from VCCA Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, Winter 1991, 12-17
© Copyright 1991 VCCA Journal
At this point in time I have been teaching sociology and related courses for twenty-two years. The most frustrating aspect of this work has been the tendency of students to stay on the surface of the material, to deal with it superficially. There are any number of analytically valid explanations for this. None of them, however, lessen the frustration and resulting stress for the instructor encouraging students to step further into the depth of the material being studied.
While people generally seem to know that life and learning become richer and more meaningful when one moves beneath the surface appearance of things, as teachers and academicians we live and work within bureaucratized social systems that, perhaps unwittingly, encourage fragmentation and superficiality. In his book, The Human Cycle, Colin Turnbull (1989) says:
Much of what is taught at University, and the manner of teaching, amounts to little more than technical training and thus, however necessarily, curtails full intellectual development. That is the price we have to pay for the specialization that characterizes our society, in which even the art of reason comes to be considered a specialized skill, appropriate and useful to some and not for others. (p. 130)
So, how do we invite our students into the depth of the material we teach? How can we facilitate the process of transforming data into information, and information into knowledge? And, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, how do we help students realize that knowledge can deepen into understanding which can, in time, ripen into wisdom? In short, how can we cultivate critical thinking in the classroom?
Framing the Course in a Larger Context
On the first day of class, I tell my students that I'm aware they think, and their transcripts will reflect, that they have registered for a course called introductory sociology. However, the truth is, I tell them, that we will be involved in a year-long effort to literally come to terms with one huge question. That question is, "What does it mean to be human?"
As you might imagine, those who immediately grasp the scope of the question look at me as though I`m crazy. Those who don't, simply look dumbfounded. It doesn't matter to me because now I know the value of framing the course in a larger context. It immediately forces them to reflect on and to think more critically about the material we are studying in terms of its bearing on this larger, and yet more focused, question. Essentially, then, it asks the student-as-human not to take human being-ness for granted but to consider it, instead, in light of the material at hand. This interruption of the taken-for-granted-world of the student is at the heart of the critical thinking process.
Class Participation
I also tell them on the first day that class participation will be an integral component of their grade for the course. Immediately, there are some spontaneous moans and groans from the naturally more vocal people in the room, and some very pained expressions from those too intimidated to utter a sound. None of this "gets to me" as it once did because I am now so convinced of the value of having them learn to speak their minds.
Some time ago, it occurred to me that we spend a considerable amount of time helping people to improve their reading and writing skills as students, but we do little or nothing to help them learn to talk more effectively. This has always seemed both curious and misguided to me since talking is clearly one of our primary means of communicating with one another. To my mind, it is essential that they learn how to say what they know, as well as what they are uncertain about, with some measure of clarity.
I assure them that they are not being asked to become suddenly eloquent or at ease talking in class. Rather, they are being asked to identify and take their own particular next step of involvement with regard to participating in class discussions. Those who habitually never say anything are encouraged to begin by framing their understanding of the course material, on a day-by-week basis, into what we call an "I'm learning" statement which can then be simply read/shared in class. Those who routinely talk readily are reminded that their next step, at times, may be to listen, to actively create space for others. This principle of "taking your own next step" as a guideline for class participation seems to ease some of the anxiety about speaking in class.
Beyond this, I ask them to trust that as their nervousness subsides, they will increasingly come to hear themselves speaking as others do. Consequently, they will be better able to respond, in the moment, to the quality and coherence of their own articulated thought patterns. This self-reflection is an essential component of the critical thinking process.
Depth Dimension Questions
Following this explanation regarding the role of class participation, I introduce my students to three questions which, I tell them, will guide and challenge our work throughout the year. The questions are, "What?" "So What?" and "So Now What?" I explain that I will use these questions to coax them into thinking more deeply about the material we are studying. I encourage them to challenge me and one another with them as well.
The question "What?" is content-based. It asks, "what is the point of this lecture, this discussion, this chapter, or this film?" In this way, the students quickly realize that the material they are being asked to work with does have a point, an intended purpose, and that they will be expected to have an informed opinion as to what that is. Cumulatively, over the course of the semester, this question serves to keep them in touch with the focus of the class.
The question "So what?" asks them to consider the significance or the consequences of the course content. In other words, once they are able to say what the material is about, this question encourages them to find out why they are being asked to study it in the first place. It doesn't take them long to catch on to this form of kind-spirited challenging. They are increasingly quick to ask me, as well as one another, "So what's the point here?" and then, "Well, so what anyway?" It becomes difficult for them, and me, not to think critically about what is being said or thought in the midst of these powerful little questions that immediately reveal superficial responses and pat answers.
The third question"So now what?"invites them to consider the application of what they have learned to a course of action. For example, an exam question asks, "Given what you have learned about the homeless, what policies or programs would you implement if you had the power to initiate such change?" In this way, they are asked to reflect on and to become more critically aware of their hypothetical and actual choices.
Journaling
As we close out the first class session, I tell them that they will be keeping a journal as part of the requirements for the course. I then ask them to bring a three-ring notebook and four section dividers to our next class meeting. The Journal is a primary teaching tool in the process of cultivating the depth dimension associated with critical thinking.
