Teaching Critical Thinking through Active Learning

Craig E. Nelson, Indiana University
Saturday, September 28, 2002, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m
UC 202

Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

California State University, Fresno

The basic question with critical thinking is: Why is it so difficult for students to acquire? We will touch on several answers to this question, building from a core that asks what we can do tomorrow in the classroom. Logically, in order to think critically in higher order ways one needs: a) to understand that there is meaningful uncertainty involved (something that needs to be decided rather than memorized), b) to be able to discern what is being compared or should be compared, c) to know that in the face of uncertainly all answers are usually NOT equally valid, and d) to understand and be able to apply criteria to distinguish which of the alternatives are either better or terrible.

However, helping students get the analysis straight is only half of our task as teachers. For most students, critical thinking is a deeply social enterprise. The most dramatic gains by far (including, for example, no Fs in college calculus classes) come from combining careful structuring of social dynamics with the step-wise provision of analytical tools.

I will present spurts of theory (cognitive development, for example) and example applications. Writing and peer discussion will help make sure that each participant goes home with new ideas that can be implemented in class next week.

About the Presenter

Craig E. Nelson, Professor of Biology at Indiana University, has taught: undergraduate and graduate courses in biology, intensive freshman seminars, great books and other honors courses, collaboratively taught interdisciplinary courses on environmental science and policy, and a graduate course on "Alternative Approaches to Teaching College Biology." He has addressed college pedagogy in several invited chapters (on critical thinking, diversity, collaborative learning, evolution/creation etc.), as a Sigma Xi National Lecturer and at numerous national meetings and individual institutions. He has served on the editorial consulting boards of the Journal for Excellence In College Teaching, College Teaching, JoSoTL (the electronic journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning), the Journal of Cooperation and Collaboration in College Teaching, Inquiry (Institute for Critical Thinking) and on teaching grant review panels for NSF, NEH and FIPSE. He has received several awards for distinguished teaching from IU. He was named as one of America's great teachers by both Vanderbilt (1991) and Northwestern (1994) Universities and has been a Carnegie Scholar since 2000. He was named "Outstanding Research and Doctoral University Professor Of The Year 2000" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). IU awarded him its President's Medal for Excellence ("the highest award given by Indiana University") in 2001.

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