HOW ARE OUR STUDENTS THINKING? HELPING GEOSCIENCE STUDENTS BECOME BETTER AT CRITICAL THINKING

The development of critical thinking skills is often cited as an important outcome of undergraduate geoscience courses. Many faculty agree, in spirit, that to think critically about an argument, one must evaluate often conflicting evidence to decide on better or worse hypotheses based on explicit criteria. However, learning to think critically requires more than learning content. It requires that students fundamentally shift their epistemological views. In order to assist students with this transition, it is essential to understand how students develop intellectually and how classes can be organized to maximize student learning. While we know that shifting away from more traditional methods of content delivery in our geology classrooms often seems to be effective in promoting learning and critical thinking skills, it is important to think about why that might be and how we can use that information to further improve our classrooms.

William Perry's (1970) study of the intellectual development of students during their college years shows two major transitions that seem especially important to undergraduate geoscience classrooms. The traditional freshman tends to think about all knowledge as fixed in an objective truth, known by the professor or obtainable by textbooks. The acceptance of legitimate uncertainty in scientific understanding is the first major transition a college student will make. After this transition, students will enter a phase in which, in the absence of a true authority, all points of view are equally legitimate. One of the goals of most science programs is that students will leave college understanding that arguments are substantiated by scientific evidence, which allows scientists to choose better or worse hypotheses. Given the widespread public debate on scientific topics (global warming, creation/evolution, for example) we can see that higher education could be more effective in promoting critical thinking skills and that many educated members of society are still in the position of “When authorities disagree, all opinions are equally valid.” Restructuring our classrooms to emphasize active learning is one way to help encourage student intellectual development, while still maintaining a core focus on science content.