Education's Quest for the Golden Answer: The Need Continues for Critical Thinking

This paper addressed the need for critical thinking as an appropriate learning outcome for the majority of higher education classes. The paper reviewed critical thinking from a multi-disciplined perspective. A brief review of the history of critical thinking preceded a short discussion of the need. The main body of the paper addressed the reasons for a lack of critical thinking in today's classroom and centered blame on a failure of educators to take the time needed for adequate implementation and a long-standing false belief that there is one best answer to any given question. Finally, the paper addressed numerous approaches identified as effective by recent authors on the subject of critical thinking. Ninth Annual College of Career Education Faculty Symposium on Teaching Effectiveness November 2001 Pagel7 Background/History of Critical Thinking Instances of critical thinking date back thousands of years to the time of Socrates and before. However, critical thinking did not come of age in America until the writings of Edward Glaser in 1941. There were very few scholars who saw a need for or wrote about critical thinking before Glaser (Paul, 1990). Critical thinking was first introduced into general education programs in the 1950s (Ignatavicius, 2001 ). Although introduced decades ago, critical thinking skills have not been fully embraced by everyone involved in education. Today, Richard Paul may be the most quoted if not the most well know scholarly advocate concerning the need for critical thinking. Paul's works have been cited in many different disciplines from health education (see Broadbear & Keyser, 2000), to social work, (see Huff, 2000), management (see Mingers, 2000) and others. Critical thinking represents a major shift from traditional education practices in the United States. Although there are differences in the way critical thinking can be taught, several different Ninth Annual College of Career Education Faculty Symposium on Teaching Effectiveness November 2001 Education's Quest academic disciplines now advocate the concept of critical thinking as a significant tool in preparing students for future challenges (Broadbear & Keyser, 2000). In today's technology advanced society, there still are times when lower order thought processes are satisfactory for the task at hand. However, those instances where lower order thinking may be sufficient are quickly disappearing (Paul, 1990). In earlier times, simply being able to follow instructions was sufficient for most employees. Then came the need for employees to read, write, and solve math. School systems of that era were adequate to prepare workers with these lower level skills. However, in today's society, businesses need workers who can do more than just follow orders, they need individuals who can use judgement to make decisions (Celuch & Slama, 1999). In a global economy, critical thinking is a skill that is quickly becoming essential to obtaining an advanced job (McBride & Carrillo, 2000). Critical decision making skills are one of only two core competencies found in the most successful leaders in