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Sustaining the culture of the book: the role of enrichment reading and critical thinking in the undergraduate curriculum - The Library and Undergraduate Education
Library Trends, Fall, 1995 by Barbara MacAdam
INTRODUCTION
Provoked by a number of sweeping indictments of the state of education in this country, the higher education community began a major reassessment of the goals, quality, and curriculum of undergraduate education. Publications such as A Nation at Risk 1983) and Boyer's (1987) College: The undergraduate Experience in America, decried the decline in student motivation, in standardized test scores, in any interest in reading, in the ability to reason qualitatively and quantitativcly, and in the capacity to think critically. The ensuing reevaluation was soon accompanied by a growing commitment among educators to establish a core curriculum at the college level. Curricular reform included a particular emphasis on writing, information handling, and reasoning skills across the curriculum, as well as a recommitment to develop independent, self-motivated, lifelong learners.
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At the same time, fueled by changing demographics of the student population, debate over the canon and what actually should constitute a core or general curriculum at the college level rocked college and university campuses. A radically transformed knowledge and information infrastructure awaited students, most of whom had spent more time watching television than reading and had grown up synthesizing information from image and sound bytes rather than complex rhetorical analysis. Among all the controversy, analysis, and redirection surrounding the undergraduate curriculum in the 1980s, critical thinking is one of the most significant elements.
CRITICAL THINKING AND THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM
"Humans are the only animals whose thinking can be characterized as clear, precise, accurate, relevant, consistent, profound, and fair; they are also the only animals whose thinking is often imprecise, vague, inaccurate, irrelevant, superficial, trivial, and biased" (Paul, 1992, p. 3). Noting the inherent paradox in human nature, Paul describes the necessity for humans to think critically and not simply trust their instincts:
They should not unquestioningly believe what spontaneously occurs
to them. They should not accept as true everything that is taught as
true. They should not assume that their experience is unbiased.
They need to formulate, since they are not born with, intellectually
sound standards for belief, truth, and validity. They need to cultivate
habits and traits that integrate these standards into their lives.
(p. 3)
He goes on to warn that few students understand what it means to think analytically through the content of a subject; few use critical thinking as a tool for acquiring knowledge.
An explicit definition and statement of curriculum-related critical thinking skills comes from Chancellor Glenn Dumke's (1980) Executive Order 338 announcing the requirement of formal instruction in critical thinking throughout the nineteen California State University campuses:
Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding
of the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to
reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental
conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous
statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to
be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical
thinking should be the ability to distinguish fact from judgment,
belief from knowledge, and skills in
elementary inductive and deductive
process, including an understanding of the formal and informal
fallacies of language and thought.
One of the most frequently cited factors in the failure of American education is the inability of American students to read and think critically. The National Commission on Excellence in Education reported alarmingly that "many 17 year olds do not possess the 'higher order' intellectual skills we should expect of them .... Nearly 40 percent cannot draw inferences from written materials; and only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay" (A Nation at Risk, 1983, p. 9) and recommends that all subject-matter areas contribute in developing critical-thinking skills. Chaffee (1985) defines critical thinking as "making sense of our world by carefully examining our thinking and the thinking of others in order to clarify and improve our understanding" (p. 51). Critical thinkers carefully analyze situations, issues, and messages, checking for logical and supported arguments. Critical thinkers are not swayed by clever communicators who appeal to one's emotions or sense of patriotism nor are they influenced by messages without adequate supporting evidence or by arguments loaded with faulty reasoning (Postman & Weingartner, 1969; Sacco, 1987). Additional aspects of critical thinking include cultivating a healthy skepticism, encouraging students to challenge in positive and well-reasoned ways what they read or hear, and helping students understand how writers purposefully manipulate language (Sacco, 1987). The ability to think critically is one of the most crucial survival skills in today's world. Lacking such skills, people cannot participate effectively in a democratic society (Toulmin et al., 1979; Sacco, 1987).
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