How NOT to think: Correct answers and critical thinking

One of the loftier goals of the Quality Enhancement Program of which I am currently a member is to "encourage critical thinking". Or perhaps it's "to enhance critical thinking", or maybe "to instill critical thinking". As you can see, I have the program's goals memorized. Anyway, the bottom line is that we, they, the program wants our students to become more adept at critical thinking.

Right.
That sounds wonderful in a grant application, or an article on pedagogy, but when put into practice like that, it immediately begets one very important question: What is critical thinking?

Seriously, people, what is it? When does someone engage in critical thinking? And can everyone do it? Or only a select few? Can it be taught or is it inherent in your neurological functioning?

I'm going to have to be honest here, and tell you that I really don't know. That's the bad news. The good news is that I think I have a fairly clear idea what critical thinking is not. So I thought I would start with that, and then hopefully come to an inductive definition of the concept.

Critical thinking is not:

- tying your shoelaces
- going for a run
- cleaning your bicycle
- dusting
- memorizing traffic signs for your driving test
- standing at attention because someone just told you to
- demanding to know "the right answer" from your professor
- committing the questions and answers on a study guide to heart
- writing a critical essay in such a way it will please your professor (and hopefully earn you that "A")
- Shouting "ooohrah" at a military function because everyone else does
- wandering through a bookstore, without any real purpose or motivation

I realize that I could go on and on here, but I think I've got enough to come up with at least an operational idea what critical thinking entails.

First, critical thinking is not mindless. Unless you're three years old, and you're just learning how to tie your shoelaces (and you still have to tell yourself "right over left, left over right"), it's generally something I do without thinking about it. Which is the same state of mind I'm in when cleaning my bike, running, or dusting. I go through the motions without giving it any thought. It's like going to church and sitting/standing/kneeling/mumbling "and also with you" without really knowing what you're doing or why.

So, if critical thinking is not mindless, what does that mean it is? Well, perhaps it implies that critical thinking implies an awareness of one's cognitive processes. You not only think about what you do (because obviously, without some form of subconscious thinking, your shoelaces would not end up in two pretty bunny ears), but you realize that you're thinking about what you're doing. I realize that that sounds almost painful, but I think of this process of having your internal editor turned on. An editor that constantly monitors what you're thinking, why you're thinking it, and if it makes any sense at all.

Second, the end goal of critical thinking can never be to merely produce a correct answer, or something that will please someone. Memorizing that the civil war started in 1861 and ended in 1865 does not constitute critical thinking. Neither does the literal memorization of your professor's study guide, or demanding to know the right answer to question 14 in class. Although doing all those things requires thinking, this type of thinking is not critical.

In critical thinking, you see, it's OK to be wrong. It's not about the outcome, it's about the thinking process that goes into getting to the outcome. When testing for critical thinking, the right answer is not what matters. What matters is how someone got there. This, in turn, implies a certain amount of freedom. If one is to engage in critical thinking, one has to be free from any constraints, whether they be "the right answer", or societal constraints ("you can't say that!"), or rules and regulations ("you may not criticize the government"), or religious constraints ("God doesn't want you do think/act/speak like that").

So now, let's try for that inductive definition, shall we?

Critical thinking is a mindful, conscious process whereby one monitors one's thought processes, and which is not constrained by a focus on the outcome, or restricted by certain rules, regulations, norms, or behavioral expectations.

Right. I would end with great, or something to that effect, but the question that keeps running through my mind right now is, how on earth do we measure that?