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29th Conference Theme

Fostering Intellectual Discipline

CONFERENCE MENU


The 29th International Conference on Critical Thinking will focus on theory and methods for fostering intellectual discipline in student thought and action.

Intellectually disciplined students:

  • persevere through difficulties in problems and issues (rather than giving up when learning becomes “painful” or difficult).
  • routinely empathize with the thinking of others (especially the thinking of those with whom they disagree).
  • take ownership of content through actively thinking it through.
  • develop confidence in their ability to figure things out for themselves.
  • can distinguish between what they know and what they do not know (and do not confuse the two).
  • articulate questions in multiple ways before dealing with complex issues.
  • use intellectual tools routinely in every class to take ownership of the content.
  • seek to identify key structural components in thinking (purposes, question at issue, information and data, , inferences and interpretations, concepts and theories, assumptions and presuppositions, implications and consequences, points of view and frames of reference).
  • read, write, listen, and speak critically.
  • locate  ultimate intellectual  authority in evidence and reasoning, rather than in authority figures or “authoritative” beliefs or texts.

Intellectual discipline is essential to the educated mind.  However, we do not foster it at the expense of the emotional life of students.  Rather we help students take command of their emotions, feelings and desires through the use of reason. We avoid teaching in such a way that students become overly self-critical, or obsessive about learning in order to make the grade or pass the test.  We want students to experience the joy of learning, which they can best do when they take command of their learning and the development of their own intellect. Recognizing that the affective dimension of thought is just as important as the cognitive dimension, we want to foster awareness and command of both.
Under (well-designed) instruction, emphasizing intellectual discipline, students learn how to analyze thinking, assess thinking, and re-construct thinking (improving it thereby). As a result, students so taught learn to think within the subjects they study – to think historically, anthropologically, sociologically, politically, chemically, biologically, mathematically, …

As an integral part of intellectual discipline, students learn how to read, write, speak, and listen in a new way (critically). Most importantly, they learn how to learn, using disciplined reading, writing, speaking, and listening as modalities in learning. And in the process, they take command of their own minds.

For more than a quarter century, the Foundation for Critical Thinking has emphasized and argued for the importance of teaching for critical thinking in a strong, rather than a weak, sense. We have argued for a clear and “substantive” concept of critical thinking (rather than for one that is ill-defined); for a concept:

  1. that interfaces well with the disciplines,
  2. that integrates critical with creative thinking,
  3. that applies directly to the needs of everyday and professional life,
  4. that emphasizes the affective as well as the cognitive dimension of critical thinking,
  5. that highlights intellectual standards and traits,
  6. that is essential to reasoning within every subject and domain of human thought.


A substantive concept of critical thinking does not easily reduce to a single univocal definition. Rather, it is illuminated by a range of definitions, each highlighting one of its multi-faceted dimensions: its role in intellectual analysis, evaluation, and reconstruction; its role in the array of disciplines (in historical thinking, in anthropological thinking, in sociological thinking, in artistic thinking, in scientific thinking, in the thinking of astronomers and engineers, and so forth); its role in reading, writing, and speaking; its role in investing, doing research, and self-critique; its role in transcending parochialism, egocentrism, and sociocentrism; its role in living a healthy and fit life; its role in civic life; its role in detecting media bias and propaganda; its role in non-partisan, non-ideological ethical reasoning.

One implication of such an emphasis is this: that only through long-term planning can a substantive concept of critical thinking take roots in instruction and learning. Critical thinking cannot be taught per se in any single course, or in any short-period of time. Critical thinking is the key to educational reform and deep learning, but not in any simplistic form and not in any short-term strategy. We need short-term strategies, of course. But without long-term planning nothing substantial occurs; deep learning does not result.

The conference will enable participants to design instruction so that students:

  • Study subjects at a deeper level and from a greater variety of standpoints
  • Acquire the spirit of critical enquiry
  • Develop perspective across a wide variety of subjects
  • Raise and discuss fundamental questions
  • Weigh and assess evidence and reasoning in coming to their own conclusions
  • Use and interpret relevant documents
  • Relate specialized knowledge to more general issues and inquiry
  • Ground their thought in relevant examples
  • Discuss broad issues from a multi-disciplinary perspective

Click to download the printable 2009 Conference Flyer (2.3MB Acrobat PDF File)





Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.