Spring 1992 // Volume 30 // Number 1 // Feature Articles // 1FEA2

Teaching Clientele What or How To Think

Abstract
Teaching learners to think critically has become an important educational goal in our rapidly changing society. As adult educators, we must begin to view Extension teaching in the context of how it contributes to the information and process skills needed by clientele for critical thinking. If Extension is to continue as a viable adult education organization, it must meet the educational challenge of incorporating critical thinking skills into the current curriculum.

Jo Jones
State Leader, Personnel Development,
Ohio Cooperative Extension Service and Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural Education, Ohio State University-Columbus

Teaching learners to think critically has become an important educational goal in our rapidly changing society. A former president of the National Education Association believes that "in a society facing the twenty-first century, where change may be the only constant, the ability to formulate problems, resolve issues, determine the most effective decision and create new solutions is a prerequisite of success...for life...."1 As adult educators, we must begin to view Extension teaching in the context of how it contributes to the information and process skills needed by clientele for critical thinking.

Critical thinking has been defined as "reflective and reasonable thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do."2 It's an alternative to making decisions by blind acceptance, impulse or whim, tradition or habit that involves the ability to explore and imagine alternatives. Critical thinking is necessary if people are to make sense of what they hear and read, to gain insight into the information that bombards them, and to develop and evaluate their own positions on issues. It's an essential element of problem solving, decision making, and creative production. Critical thinking isn't a mysterious mental operation, but an essential component of everyday thought and deliberations.

Fostering Critical Thinking

A survey of the 87 Extension home economists in Ohio indicated they perceived the principles of critical thinking, shown in Table 1, to be either important or very important in teaching adult learners. However, the majority of agents felt their teaching didn't foster these skills. On a self-anchoring scale of 0 to 10, with 0 indicating virtually no knowledge of critical thinking and 10 indicating completely knowledgeable, more than 72% of the agents responding placed themselves at a knowledge level of five or below.3

Table 1. Selected principles of critical thinking.
To foster critical thinking, a learning environment must provide opportunities for adults to:
Consider the strengths and weaknesses of opposing points of view. Reflect on, discuss, and evaluate one's beliefs and actions. Evaluate a wide range of alternatives when making decisions. Raise ethical questions about consequences of actions and decisions of themselves and others. Engage in collaborative inquiry by the adult learner and adult educator. Reflect on probing questions by the adult educator and adult learner. Engage in exploratory dialogue with themselves or others. Identify implications of actions. Challenge generalizations. Identify, examine, and question assumptions.

Table 1. Selected principles of critical thinking.

To foster critical thinking, a learning environment must provide opportunities for adults to:

Consider the strengths and weaknesses of opposing points of view.
Reflect on, discuss, and evaluate one's beliefs and actions.
Evaluate a wide range of alternatives when making decisions.
Raise ethical questions about consequences of actions and decisions of themselves and others.
Engage in collaborative inquiry by the adult learner and adult educator.
Reflect on probing questions by the adult educator and adult learner.
Engage in exploratory dialogue with themselves or others.
Identify implications of actions.
Challenge generalizations.
Identify, examine, and question assumptions.

One of the essential needs of Extension clientele is the development of critical thinking skills that will help them solve problems and make decisions that have an impact on economic, social, and environmental aspects of their lives. Freire4 criticizes educators for being bankers of knowledge-simply depositing information with learners to withdraw when they need it. Extension educators must ask, "Are we strictly sharing subject matter or are we helping people to process information and reflect on what implications it has for them?"

Creating Learning Environments

To foster critical thinking, Extension educators must know how to create learning environments that:

Generate thought-provoking questions, putting emphasis on how and why as opposed to what.
Help learners raise and test hypotheses.
Encourage learners to question assumptions.
Demonstrate a lively sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness.
Present materials that contain "intellectual shock."
Are highly interactive.
Place value on creative problem-solving strategies rather than on conformity to "right" answers.

