Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Chapter 3

Have We Demystified Critical Thinking?

Natalie Kerr Lawrence, Sherry L. Serdikoff,

Tracy E. Zinn, and Suzanne C. Baker

“Critical thinking scholarship is in a mystified state. No single definition of critical

thinking is widely accepted” (Halonen, 1995, p. 75)

Psychology faculty agree that critical thinking instruction is important (Appleby, 2006;

Halpern, 2002), but they cannot agree on a precise definition of critical thinking. Critical

thinking is a “mystified concept” (Minnich, 1990, p. 51), a problem that Halonen (1995)

addressed over a decade ago. In this chapter, we attempt to further demystify the concept

of critical thinking. We begin by looking at student and faculty perceptions of critical

thinking. Building on the work of Halonen (1995) and Halpern (2002, 2003), we then

describe specific activities and techniques designed to address the propensity, cognitive,

and metacognitive components of critical thinking.

Student and Faculty Views of Critical Thinking

Twenty psychology faculty and 170 undergraduate psychology majors completed an

online survey regarding critical thinking and how it is addressed in the classroom. In addi-

tion to open-ended questions, we included a forced-choice question, where respondents chose

the best among four different definitions of critical thinking. Students and faculty agreed

that the best definition was that provided by Halonen (1995): “the propensity and skills

to engage in activity with reflective skepticism focused on deciding what to believe or do”

(p. 76). Most students and faculty also agreed that critical thinking was important in

facilitating learning. Not surprisingly, freshmen rated critical thinking as less important

than other participants did. More advanced students and those who had taken a research

methods course were more likely to appreciate the importance of critical thinking.

For faculty, the activities rated most likely to encourage critical thinking were critiqu-

ing a journal article, engaging in debates, writing a research paper, submitting discussion

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