My Thinking on Critical Thinking
Abstract: Critical thinking aims not only at demeaning but also at making meaning The right way to train critical thinking in school is essential because it will influent all society.
Keyword: making meaning, education of critical thinking, moral criticism
Michael Roth points out a general misunderstanding on critical thinking that being a smart thinker means being a critical unmasker by finding out errors or blind spots in other’s opinion and this leads to a culture climate that has little tolerance for finding or making meaning from what is brought before them.
I quiet agree with Michael Roth that critical thinking aims not only at demeaning but also at making meaning and helping us find direction in the world. One’s thinking pattern is unavoidable influenced by the era they lived in and always in response to a special aspect in a sophisticated phenomenon. If we extract the fragments from an essay and comprehend them using the knowledge we have already been told before, it’s easy to demonstrate how these fragments don’t make sense. So, the unmaskers who have a tendency to turn others down are not doing critical thinking. The basic requirement of critical thinking is to understand the throughout thinking process made by the author.
Even though a lot of young scholars with highly educational experience can follow the author’s thinking process with an empty mind, they still tend to criticize the author’s view after reading because which brings then to a more brilliant position than the author. If criticisms are aspired and highly evaluated all the time by teachers who don’t have an in-depth comprehension on critical thinking at school, misunderstanding of critical thinking would form in students’ mind. And when they’re growing up, the knowledge they learned will be the weapons to attack others’ view instead of the tools to help them understand others completely, which means they show tolerant attitude toward others’ theories but refuse to apply the theory to analyze problems. In other word, as the egocentric face a new theory, they don’t follow the step: remembering-understanding-applying-analyzing-evaluating-creating, they just tolerant and evaluate the new theory by their own idea. For example, I remember when I was in middle school, a composition is highly evaluated by my Chinese teacher in which the author said he can comprehend Tao Yuanming for retiring from the world but he believes Tao should take effort to change the Ming Dynasty’s society. My teacher said it was the unusual thinking that made the composition outstanding while I didn’t agree that the author made a critical thinking. Another case on feminism, the people who says I’m able to accept the idea that some women desire equal even more rights than man but I don’t really admire it doesn’t do a critical thinking.
And being deny is not only a problem in young scholars who do academic research but also in the common population. It is widely believed that critical thinking should be active, not positive and it should be criteria-based judgment, not only criticism, and it is supposed to help us solve problems well. I have asked my father for his idea on critical thinking and he gave me an example.” A visitor was eaten by tiger in the wildlife park should take whole responsibility by herself because she didn’t obey the rules set by the zoo. I think I’m doing a critical thinking because I make an impartial judgment by thinking actively and independently and what’s more important is that this thinking remind me to obey the principles.” I was immersed in wordless surprise for a long time as it seems that my father’s word really made sense. Suddenly, I realized the fact was that my father even didn’t think as he just said what moral rules want him to say. Criticisms or judgement on others’ behaviors or remarks meeting the requirement of moral rules aren’t equal to critical thinking. A lot of TV programs like LiBo Show and JinXing Show are really misleading and wind up contributing to a cultural climate that has little tolerance for finding or making meaning. However, if experienced intellectuals cannot understand the meaning of critical thinking, how we can expect a better cultural climate for critical thinking. So, the right way to train critical thinking in school is essential.