Issues in education - Commentary

A. Binker, K. Jensen and H. Kreklau, and R. Paul, in their work, Critical thinking handbook: A guide for remodeling lesson plans in language arts, social studies and science (1990) also highlighted the cognitive dimension of critical thinking. Cognition according to the Encarta English Dictionary is the “ability to acquire knowledge...by use of reasoning, intuition or perception” and it is also “knowledge acquired through reasoning, intuition or perception”. Cognition as defined by this dictionary is not only our ability to acquire knowledge but it is also the knowledge that we acquire. Cognition is thinking. The cognitive dimension of critical thinking involves the use of a number of strategies. From the list of strategies provided by R. Paul, A. Binker, K. Jensen and H. Kreklau, in their work, I have extracted a number of words and phrases which we often see in assignments we get as students or we use them in assignments that we give to our students. But these words and phra...

What does critically thinking involve? Though many other scholars have provided us with some insight on critical thinking, I will, very briefly, engage with the work of R. Paul, A. Binker, K. Jensen and H.  Kreklau. In their work, Critical thinking handbook: A guide for remodeling lesson plans in language arts, social studies and science (1990), they have developed a list of thirty-five dimensions of critical thought. Here is a summary . These writers conclude from their study that critical thinking involves affective and cognitive strategies. These strategies are useful, I believe, in helping us to strengthen our capacity to think critically. I will cursorily examine the affective dimension of critical thinking as presented by these scholars in this article.   Affective strategies refer to the approaches which we may use to understand and keep in focus the emotional dimension of our thinking. If we allow our emotions to cloud our thinking th...

Photo credit: pixabay.com What is critical thinking? Let us “unpack” the meaning of this phrase by examining each word in turn. A dictionary will provide us with a number of synonyms for the word “critical”. Some of these synonyms are “significant”, “important”, “key”, “vital”, “essential” and “crucial”. These are words loaded with meaning. But what we can take from these synonyms is that if something is “critical" it demands attention. What is thinking? I will say it is a response to the stimulation of our senses. We see, we hear, we smell, we taste, and we touch “things”, not necessarily at the same time. When our senses are stimulated, impressions are left with us. These impressions are the thoughts that continuously flit through our minds. And, in engaging with these thoughts, we are in the process of thinking. How do we engage with our thoughts? Some of our thoughts are random. They pass through our minds and then we dismiss them. Other thoughts are tenacious. They ...