In summer 2005, North
Carolina Wesleyan College held a faculty seminar in applying critical thinking
into the classroom. The seminar, sponsored by Title III, came as part of the
College’s annual effort to encourage faculty to enhance some aspect of their
teaching, especially within courses from either the general education and/or
lower level curricula.
Past workshops have focused on such areas as interactive teaching and learning, multicultural learning styles, course assessment, and online instruction. This year, workshop leader, Dr. Craig Nelson, Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, led participants in examining the difficulties students face in acquire critical thinking skills and exploring theoretical approaches and practical applications that can be used by faculty in the classroom to foster critical thinking in their students.
According to Nelson, “in order
to think critically in higher
order ways one needs to understand that there is
meaningful uncertainty involved (something that needs to be decided rather than
memorized), to be able to discern what is being compared or should be compared,
to know that in the face of uncertainly all answers are usually NOT equally
valid, and to understand and be able to apply criteria to distinguish which of
the alternatives are either better or terrible.” He argues that for most
students, “critical thinking is a deeply social enterprise” and that “the most
dramatic gains by far come from combining careful structuring of social dynamics
with the step-wise provision of analytical tools.”