Critical Thinking Skills in English Language Teaching (and My Predictions)

Previously, I wrote about the trend of National Geographic textbooks in the English Language Teaching industry, and my prediction that this will someday be regarded as just a fade that the industry will look back on with some embarrassment.

The next fade I'd like to complain about is the trend of teaching critical thinking skills in English Language teaching courses.

If you're in the industry, you'll know all too well what I'm talking about.  Teaching "critical thinking skills" has been integrated into every textbook and every curriculum.

If you're outside of the ELT industry, it may surprise you to know just how many English language teachers also consider themselves experts in critical thinking skills (*) (**)

I'm not sure how this plays out in other parts of the world, but in Asia (where I've been teaching for the last 20 years), teaching critical thinking has developed into an evangelical mission.  As in: "these Asians don't know how to think critically.  That's why we, the white people, have to come in and teach them how to think critically."  And so every Western English teacher believes that they are on a mission to teach the Asians how to think critically.

 

There's a widespread belief that Westerners know how to think critically, and Asians don't, and therefore when we have young Asians in our classrooms, we have to make sure we teach them critical thinking.

I believe this view is flawed for several reasons.

1). Western teachers mistake lack of civic engagement for lack of critical thinking

It is true that if you ask a typically Asian teenager what they think about current political issues, they'll just shrug their shoulders (***) and say that they don't know.  And a lot of Westerners mistake this for a lack of critical thinking ability.  But it's actually just a lack of political engagement.

If you introduce an issue that is personally relevant to the students, they will have strong opinions on it, and they will be able to defend their opinions using all the same critical thinking and persuasive skills that their Western counterparts use.

If you're currently teaching in Asia, then go ahead and try this out as an experiment.  Introduce some sort of new rule in your class that is disadvantageous to your students.  Tell them that they are going to have more homework.  Or that the lateness policy is going to get stricter.  Or that they can't bring snacks into class anymore.  Or that they can't use their phones in class anymore.  Or whatever it is.  Introduce some sort of rule that your students don't like.  And then, try to defend that rule against the objections of your students.  Watch as they careful analyze, and then dismantle all of your justifications for that rule.  Watch as they produce counter-argument and appeals to logic in order to defend their positions.

They can actually think critically just fine when their interests are at stake.

2). Western teachers mistake diversity of opinion for evidence of critical thinking

The range of political opinions is often greater in Western culture than it is in Asian culture.  And so Westerners often believe that this is evidence that Asians don't know how to think critically.

But, in fact, the wide range of political opinions in Western countries is not always evidence of critical thinking.  Within any one of these ideological groupings is quite often a remarkable conformity of thought to the political tribe. 

Westerners think that they know how to think critically, but they are just as susceptible to logical fallacies as everyone else.  Within their political tribe, they are susceptible to cognitive biases that favors information that supports their preconceived opinions.  They are also just as likely to fall into group think, or defaulting to their perceived experts within their tribe.

People who actually know about analytical thinking, logical fallacies, and how to critically evaluate sources are very rare.  They're just as rare in the West as they are in Asia.

So, my prediction... actually it's more of a hope than a prediction, but my hope is that in 20 years' time, the English Language Teaching field will abandon its infatuation with teaching "critical thinking skills" and we'll all look back on this period of ELT history with a little bit of embarrassment.

And in future Delta courses, it will pop up briefly in "The History of Methodologies" section.  Something like "...in the early 21st century, it was widely believed that in addition to teaching grammar and vocabulary, language teachers were also responsible for teaching their students critical thinking skills.  Now, most English language teachers didn't have any specialization or training in critical thinking skills themselves, but they believed that the basic 4-week training they received on a CELTA course qualified them to teach critical thinking skills in whatever country they travelled to.  It was widely believed at the time that the local people of these countries were not able to think critically themselves, and needed the intervention of Western English teachers...." 

Or something like that!

(*) I've mentioned this before in a previous post:

For years now, I've also been annoyed by the use of "Critical Thinking" as a buzzword in ELT.  For precisely the reasons the TEFLologists mention.  Not only in Japan, but also in Cambodia and Vietnam, the buzzword is often used in ELT to imply that Asians have no critical thinking skills, and need to be taught critical thinking by their Western English teacher.

(**) And okay, yes, yes, I know what you're thinking: I have designed my own materials for teaching Critical Thinking lessons in the past (here, here, here, and here).  But that was because the critical thinking lessons were already in the textbook, and I was designing lessons to supplement the textbook.  I wouldn't have introduced critical thinking lessons on my own initiative.

(**) Okay, technically they won't actually shrug their shoulders.  That's a Western gesture.  But you get what I mean.