Coming to terms with a question like "What does it mean to be human?" requires that the student develop a basic understanding of the interdependent intricacies at the heart of the relationship between the individual and society. Developing this understanding is no simple task. It grows, like a plant or a person, in response to its being cultivated and nurtured.
The four sections of the journal are designed to assist the process of transforming information into understanding. These four journal sections are called Class Notes, I'm Learning, Realizations, and Encounters.
Class Notes
This section of the journal they are familiar with, at least in name. I realize, I tell them, that they have been taking notes in their classes for some time. I also realize, however, that they probably take notes in sentence fragment form like ninety-five percent of my students. It has been my experience that, on the whole, sentence fragments both reflect and contribute to fragmented thinking. Consequently, I ask them to take notes in outline form so that a particular idea or concept is understood and recorded within a larger, more meaningful, context.
There is always considerable resistance to this because it requires that one think about the material contextually and therefore critically, and thinking critically is work. But we stay with it, struggle and all, because outlines push them to organize the day-by-day material in terms of a larger picture. And it is this larger picture, of being-human-in-society, that I want them to eventually "see" from within themselves. In addition, and as a significant side benefit, the Class Notes section of the journal is a convenient place to keep the course syllabus and other (holes punched) handouts that routinely get left at home or lost.
I`m Learning...
After years of working with the journal, I now tell my students in advance that this section turns out to be their key to success with the journal. Since this represents a third of their grade, it is also their key to doing well in the course generally. It is essentially an exercise, a calisthenic of the mind that they are asked to work with as often as they can.
They are to ask "What am I learning?" from this chapter, this lecture, this discussion, this filmthis information that makes up the course content. They are to ask and then answer in one sentence, "I'm learning" statements. I ask that they put no more than six or seven one sentence statements to a page, so that their learning has space to be displayed, so they can see at a glance their core learnings day-by-week throughout the semester.
If these statements are authentic, if they truly represent what is being learned, they can become the heart of class discussions or the living seed of an idea that later is worked up into an essay or Realization. Because of this, these concise, poignant statements are at the center of the learning process for the student, and for the course as a whole.
Realizations
Converting outlined notes into I'm learning statements is an effort to get to the heart of the matter, to the core of the learning that is evolving. Realizations represent an effort to express a fuller, richer awareness and a more developed understanding of the material at hand. Ideally, Realizations are the result of the student seeing the application and relevance of classroom material in light of the everyday world, especially their own. Ideally, they represent the integration of thought and feeling. I say "ideally" because most of my students, indeed most people, are out of balance in this regard. Their early Realization writes are typically full of facts or feelings, but rarely are the two expressed as one. And it is to this end, the complimentary expression of head and heart, that we read and write and work.
Encounters
The students are expected to develop the first three sections of the journal on their own. Frequently, of course, I ask them to turn to one section or another, and we either work from or in it in the classroom. The Encounters section, however, is not something they are responsible for outside of class. This component of the journal is exclusively for exercises that I bring to the classroom.
It is called encounters because of the spirit of open engagement, inquiry, and intrigue that I'd especially like them to bring to the work we do in this part of the journal. Through a variety of techniques like drawing pictures, dialoguing with dominant and non-dominant hands, and creative visualization, the student has an opportunity to become more intimate with various aspects of the material we are studying.
One can encounter anything or anybody. For example, students can encounter their own socio-economic position when we are studying the significance of social stratification as a system of opportunities. They can also encounter their jobs as economic entities in their lives, or their families as "primary agents of socialization."
On other occasions, they are asked to choose an idea or concept from the course that has been especially meaningful to them, something that resonates with the possibility of significant personal learning. Then they dialogue with it in a writing exercise that uses both dominant and non-dominant hands and so draws more fully from left and right hemispheric modes of knowing.
When quiet background music is added to an exercise like this, there is a noticeable change in the atmosphere in the room as both thought and its expression deepen. In this way, we take some significant steps toward cultivating critical thinking in the classroom.
Conclusion
A critical need for reform at the core of our thinking about schools and education is becoming increasingly apparent. In his speech accepting the New York City Teacher of the Year Award, John Taylor Gatto (1990) shared these poignant observations:
I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my 25 years of teaching--that schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. ...The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.
Schools are intended to produce through the application of formulae, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled.
Well-schooled people are irrelevant. They can sell film and razor blades, push paper and talk on the telephones, or sit mindlessly before a flickering computer terminal but as human beings they are useless. Useless to others and useless to themselves.
This is why it is so important for us to learn to weave critical thinking skills into the fabric of our courses and curriculums.
Gatto helps us see the difference between "schooling" and education. My students are generally "well-schooled," and they come to the classroom with a passive, passenger-like mentality, a slumber of sorts. It is only by participating, by becoming more critically involved with the material and with themselves as learners, that they are stirred from this sleep, that they are educated.
Works Cited
Gatto, J. T. (1990). New York City Teacher of the Year Speech. New York.
Turnbull, C. The Human Cycle. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1989.
Russell Crescimanno is a professor of sociology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville where he has taught for 17 years. His major area of academic interest lies in teaching and writing about the nature and structure of human consciousness and its relationship to significant learning in the classroom.