wade 1995 8 characteristics of critical thinking

University of Missouri

• Bias Hotline: Report bias incidents

Campus Writing Program

Teaching with Writing

Designing Writing Assignments To Promote Critical Thinking

By Bob Bauer , Associate Professor of Geological Sciences

Published on Aug. 31, 2015

As teachers who use writing assignments to help students learn course material, we hope that students think critically as they complete our assignments, and we expect that they are learning from their writing. But what does critical thinking really mean in the context of their writing and the assignments we provide? What are students doing when they think critically to complete our assignments, and how does it help them learn things that are relevant to our courses? Even more to the point, how can we design assignments to help promote students’ critical thinking and learning as they complete our assignments? The objective of this blog is to address these questions and provide an example of an assignment designed to promote critical thinking.

What is Critical Thinking?

The concepts of critical thinking are rooted in the teachings of Socrates nearly 2,500 years ago. However, a vast literature on “critical thinking” developed in the latter part of the 20th century and provides a similarly vast array of definitions and essential aspects of critical thinking (e.g. ; Scriven and Paul, 1987; Angelo, 1995; Beyer, 1995; Wade, 1995). Among the various definitions, I quote two here as a guide to our consideration of the topic. Angelo (1995) defines critical thinking as “the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation”. Paul and Elder (2009) provide a simpler, more general definition – “Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with the view to improving it.” As part of our exploration of the topic, we will consider both specific aspects of critical thinking and the more metacognitive aspects inherent in Paul and Elder’s definition. For a more detailed discussion of the definition of critical thinking, see Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 1987 .

Critical Thinking as Part of the Writing Process

Critical thinking should be inherent in our thinking processes and our oral discourse, but it is most obvious to students, and is most readily taught, as part of the writing process (Wade, 1995). This is primarily because writing involves more self-reflection and helps to promote broader perspectives on the topics considered. Wade (1995) identified eight characteristics of critical thinking that are promoted during the writing process: asking questions, defining a problem, examining evidence, analyzing assumptions and biases, avoiding emotional reasoning, avoiding oversimplification, considering other interpretations, and tolerating ambiguity.

Objectives and Use of the Linked Presentation

The objectives of the linked presentation are to provide an introduction to the use of critical thinking in the writing process, to describe ways to design writing assignments that promote critical thinking, and to provide an example assignment that uses many of these design principles.

As such, the presentation includes four parts: 1) What is critical thinking? , 2) How is critical thinking applied to the writing process? , 3) Thinking critically to design writing assignments that promote critical thinking? , and 4) An example writing assignment designed to promote critical thinking .

Comments on Use of the Presentation

The presentation is available in both Flash and HTML5 so it can be viewed on all platforms and devises. It combines an animated PowerPoint presentation and a voice-over for each slide. It includes an outline tab that allows you to skip directly to a specific part or a specific slide in the presentation, and a notes tab that shows my narration text for the current slide. You can control the rate of slide advancing using the next and previous arrows and the pause and advance symbols, and you can control the presentation volume. Switching to full screen mode removes the outline and notes tabs from view.

The presentation and a PDF file of the example assignment are linked below. I hope you find them useful.

Presentation: Designing writing assignments to promote critical thinking

Example Assignment: Write-to-Learn Assignment – Evidence for the Theory of Plate Tectonics (PDF)

References Cited

Angelo, T. A. (1995). Beginning the dialogue: Thoughts on promoting critical thinking: Classroom assessment for critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 6-7.

Bean, J. C. (1996, 2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, & active learning in the classroom (1st, 2nd ed). Jossey-Bass. 282, 360p.

Beyer, B. K. (1995). Critical thinking. Bloomington, in: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.

Carr, K. S. (1990). How can we teach critical thinking. Eric Digest. [On-line]. 

McDade, S. A. (1995). Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking. Teaching Psychology, 22(1), 9-10.

Paul, R. and Elder, L., (2009), The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools (6th ed.), Thinker’s Guide Library, Foundation for Critical Thinking, 23p.

Scriven, M. and Paul, R. (1987). Defining critical thinking: A draft statement for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. [On-line]. Available 2015: https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 .

Wade, Carol (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28.

Other Online Sources

Opencourseware on critical thinking, logic, and creativity, [Online], Available 2015, http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/

The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing, [Online], Available 2015, http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_thinking.htm

Walker Center for Teaching and Learning, Critical Thinking, University of Tennessee, [Online]. Available 2015: http://www.utc.edu/walker-center-teaching-learning/teaching-resources/ct-ps.php .

About the Author

Bob Bauer is an associate professor of Geological Sciences and has been at the University of Missouri since 1982.  From 1992 through 2010 he ran the University’s nationally recognized Geology Field Course from a permanent field laboratory in the Wind River Mountains, near Lander, Wyoming.  His research into ancient mountain-building processes has involved studies in Minnesota, Wyoming, and Antarctica.  He began teaching his course in Structural Geology as writing-intensive (WI) course in 1996, which evolved into the current four-course WI program in Geological Sciences at the University of Missouri.

