Transforming and redescribing critical thinking: Constructive thinking

Studies in Philosophy and Education

Volumn 17, Issue 2-3, 1998, Pages 123-148

  Thayer Bacon, Barbara ^a  

^a BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Critical thinking; Cultural diversity; Feminism

Indexed keywords

EID: 54649085109     PISSN: 00393746     EISSN: 1573191X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/a:1005166416808     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. For some history of the Critical Thinking Movement, see: Blair, J. Anthony: 'Recent Develop-ments in Critical Thinking in Anglophone North America,' Thinking, The Journal of Philosophy for Children 2, 2 (1987): 2-6.
2. Norris, Stephen P: 'Synthesis of Research on Critical Thinking,' Educational Leadership (May 1985): 40-45.
3. Ennis, Robert: 'A Concept of Critical Thinking,' Harvard Educational Review 32, 1 (1962): 81-111.
4. See, for example: Ennis, Robert: 'A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities,' in Joan Boykoff Baron and Robert Sternberg (eds.) Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice (W. H. Freeman, New York, 1987): 9-26.
5. