Winthrop sees value of critical thinking

Winthrop University is ahead of the curve in student preparation and has been for more than 10 years.

Evidence of our far-sightedness came last year when the International Foundation for Critical Thinking selected Winthrop as one of only eight institutions world-wide to have a formally recognized affiliation with their organization for “integrating and teaching critical thinking in a substantive way.” So why is this recognition a big deal?

As our new president Dan Mahony noted in his opening address when he cited a survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, “93 percent of employers say that a demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than a candidates’ undergraduate major.” However, as important as employers think these skills are, recent research suggests that many colleges and universities are doing a poor job teaching and instilling them.

But Winthrop does not fall into this group. More than a decade ago, we chose to address the dire need for critical thinking skills among college graduates by creating a required course that intentionally teaches critical thinking and strategies in a comprehensive and focused way. Believing – like most of us do – that critical thinking would be automatic for faculty who taught persuasive writing, we thought designing this course would be pretty simple. We were wrong!

We discovered how mistaken we were when we began exploring a set of principles espoused by Richard Paul at the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Examining pieces of writing, arguments, proposals, even conversations among friends using the following elements changed how we approached all of our teaching: What is the writer/speaker’s purpose? The question at issue? The assumptions the author is making? What are the implications and consequences? What information, concepts, conclusions and/or interpretations are presented? What is the author’s point of view?

Sound challenging? It was.

And now we have student testimony that our course and methods work. About five years ago, I received an email from a student I had not taught but one who had heard me speak on campus about the value of our “core” courses, one of which was the critical thinking course.

She had been a political science major and had acquired an internship in Washington, D. C., shortly after graduation. As part of her job, she had been asked to attend a lecture by Ralph Nader. In her email, she revealed that she sat there mesmerized by his dynamic style and “buying his argument ‘hook, line, and sinker.’”

Then, she pulled out her “critical thinking toolkit” and asked herself, “What is his purpose here? What is his point of view? What are his assumptions, and what would be the implications and consequences? As soon as she examined his talk using her knowledge from this course, she realized that it was indeed his style – not his argument – that had grabbed her. Her last comment to me was, “Please tell Winthrop not to stop what they are doing. It really matters.”

Just last year, a local reporter in Rock Hill called me to talk about our Common Book program. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned two of the courses in our Core – the Human Experience course and the critical thinking course. In a later email he stated, “I consider them to be two of the cornerstones of my Winthrop experience … they challenged me to think way outside of my comfort zone and think of wider perspectives outside my middle-class, low-country, Episcopalian upbringing.

At Winthrop, I played it safe: I surrounded myself with people who thought like I did, believed what I believed, and prayed to whom I prayed.” These courses “took me out of my comfort zone and … I believe I am a better man for it.”

Furthermore, Winthrop students’ higher-than-the-national-average scores on questions related to critical thinking on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) provide concrete proof that students are benefitting.

We are even spreading the methodology internationally. Not only has one of our professors, Dr. Clara Paulino, been responsible for having the Gerald Nosich text “How to Read Critically” translated into Portuguese, she had spent a year in Portugal teaching faculty at the Catholic University to teach critical thinking.

Other teachers of the critical thinking course on our campus share both their enthusiasm for and knowledge of the ways Paulian critical thinking helps students master content. Soon two of them will begin to offer critical thinking professional development workshops for K-12 educators in the region. The first of these workshops, led by Dr. John Bird and Dr. Amanda Hiner of the Department of English, will focus on practical applications of critical thinking instruction in the classroom.

Perhaps we have started a small revolution. As a child of the ’60s, I certainly hope so!

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Winthrop sees value of critical thinking."