• Publishing Policies
• For Organizers/Editors
• For Authors
• For Peer Reviewers

Developing Critical Thinking Skills For Overcoming Stereotypes In Intercultural Communication

The article addresses the issue of developing students’ critical thinking skills as an effective way of dealing with stereotypes arising in intercultural communication. These skills constitute an integral component of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which is the result of merging communicative and intercultural competences and recognized as a key goal in foreign language teaching. The article gives an overview of critical thinking skills and substantiates that these skills are instrumental in overcoming cultural stereotypes. Based on their teaching experience, the authors suggest a technique for developing critical thinking skills in foreign language classrooms. This technique is aimed at reducing and preventing stereotypes, or overgeneralizations, which often lead to misunderstanding and distorted perceptions of other cultures as well as students’ own culture. The suggested technique consists of four consecutive stages, which are motivational, educational, practical and controlling stages. The authors describe the purpose of each stage and give examples of activities and tasks used at each stage. They also provide guidelines for teachers, including lists of questions for critical evaluation of information. Keywords: Intercultural communication intercultural communicative competence critical thinking skills teaching technique stereotypes TEFL

Introduction

The increasing internationalization and globalization set specific requirements on professional education, including professionally integrated foreign language education, the overall goal of which should be intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Having rather a complex structure, this competence requires an interdisciplinary approach. Studies in psychology, linguistics, language teaching science and theory of communication ( Wiseman, 2006 ) enable to indicate constituents of ICC, the complex development of which provides effective language and culture learning with the aim of successful intercultural communication. One of these constituents is critical thinking skills ( Bennett, 2013 ; Deardorff, 2009 ; Wiseman, 2006 ). In intercultural communication, often impeded by stereotypes, prejudices and biases, critical thinking skills are a vital asset, especially if we take into account an unprecedented amount of information to which people are exposed. This article considers how critical thinking skills can be used for dealing with stereotypes in intercultural communication and what activities can be recommended for developing these skills in EFL classrooms.

Problem Statement

Before designing a teaching technique for developing students’ critical thinking skills to overcome cultural stereotypes in intercultural communication, let us consider:

what intercultural communicative competence is;

what the core skills of critical thinking are;

why it is important to cope with stereotypes.

Critical thinking and its core skills

Since critical thinking was first described by Dewey ( 2008 ) in 1910, there have been numerous definitions of this term. Educators generally understand the core of this concept as “careful goal-directed thinking”; yet, the existing definitions of critical thinking “can vary according to its presumed scope, its presumed goal, one’s criteria and threshold for being careful, and the thinking component on which one focuses” ( Hitchcock, 2018, p. 29 ).

A lot of attention has been given to determining what cognitive skills critical thinking consists of. Ennis ( 1985 ) claims that since critical thinking is “reflective and reasonable” and “focused on deciding what to believe or do” (p. 45), it goes beyond the lower-order thinking skills in the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy, which are knowledge and comprehension, and comprises a significant part of the higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This means that besides recalling, organizing, comparing, interpreting and summarizing information, critical thinkers are able to reason and apply knowledge to solve problems, to thoroughly examine information and to explore different viewpoints, to combine information in new patterns and to draw conclusions ( Ennis, 1985 ).

Wade ( 1995 ) distinguishes eight characteristics of critical thinking. In her opinion, a critical thinker should be able to ask questions, determine problems, analyse evidence, scrutinize assumptions and biased judgments, avoid emotional reasoning, eschew oversimplified statements, take into account multiple interpretations and be willing to accept ambiguity.

Facione’s ( 2010 ) research, during which he surveyed a group of forty-six experts about essential elements of critical thinking, shows that critical thinking includes six main cognitive skills: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation.

The Pearson RED critical thinking model ( Chatrand et al., 2011 ) arranges critical thinking skills into three groups, which are Recognizing assumptions, Evaluating arguments, and Drawing conclusions. Although this model was designed for training programs in business environment, it is also applicable in other contexts, for example, in teaching foreign languages. Being able to recognize assumptions and evaluate the quality of arguments before making a logical conclusion based on solid evidence is vital in intercultural communication where the view of another culture is often subject to overgeneralizing and stereotyping. Since critical thinking was first described by Dewey ( 2008 ) in 1910, there have been numerous definitions of this term. Educators generally understand the core of this concept as careful goal-directed thinking; yet, the existing definitions can vary according to the scope of critical thinking, its goal, the thinking component, the criteria and threshold for being careful ( Hitchcock, 2018 ).

Stereotypes in intercultural communication

The term “stereotype” is used to describe rigid beliefs about a particular category of people considered to conform to one pattern and lack any individuality. These beliefs can be based on different variables, such as social class, nationality, gender, education, religion, sexual orientation and others.

Since stereotypes originate from social categorization, which is a natural cognitive process, people tend to have generalizing preconceptions about others and overlook their individual characteristics. Such oversimplified representations of a specific national group are common in intercultural communication.

Any stereotype, whether it is positive or negative, is a misleading overgeneralization based on judgmental attitude and selective perception. Blum ( 2004 ) calls stereotypes “a form of morally defective regard of persons” because they are “false and unwarranted” (p. 271). In Blum’s (2004) opinion, among the deficiencies of stereotyping are “viewing members of the stereotyped group as more similar to one another than they actually are” and “viewing members of the stereotyped group as more different from other groups than they actually are” (p. 275).

In intercultural communication, stereotypes often lead to misunderstanding or even cultural conflicts as they prevent representatives of one national culture from rationally evaluating products, perspectives, and practices related to another culture. Besides, as stereotypes are typically acquired in a subconscious way, as part of socialization ( Macrae et al., 1996 ), people are often unaware that they hold stereotypic beliefs about other cultures. As these stereotypes are deeply rooted, they are hard to recognize and to subject to a critical examination.

Overcoming stereotypes as barriers to successful communication across cultures is one of the central roles in teaching foreign languages. Developing critical thinking skills is an effective way of deconstructing stereotypical perceptions and promoting openness toward other worldviews. The term “stereotype” is used to describe rigid beliefs about a particular category of people considered to conform to one pattern and lack any individuality. These beliefs can be based on different variables, such as social class, nationality, gender, education, religion, sexual orientation and others.

Research Questions

Developing critical thinking skills which are necessary for dealing with overgeneralizations (stereotypes) in intercultural communication is an elaborate process. We suggest a special teaching technique for this purpose. Since critical thinking comprises a set of interrelated skills often applied simultaneously, it is hardly possible to develop each of these skills in a discrete and linear way. It means that the technique suggested in this article includes activities which are often multi-purpose. At the same time, like any other teaching technique, this technique consists of four clear-cut stages, which are motivational , educational , practical (autonomous ) and controlling . Before students start doing critical thinking activities, it is necessary to motivate them and to activate their cognitive sphere. The next step is to instruct students how to analyse and evaluate information properly before they begin to autonomously fulfil critical thinking tasks. Finally, the teacher should control and assess students’ work, discuss the results and make corrections if necessary.

Purpose of the Study

The practical goal of the study is to give a detailed description of each stage of the teaching technique for developing students’ critical thinking skills as one of the key components of intercultural communicative competence. This will enable them to overcome cultural stereotypes during intercultural communication.

Motivational Stage

The first, motivational, stage involves engaging students and stimulating their interest in examining their own world views and the worldviews of people from other cultural backgrounds. At this stage, students need to realize that there are divergent world views, both across cultures and within one culture, yet people tend to have stereotypical perceptions distorting the complexity of the world. It should be emphasized that for successful intercultural communication it is vital to avoid overgeneralizations and to demonstrate flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions.

To stimulate students’ interest, the teacher can, for example, show a video which gives examples of cultural stereotypes, or assign the students to read a text which contains cultural stereotypes, or ask the students to name some common stereotypes. These stereotypes can be about the students’ own culture or about the culture they study. Then, the following questions can be discussed: “How do such stereotypes develop?”; “What effect do they have?”, “Does it make a difference whether the stereotypes are positive or negative?”, “Do you think it is possible to avoid such stereotypes?” Such a discussion will be a good lead-in to further activities.

Educational Stage

During the second, educational, stage the teacher’s task is to provide activities aimed at developing students’ critical thinking skills of recognizing assumptions and subjecting them to a critical examination. The teacher gives explanations and instructions and then guides the students as they do the activities.

Being able to recognize assumptions about other national cultures is essential as some of these assumptions may turn out to be false and may lead to stereotyping. Recognizing assumptions includes such skills as separating facts from opinions, evaluating the credibility of sources, and examining assumptions from multiple perspectives.

These skills can be developed through exposing students to information coming from different sources and asking them to evaluate the quality of the information and the sources. The following questions for such an evaluation can be suggested:

Can this statement be verified?

Does the statement look like an expression of judgment or belief?

Is this statement based on research and supported by evidence (e.g. statistics, documentation, etc.)?

Are there any biased words in the statement?

Who is the author? What are his/her credentials? Are these credentials sufficient?

What kind of source does the information come from (e.g. a blog, a personal website, a movie, a documentary, a website of an educational organization, etc.)? Do you think it is a credible source? Do you think it is a biased source? Why/Why not?

Can you rely on one source of information? Why/Why not?

For instance, the teacher selects various texts on the topic “How do Americans view Russians?” The length and the difficulty of these texts vary depending on the students’ level of language proficiency. These texts could include an episode from an American movie featuring a Russian character, an extract from a book or an article written by an American author about Russians, a blog/ a video blog in which opinions about Russians are expressed, etc. The students study these texts and answer the questions above. Besides learning to differentiate between facts and opinions and to evaluate the sources of information, students get a valuable experience of dealing with multiple viewpoints, which gives them a richer perspective on the topic.

The next step is to critically analyse the assumptions. This means questioning the quality of evidence and identifying possible biases and logical fallacies. One of the most common biases resulting in stereotypical distortions and clichés about cultures is confirmation bias. This bias means the tendency to process information by selecting information which matches one’s world view and to ignore the information which is not consistent with it. For example, if a person has an idea that Americans are an individualistic nation, giving priority to personal liberty, s/he is likely to look for confirmatory examples and to reject contradictory examples.

For example, while doing the activity described above, students may come across some negative opinions about Russians and they may feel like rejecting this information under the influence of confirmation bias. In this case, analysing information objectively and accurately means detaching yourself from your mind-set and gaining a different perspective of your culture. These critical thinking skills are vital for better intercultural communication.

Sweeping generalizations (also called unqualified generalizations) and hasty generalizations (also known as faulty generalizations) are both logical fallacies which lead to stereotyping, exaggerations and unwarranted conclusions in any communication, including intercultural communication. The two fallacies are the inverse of each other. A sweeping generalization means treating a general rule as universally true and applying it to any specific situation, regardless of the circumstances, whereas a hasty generalization means taking a small sample and extrapolating a specific rule about this sample to a general situation. In both fallacies conclusions are not justified by sufficient, proper evidence. An example of a sweeping generalization could be a situation when a person says that because all Americans like eating fast food, a particular American must also like fast food. An example of a hasty generalization could be the opposite situation when a person says that he knows an American who likes eating fast food, so it must be true of all Americans.

Students should be taught how to identify these logical fallacies in other people’s reasoning and to avoid overgeneralizations in intercultural communication. This could be done through analysing a selection of texts on one aspect of culture from different sources, for example, texts about typical housing or fast food in the USA. The following questions can be suggested for discussing these texts:

Does the source contain a personal experience or findings of a study?

Is one person’s experience enough to determine a group’s characteristic?

Is one study enough to determine a group’s characteristic? Is it important to know how the study was conducted?

How similar do you think members of one national culture are? How different do you think they are? What makes them similar or different?

How much evidence is needed to make a justified generalization about a national culture?

What linguistic means help to make a justified generalization?

These questions aim to stimulate students to question the assumptions and to reconsider them, to bring diverse information together and to avoid unwarranted generalizations.

It is important that students be taught how to use hedging to make qualified generalizations about other cultures, taking into account diversity of any group. Hedging, or cautious language, turns an overgeneralization into a credible claim. This language includes using modal verbs (e.g. may, might, can, could, etc.), certain lexical verbs (e.g. to seem, to appear, to tend, etc.), probability adjectives (e.g. probable, possible, (un)likely, etc.) and adverbs (e.g. probably, perhaps, apparently, etc.), qualifiers of degree, quantity, frequency, and time (e.g. roughly, generally, some, somewhat, often, etc.) and other features.

The following activity could be suggested. Students make a list of some common stereotypes about a nation, for example, about Americans or the English, and then change these overgeneralizations by means of hedging. If students have difficulty making such a list, the teacher can show a video with on-the-street interviews where people from one country talk about their stereotypes of another culture (there are plenty of videos of this type on the Internet). After the hedging activity, the teacher asks the students to discuss the effect caused by the use of hedging.

Practical Stage

The third stage of the technique is called practical, or autonomous. During this stage, students are given tasks in which they can practice their critical thinking skills for dealing with cultural stereotypes. These tasks vary in their content and form depending on the students’ level of language proficiency and the syllabus. Let us consider a few examples.

Students can be asked to critically explore their own views of their national culture and to realize that this culture is not homogenous. The purpose of this exercise is to teach students to see multiple perspectives and to identify possible auto stereotypes, or overgeneralized perceptions of themselves. Students can do it in several ways:

The teacher chooses a particular cultural aspect or several aspects (e.g. family, home, customs, work rules, community, food, time, sense of space, etc.) and makes a list of questions about people’s behaviour and attitudes. For example, if the teacher chooses the topic “Family”, such questions can be asked: “Do several generations usually live together, under one roof?”; “Who takes care of the elderly members of the family?”; “Do young people tend to move out when they come out of age?”; “Who does the household chores?” and others. The teacher asks students to imagine a situation when a person from an English-speaking country asks them these questions. Working in small groups, students discuss how they would answer the questions. Then they present the results of their discussions to class. This task can be done in class or assigned as homework.

Alternatively, this activity can be done individually. In this case, the teacher asks students to imagine that they need to write a post for a blog or make a video for a video blog about Russians. The teacher (or the students themselves) can create a blog on a free platform for the students to publish their content.

Similar projects can be done about various aspects of a foreign culture – its products, practices and perspectives. The teacher can organize work in a number of ways. Besides discussions and blogs/vlogs, students can make presentations, write essays and critical reviews, prepare posters, participate in debates, etc. When doing these projects, students will use their critical thinking skills to examine not only their view of the foreign culture but also that of their own culture. Comparing and contrasting the two cultures will eventually enrich their cognitive structure, making it broader, more flexible and interculturally equipped.

Controlling Stage

During the fourth stage of the technique the teacher exercises control and checks the correctness of the tasks completed by the students. The main focus is put on how well the students can identify overgeneralizations and use the language of hedging, how good they are at evaluating the quality of reasoning and considering multiple viewpoints before arriving at a conclusion.

Research Methods

Having taken into account the theoretical issues discussed above, the authors put into practice the procedure of teaching students intercultural communication with the aim of developing their critical thinking skills. The technique was tested with a group of second-year students (15 people) of Irkutsk State University (Baikal International Business School) majoring in management. These students study English for professional purposes and have 12 hours of language classes a week.

Before starting a series of classes devoted to the problem of stereotypes in intercultural communication, the students were offered an interactive lecture on stereotypes. After discussing numerous examples of stereotypical situations, they did a questionnaire. The results showed that 96% of the students are aware of the phenomenon of stereotypes and understand that it is a problem that can prevent effective communication with representatives from other cultures. About 30% of the group are able to distinguish between stereotypes and objective facts. Only 5% of the students have a vague idea of how to deal with stereotypes in intercultural communication.

Below is an example of one of the classes based on the suggested technique.

In this class, the teacher set the task of critically examining the concept of the American dream, the belief that everyone in the USA has the chance to be successful and happy if they work hard. There may be stereotypes about this concept which need to be recognized and challenged.

During the first stage, the teacher activated the students’ background knowledge by brainstorming their ideas about the American dream. These ideas were written down on paper / on the board and grouped into categories. Only 67% of the group could describe this phenomenon in the American culture.

During the second stage the students watched a video where a journalist does man-on-the-street interviews and gets a range of opinions on how Americans understand the concept of the American dream. These ideas were also written down on paper or on the board. Then, the students discussed similarities and differences between the ideas which they have brainstormed and learned from the video. The teacher also asked the students to assess the reliability and sufficiency of the information from the video.

During the third stage the students were given the assignment to find more sources of information about the American dream and analyze them using the questions suggested above. They were encouraged to consider multiple viewpoints to get a richer perspective on this issue. The teacher suggested that they find answers to these questions: “Do all Americans believe in the American dream? Do they understand it in the same way? Is the American dream something unique, found in the USA only?’ The results of this work were presented in the form of a report, a poster or an essay.

During the fourth stage the teacher assessed the results of the students’ work and paid attention to how many sources of information the students have used and what these sources are like, how well they have analyzed this information, and whether they have used hedging to present their conclusions as reasonable claims, not as overgeneralizations.

The study showed the interrelation and interconnection between intercultural communicative competence and critical thinking skills and their importance for overcoming stereotypes. A series of classes designed on the basis of the suggested technique was taught to a group of students during which they were introduced to such concepts of American culture as American dream, privacy, patriotism, family and individualism. The teacher conducted diagnostic tests at the beginning and at the end of each series. The following criteria were under control:

students’ level of acquisition of linguacultural phenomena;

changes in values when accepting facts about the target culture;

students’ level of analytical and interpretative skills.

Comparing the results of the tests we found out that the indicators tend to increase. The final test showed that 90% of the students are apt to make logical conclusions, evaluate quality of arguments and specify rather than generalize preconceptions. These results allow us to conclude that the technique presented in the study can be considered quite effective.

In this paper the value of critical thinking skills for overcoming cultural stereotypes in intercultural communication has been studied. First, the concept of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) was clarified. Its distinction from related concepts of intercultural and communicative competences was defined. Then, it was proved that critical thinking skills are a key constituent of ICC and are crucial for overcoming cultural stereotypes. These skills were also specified. The purpose of the study was to work out a specific teaching technique for developing students’ critical thinking skills which would enable them to successfully participate in intercultural communication dealing with stereotypes. The theoretical framework of this technique includes linguacultural, cognitive and communicative aspects of EFL teaching. The technique was tested on the students of Business School majoring in management. The testing before and after implementing a series of language classes based on the designed technique showed that the students started to process the information more carefully. They got acquainted with a number of concepts of American culture and realised that some of them are rather stereotypical. They improved their skills of examining information from different perspectives and extrapolating it into their own culture and view of the world. These skills will undoubtedly contribute to their future professional communication in cross-cultural situations.

• Bennett, M. J. (2013). Intercultural practices: International/multicultural education. In M. J. Bennett (Ed.), Basic concepts of intercultural communication: Paradigms, principles and practices (2nd ed.; pp. 105-136). Intercultural Press.
• Blum, L. (2004). Stereotypes And Stereotyping: A Moral Analysis. Philosophical Papers, 33(3), 251-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/05568640409485143
• Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Multicultural Matters Ltd.
• Chen, G. M., & Starosta, W. J. (1999). Intercultural Communication Competence: A Synthesis. Communication Yearbook, 19, 28.
• Chatrand, J., Ishikawa, H., & Flander, S. (2011). Critical Thinking Means Business: Learn to Apply and Develop the New #1. Pearson Education.
• Deardorff, D. (2009). Implementing intercultural assessment. In D. Deardorff (Ed.), Sage handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 477-492). Sage.
• Dewey, J. (2008). How we think. Heath.
• Ennis, R. H. (1987). A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. In Baron, J. B., & R. J. Steinberg (Eds.), Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice (pp. 9-26). WH Freeman.
• Ennis, R. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills. Educational Leadership, 43, 44-48.
• Facione, P. (2010). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts? Measured Reasons and the California Academic Press.
• Hitchcock, D. (2018). Critical Thinking. In N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition). plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/critical-thinking/>
• Kim, Y. Y. (1991). Intercultural Communicative Competence. Cross-cultural interpersonal communication. Sage Publications.
• Macrae, C. N., Stangor, C., & Hewstone, M. (1996). Stereotypes and Stereotyping. The Guilford Press.
• Moeller, A., & Nugent, K. (2014). Building intercultural competence in the language classroom. Unlock the Gateway to Communication. Central States Conference Report.
• Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28.
• Wiseman, R. (2006). Intercultural Communicative Competence. Sage.

Copyright information

About this article

Publication date.

21 October 2020

Article Doi

https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.10.03.119

978-1-80296-089-1

European Publisher

Print ISBN (optional)

Edition number.

1st Edition

Economics, social trends, sustainability, modern society, behavioural sciences, education

Cite this article as:

Annenkova, A. V., & Domysheva, S. A. (2020). Developing Critical Thinking Skills For Overcoming Stereotypes In Intercultural Communication. In I. V. Kovalev, A. A. Voroshilova, G. Herwig, U. Umbetov, A. S. Budagov, & Y. Y. Bocharova (Eds.), Economic and Social Trends for Sustainability of Modern Society (ICEST 2020), vol 90. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 1028-1038). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.10.03.119

We care about your privacy

We use cookies or similar technologies to access personal data, including page visits and your IP address. We use this information about you, your devices and your online interactions with us to provide, analyse and improve our services. This may include personalising content or advertising for you. You can find out more in our privacy policy and cookie policy and manage the choices available to you at any time by going to ‘Privacy settings’ at the bottom of any page.

Manage My Preferences

You have control over your personal data. For more detailed information about your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy .

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided.

Third-party advertising and social media cookies are used to (1) deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests; (2) limit the number of times you see an advertisement; (3) help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign; and (4) understand people’s behavior after they view an advertisement. They remember that you have visited a site and quite often they will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organization. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Developing Critical Thinking Skills through Writing in an Internet-based Environment

This research study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a writing program on improving Salman bin Abdulaziz University students’ critical thinking skills after participating in a seven-week task-treatment using an Internet-based writing program (IBWP) developed by the researcher. The subjects were 98 male students enrolled in a writing course during the first semester of the academic year 2013/2014. The effectiveness of the program was measured by a holistic critical thinking scoring rubric developed by Facione and Facione (1994). The subjects were randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental was taught writing via the Internet-based writing program IBW, and a control group was taught through the ordinary method. The findings of the study revealed that EFL students in the experimental group who used the IBWP showed greater improvement in their critical thinking skills than did the EFL students in the control group who used the ordinary method.

Related Papers

Hassan Soleimani

Hamid Marashi

The amount of information available today is massive; therefore, everyone needs a guide to weed through this huge bulk of information and not just passively accept it. Students need to develop and effectively apply critical thinking skills to their academic studies. Critical thinking represents a higher level of thought and in order to think critically, one must be able to take other viewpoints into consideration before coming to a conclusion. The present study was an attempt to find out if there were any relationship between the critical thinking ability and writing proficiency of Iranian EFL learners or not. In other words, the constructs involved in this study were critical thinking and writing proficiency and the relationship between them. This study was conducted among a number of the senior undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University at Central Tehran, North Tehran, and Mashad. The 141 subjects selected randomly to participate in this study took a standard test of English writing and the Critical Thinking Appraisal. The writing papers were scored by two raters while the Critical Thinking Appraisal was a multiple-choice test. The Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient formula was applied and a convincing relationship was found between the two factors. The data revealed that there was no significant relationship between the students’ gender and their performance in the Critical Thinking Appraisal and writing tests.

Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods

Milad Moradpour

The present investigation was an attempt to study the Effectiveness of Teaching Critical Thinking on Iranian Upper-Intermediate EFL Learners' Essay Writing Ability. To that end, an OPT test was administered to 110 university students learning English language in institutes. Learners who scored between one above and below the standard deviation were selected. 40 learners were selected and they were divided into experimental and control group, each group contained 20 learners. A writing test was administered to both groups as a pre-test to take their initial knowledge of writing ability. The writing section of the TOEFL test was selected to test the writing ability of the participants. The experimental group received treatment in order to help them improve their writing ability by teaching critical thinking in fifteen sessions .The control group received no treatment. Finally both groups sat for the post-test of the same writing test. The results were analyzed through ANCOVA and it was explored that teaching critical thinking had a positive effect on Iranian EFL learners' essay writing ability.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

Fatemeh Miri

The present study made an attempt to determine the effect of teaching critical thinking skills on Iranian EFL learners' essay writing ability. To do this, a sample of 60 EFL learners was selected based on their performance on Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups of control and experimental. An essay-writing test functioning as pre-test was administered on both groups in order to ensure their homogeneity in terms of writing ability. The groups received 10 sessions of writing instruction; however, experimental group received additional instruction and practice regarding the techniques of critical thinking. Finally, both groups took an essay writing posttest in order to compare their writing achievements. Both pretest and posttest were scored by two raters using TOEFL rating scales. The results of paired and independent sample t-tests showed that critical thinking techniques significantly enhanced EFL learners writing ability.

