Biases Harden Over Time

Critical thinking is social thinking

Critical thinking pertains not only to academic aptitude but also to social relationships. Just like it takes smarts to understand the significance of a math equation, it also takes judgement and mental fortitude to see another person’s perspective and get beyond the initial biases and mental shortcuts that we inevitably make.

Social thinking involves initial impressions and quick value judgements

Some prejudices we have by nature. Babies are known to interpret another’s smiling face as a “happy” sign, and associate frowns with discomfort. Nature provides us with abilities to make certain judgements about another person’s state of mind based on their physical appearance. Other biases we acquire from our environment, including people that we grow up with. Once those biases are formed, it takes a lot of mental energy to get beyond them later in life. Think of it as baking bread. Raw dough is flexible and can be formed into any shape, from the long and stretched out to the shorter and thicker. Once the dough is baked, it loses its ability to change shape. Although the human mind fortunately retains a lot of its initial flexibility even into the late years, the mental shortcuts and biases that we develop during the formative years serve as a prism through which we filter and interpret social interactions.

Sometimes it’s correct and useful to rely on quick judgements, and sometimes it’s not

Often such mental heuristics are useful, when for example we decide to cross the street in the middle of the night upon noticing a man holding a switchblade knife walking towards us. He may very well have good intentions. Perhaps he’s practicing a circus act. We just don’t know for sure. So to be safe, we follow what our mind tells us and move out of the way. We would all agree that such reaction is correct and prudent. But in other types of situations a quick rush to judgement may be premature. It wouldn’t serve you well to make a high confidence value judgement about a boy your daughter is dating knowing nothing about him other than he’s black (or white, or latino, or whatever). For all you know he may be an upstart individual. He may be giving your daughter all the attention and love that she deserves.

Knowing when to rely on an initial impression or when to hold off is hard

It’s not natural or easy for us to hold back from applying a preconceived model or archetype on someone. It takes a lot of mental fortitude to know when to form a judgement and when to hold back until more information is available. The ability to know when to rely on a quick judgement in social situations and when to hold off is not an intuition that we’re born with. Making decisions about one’s own thinking processes is a high level cognitive function. In fact, being one’s own critic is itself a social competency and is a core part of critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the key to knowing when to delay value judgements

Over the past few generations our society has made much progress in countering historically prevalent social biases. Schools now cover topics of racial and ethnic discrimination. Students come away with what seems like tolerant and socially beneficial values. But even though these values are good and useful, they are often still just reflexes. Think of what is termed political correctness and all the guilt and oversimplification that goes along with that. Ever hear about rich corporate fat cats? Did you know that in Western societies obesity is more prevalent among the poor? We can and should do better than countering historical prejudices with new prejudices that go in the other direction. We’ll be better served to dispense with either type of prejudice in everyday life. Focusing on critical thinking skills at an early age, before social biases usually form, is a more effective way to equip one to make better social value judgements.

Psychological Acceptability

Critical thinking is a choice

Critical thinking is a conscious act, and as such it’s also a choice. Deciding between relying on initial impressions or holding off judgement until further consideration requires one to pick between the two. It may be hard to resist the temptation of a quick and simple explanation, especially when emotions and personal preferences are involved. But, sheer ignorance aside, deciding to hold off from deciding on a value judgement is a choice nevertheless.

Choices are influenced by expectations

We often decide on a choice not only by considering the merits of the available options, but also by what we believe are the choices that we’re expected to make. As bizarre as it sounds, one may decide to jump to a conclusion because doing otherwise would feel strange. This psychological phenomenon is different from what we usually consider as biases or prejudices because it pertains not to what we expect of others, but what we believe is expected of us. One may decide to set objectivity aside and latch on to an oversimplified explanation because doing otherwise would seem weak, strange, or go against the grain. Sometimes this manifests as group-think, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Critical thinking should be the expected choice

One way to counter psychological barriers to objective thought is to make it clear that it’s ok to be objective. Sometimes all it takes to encourage a certain type of behavior is not necessarily through long practice or with hard incentives, but simply by highlighting that behavior as the expected one. Setting critical thinking as the expected mode of thought from an early age will result in more objectively minded adults.

Broadly Applicable Skill

As a generally applicable skill critical thinking helps one to excel in other areas. For example, the ability to see from another’s perspective helps to better understand how history unfolded and why. Being able to break things down into their constituent parts is handy when learning the natural sciences. Critical thinking skills don’t just help one to be a better philosopher or lawyer. It also helps one to be a better historian, or physicist, or teacher, or business manager, or anyone else whose role requires judgement.

Fundamental Civic Virtue

Critical thinkers = better citizens = stronger nation

Critical thinking skills help not only to make for a better scholar, or lawyer, or businessman, but also a better citizen. Those who can think deeper make better decisions for themselves and society at large. Just like it takes mental fortitude and judgement to choose to pay down high interest credit card debt instead of buying a big screen television set, it also takes critical thought to understand which political candidate’s policies will best serve one’s interests and the interest of the nation. A rube who is suckered into a financial fraud scheme is also likely to be swayed by a politician’s ludicrous rhetoric. Fewer rubes and more critical thinkers help to make for a more prosperous, cohesive and stronger nation.

IV. How Is Critical Thinking Taught Today?

Hopeful Emergence

Throughout most of the school years, critical thinking is not taught as a separate subject with dedicated instruction and homework. It’s assumed that the student will gain critical thinking skills as a result of studying other subjects among the sciences, humanities and arts. Critical thinking skills are expected to emerge in the student by themselves as a byproduct of learning other subjects. The reverse approach would be more efficient.

