Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Chapter 2

Critical Thinking: Needed Now

More Than Ever

Carole Wade

Over two decades ago, when I first started to talk and write about critical thinking, people

would sometimes tell me that it was a lost cause at worst, a passing fad at best. This reac-

tion always surprised me because I believed that helping students learn to think deeply

about things was the main purpose of education, its very heart. Students may know a lot

of facts, but if they are unable or unwilling to assess claims and make judgments on the

basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote, can we call

them truly educated?

Today it is clear that the critics were wrong: Critical thinking is definitely not yester-

day’s fad. Just about every psychology textbook now addresses the topic, though they may

emphasize somewhat different specific skills and dispositions. Colleges, universities, and

high schools around the country now require either a critical thinking course or the inte-

gration of critical thinking goals across the curriculum. Two decades ago, critical thinking

was mainly the subject of speculation by philosophers and rhetoric professors; today, there

is psychological research on the nature of critical thinking and the best ways to teach it.

When I searched on PsycINFO for publications with “critical thinking” in the title,

I turned up 941 results, and many if not most of those publications appeared to involve

empirical research.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that getting students to think in a sophisti-

cated manner—to ask questions, define terms, examine evidence, analyze assumptions,

avoid emotional reasoning, resist oversimplification, consider alternative interpreta-

tions, and tolerate uncertainty—is still an uphill battle. Developments both within and

outside our discipline are making our job more important than ever, but also more chal-

lenging. I have heard many stories from teachers that inspire me and show how an

emphasis on critical thinking can get students’ synapses working. But here I’m going

to focus on the bad news—the growing barriers to critical thought—and why the

efforts of teachers to help students think critically and creatively are needed now more

than ever.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices Edited by D. S. Dunn, J. S. Halonen, and R. A. Smith