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research

Shadi Shirani

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of online tasks on improving critical thinking and academic writing achievement of Iranian EFL learners. To perform this study, 150 Iranian EFL learners studying English in a private Language Institute in Isfahan were selected. They took an Oxford Placement Test and 100 intermediate-levels were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Then, both groups were given a pre-test of writing and critical thinking questionnaire before the treatments sessions to determine the participants' writing ability and critical thinking at the beginning of the research period. During the treatments, both groups were taught writing courses. The experimental group received the courses through online program while the control group received traditional teaching of the writing courses. Having finished the treatments, the learners in the both groups were given the post-test of writing ability and critical thinking questionn...

Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes

Mojgan Rashtchi

The present exploratory mixed methods study aimedto develop a scale for assessing critical thinking (CT) ability of Iranian EFL learners. The study wasconducted in three phases. In phase one, the features of CT components were examined in the writingsof 120 participants. A holistic and an analytic scale were developed based on their performance in exploiting the components of CT and the features of CT components.In the second phase, the language learners' new writing samples (N=110) were analyzed to examine to what extent they could employ the CT components.Also, the reliability and validity of the newly developed scale was calculated. Factor analysis revealed that the scale measured the four constructs of clarity, fairness-breadth, depth- significance-logicalness, and accuracy-precision-relevance.In the final phase, the researchers implemented the newly developed scale on a new group of learners (N=33)to observe the degree the scale couldassess the CT ability of language learners.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

Alireza Bonyadi

BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience ISSN 2067-3957

Academia EduSoft , Ali Taghinezhad

This study was intended to investigate the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking on students' writing performance and their critical thinking dispositions. To this end, 140 students were selected. 73 students were assigned to the experimental group and 67 were assigned to the control group. The experimental group received instruction in critical thinking strategies whereas the control group did not. The instruments used in this study were the researcher-developed essay test, the Ennis-Weir critical thinking essay test, and the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). A 2-group pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized to determine the outcome measures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-test. Statistically significant differences were observed in the experimental and the control groups in the total scores of the three instruments. The results indicated an improvement in students' writing performance and their dispositions toward using critical thinking strategies. Nonetheless, some dispositional aspects such as truth-seeking, cognitive maturity, and open-mindedness did not differ significantly after the intervention.

MARIUAM KHAN

Application of critical thinking skills is a growing trend in EFL teaching – learning profession. EFL teachers are being demanded to develop not only knowledge and comprehension skills but also skills of critical thinking such as analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, and researching. Focus in the profession is to make these skills a part of advanced communicative abilities envisioned in the outcomes of a learning program. This research paper evaluates ability of critical thinking with reference to English language proficiency among Saudi female undergraduates. The research is conducted in Intensive English course 011 at the Community College (Female), King Khalid University (KKU), Abha, Saudi Arabia.

RELATED PAPERS

Nidal H Abu-Hamdeh

Jean-Marc Siroën

Huelva En Su Historia

María Antonia Peña Guerrero

Foivos Karakostas

Crop Protection

Jemmy Takrama

edwin stefanus damasena

Journal of Textile Engineering

M. J. Abreu

BMC Medicine

HANDE ORTAY

Journal of entomology and zoology studies

Azmat Alam Khan

Ciência & Saúde Coletiva

Carlos Correa

Austin Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences

Theles Costa

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Mordechai Shemesh

Materials Chemistry and Physics

Enelio Garcia

Journal of Drug Discovery And Therapeutics

Psychiatry Research

Muhammad Shakar

Hakki Okan Yeloğlu

The European Physical Journal C

Devanshu Sharma

The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine

Justyna Izdebska

Bulletin of Scientific Research

Muthu Selvan

Revista de Chimie

Cristina Bardaca

Mix Sustentável

Jader Lugon Jr.

See More Documents Like This

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

8 Characteristics Of Critical Thinking

Last Updated on October 11, 2022 by Editorial Team

The famous British-American Author Christopher Hitchens once said ‘The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.’’ These lines are the very core of critical thinking. This attribute might look like a complex and complicated subject to understand, but situations as basic as searching about something on the internet and then using the most relevant matter involves critical thinking. 

Critical thinking can be thought of as a virtue for an individual. Everyone is born with a mind to think critically, rationally, and logically. But, some people ordinally indulge in practices that elevate their critical thinking power. 

In this post, we will be looking into what critical thinking is, the benefits and characteristics of critical thinking, and then how to improve critical thinking.

Critical Thinking- A Trait Requisite For Success?

Critical thinking- the one attribute due to which the understanding level differs from individual to individual. Critical thinking, by definition, is the process by which an individual conceptualizes and analyzes the information that they gathered and then makes informed decisions as needed. Individuals can elevate it when they are self-regulated and open-minded. 

The driving factor for this attribute is the inquisitiveness to understand the world around us. The enthusiasm to analyze and create solutions for problems makes critical thinkers. Brainstorming teaches people the right way to reflect on the information they’ve acquired. Thus, it is often evaluated in essay writing tasks, where the student has to brainstorm to present the best. 

According to Oliver and Utermohlen [1] (1995), most children do not respond or react perceptibly. Moreover, in recent times, technology has given them a lot of access to information, but all this might not be accepted or absorbed well by the child. This is where critical thinking in them becomes crucial. 

