Western News recently ran a timely piece by Adela Talbot reporting on the provincial initiative by Glen Murray to reshape Ontario universities (Blowing it up, Sept. 6). It is clear Murray’s ideas would constitute a fundamental change in what most people understand as the principal mandate of universities – “to provide students with skills to engage in critical thinking,” as professor Don Abelson formulated it in the article.
While all professors should, and most do, know what critical thinking is, societal values have changed so much over the past few decades that many students, their parents and their elected legislators have little or no understanding of the term.
Gradually, the emphasis on critical thinking has waned to the point where you hardly see the phrase appear in popular discussions. Recurrent economic downturns and technological revolutions have helped to create an educational culture that puts more and more emphasis on delivering a specific skill set that will, at least in the perception of students, guarantee them a job. As provincial funding patterns and increasing demand have forced universities to become more consumer-oriented, meeting consumer demand translates into substituting training for what we have known as education – which seems to be the main focus of the proposed provincial restructuring.
After all, dwelling too much on promoting critical thinking might scare students away to a competing institution.
What is missing from this scenario is the idea that critical thinking is the greatest of all skills that a person can learn – and one without which a democracy cannot function. Every day, we are bombarded and overloaded with information from the media about politics, health, environmental issues and ethical concerns: How should I vote? Should I stop eating eggs? Is global warming driven by human behavior? Should we have more wind farms or more nuclear power plants or both? Should Canada have legal limits on abortion?
Answering every one of these questions requires determining that it is clearly stated, finding relevant information, evaluating the quality of that information and finally attempting to reach a conclusion that is based logically on the data and ethically responsible.
It’s not easy.
If critical thinking is so important, why isn’t there a program or at least a course in the subject? The answer is that every course at all levels of education should be inculcating the notion of critical thought. The concept is not specific to any particular discipline.
In fact, the only way to acquire the skill is to choose a program in a subject you love, and to work hard at achieving the deepest level of understanding that you can. Physics, philosophy, poetry, psychology – serious study in any of these is the way to empowering yourself as a productive citizen in a modern democracy.
Critical thinking is a transferable skill that can increase your chances of employment in tough economic times. Many people are not aware of the number of science- or math-trained people in the finance industry.
University professors should speak out forcefully against the proposed changes in Ontario university programs. More generally, we need to sell the idea of critical thinking to our students, and actively make them aware of the difference between education and training. We should not short-change our students with courses that shy away from challenging content and meaningful evaluation.
In the end, they will recognize that the real value for money in a university education is learning to think.
S. David Rosner
Professor emeritus, Department of Physics & Astronomy