Doesn’t necessarily emerge

It’s possible to “get by” in school without critical thinking. Rote memorization and regurgitation is often sufficient to get a passing grade. Many among us passed history classes by memorizing dates, names and sequences of events. But how many of us understand the significance of those historical dynamics and the lessons applicable for our world today? In math it’s possible to solve a polynomial problem by simply moving numbers around without understanding why or how that process works. It’s possible to get by in school through such rote memorization and mechanical rules of thumb. Although learning other subjects doesn’t necessarily impede the development of critical thinking, it’s certainly not guaranteed that it will emerge as a result of learning other subjects.

Key to mastering other subjects, not vice versa

As a broadly applicable skill, critical thinking helps to master other skills. Just like being a good runner is useful to doing well in track and field as well as playing basketball, or having good vision helps in both driving a car or hunting wild game, being good at thinking critically will help to be a better financial planner, or teacher, or judge of character or whatever.

Sometimes Directly, But Not Often Enough

Belatedly sometimes critical thinking is taught directly. Examples are debates, logic proofs, and thesis papers. The problem is that these examples are too rare. They are not the focus of study and are taught peripherally as part of other subjects. Debates are usually performed when studying history or social studies. Logic proofs are taught in high school math classes. Thesis writing is done usually done in literary, journalism, or post-secondary education contexts. These are all well and good, but not enough to sufficiently raise critical thinking levels. We can and should start critical thinking instruction early and often. It’ll pay dividends in many areas throughout the school years and afterwards.

V. Proposal

Teach Early + Often

Just like reading, writing and math instruction starts from the 1st grade and throughout the school years at ever higher levels of complexity, so should critical thinking. Reading and writing instruction starts with learning the alphabet, understanding and composing words, sentences and paragraphs. Then students learn to write essays, read whole books, write research papers, etc. Math instruction also starts early. First you learn what the numbers mean and how to count them, followed by addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, equations, trigonometry, calculus, and so on. Learning to think critically shouldn’t start with participating in debates or writing thesis papers. Such high order activities require having a solid base of more fundamental critical thinking skills to perform well. To defend a thesis, one must know how to:

Break an issue down into its underlying parts
Understand the nuances that emerge at different levels of complexity
See from various perspectives
Anticipate counter arguments
Discern fact from opinion
Know which questions are relevant

This is complex stuff. To excel at high order activities, we need to start with the basics.

Instruction Examples

Critical thinking learning can take many forms, from the basic to the complex, from the short exercises to complex problems. The purpose is to train the mind to think deeper, develop intuition for which things need further consideration, know the useful questions to ask, to reach a more profound understanding of oneself and others. Here are some examples of such basic exercises:

Describe a situation when you made a quick judgement that in retrospect was a bit too hasty. Why were you compelled to make that hasty judgement? Were you driven by emotions? Did you think you had all the required information to make a judgement? What made you change your mind?
Describe a situation where you observed another person react towards someone else differently from how you would react. Why do you think that person reacted as they did? How and why would you react differently? How would you assess that other person’s behavior and motivations? Is there a way to justify their actions, and if so then how?
If you were the mayor of your city or neighborhood, what would you do or change? How would you justify your proposed change to your constituency? How do you think the constituency would react and why?
Who do you admire and why? Are there any qualities about them that’s unremarkable? Feel free to pick anyone and any of their qualities. For example, you can pick Arnold Schwarzenegger as someone who is physically strong, but probably is not a great skateboarder (or is he?). It doesn’t have to be a celebrity and it doesn’t matter which qualities you focus on as long as you provide a well thought out and convincing narrative.
Challenge the students to consider an open-ended statement and come up with questions the answers to which would promote better understanding. For example, “A man walks into a bar…”. Among the useful questions to ask would be “who is he?”, “why did he enter this bar?”, “what kind of bar is it?”, “is he by himself or is he meeting someone?”, “what does he want?”. Then instruct the students to provide hypothetical answers to these questions.
Assign to each student a random opinion statement (from a bag of mixed flashcards for example) and challenge them to defend it even if they disagree with it.

These are just some of the ways to practice critical thinking. There are many other ways, and they also should be employed. In any case the goal is the same — prepare the student to think more critically.

Benefits to Individual

Honing critical thinking abilities is helpful to an individual in myriad of ways, among which would be:

Think from another’s perspective
Overcome psychological barriers
Resiliency to banal social pressures
Make better decisions
Able to learn and improve

Benefits to Society

Communities whose members can think more critically should display the following characteristics:

Fewer social biases and tribalism
Less crime and violence
Less extremism and terrorism
More economic prosperity — critical thinking promotes innovation and productivity
Better overall governance — when citizens are more discerning, politicians have fewer incentives to pander and the political discourse shifts towards what is both more important and more realistic

There is no tradeoff between what’s good for the individual and what’s good for the wider community. Individuals with better critical thinking abilities have higher chance to self-actuate while also playing a more constructive role as members of a group. Investment in critical thinking education starting in the early formative years will pay off handsomely both to the individual and to society as a whole.

Next Natural Improvement

There is nothing exotic or radical about investing in critical thinking instruction. The modern education system, which is only 150-200 years old, has gone through multiple phases. Critical thinking instruction starting with the early grades would be a small and natural next step in the evolution of our education system. Up until the last century, most people were farmers and were not expected to be educated beyond primary school. Knowing calculus was of little benefit to the average farmer. But knowing how to read, write and count is useful to, for example, read the weather almanac and manage the harvest surplus for profitable sale on the market. Additional skills became important in the industrial age, including engineering and the sciences. Hence the focus on secondary education and vocational training. Progressing economies and societies require people with more advanced skills. That dynamic is only speeding up, especially in the current digital age of ever faster technological advances and social progress. There is nothing unusual about adjusting our education system to meet the current and near future needs of our society. It changed multiple times before and will change again in the future. Time for an upgrade.