Moreover, in a world where people are free to think independently, critical thinking is a must, which helps us to make sound decisions factually. 

Importance of critical thinking

Sometimes our brains may be imperfect, irrational, and distorted on a cognitive basis. All those bad adjectives aside, conceptualizing helps to make the difference between success and failure at every level of life. Critical thinking has more than one benefit apart from this. 

Brainstorming is a huge part of an individual’s success; Whatever your profession be, critical thinking helps to analyze information, solve problems systematically, generate innovative solutions, think creatively, plan strategically, and thus present ideas in a way that is easily understood. 

When individuals carefully analyze and reason, they solve their problems, which helps them make more informed choices and ease their path. These individuals believe that there is a way out of every obstacle, making them positive thinkers. 

Freethinkers end up with great relationships because they are empathetic, social, and they respect other people’s opinions. They look at an issue from both sides to provide a neutral and unbiased solution. 

Characteristics of Critical Thinking 

Critical thinkers possess more than essential skills of analysis, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and empathy. There are scientific terms for each of these attributes. They are listed below:

1. Metacognition

Metacognition is the awareness of one’s own thinking, ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. This is used to perform specific tasks with particular awareness so that they can have control over what they are doing. This refers to the planning, monitoring, and accessing part of one’s own opinions, understanding, and performance. Critical thinking demands self-examination and self-evaluation. 

2. Argument

Critical thinkers identify and evaluate things to construct valid arguments. This argument allows the individual to utilize and apply critical thinking skills through logical reasoning. The argument has a body, and the thinker must be able to draw a conclusion to the set of statements. It is all about understanding the context and the reasons to be able to argue better, and in the end, derive a verdict. 

3. Reasoning

Critical thinkers logically perceive everything to form a conclusion. Their reasoning abilities make them know both sides of the matter to end with appropriate assumptions. Reasoning is crucial because it evaluates the person’s capacity to think logically and reason well. This also involves differentiating between facts and thoughts and then deriving out possible outcomes. 

4. Point of view

Point of view refers to how the person views things; different views give different assumptions. Critical thinkers, however, consider all the phenomena from all points of view. Having a point of view is imperative while being rational and logical as this aspect makes the thoughts, ideas, and views unique. With a point of view, we look at different perspectives and the way others perceive the world.

5. Criteria applying procedures

Critical thinkers see things from a different point of view and have varied criteria to compartmentalize things like questions, judgments, and assumptions. Questions are asked to clear the queries. Judgments and assumptions are made based on precise, multi-dimensional observation. And finally, the procedure would involve drawing out an outcome. A person who brainstorms for a conclusion often follows a procedure, so that it can be logical and well-reasoned. 

6. Avoiding oversimplification

Critical thinkers never overestimate or underestimate anyone or anything. Making exact observations without oversimplifying it leads them to perfect assumptions. This is also crucial because this overestimation or underestimation often clouds the conclusions, and an individual who thinks critically, and analyzes the situation profoundly would never want that. 

7. Examining the evidence

Evidence is the proof of every argument and statement. Critical thinkers don’t stop at the sight of evidence; instead, they will never make assumptions before examining the evidence. Brainstormers would want to see the proof and then believe a certain thing. Without proof, and legitimate evidence, deep thinkers do not like to draw out conclusions. 

8. Tolerating Ambiguity

Ambiguity implies the inexactness of information and resources. Ambiguity is common in every area. A critical thinker is always comfortable with uncertainty, unpredictability, conflicting directions, and multiple demands. Tolerating confusion, or bewilderment allows the individual to deal with a problem that does not have a defined nature. This comes in handy when people are working on problems in a group since they can easily consider the vast options available. 

Improving Critical thinking skills

Critical thinking may not be a by-birth attribute for some individuals. However, the good news is that such a fruitful characteristic is often teachable. 

All of this starts with the formulation of questions. Formulation of questions on basic things can break and bring to the base level. For instance, if you want to go to the gym, formulate a question, why are you joining the gym?—to put on weight or to lose weight. 

The second thing is gathering information. Once the question is formed, all the information related to its needs can be assembled with the help of experts, the internet, books, and other resources. Now, it’s time to apply the information in finding the answer to the question. You may consider answering questions like What assumptions exist? Is the information logical? Among others.

Assumptions and conclusions are not always temporary; thus, always consider the long-term implications of the decision taken. Understanding how the decision will shape things in the future can make you understand if you are going wrong. 

Conclusively, don’t forget to explore others’ points of view. Understanding different perspectives will make you understand and reflect on the information to help you understand better exactly how you feel. Moreover, understanding different perspectives can give a better experience.

The bottom line

Due to the increase in volatility and loads of available information, critical thinking has been turning crucial to making appropriate decisions. Essential characteristics of thinking would help to understand it better and check if you are a critical thinker. Remember, critical thinking is not always a by-birth skill. You can inculcate some best practices to improve your necessary thinking skills. Critical thinking is a personal process and thus has a high chance of personal ambiguity.

References :

[1] Oliver and Utermohlen: An Innovative Teaching Strategy: Using Critical Thinking To Give Students a Guide to the Future by Oliver, Helen; Utermohlen, Robert. 

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of  Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.