Critical thinking: a demand and a challenge

Most commentators on our educational system, both at school and university level, cite critical thinking as a skill that is almost entirely absent, yet is much needed.

They call on those in charge of curricula to prioritise the skill and embed it in a way that enables schools and universities to graduate critical readers and intelligent analysts.

Research indeed strongly supports such demand.

Several researchers cite critical thinking as one of the four essential objectives of education, the so-called four Cs, the other three being collaboration, communication and creativity. 

The call for critical thinking in our society has recently intensified in light of heightened interest in curricula, which are important ways of empowering young men and women both for employability considerations, and to survive in a world inundated with information that needs to be sifted through to separate chaff from wheat.

Indeed, critical thinking appears to be a necessity and the calls for it need to be heeded. We cannot afford to continue to offer our children and young people education that is, simply, irrelevant.

Having said that, we should also recognise the challenges of introducing, sustaining and living with it.

Clearly one needs, first and foremost, to persuade or pressure those in charge to take concrete steps in introducing critical thinking seriously in the curricula. 

In theory, of course, those responsible express their acceptance of the idea, and even enthusiasm for it. In reality, they have been saying this for decades now and not much has happened.

Two things are important to state here. One is that what is required is not paying lip service to the matter, as we do with many other things. 

The other is that the introduction of critical thinking as a prime objective goes beyond introducing a lesson or exercise in critical thinking here and there.

It requires nothing short of a total restructuring of our educational system. The whole learning environment needs to be conducive to and supportive of critical thinking. This requires changing the curricula in a way that makes critical thinking prominent among the learning outcomes, and this needs experts to do so.

But it also requires the retraining of tens of thousands of teachers who have, for decades, been used to teacher-centred classes, lecturing and spoon feeding. 

And it requires a radical shift in assessment and in the ways students learn.

The shift from rote learning, teacher-centred education and student passivity to a setup that is learning-centred and in which students are active, inquisitive and critical learners is not easy.

And there is, of course, cost involved.

But all this is doable, and this is the right time to do it.

At our universities, and to a lesser extent in our schools, there are experts in critical thinking whose knowledge and experience can be tapped. We do not really need foreign experts and we do not need to copy any experience in the world, though we can certainly learn from the examples of others.

Regarding teacher training, we have a state-of-the-art venue: the Queen Rania Teacher Training Academy.

And there is some money available. The money that goes into the more fortuitous and less rewarding aspects of education can be rechannelled to support the critical learning drive.

There is a larger challenge, however, which we should also be aware of. This has to do with society’s readiness for critical thinkers.

Graduating recipient, “pliant” young people who base their views on what they are fed or told and who become defenders of the status quo (or, paradoxically, who are sceptical and fed up with it and therefore rebel against it, due to the subversive influence of all kinds of predators in society) is one thing, and graduating an inquisitive, analytical and “critical” generation of young people is quite another.

The latter will not easily accept what they are told, and therefore so many givens or taboos (politic, social, economic, religious, etc.) will be subjected to the power of intellect and reason, as well as demands for change.

It will be a generation that demands respect, freedom, difference of opinion and that has great expectations. It will be a generation that rocks the boat.

Of course, this is good, and this is the kind of generation of young people we need in order to build the society we all dream of.

But there will be so many who would not like this. 

Critical thinking is a necessity that comes with a price to pay, but it is both worth and long overdue.