西方批判性思维教学的审视与反思

A Review and Reflection on Western Critical Thinking Teaching

20世纪70年代以来,培养学生的批判性思维能力逐渐成为高等教育机构本科教育的目标,批判性思维教学因而备受关注。尽管批判性思维已经被教授了很多年,但批判性思维是否可教仍有争议,批判性思维教学效果也受到质疑。以往学者们认为批判性思维难教主要是多数教师不具备教授的能力,实际上更重要的是缺少使用思维的“真实情境”。也就是说,教师如果希望学生掌握技能,应该帮助他们学习如何在不同情境下运用这些技能,以便对批判性思维的理论和应用有更全面的了解。这种情况在学科教学中尤为明显。白琳和巴特斯比提出的基于“探究”的批判性思维教学法能够针对不同的情境进行讨论,既包括学科情境的,也包括日常情境的。它涉及三个重要方面:关注一个问题、寻找不同论证和做出合理判断。

Since the 1970s,fostering students'critical thinking skills has gradually become the goal of undergraduate education in higher education institutions,and critical thinking teaching has therefore attracted much attention.Although critical thinking has been taught for many years,whether critical thinking is teachable remains controversial and the effectiveness of critical thinking teaching has also been questioned.In the past,scholars have argued that critical thinking is difficult to teach mainly because most teachers do not have the ability to teach it,but in fact it is more importantly due to the lack of"real context"in which to use it.That is,if teachers want students to acquire skills,they should help them learn how to apply those skills,they should help them learn how to apply those skills in different contexts in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the theory and application of critical thinking.This is particularly obvious in subject teaching.A teaching approach of critical thinking based on"inquiry"proposed by Bailin and Battersby can be discussed in different contexts,both academic and daily context.It involves three important aspects:focusing on one issue,looking for different arguments and making reasoned judgement.