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A Society With Poor Critical Thinking Skills: The Case For 'Argument' in Education

1) The document discusses the importance of teaching argumentative skills in education. It notes that most students today lack critical thinking abilities and have poor skills in logical reasoning and writing well-organized essays with clear arguments. 2) Argumentative skills are crucial for decision making, and teaching students to both generate and critique arguments can promote long-term understanding of course content and enhance learning. However, argument is a more complex skill for both students and most teachers to learn. 3) The goal of an argument curriculum is to develop students into responsible citizens by cultivating their argument skills, epistemic development, and moral development. This will lead to students becoming autonomous critical thinkers.

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Chun Hao Theo
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59 views

A Society With Poor Critical Thinking Skills: The Case For 'Argument' in Education

1) The document discusses the importance of teaching argumentative skills in education. It notes that most students today lack critical thinking abilities and have poor skills in logical reasoning and writing well-organized essays with clear arguments. 2) Argumentative skills are crucial for decision making, and teaching students to both generate and critique arguments can promote long-term understanding of course content and enhance learning. However, argument is a more complex skill for both students and most teachers to learn. 3) The goal of an argument curriculum is to develop students into responsible citizens by cultivating their argument skills, epistemic development, and moral development. This will lead to students becoming autonomous critical thinkers.

Uploaded by

Chun Hao Theo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tutorial 1

READING COMPREHENSION

A Society with Poor Critical Thinking Skills: The Case for 'Argument' in
Education

1 Researchers have shown that most students today are weak in critical thinking
skills. According to Evans (2002), they do poorly on simple logical reasoning tests.
Only a fraction of graduating high school seniors (6% of 12th graders) can make
informed, critical judgments about written text. This problem applies to both reading
and writing. Perie, Grigg, and Donahue (2005) stated that only 15% of 12th graders
demonstrate the proficiency to write well-organized essays that consisted of clear
arguments.

2 Critical thinking and argument skills -- the abilities to both generate and
critique arguments -- are crucial elements in decision-making (Klaczynski, 2004).
When applied to academic settings, argumentation may promote the long-term
understanding and retention of course content. In all careers, academic classes, and
relationships, argument skills can be used to enhance learning when we treat
reasoning as a process of argumentation, as fundamentally dialogical, and as
metacognitive. Significant differences in approach have emerged as how best to
cultivate the skills necessary to form, present and defend an argument. Differences
have emerged as to whether the best practices include the use of computers, writing
exercises, metacognitive activities, debates, modelling, or frontal instruction. There
have been too many "arguments" that sounds combative and negative but the use of
argument can be constructive and generative.

3 Epistemological understanding becomes most evident when an individual is


confronted with uncertain or controversial knowledge claims. It is imperative that
high school students, of diverse personal, moral and intellectual commitments,
become prepared to confront multiple perspectives on unclear and controversial
issues when they move on to college and their careers. This is not only important for
assuring that students are equipped to compete in the marketplace of ideas but also
to maximize their own cognitive development more broadly. Longitudinal studies
that focused on high school students (Schommer, 1997) show a positive correlation
between educational level and epistemological level. Cross-sectional studies
demonstrate that educational experiences influence epistemological development and
that it is the quality of education and not age or gender that contributes to different
developmental levels of epistemological understanding (Chandler, 1990).

4 Argument is a more complex and challenging cognitive skill for students than
other genres of reading and writing, such as exposition or narration. Hillocks (2010)
asserted that it is also more challenging for most teachers who may not have the
knowledge or experience of working with argumentative reading and writing. In
addition, most teachers try to avoid conflict when it comes to learning.

5 Many teachers have observed that students sitting in classrooms today are
bored by the frontal authoritarian model of learning. For years, as a student, I was
told to take out my notebook and copy what was written on the board. A curriculum
works better when students are active participants and are engaged in democratic,
and cognitively challenging tasks. In the frontal model, teachers provide the
questions and answers. In the argument model, the students provide the questions
and the answers while the teachers provide the structure, the facilitation, and the
guidance. Students gain the necessary skills to be critical thinkers in a complex
society with many different agendas, facts, and perspectives.

6 Some argue that too much autonomy is given to students in a student-centered


environment. However, the risk is much greater with frontal lecture education: that
our students master content but do not gain the cognitive, moral, and epistemic
development necessary to become autonomous critical thinkers. The choice of
reading matter for students is also an important factor. As such, Calfee and
Chambliss (1987) claimed that students are unlikely to develop critical thinking
skills naturally when their class reading assignments consist only of narrative and
explanatory texts, as opposed to argumentative texts.

7 The goal of an argument curriculum is to enhance the development of the


responsible citizens and the pedagogical methodology consists of cultivating
argument skills, epistemic development, and moral development. School-based
nurturance of this development will lead to students' autonomous critical thinking
and their formation as responsible citizens. We must invest in the education of our
youth. They are our future!

Adapted from Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz. (2013)


Huffingtonpost.
Q1. State the meaning of the following words in bold as used in the passage:

(a) combative (Paragraph 2)


Ready or eager to fight / argue. AGGRESSIVE (2 marks)

(b) assuring (Paragraph 3)


Make sure of something (2 marks)

(c) autonomy (Paragraph 6)


The right or condition of self-government
(2 marks)
[Total: 6 marks]

Q2. Why is argumentative skill important in the academic settings?


Argumentative skill can promote long-term understanding and retention of the course content. It
can also enhance learning as reasoning is treated as a process of argumentation.
(2 marks)

Q3. Besides debating, suggest TWO (2) other methods that teachers could adopt to promote
critical thinking skills in classrooms. (2 marks)
GROUPING, BRAINSTORMING, HIGHER ORDER THINKING QUESTIONS, PROJECT-
BASED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Q4. How does education enhance epistemological development among high school students?
Students gain the necessary skills to be critical thinkers in a complex society with many different
agendas, facts and perspectives.

In high schools, students have to deal with uncertain or controversial knowledge claims
(1m) and they are trained to maximize their own cognitive development more broadly
(1m).

(2 marks)

Q5. State TWO (2) hindrances that may occur when instilling argument skills in classrooms.
Teachers do not have the

knowledge or experience of working with argumentative reading and writing.


The teachers try to avoid conflict

(2 marks)

Q6. Explain in your own words what is meant by “frontal authoritarian model” as found in
Paragraph 5.
A system where the teacher (or person who stands in front) dominates the classroom 

(2 marks)

Q7. Distinguish the roles of teachers and students in the frontal and argument models.
(4 marks)

Q8. What is the main objective of argument curriculum?


(2 marks)

Q9. In your opinion, what could be the advantages and disadvantages of a student-centered
environment?
(4 marks)

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