两种意义下的批判思维教学

Two Senses of Critical Thinking Teaching: Some Reflections and Experience

批判性思维教学在国内方兴未艾,同事们就搜集教材、试验学生反应、测试教学成果及理解课程本质等纷纷交流意见。在国外包括港台等地,批判性思维教学已有一段时间的实践经验,亦不时有提出理念反思。美国哲学家理察·保罗(Richard Paul)在其1981/1995年的文章中,提出两种意义下的批判思维教学理念,引起广泛关注和讨论。"弱式"批判思维视批判思维教学为提供规则、锻炼技巧、学习把对手逐点击破的手段;"强式"批判思维则强调思维的整体性,把思考看作是人的生命形态,锻炼学生敏锐地察觉及指认自己与他人的世界观,分析不同观念、发掘相关问题、进行对话、以审视其价值,成为智性上开放、道德之个体。本文介绍保罗的理念,并尝试结合一些笔者在英国及香港的经验,对批判思维教学的理念作出反省,并讨论将包括英国牛津大学和伦敦大学国王学院的导修制度,以及香港中学生、大学生、乃至中学老师对批判思考的理解和态度等。

Critical thinking teaching is developing fast in recent years in China's Mainland. Many universities have set up their own courses and colleagues are active in discussing relevant pedagogical issues. It would be timely to share some reflections and experiences from other places of the world. This paper reviews American philosopher Richard Paul’s （1981/1995） discussion of two senses of critical thinking teaching, urging us to reflect on the nature of thinking itself. The weak sense takes critical thinking as skills to find atomic mistakes in reasoning, while the strong sense emphases critical thinking as a form of life which engages students in dialectical mode of analyses and dialogues. This paper also shares some of the author’s experience in teaching critical thinking in Hong Kong and the UK, such as the tutorial systems in the University of Oxford and King’s Col-lege London, people’s reception about critical thinking in Hong Kong including school students, university students and school teachers.