Basic principles

In his article Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons from Cognitive Science (2005) Tim van Gelder formulates six basic principles on whichCritical Thinking with Rationale is founded. These principles are partly about critical thinking itself, partly about how critical thinking skills are acquired, and partly about how critical thinking can best be taught. Van Gelder’s article can be summarized as follows:

1. Critical thinking is hard

Humans are not naturally critical. Indeed, like ballet, critical thinking is a highly contrived activity. Running is natural; nightclub dancing is less so; however, ballet is something people can only do well after many years of painful, dedicated training.

To argue in support of an opinion or to provide evidence to justify a statement, these basic skills of general reasoning are not innate abilities. Critical thinking is what cognitive scientists call a higher-order skill. That is to say, critical thinking is a complex activity built up out of other skills that are simpler and easier to acquire, like linguistic competence and text comprehension. A two-week module will not make you a critical thinker. Critical thinking is a lifelong journey.

2. Practice makes perfect

Let us take tennis, for example, which is a higher-order skill. To be able to play tennis, you must be able to do things like run, hit a forehand, hit a backhand, and watch your opponent. But mastering each of these things separately is not enough. You must be able to combine them into the coherent, fluid assemblies that make up a whole point. Reading a book on critical thinking will not develop your critical thinking skills. Mastering a skill takes lots and lots of practice and, preferably, so-called ‘deliberate practice’, that is, specific, determined and concentrated practice.

3. Practice for transfer is necessary

Within a course, critical thinking should be practiced separately. Subsequently, students have to learn to apply the acquired knowledge, skills and attitude to other fields of their studies. The entire curriculum should challenge students to do so.

4. Knowledge of the theory is a must

Having knowledge of a framework of concepts enables students to spot and define poor reasoning, and improve their capacity for self-monitoring and correction. Furthermore, theory provides the foundation for teachers to give feedback. Having command of the lingo is like having x-ray vision into thinking. For example, if you know what affirming the consequent is, you can more easily spot examples of poor reasoning, because reasoning fitting that particular pattern will be more likely to jump out at you.

5. People are prone to belief preservation

People have intrinsic tendencies to be conservative and stick with their beliefs and convictions. Therefore, it is important that teachers set an example by constantly adopting a critical, open and inquiring attitude, and to encourage their students to follow this example.

6. Argument mapping improves critical thinking skills

A core part of critical thinking is handling arguments. Visualizing arguments – argument mapping – stimulates the development of critical thinking skills. And Rationale offers a useful tool for that.