A Critical Approach to Critical Thinking in TESOL

Abstract

This article presents four more‐or‐less independent reasons why TESOL educators should be cautious about adopting critical thinking pedagogies in their classrooms: (a) Critical thinking may be more on the order of a non‐overt social practice than a well‐defined and teachable pedagogical set of behaviors; (b) critical thinking can be and has been criticized for its exclusive and reductive character; (c) teaching thinking to nonnative speakers may be fraught with cultural problems; and, (d) once having been taught, thinking skills do not appear to transfer effectively beyond their narrow contexts of instruction. A more recently developed model of cognitive instruction, cognitive apprenticeship, is then briefly discussed as a possible alternative to more traditional thinking skills pedagogies. This thing we call “critical thinking” or “analysis” has strong cultural components. It is more than just a set of writing and thinking techniques—it is a voice, a stance, a relationship with texts and family members, friends, teachers, the media, even the history of one's country. This is why “critical analysis” is so hard for faculty members to talk about; because it is learned intuitively it is easy to recognize, like a face or a personality, but it is not so easily defined and is not at all simple to explain to someone who has been brought up differently. (Fox, 1994, p. 125)

Critical thinking as a citizenship competence: teaching strategies

“…A rationalistic foundation of critical thinking seems to be in conflict with 'women's ways of knowing' (cf. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986;Severiens & ten Dam, 1998), and may be class and cultural biased (Atkinson, 1997). Empirical research into this 'cultural bias', however, is lacking.…”

The Relationship between Critical Thinking Ability of Iranian English Translation Students and Their Translation Ability

“…According to Atkinson (1997), critical thinking is one of the major issues in educational setting nowadays. Numerous studies highlight its effect on various aspects of foreign /second language learning, including language proficiency, reading and listening comprehension, using learning strategies, vocabulary learning, and translation.…”

Instructional Strategies for Developing Critical Thinking in EFL Classrooms

“…Davidson & Dunham, 1997;Liu & Guo, 2006) have indicated that with proper training and guidance, EFL learners can gain advancement in their ability to think critically. Rather than being a strong argument for rejecting CT instruction, Atkinson's (1997) skepticism about the teachability of CT may be seen as a caution about the difficulties of developing CT in EFL contexts or as a call for exploring more effective CT pedagogies. Prior to the discussion of the instructional strategies, a brief review of the prominent definitions of CT helps us gain insights into the important features of the key term.…”

“…Atkinson (1997) especially expresses doubt about the feasibility of teaching CT to EFL learners; in his view, CT is a "social practice" (p. 72) inherent in Western culture and can only be acquired through an unconscious process of socialization during childhood. In a refutation of Atkinson's position, Davidson (1998) reasonably contends that even though CT is less practised in some cultures, it does not make a good reason for precluding CT to EFL learners; instead, "such cultural differences are a strong argument for its explicit introduction" (p. 122).…”