Bartle Angus Keeping Our Eye on the Prize: Developing Critical Thinkers

24/F 9:45 AM White

Bartle Angus

Type_Presentation: 60-minute Concurrent Session

PresentationTitle: Keeping our eye on the prize: Developing critical thinkers

ProgramStrand_Primary: College Reading

ProgramStrand_Secondary: Learning and Study Strategies

Presentation_description:

This session is designed for instructors who wish to encourage the development of critical thinking. Relevant research and theory will be reviewed, student dispositions toward critical thinking will be examined, and participants will receive question templates that can be used to scaffold student skills to higher levels.

Session_summary:

The LA Times recently reported a case of a high school senior who found evidence of strong bias in his AP history text American Government by Wilson and Diulio. Michael LaClair shared his finding with the Center for Inquiry, a New York based think tank. The student’s action has resulted in the publisher offering to review the text. Unfortunately this student’s questioning attitude and ability to detect bias was unusual enough to make the national news. But isn’t this what we hope that our students will do? A critically literate and informed electorate is required for a functioning democracy. But as teachers of postsecondary students, many of whom struggle with basic skills, how do we encourage critical thinking and literacy? Three things instructors can do to help reach this goal are: 1. understand research that shows the advantages of not exclusively focusing on low level skill development; 2. develop awareness of student dispositions toward critical thinking; and 3. utilize instructional strategies for providing students with scaffolding to reach higher levels of critical thinking and literacy.

In 1996, Jeanne Chall identified stages of reading development in her landmark text. She stated that we would hope to see students who are age 18 and above at the level of Construction and Reconstruction. This “means that one has the ability to construct knowledge on a high level of abstraction and generality and to create one’s own ‘truth’ from the truths of others.” (p.23) Postsecondary students who certainly fit in this age group are often not operating at this level.

P. David Pearson and his colleagues who conduct research on struggling readers and comprehension have found that once a reader has been identified as struggling we most often provide that student with more and more support and instruction on low level skills (decoding strategies, vocabulary development, main idea) while ignoring higher level reading and critical thinking skills. Interestingly, this has not lead to success. Instead, providing students with opportunities for high level discussion (asking why was this written instead of what does it say) leads to increased comprehension and development of critical thinking skills.

The work of Chall and Pearson should inform our practice as reading instructors of postsecondary students. We need to keep in mind that we want to help our students function at Chall’s Construction and Reconstruction stage and use what Pearson and others have discovered about helping struggling young readers to create the best possible instruction for our adult students.

Recently, Susan Wolcott (2006) has developed a model that describes stages or performance patterns that adults move through as they become more capable of advanced levels of critical literacy. Understanding these stages can provide a foundation for providing meaningful instruction and class activities that will help scaffold students to more advanced and complex levels of literacy.

This proposed session is designed for classroom instructors who wish to encourage the development of critical thinking and literacy skills. Relevant research and theory will be reviewed and a reference list will be provided. Student dispositions toward critical thinking, focusing on the Wolcott (2006) model will be examined and participants will have an opportunity to match samples of student writing with levels on the model. Participants will also receive question templates that can be used to engage students at higher levels and help them move toward Chall’s Construction and Reconstruction level. There will be an opportunity to implement and evaluate the question templates and the presentation will culminate with the sharing of participant ideas.

A handout will be provided that includes brief research summaries and references, the Wolcott disposition model with examples, and question templates.

The presenter has taught critical reading and thinking at California State University, Fullerton for 23 years and is the coordinator of the undergraduate Reading Program at CSUF. She is an active member of CRLA and has served in a variety of capacities including co-authoring the CRLA position statement on Rights of Adult Learners.

Informal Listing of References

Chall, J. (1996). Stages of Reading Development.

Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, Rodriguez (2003). “Reading Growth in High-Poverty Classrooms: The Influence of teacher practice to encourage cognitive engagement in literacy learning” in The Elementary School Journal. V104, N1 pp 3-28.

Wolcott, S. (2006). College Faculty Handbook: Steps for Better Thinking

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PresenterBio:

Kathryn Bartle Angus earned an MS in Education with a specialization in Reading at California State University, Fullerton. She has been teaching academic reading and critical reading and thinking classes at California State University Fullerton for over 20 years and is the currently serving as the coordinator of the Undergraduate Reading Program. Kathryn is a frequent CRLA presenter and co-author of the CRLA Position Statement on Rights of Adult Learners.