Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Becoming a critical thinker is no simple task. It does not happen in a flash, overnight, or

even in a 15-week semester. A college diploma does not guarantee that its bearer became

a good critical thinker. Certainly, particular habits of mind or dispositions may enable

some people to become critical thinkers more readily than others. In most cases, however,

learning critical thinking takes time, practice, and deliberate effort from both students and

their teachers. Nevertheless, most people agree that critical thinking (CT) is an essential

educational objective for all students, beginning in the primary grades through the college

years and beyond. If you are reading this book you probably also agree that fostering CT

in your classroom is worthwhile.

Despite the widespread and positive buzz among educators, employers, and policy

makers about the merits of CT, college students often fail even to recognize when they are

engaging in CT. One of us (Kuebli) asked psychology majors in a capstone course to

define CT. Many of them defined it as any kind of thinking that required effort. One

student described using CT in the split second it took him to brake before slamming into

the car ahead of him. Several students reported doing CT while walking to class or on

their cell phones. Another student commented that she was usually “in bed either right

before I fall asleep or when I wake up and don’t have to get out of bed. Also in class

especially if I’m not interested in the class.” For the most part, these psychology majors did

not understand CT as a complex construct that includes examining multiple perspectives,

reasoning logically, and evaluating evidence about ideas or claims for the purpose of

changing beliefs or taking actions.

Certainly there is more than one way to provide CT instruction. Two general approaches

are implicit and explicit (Gray, 1993). More implicit approaches guide students through

discussions and activities that are designed to infuse and elicit critical thinking without

drawing attention to the thinking processes themselves. The Socratic method of

questioning, for example, could be used in this way. More explicit approaches add

instruction about CT itself, and support students’ metacognitive awareness and monitoring

Chapter 12

Critical Thinking in Critical Courses:

Principles and Applications

Janet E. Kuebli, Richard D. Harvey,

and James H. Korn

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