Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Report 5

Introducing Controversial Issues

in Psychology Through Debate

and Reflection

Sherri B. Lantinga

In the psychology education literature, critical thinking typically refers to students’ ability

to consider the quality of arguments and their supporting evidence, to define terms, or to

examine underlying assumptions (Yanchar & Slife, 2004). To foster such analytical proc-

esses, instructors adopt a wide range of pedagogical strategies and assignments.

Unfortunately, such assignments are often isolated rather than building on one another,

have a single audience (the instructor), and receive only written responses days or even

weeks after the students demonstrate their thinking skills. To counter these shortcomings,

I developed a set of interrelated assignments to build students’ critical thinking abilities,

develop their professional communication and information literacy skills, further their

understanding of controversies in psychology, and encourage immediate and peer feed-

back about their thinking (see American Psychological Association, 2007, for national

assessment guidelines). I used this project in an introduction to psychological science

course, which students normally take after general psychology and concurrently with other

foundation courses in the major. This course normally enrolls 15 to 25 freshmen and

sophomores who have declared psychology as a major or psychology minors whose majors

typically include social work, business, and exercise.

Project Description

The project involves an individual research paper, an in-class group debate/discussion, and

individual student responses to the controversial issues. Small groups of two to three students

together chose a controversial question from a list I developed from articles in the Taking Sides

volumes (e.g., Nier, 2005; Slife, 2006). I chose the topics for their ability to engage student

interest. The questions focused on research ethics (e.g., use of animals in psychological research)

and various mental health issues (e.g., whether religious practice enhances mental health).

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