Chapter 1: The Value of Thinking Critically

Schools, Businesses Focus on Critical Thinking

By Marisa Taylor

September 12, 2010

While the ability to think critically is, well, critical in the workplace, employers have long complained that many of the young college graduates they hire seem to lack this skill. Now, universities are trying to fix the problem before their grads ever meet a recruiter.

When asked which skills new college graduates needed to improve most, more than half of the respondents to the question on The Wall Street Journal’s survey of 479 college recruiters named some combination of critical thinking, problem solving skills, and the ability to think independently.

These results echo what the Business Roundtable, a network of company chief executives, found in a 2009 survey of 600 employers. Despite the recession and high jobless rate, 61% of respondents said it was difficult to find qualified employees. Susan Traiman, the Roundtable’s director of public policy, says the skills companies felt were most lacking were work ethic, communication skills, and analytic skills. “We heard this over and over again,” she said.

Sara Holoubek, chief executive of Luminary Labs, a boutique consulting firm in New York, says the recent graduate analysts she hires, though “extremely smart,” can’t seem to turn their isolated observations about a client’s business into a strategy—despite the fact that they are often better observers than their superiors.

This inability to assert an opinion holds young employees back in client presentations, she adds.

George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences is one of the schools addressing the problem. Its new core curriculum will focus on developing reasoning and critical thinking. Beginning in 2011, for example, freshmen will no longer simply complete a science class and get credit for a required course. They’ll have to prove proficiency in scientific reasoning to pass.

To measure that, professors are designing evaluation standards and assignments to test students on their reasoning skills.

Other schools are reformatting classes to shorten lectures and include peer teaching. Harvard University physics professor Eric Mazur first pushed the concept in the 1990s when he began using a short lecture that ends with a problem that students discuss with peers, instead of spending an hour lecturing. The student-to-student aspect helps cement understanding of the concepts, say experts.

The model has been adopted in other science and math courses at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California at San Francisco, among others. Similarly, in the last few years, the National Center for Academic Transformation has led the redesign of large lecture courses at dozens of colleges to ramp up the time students spend working on problems in small groups or in guided learning labs.

Villanova University’s School of Business is taking another approach, recently combining its introductory accounting and finance courses and its introductory management and marketing courses to form co-taught, cross-disciplinary classes more aligned with what students will encounter on the job.

The idea, says marketing professor James Glasgow, who co-teaches the marketing and management course for sophomores, is to “take the concept… and then [show] the application of that knowledge so the student comes up with a better understanding.”

Meanwhile, many employers say they are trying to help new hires develop these skills. Ms. Holoubek, for example, recently signed up an employee for external training. Other companies make it a point for managers to spend extra time developing independent and critical thinking skills in their new hires.

The Business Roundtable has launched the Springboard Project to find ways to bridge the gaps. Chaired by Accenture PLC Chairman and Chief Executive William D. Green, the group’s latest effort is a free online video series called JobSTART101, which aims to teach what Mr. Green dubs the “dot-connecting skills.” Subjects include how to articulate a point of view.

“We need to raise the water table by improving the analytical skills, the critical thinking skills, the communication skills that are necessary for really almost every job in today’s economy,” said Mr. Green. The videos will be released in the fall to college career centers and social networking sites.

Whether today’s young graduates are less able to think critically than their forbears, or if it’s that the current pace of the workplace requires more independent thinking than it did in the past, is up for debate. Some experts speculate that online search engines and peer-generated information from social-networking sites have dulled young people’s research skills.

Todd Davis, executive director of recruitment at Burbank, Calif.-based Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. says he sees increasing numbers of his recent college graduate hires relying on such sources when creating strategies.

That means many don’t understand the reasons why a strategy might—or might not—work. Many take search engine results as fact, he says.

“We have individuals who are making assumptions without doing any significant research,” says Mr. Davis, who oversees hiring of more than a thousand employees a year. “They think they understand what they’re saying… but they don’t have an understanding of why.”

Multiple Choice Question

According to the article, recruiters and employers complained that recent college graduates are often lacking which of the following qualities?

· submissiveness

· respect for authority

· problem solving skills

· writing skills

How have universities been making changes to increase their students’ critical thinking skills? Give at least one example from the article?

According to Warner Brothers recruiting director Todd Davis, how have online search engines possibly dulled young people’s research skills?

· Many people take search engine results as fact and form assumptions without doing more extensive research.

· Many people don’t understand how to use appropriate search terms to get the information they need.

· Many people don’t exhibit enough curiosity to bother going online to look up things they don’t know.

· Many people tend to accept claims from their superiors at face value rather than investigating them online.

Notes on Critical Thinking

1 Thinking / Page 1.6 The Best Possible

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The Best Possible

If a perfect argument were available, there wouldn’t be a need for critical thinking. We tend to get intentional and rigorous about our thinking when situations are complex, when the way forward is not obvious and the evidence is shaky. Critical thinking is most helpful with important issues that require us to investigate facts, weigh evidence, and reach the best conclusion we can.

Best vs. Perfect

Not all questions have one definitive, correct answer. Certainty is possible in math and sometimes in science. But for many scientific claims and most of life’s questions, we’re comparing various arguments to find the most probable conclusion. The further we go into the humanities (questions of human nature, society, history, politics, ethics, and metaphysics), the more we need the skills of critical thinking.

Consider your job. How many judgment calls do you make in a day? How many problems do you have to solve? How often do you need to communicate effectively with supervisors, coworkers, and customers? For most of us, each day requires dozens of decisions, judgment calls, and discussions to arrive at the best possible solution—not the one perfect solution.