Key elements of teaching critical thinking are dialogue and questioning. We can encourage dialogue to take place within a person's mind or between two or more people. Paul encourages educators "...to focus on the Socratic spirit, the educational power of rational dialogue focused on questions of significance in an atmosphere of mutual support and cooperation."5 The questioning technique is only effective if the questions asked probe for more than a response from memory. Good questions encourage learners to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. Research shows that about 60% of teachers' questions require students to only recall facts, about 20% require students to think, and the remaining 20% are procedural.6

In the Ohio study, 77% of the responding agents indicated they need training and practice in effectively using the questioning technique. Some instructional strategies foster critical thinking more effectively than others. Table 2 lists a number of strategies Extension educators can include in their teaching. More than 50% of the responding Ohio agents indicated they'd never used six of the 12 identified strategies.7

Table 2. Instructional strategies for fostering critical thinking.
Critical analysis: Critique of items from the popular press related to the topic. Debate teams: One team presents evidence in support of a major issue and one in opposition. Dramatization: A scene is acted out or a video clip is shown followed by interpretation, analysis, or creation of a new ending. Action maze: Groups of learners are given situations for which they need to develop alternatives and consequences. Critical incident: A specific part of a situation is presented. Participants solve the conflict or problem by asking questions of the facilitator who has all the details of the situation. Scenario building: Learners have a set of questions to use in developing a detailed description of a desired state of being. Creative visualization: Participants think ahead to a situation they might be part of in the future. Through questions and comments, the facilitator helps them create a mental image of what it will be like. Listening teams: The audience is divided into several listening teams, with each team assigned to listen and react to a specific segment of the presentation. Journal writing: Learners keep a journal in between sessions to help reflect on their actions or behaviors related to the topic. Inventing: Participants work in groups to invent a new product, a new technique, or a new solution. Pluses, Minuses, Implications (PMI): As participants identify alternative solutions, the pluses, minuses, and implications of each are considered.

Table 2. Instructional strategies for fostering critical thinking.

Critical analysis: Critique of items from the popular press
related to the topic.

Debate teams: One team presents evidence in support of a major
issue and one in opposition.

Dramatization: A scene is acted out or a video clip is shown
followed by interpretation, analysis, or creation of a new
ending.

Action maze: Groups of learners are given situations for which
they need to develop alternatives and consequences.

Critical incident: A specific part of a situation is presented.
Participants solve the conflict or problem by asking questions of
the facilitator who has all the details of the situation.

Scenario building: Learners have a set of questions to use in
developing a detailed description of a desired state of being.

Creative visualization: Participants think ahead to a situation
they might be part of in the future. Through questions and
comments, the facilitator helps them create a mental image of
what it will be like.

Listening teams: The audience is divided into several listening
teams, with each team assigned to listen and react to a specific
segment of the presentation.

Journal writing: Learners keep a journal in between sessions to
help reflect on their actions or behaviors related to the topic.
Inventing: Participants work in groups to invent a new product, a
new technique, or a new solution.

Pluses, Minuses, Implications (PMI): As participants identify
alternative solutions, the pluses, minuses, and implications of
each are considered.

If Extension is to continue as a viable adult education organization, it must meet the educational challenge of incorporating critical thinking skills into the current curriculum. Extension professionals can play a part in encouraging what many educators believe to be the single most important cognitive skill-thinking critically. Extension, as the largest nonformal adult education system in the nation, should be instrumental in helping adults develop capacities needed to effectively cope with changes and challenges brought about by the "information explosion" of the 1990s and beyond.

Footnotes

1. B. Z. Presseisen, Teaching Skills: Research and Practice, Monograph No. 107306 (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1986).

2. R. H. Ennis, "A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Disposition and Abilities" (A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Federation of Teachers, Washington, D.C., July 11, 1985).

3. J. M. Jones, "Principles and Instructional Strategies for Fostering Critical Thinking in Adult Learners: Ohio Extension Home Economists' Perception of Importance of the Principles and Current Use of the Strategies" (Ed.D dissertation, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 1989).

4. P. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Herder and Herder, 1970).

5. R. W. Paul, "The Socratic Spirit: An Answer to Louis Goldman," Educational Leadership, XLII (September 1984), 63-64.

6. M. Gall, "Synthesis of Research on Teachers' Questioning," Educational Leadership, XLII (November 1984), 40-47.

7. Jones, "Principles and Instructional Strategies for Fostering Critical Thinking."

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