Scientific Reasoning and Achievement in a High School English Course

The hypothetical-deductive pattern of reasoning, an advanced reasoning model common to science, can be effectively transferred to the study of English and improve both English usage and reasoning skills. T hough educators in the United States say that they already are teaching thinking and that the physical sciences and mathematics offer opportunities for learning higher-order reasoning skills, most observers agree that the goal of teaching students how to think has not been fulfilled. The reasons are varied. Perhaps the most serious deficiency is that teachers have never had a clear notion of just what advanced reasoning is-and just what to do to stimulate its development in students. My own search for effective ways to promote critical thinking during thirty years as a high school English teacher grew out of dissatisfaction with what was offered by various authors representing the humanities and behavioral and social sciences. Guided by my study of the paranormal and my association with college professors experimenting with various theories of intdlectual devdopment, including those of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (known for his research of thought processes in children), I turned to the physical sciences for answers. Emphasizing the hypothetical-deductive pattern of reasoning in teaching critical thinking appeared feasible. So by means of a Piagetian-based, systematic instructional theory devdoped by Anton E. Lawson of Arizona State University, I used this reasoning mood in my twdfth-grade English course at Grand Island Senior High in Grand Island, Nebraska, from 1982 to 1991. This reasoning modd, common to science, can be effec-tivdy transferred to the fidd of English (and likdy to other curriculum areas, as well as to everyday life); an academic discipline such as English can be used to hdp students devdop higher-order thinking skills of a hypothetical-deductive nature. Some psychologists have characterized human intellectual devdopment in terms of four major levels or "stages" of thought processes. Piaget called the stages sensorimotor, preop-erational, concrete operational, and formal operational. For this article, the last of these, called by Lawson the hypothetical-deductive stage, is of interest. The thinking patterns at this stage are advanced reasoning patterns used in testing alternative hypotheses and are characterized in five ways. Examples in this article are taken from the discipline of English and include language, literature, and composition. Combinatorial thinking enables the individual to systematically consider all possible rdations of experimental or theoretical conditions, even though some may not be realized in nature. For example, one …