Teaching Critical Thinking

by Kylie Sturgess

Kylie Sturgess was runner-up in the 2006 Australian Skeptics’ Prize for Critical Thinking. This is her entry.

I am currently working as a secondary school teacher in Western Australia. Since 2003 I’ve gained Levels 1 and 2 accreditation in the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Association’s ‘Philosophy Teacher Educator’. I have mainly focused on how to encourage links in the English classroom to science outcomes and have become more interested in skepticism and applied critical thinking for young people. The challenges I have faced include consolidating my understandings of critical thinking and how to teach such skills effectively in secondary schools. I was particularly intrigued by the many tertiary-aimed College courses on critical thinking and skepticism — more than what is available for the lower years of schooling. I have also noted the unfortunate limitations of forum board discussions and sites which mostly cater to bringing skepticism to already-skeptical adult audiences and have wondered how to better use the internet in that regard.

During 2003 – 4, I ran an elective ‘Philosophy’ unit for Year 10 students at Methodist Ladies’ College, where we engaged in both a historical and thematic look at Philosophy over an eight week period. The students produced group work posters on early Greek philosophers, debates on various issues and an essay comparing The Matrix and Minority Report. I found responses to that unit to be very favourable (via students, parents and departmental feedback) but I do wonder about the long-term effects of studying philosophy on the students who didn’t go on to do upper-English classes in English Literature, where such philosophical ideas are sometimes revisited. The ‘flash in the pan’ notion does not appeal to me and I thought that the novelty of such an experience had to be made more relevant beyond that discrete unit. It was then I started to look over to skeptical groups online and found excellent skepticism projects suggested by teachers like Michael McRay of the randi.org forums. I began to look at what critical thinking programs were already in place in the Science departments of high schools and colleges. During my time interacting with online forums, I worked as a moderator for the James Randi forum board.

I’ve since looked at the new West Australian Outcomes Based programs for 3A/B units in English, where the critical thinking skills from my Philosophy unit for the Year 10 class could be expanded upon and count towards final-year literacy outcomes. I am currently working on the 3A/B English as an Additional Language units too, where philosophical ideas and critical thinking skills raised in many subject areas could be expanded upon. I’ve always thought that non-English speaking background students will gain a deeper understanding of ideas raised in the Science and Maths areas and feel comfortable challenging notions or questioning concepts if they were given more time to discuss them in the English classroom. After all, shouldn’t English as a subject support use of English as a language in other classes? Especially since many of my EAL students choose science subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology and mathematical subjects like Algebra and Geometry, as they hope to work in fields which require a solid grounding in those disciplines.

After attending James Randi’s The Amaz!ng Meeting in January 2005 and hearing a lecture on ‘Teaching Critical Thinking in the Physical Sciences’ by Liam McDaid of Sacramento City College, I started to reflect on how skepticism could be investigated in English classes too. My classes could cater to investigating one’s views about pseudoscientific and paranormal claims, whilst learning expository genre structures and research methods. So at the end of 2005, I ran what could almost be called a ‘trial project assignment’. My Year 10 students were asked to look at a claim and present a short personal essay on the ‘pros and cons’ of it, drawing upon both print and non-print resources. It was quite well received, especially by the Special Needs Learning centre where the teachers mentioned how the handful of support students in my class found it really empowering to speak out about how they felt about mixed messages on ghosts and aliens.

It was at the beginning of 2006, however, that the West Australian Skeptic Association ran their competition for challenging pseudoscientific and paranormal claims — aimed at primarily at students in science classes and requiring a formal report. Since there was no limitation on which department could enter, I made this the ‘theme’ for my Term 2 upper-ability English class (along with studies of Macbeth, GATTACA and The Chrysalids) and we ended up submitting six reports. My students gained two awards and one honourable mention. I currently have my second English class writing reports for the 2007 WA Skeptics awards and I’ve contributed my worksheets and ideas to the WA Skeptics group. I hope to further promote the model of their competition to other skeptical groups as a simple community-based project that is relevant to local schools and contributes to curriculum requirements.

The students now ask me if we can do ‘more philosophy in the classroom’ and I’m thinking of how to revise my Term 4 plans to revitalise and expand my initial Philosophy course. In 2007 I plan to encourage other year groups across the school to enter the WA Skeptics Awards. By attending future conferences like the Amaz!ng Meeting in 2007 and other critical thinking based seminars, I hope to gain further insights on useful programs that can be adapted or incorporated. I also intend to continue my Masters of Education in the Teaching of Critical Thinking, as I will have completed my studies in Special Learning Needs by April 2007.

In addition to this, after discussing with online Mathematicians about how ‘women in Maths and Science never seem to given much consideration outside the Maths and Science classrooms’, I’m working on producing a series of lessons looking at investigating the history of women in these fields. This will take the form of looking at key ideas about what are major discoveries in Science and what encourages these women to make a difference in those particular fields. I am working on this as a Year 9 task, since we already have the thematic approach of ‘Difference and Diversity’ in our English classes.

I often hear talk of the problems faced by teachers when meeting curriculum demands in other departments and believe that we can take proactive steps through collaboration, both amongst teachers and those who care about education of young people. I know through studying cross-curricular activities which share outcomes across departments and integrate critical thinking skills, that they can enrich the experience of education for both students and teachers. I also think that encouraging a skeptical mindset in the face of the many credulous claims which influence young people is very important, considering the power of group thinking and complacency in regards to potentially damaging activities and beliefs. Innovative teaching of skepticism in the classroom is made possible by communicating what the ongoing testing process is and how much we care about the effects of claims, which can go from the outright fraudulent practice to the unfortunately deluded idea. It’s going to take time, but every day is another step.