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Simple Strategies for Teaching
how it might apply to them. Thus, during the first week, we offer a few definitions of
critical thinking to our students and share with them a half dozen or so of the key
attributes of critical thinkers. We share with them one of our primary goals for the
course: We would like them to possess all or at least some of these attributes by the time
the academic term ends.
We also stress the importance of critical thinking to making reasonable decisions in
college and beyond and we provide one simple example of critical thinking as it relates to
the course material. One of our favorite examples in the introductory course is attribu-
tion. We pose something like the following scenario to the class: “Suppose you are walk-
ing across campus and, being the friendly person that you are, you say ‘hi’ to a woman
who is passing by you. She responds by looking directly at you with a scowl on her face
and says nothing to you—to what would you attribute her unkindly response to your
friendliness?” Many students react immediately and emotionally to this question and
often refer to the woman as a “jerk” or “snob,” and go on to refer to the woman’s disposi-
tion in explaining the potential causes for her behavior. A few students, though, are more
thoughtful and note that there may be extenuating circumstances that explain her
response—maybe she just received some bad news or is not feeling well at the moment.
What this quick exercise does is to get students thinking about alternative explanations
for behavior and to understand the role of their own emotions in making judgments
about others.
It is one of our favorite examples because (a) it is highly interesting to students, (b) it is
a psychological phenomenon in which students regularly (but often unwittingly) engage,
(c) the pitfalls of misattributions are clear and compelling, and (d) it is a way for us to tie
critical thinking into psychology early in the course.
Throughout the Academic Term
As you work your way through the academic term, follow through on what you have
taught students about critical thinking in the first week of class. We have attempted to
accomplish this task in two different ways. First, we set aside time each week to do critical
thinking exercises, focusing on how it applies to the topic at hand. Each week we give
students out-of-class critical thinking assignments, which they complete and turn in. We
follow up on these assignments by reviewing them in class. Second, we simply ask students
to work through problem-based scenarios in class. Both methods have worked very well
for us, although the first method uses less class time. However, the tradeoff is the depth
and quality of discussion engendered by the second method.
Regardless of which of these methods (or other methods) you might adopt to teach
critical thinking, the key is to be consistent in injecting critical thinking into your class.
A little bit of critical thinking here and there will not do—you should attempt to have
your students think critically about your subject matter each week. That way, you con-
stantly remind students of the importance of critical thinking in problem solving and
decision making. Such consistency also helps students to become accustomed to thinking
critically in your class—and it may increase the likelihood that they will apply critical
thinking to their lives outside the classroom.