Having Better Opinions

Everyone has beliefs and opinions. Does it make sense to view some beliefs as better than others? Are some opinions more reasonable than others?

Critical thinkers evaluate beliefs and opinions on the basis of truth and reason. Take a given belief such as, “The tallest building in New York is the Empire State Building,” or something fuzzier like, “Cats are good pets.” Are these claims reasonable? Are there facts we can check? Can the people making the claims offer reasons for why they believe these things? The more certain the facts are and the more support they have, the better substantiated the opinion is. By this token, some opinions certainly are better than others.

It is a bit counterintuitive, but listening to people who think differently than you is one way to strengthen the quality of your opinion on an issue. First, it’s really helpful to know the common criticisms of your perspective. Second, you might learn some key bit of information that, once known, will lead you to a new conclusion. Third, listening to people who disagree with you will push you to find stronger reasons for believing what you do.

One word of warning: you’re not perfect. Nobody is. So once you start reflecting on what you believe and why, you’re likely to find some problems. When you do, dig in. Check your facts. Seek out experts. Perform experiments. Run “what if” scenarios. Have open-minded discussions with people you like and respect. The end result of such efforts will be a better, truer understanding of the issue at hand.

Having Good Discussions

· In everyday speech, an argument usually means a heated disagreement in which the goal is to “win” by dominating the other person.

· In critical thinking, an argument consists of reasons to believe a particular conclusion.

· Discussions are about exchanging ideas on an issue and explaining, in a deliberate way, what you believe and why.

· Discussions should involve listening, learning, supporting your beliefs with evidence, asking questions, responding to others’ points, and trying to deepen your understanding.

· These kinds of exchanges will help you strengthen your own thinking and clarify the nuances of your position.

In the end, critical thinking isn’t just about asking what’s true; it’s about asking why you believe what you do. When you ask yourself why you believe this or that, you’re engaging in critical thinking. Test the facts you can. Listen to opposing viewpoints with an ear open for truth. Substantiate your beliefs by knowing why you hold a particular opinion. Be prepared to defend your position on controversial issues. Every time you pursue these goals, you’re thinking critically.

Which of the following questions is MOST likely to have a single, definitive answer?

· How much did Uncle Tom’s Cabin influence antebellum views on slavery?

· What’s the best and quickest way for an economy to get out of a recession?

· What combination of atoms makes up a molecule of baking soda?

· To what extent should parents’ religious beliefs be allowed to override the rules of a public school system?

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· Short Answer Question

· Why is it beneficial to listen to people with opposing viewpoints on issues you feel passionately about?

Describe a time when you had a productive discussion with someone that compelled you to alter your opinion about an issue, and explain why you changed your point of view?

Notes on Critical Thinking

1 Thinking / Page 1.7 Practice: The Best Possible

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Practice: The Best Possible

“Okay... You’re Right”

If you’re arguing with a friend about whether New Hampshire or Vermont has the nickname “the Green Mountain State” and then outside sources confirm that you were correct, there’s nothing like the smugly satisfying feeling of being able to say, “I told you it was Vermont.” But when the tables are turned and you’ve been proven wrong, admitting defeat is usually much less pleasant. This reluctance to concede becomes much more problematic when the debate isn’t over a simple empirical fact, but over a complex, multifaceted issue on which both parties might have both good points in some areas and flawed thinking in others.

Massimo Pigliucci is a philosopher and professor at the City University of New York and the creator of the blog Rationally Speaking. In the blog post below, “How to Want to Change Your Mind,” he explains why a willingness to concede is such a valuable skill and offers advice on how to make this unpleasant practice easier to do.

Poll Question

How easy do you find it to admit you’re wrong in an argument?

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· Very easy

· Easy

· Difficult

· Very difficult

· Impossible

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Short Answer Question

How does the writer differentiate between being “actually right as much as possible” and “being right in a particular disagreement”?

No response saved yet.

Multiple Choice Question

Why does the author advise that you view things you believe as “a belief” rather than “your belief”?

· It reminds you that you were not the first person to formulate this viewpoint and it does not belong to you alone.

· It makes the belief less personal and enables you to examine it more objectively.

· It allows you to have multiple beliefs about a single subject.

· It helps you develop a more personal attachment to your beliefs so that you will be more defensive when they are attacked.

Multiple Choice Question

Nikita and Desmond are debating whether high school students should be allowed to use cell phones in school. Desmond says they shouldn’t; Nikita secretly agrees with him for the most part, but she argues from the opposing side just to keep the debate lively. Why would the author have a problem with Nikita’s behavior?

· It’s dishonest and unethical for Nikita to deceive her friend about what her true beliefs are.

· The practice of playing devil’s advocate turns the discussion into a competition instead of a collaboration.

· Nikita’s argument probably won’t be as strong or rational if she is arguing against what she truly believes.

· Nikita will probably lose the argument, and then she’ll feel disappointed or ashamed.

Multiple Choice Question

What does the author recommend doing if you have a competitive streak that you can’t get rid of when you argue, even when you’re being proven wrong?

· Do more research in advance so you can enter every argument with all the answers prepared.

· Imagine winning your next argument with the improved knowledge you’ve acquired.

· Subtly divert the topic of the argument to a different issue that you’re positive you’re right about.

· Use the time while your opponent is talking to brainstorm clever responses.

· Response Board Question

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Give an example of a disagreement where neither party sees eye to eye, but at the same time it’s hard to empirically prove one side or the other wrong.

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