Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Disposition, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring.

Abstract

Advances in technology and changes in necessary workplace skills have made the ability to think critically more important than ever before, yet there is ample evidence that many adults consistently engage in flawed thinking. Numerous studies have shown that critical thinking, defined as the deliberate use of skills and strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome, can be learned in ways that promote transfer to novel contexts. A 4-part empirically based model is proposed to guide teaching and learning for critical thinking: (a) a dispositional component to prepare learners for effortful cognitive work, (b) instruction in the skills of critical thinking, (c) training in the structural aspects of problems and arguments to promote transcontextual transfer of critical-thinking skills, and (d) a metacognitive component that includes checking for accuracy and monitoring progress toward the goal.

Critical thinking as a citizenship competence: teaching strategies

“…Psychologists conceptualize critical thinking first and foremost as higher-order thinking skills and focus attention on the appropriate learning and instruction processes (e.g. Halpern, 1998;Kuhn, 1999). Lastly, the concept of critical thinking functions in 'critical pedagogy'.…”

“…Kennedy et al, 1991;Halpern, 1998). He included thinking skills related to critical thinking in his taxonomy of educational objectives (Beyer, 1987in Garside, 1996.…”

Questões sociocientíficas na prática docente: ideologia, autonomia e formação de professores

“…o professor e as professoras expuseram em seus trabalhos referenciais teóricos sobre o desenvolvimento de pensamento crítico conforme vários autores (ennis, 1987;Halpern, 1998;Campos, 2007). Segundo esse referencial, os professores entendem o pensamento crítico como um processo reflexivo e racional, por meio do qual os indivíduos decidem o que fazer e no que acreditar diante de determinadas situações ou problemas.…”

Challenges Faced by a Mathematically Strong Student Intransferring his Success in Mathematics to Statistics: A Case Study

“…In the paragraphs that follow, we provide the definition of critical thinking disposition, drawing on Ennis's (1989) definition and Halpern's (1998) description of the characteristics of a critical thinking disposition. We then present a theoretical framework that includes our definition of a critical thinking disposition and our view of the process of how critical thinking disposition transfers between two domains, as well as a model of how subject matter knowledge and problem-solving skills and strategies affect the transfer of subject-specific critical thinking to a different subject.…”

“…Further, we define subject-specific critical thinking disposition by confining the desirable outcomes and the reflective thinking within a given subject. Halpern (1998) Routine problems tend to be solved with habitual solutions and without the problem solver' s conscious awareness of the process, but critical thinking requires the conscious exertion of mental effort. Therefore, an eagerness to engage in and persist at a complex task in a domain would be expected from one with a probing inquisitiveness and a zealous dedication to reason in that domain.…”