“Critical thinking” is the term that has fascinated academics across various disciplines and fields. Calls to “think critically” address students of almost all ages, starting with the high school and ending with lifelong learning. It would be no exaggeration to claim that “critical thinking” has promptly evolved into the scholarly field. For example, the number of titles on critical thinking listed on Amazon.com was 48, 559 (Weissberg, 2013). This paper looks into various aspects of critical thinking as it relates to adult learning.
While critical thinking definitions abound in the pedagogical literature, and it seems hard to provide a correct single definition of the term, certain common traits can be identified. These all relate to understanding critical thinking as an ability to “move beyond the acquisition of facts to uncover deep meaning.” (Weissberg, 2013, p.320)
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Let us discuss some of the most prominent and illustrative definitions of critical thinking in order to provide an insight into its essence. Based on Fascione (2006, p.21 in Flores et al., 2012, p.215), critical thinking is “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based.” Fascione believes that there are six core critical thinking skills alongside seven critical thinking dispositions. The six core critical thinking skills are explanation, inference, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and self-regulation. The seven dispositions of critical thinking are systematic, truthseeking, inquisitive, open-minded, judicious, analytical, and confident in reasoning. According to Fascione (2006 in Flores et al., 2012, p.215), relating the core skills with these dispositions will lead to critical thinking.
Next, Lipman (1988, p.39 in Flores et al., 2012, p.215) argued that critical thinking was “skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment because it (1) relies upon criteria, (2) is self-correcting, and (3) is sensitive to context.’’
Further, Halpern (1996 in Flores et al., 2012, p. 216) defined critical thinking as “the use of those cognitive skills and strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome.” In their turn, Rudd et al. (2000 in Flores et al., 2012, p. 216) suggested the following definition of the term, “critical thinking is a reasoned, purposive, and introspective approach to solving problems or addressing questions, with incomplete evidence and information, and for which an incontrovertible solution is unlikely.”
All in all, the definitions vary, yet offer some common features. Critical thinking is seen as a logical, reflective, reasoned, and purposive process, which is free of prior biases. Critical thinking skills are used to solve problems, make adequate decisions, and master various concepts. In this way, a person who is thinking critically remains open to alternative viewpoints, introspective reflection, focused on rational thinking, is able to suspend prior mental constructions, and process information in non-egocentric manner.
Since the ability to think critically has been seen as an important career promotion and hiring consideration, teaching critical thinking skills has been a highlight of many educational programs for adults. In this section, an approache to teaching critical skills in adults will be discussed in relation to the field of business.
Firstly, Edward Paulson from DePaul University has developed his own approach to teaching critical thinking skills grounded on group communication and reality-based project. Paulson (2011) believes that critical thinking skills are best developed when a problem in question does not have a right answer and requires students to discover the answer. Paulson (2011) reasons to combine teaching critical skills and communication skills has been rooted in his assumption that effective communication is critical to performance of teams and remains a key skill necessary to ensure a person’s success in business.
Also, when developing his approach, Paulson (2011) considered the specifics of adult education, such as the need to learn only that knowledge and develop only those skills that will be applicable directly to their lives as well as the need to be taught using their highly developed prior knowledge. Adults learners, many of whom have already accumulated vast manufacturing, human resources, and accounting experience at an advanced professional level benefit from the approach when this experience is tapped into as well as when students learn from one another.
Another point considered by Paulson (2011) was the need to focus on reflective activities. He believes that reflection is an inseparable part of experiential learning. Considering this point, Paulson (2011) used real companies and situations to create his reality-based project, and made every effort to show the adult students that “they are not constrained by actions taken by the real company management and that they should make their own decisions.” (Paulson, 2011, p. 401).
Paulson’s (2011) exercise was designed as a process where students meet for several times, work in groups, and complete reflective, problem-solving, and decision-making activities. For example, he organized the exercise in the following way: at the first meeting, students divided into two groups meet with their teammates and learn to collaborate with each other, agreeing on how they will be doing the assignment; at the second meeting, they will learn about companies through presentations so that all aspects of possible merger or acquisition are weighed; at the third meeting, the groups discuss the details of acquisition, suing critical skills to evaluate various risks or opportunities/challenges; at the fourth meeting the students meet to make a final decision; whether to go or not to go, and they also present their written projects with comprehensive analysis of all challenges as well as opportunities related to merging the companies.
Expectedly, Paulson’s (2011) approach activates critical thinking skills of the students to the maximum, so that, as he reasonably notes, “it is common for students to remark that this assignment had been one of their most rewarding group experiences.” As it has been shown above the specifics of his approach to teaching critical thinking skills to adult students lies in allowing students to apply their “already existing experience base” to real-life problems; allowing students to benefit from learning from one another (as well as from the professor) and making them develop critical thinking in group communication. In this context, consensus building around a suggested answer to a posed strategic question as well as practicing to make a decision on the executive level are thought to be critical in teaching critical thinking to adult students. The results of this approach have been improvement of students’ analytical skills, consensus-building skills, and skills of “uncovering and comprehending complex organizational issues” (Paulson, 2011, p.410).
This paper has demonstrated how teaching critical thinking skills to adult learners can be achieved through involving students in a reality-based group-communication project. Based on the theory provided in the first section of the paper, the author has showed how critical thinking skills, which received multiple definitions in the academic literature, can be taught to adult learners in accordance with the theoretical definitions and models developed by modern scholars.
