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Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

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Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#101
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a sense, yes. What I'm getting at specifically is that: - Although we teach people to read, we don't necessarily put enough focus on comprehension and understanding. - Although we teach people to write, we tend to focus on mechanics rather than on writing clearly and in a way that emphasizes our meaning. - We don't just focus on functional math, but teach much more complex math to virtually everyone that goes thro…

> Although we teach people to write, we tend to focus on mechanics rather than on writing clearly and in a way that emphasizes our meaning. That's not really true; the five-paragraph essay form and it's fractal expansions that dominate grade-school writing is all about clarity and focus on meaning. It's a horrible as a model for anything other than persuasive writing for a number of other reasons, and given the way t…

IRAC = Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion (I had to look it up)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAC

now I wish I'd gone to law school!

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#102
i have several questions here:

- how does one measure critical thinking in a survey? The article doesn't say so.

- The humanities/liberal arts are supposed to encourage critical thinking, how do the Humanities compare vs exact sciences/engineering in terms of critical thinking?

- Do employers really value critical thinking, or does too much critical thinking inhibit your career prospects in an organisation?

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#103

Many comments here are about the value of higher ed generally and are fascinating to read, but I'm interested in critical reasoning particularly, and this study doesn't surprise me. (1) Critical reasoning is rarely taught directly, especially to students who don't major in or take a philosophy course. (2) Even when critical reasoning is taught directly, it's poorly taught. Compare an introductory text on critical rea…

I think your point (4) has substantial problems. I mean, as other commenters have already noted, hardly anyone in STEM studies formal logic. But OK. Let's suppose you mean "informal formal logic" -- not actual formal logic, but that sort of essential sense of how predicate logic works, that it becomes a backbone of much of your thinking. Math teaches that, as do subjects which are essentially math; but does the rest of "STEM" teach that? I'm not sure that's even true. Many quantitative disciplines look terribly sloppy from my point of view.

But let's get to something more interesting. Your point (4) appears to implicitly making the claim that learning formal logic (or rather, "informal formal logic") doesn't help much with informal logic. I don't think that's right at all. Learning that sort of formal logic is a great way to learn informal logic, and I think this works much better than the other way around. Doing any sort of serious math, you will learn how an argument really works, how to take it apart. Largely you will learn this from the numerous errors you and other people will make. ("Oops! I swapped the quantifiers!") You will see contradictions presented to you and have to find the mistake. I think it's easier to learn to spot errors in this setting, where you can say certainly what's right and what's not, and then move to the fuzzier setting.

Like, the arguments I see most people making most of the time are so bad, and they'd be better if they had experience with actually finding holes in arguments, and learned to apply this to their own. Well, that's what a mathematician does. In an informal setting, of course, almost everything is potentially a hole -- and so of course you learn to explicitly lay out your assumptions, ask the reader to bear with you or spot you an inference, and otherwise explicitly acknowledge where you're making a jump.

Because really, the worst errors in informal reasoning also pop up in formal reasoning. The biggest problem I typically see with people's arguments is equivocation. That's something you learn to spot doing math! And because terms in math are overloaded, you learn to break things down, to say, "OK, we've got 'continuous' in this sense, and 'continuous' in that sense...". Learning to spot equivocations and break down concepts would help people a lot.

My experience is that mathematicians, being familiar with this sort of thing, are in fact better at informal logic than most people, by a substantial amount.

I mean, I know there's the idea of the engineer who attempts to perform (informal) formal logic on e.g. politics, taking various statements as axioms and writing down the conclusions, without noticing that the terms used in the axioms aren't used in a consistent manner, or that the axioms are ill-specified, or that the terms don't connect to anything we actually care about, etc., and coming to ridiculous conclusions. And it's possible some forms of STEM teach that, this taking of imprecise things and treating them as if they were precise, because such people certainly exist (they're easy enough to find on the internet). But my experience is that a mathematician instead learns to notice equivocations, notices imprecision, and to actually do the work of taking things that are ill-specified and making them well-specified (when possible).

Basically, pretty much all the advantages people talk about for learning philosophy, to me seem to come up in math as well. The one big exception, I think, is learning not to take texts at face value, to wonder what the author is trying to accomplish by writing this. A math paper may contain errors, but you can typically assume it's a good-faith effort at truthseeking. Whereas that is something that's definitely necssary in other fields.

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#105

The thing that most struck me after signing up for a few college courses this past semester for the first time is how little emphasis there is on actually learning the material. Especially in math classes. The entire focus is on passing a test. It seems like the entire system is just set up as a means of "testing" whether you already know enough to pass a given course, rather than the focus being on learning and deve…

Tests are the anti-cheat device though. Or at least it's easier to keep tests honest than coursework.

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#106
post #71

I went to MIT, and I'm pretty sure everyone already had critical thinking skills. In fact, I just assumed that's part of what the admissions office was looking for. > at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table Is this what defines critical thinking? Because if these are the skills they want to teach, they should just e…

It seems that no one is really sure what job college should be doing. It's this massive bundle of so much everything that no one knows what's going on but we all keep attending almost no matter what the cost.

