Critical thinking has received much attention among educators, yet
remains largely undeveloped in traditional teacher-centred classrooms. Critical
thinking is used in at least three major contexts: (1) the media and general public,
(2) teacher pedagogy, and (3) academic discourse. Critical thinking must be better
understood by individuals within all three levels. The purposes of this study
were (1) to obtain an overall sense of what secondary school teachers believed
critical thinking to entail; (2) to compare and contrast B.C. and Japanese
secondary teachers' conceptions of critical thinking; (3) to investigate the nature
of B.C. and Japanese secondary teachers' conceptions of critical thinking with
respect to gender, age, teaching experience and subject taught; and (4) to
determine whether critical thinking is a significant part of B.C. and Japanese
teaching and the curriculum at the secondary level.
Over 150 secondary teachers from B.C. and Japan were asked to (1) sort
through 50 potential definers denoting possible attributes of critical thinking; (2)
rank the 10 most significant to critical thinking; and (3) answer a questionnaire
about the nature of critical thinking.
The quantitative data, effectively reduced through factor analysis, yielded a
five factor solution: Scientific Reasoning, Cognitive Strategizing, Conscientious
Judgements, Relevance, and Intellectual Engagement. B.C. teachers
conceptualized critical thinking through Cognitive Strategizing and Relevance,
while Japanese teachers favoured Conscientious Judgements and Intellectual
Engagement. From a synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data from teachers
surveyed as well as expert opinion, critical thinking was found to be a process in
which an individual is actively engaged in analyzing, reasoning, questioning,
and creatively searching for alternatives in an effort to solve a problem or to
make a decision or judgement. Teachers indicated that critical thinking was not
rote memorization, demonstrating factual knowledge, comprehension or
application. It was more than following a given algorithm or set of procedures.
While over half the teachers surveyed indicated critical thinking was part of the
curriculum and their teaching, many were unable to articulate how to teach it
effectively. There were significant differences in teachers' conceptions of critical
thinking. Culture accounted for more differences than gender, age, teaching
experience, subject area, or the teaching of critical thinking. Using discriminant
analysis, 27 definers distinguished between B.C. and Japanese teachers. While
B.C. teachers tended to choose "Decision making," "Problem solving,"
"Divergent thinking," "Metacognitive skills," "Higher order thinking,"
"Deductive reasoning," and "Identifying/removing bias," Japanese teachers
tended to chose "Fairness," "Adequacy," "Objective," "Consistency,"
"Completeness," Precision," and "Specificity." Over 96 percent of the teachers
were correctly classified by culture.
Further research is necessary on how to teach critical thinking across the
curriculum and successfully integrate it with B.C. and Japanese educational
reforms in areas such as curriculum development and teacher training. Critical
thinking is a Western expression, yet the concept is not confined to the West.
The author proposes the use of a new term for critical thinking with less
emphasis on "critical" and more emphasis on "thinking"—kangaeru chikara or
"powerful thinking" better encompasses the nature of critical thinking as it is
conceived by B.C. and Japan's teachers. Teacher training must incorporate
powerful thinking and teachers must model critical thinking, for any effort to
reform the structure or organization of education ultimately depends on the
effectiveness of the teacher.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10626 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Howe, Edward Ronald |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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