The ability to think critically is essential to higher education. I have a history professor who constantly told us she had to unteach us how to think and instead learn how to analyze. My question is, why didn't we just learn it that way to begin with. There are so many times in education where there are two roads a teacher can take, an easy road that may get the student through a task more quickly, or there is a road which while may be more difficult, leads to lifelong learning. So many times we see that education is made easier so that teachers can quickly move on to the next unit. In the school I work at the kids do Internet research, but they are told exactly what website to go to and what exact information is needed. Just like in the first article, this method of teaching never allows the student to become responsible for his/her own research and because of that when they sit down at a computer in high school they will be lost at what to do. I think it is so important for students to start thinking critically because the more practice they get at it the better they will be at it in college.
What goes hand in hand with the lack of critically thinking skills being taught is the amount of time being spent preparing students for standardized testing. I think NCLB would be hard pressed to find even one teacher that would go on record saying that he/she loves standardized testing. As a future social studies teacher I think about the effects of standardized testing all the time. Will I have a career after I graduate considering schools are shrinking their social studies department and reallocating resources to something that is tested on standardized tests. We given up on desiring our students to be well rounded, as long as they know exactly how to fill in those scantron sheets it doesn't matter if they don't have music or art or history. The author of The Future of Middle Level Education says that "as the obsession with standardized tests runs its course, America and her policymakers will come to realize the obvious limitations of current reform efforts and recognize that the full education needed by today's young adolescents requires much more than that which is assessed by tests," (184). I would really like to believe that, but on this subject I am still a bit of a pessimist.
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I hate to put all of the blame on the teachers. I know that a lot of them probably do it because it's easier for them to copy a few worksheet with low-level thinking questions on them rather than have the class engaging in meaningful learning, but I also think that many teachers just don't realize they are doing it. I have seen numerous teachers, after completing their education programs, revert back to the way in which they were taught because that is how they learned. Some don't even realize they are doing it. And as far as the internet research, I don't think you can just plunk students in front of a computer and say, "figure it out by yourself." You have to provide some scaffolding for them which might include certain websites to look for information or how to look for peer reviewed articles online. The key part is that you are teaching them appropriate research methods. Slowly, you will provide less and less help until they are able to do it on their own.
I think the biggest problem in the past was that we were creating dpendent thinkers and learners. By that I mean students who didn't know or were afraid to think and learn for themselves because the teacher had always been the sole holder of the knowledge. We have to show students that they matter--that their opinions are valid. And we have to teach them to critically think. It's not something that will just happen on its own.
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