David W. Carroll et al.
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thinking across assignments. In this approach critical thinking becomes a feature of
learning all aspects of course material. In this section we illustrate a way to integrate
critical thinking with course content by weaving critical thinking objectives into the fabric
of a course. We illustrate this tapestry approach to critical thinking with case studies of a
cognitive psychology course and a history and systems of psychology course.
Our general approach identifies the critical thinking opportunities inherent in the
course content and course resources. For example, Wade and Tavris’s (1987) general
psychology textbook presented 10 guidelines that students should apply when thinking
critically about psychology. In addition to modeling critical thinking throughout the text,
Wade and Tavris integrated the guidelines into their book. Thus students learned to think
critically as a process of acquiring and mastering content in an introductory course.
The important point is that critical thinking was woven into the content rather than
presented as a study aid or an incidental learning feature.
In applying the Wade and Tavris (1987) tapestry approach to content and critical think-
ing, we identify points of contention, evidentiary issues, and intellectual problems endemic
to content of one’s course. The tapestry approach is not burdensome either to students or
instructors because content and critical thinking are part of the same package.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is a large domain that presents many teaching challenges and oppor-
tunities. Instructors of the course know that teaching and learning issues begin with the
selection of a textbook. In contrast to other areas of psychology (e.g., child psychology)
there is no real “canon” that governs either the content or the order of topics in a textbook.
From the start, the instructor exercises critical thinking capacities by choosing the text that
defines and orders the content.
The diverse topics, theories, and methodologies pose a challenge for instructors and
students alike, who sometimes regard these diversities as alternatives, or more intensely, as
rivals for correct understanding of a problem. The material demands active, reflective,
evaluative involvement if it is to result in more than a rote recitation of the list of things a
student needs for examinations.
In teaching cognitive psychology Keniston explicitly lectures about the critical thinking
threads early in the course (i.e., after teaching about the first topic, perception) and then
revisits the threads or guidelines in subsequent lectures, discussion, assignments, and
examinations. Keniston emphasizes the following problems in his cognitive psychology
course:
● Inference: How do we study what we cannot “see” directly?
● Circular reasoning: How do we avoid tautologies in our definitions or explanations?
● Causality: How do we draw appropriate conclusions from correlational and experi-
mental data?
●
Multiple perspectives: Whose ideas are right? What is the best solution?●
False dichotomies: How do we learn that two ideas, apparently mutually contradictory,actually are complementary parts of the solution to a puzzle?