I really think you hit the nail on the head. The critics of college and the proponents of college are both right - to a certain extent.

But therein lies the true problem - no one is really sure about what college truly is, at least we can't agree on it anymore at any level from the student level all the way to the business level. The system has evolved and devolved to a point where it has strayed far beyond it's original intents.

However even despite this uncertainty, we continue participation in the system blindly without asking questions and taking into account modern context.

I think systematic educational progress is closer to the pace of social progress than the pace of technological progress. It's incredibly complicated with tons of actors that keep the current system rolling and not enough inertia yet to push it in a different direction.

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#107

The thing that most struck me after signing up for a few college courses this past semester for the first time is how little emphasis there is on actually learning the material. Especially in math classes. The entire focus is on passing a test. It seems like the entire system is just set up as a means of "testing" whether you already know enough to pass a given course, rather than the focus being on learning and deve…

I had to take a semester of philosophy last year and I had the same reaction you did. In fact, this might be quite sinister, it almost seemed like my professors didn't even want me to learn.

One section of the course was on Feminism and my professor started off the section by saying that if you're not a feminist you shouldn't come to the lectures. In fact, this was the perfect overture to a grueling 6 months of my professor soap boxing her political opinions instead of the actual critical thinking skills I thought I would be getting out of the course.

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#108
post #30

Why should we believe that their critical thinking evaluation is accurate?

The first critical comment! A lot of anti-college head-nodding in the commentary here. It's not really that unexpected from a community that goes ga-ga over stunts like this[0]. The headline wreaks of Rupert Murdochian anti-intellectual pandering. A great claim requires great proof, and when it's below the fold... what can ya do? 0. https://venturebeat.com/2011/11/21/peter-thiel-fellowship/

>stunts like this[0].

It's a novel idea. Why does it offend you?

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#109
I graduated college back when there were still a few summer jobs that earned enough to pay for the following 2 semesters of college. I was in the biological and chemistry sciences.

The CLA+ is the test discussed in the article which measures critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving and writing. (thanks to jakob223 for the link) A sample "spreadsheets and news articles" example asked students to decide and backup your recommendation for a product campaign given numerous sources.

Looking back the biggest change in college was how fast I could absorb information and mentally outline a document's contents to come back to it. Critical thinking and analytical reasoning came from my background in computers and an amazing high school instructor. Is being faster the same as improving a skill?

The example mentioned above focused on the ability to interpret charts, tables, and graphs and write a plan of action based on and backed up by the information. Being able to work with numbers and charts usually ties into one's chosen area of study. Those who are not comfortable with numbers are not going to learn it in college because they're going to avoid exposure to it as much as possible.

Certain majors put an emphasis on critical thinking skills. If the school or the selection of seniors to sit for this exam represented this group it would definitely skew the results.

Things (I think) I did right: Always take the majors intro course versus the general. It's better taught, not everyone is clueless, and you'll probably hate the subject less. Physics 213 E&M test Average: 43% Range - 23%-63% & an 84% "outlier" by me. Won't ever forget that one!

I took a 300 level History of the Civil War rather than Western Civ. Criminal Justice and Differential equations even though I didn't need either. There were a few others but it's been too long. This was before prices exploded so taking a course out of curiosity wasn't a major financial burden. I thought my Criminal Justice instructor in insufferable liberal at the time. Four years later in a completely different environment what he said was happening all around me day and night. Without it I would have no context and completely missed what was a prelude to current day Baltimore. I continuously learn more about the Civil War. One course and I've given tours to friends of Gettysburg, Antidem, Harper's Ferry, and the Bloody Angle. Seeing why things were done a certain way after reading about it in a book is a treat. Seeing the bend in the Missouri River at Vicksburg was amazing! Look up Grant landing south of Vicksburg.

What would I suggest taking? Never stop asking "Why?" Philosophy involves questions and critical thought and discussion to a rational argument to an answer or at least something close to it. In a society of systems for stamps of certification or education asking why is increasingly infrequent. TBTAW "Too Big to Ask(or Answer) Why?" There's an art to doing it so as to not offend or insult. Putting down the brush for a mallet does have a time and place. But it's not just asking the question, it's having a system to deduce an answer. When it comes to identifying stressors asking and then answering questions is part of the process. It's part of a process.

Re: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although we teach people to write, we tend to focus on mechanics rather than on writing clearly and in a way that emphasizes our meaning. That's not really true; the five-paragraph essay form and it's fractal expansions that dominate grade-school writing is all about clarity and focus on meaning. It's a horrible as a model for anything other than persuasive writing for a number of other reasons, and given the way t…

IRAC = Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion (I had to look it up) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAC now I wish I'd gone to law school!

That sort of thing can just as well make you wish you'd gone to real estate school.

"A-I-D-A. Attention, interest, decision, action. Attention -- do I have your attention? Interest -- are you interested? I know you are because it's fuck or walk. You close or you hit the bricks! Decision -- have you made your decision for Christ?!! And action."

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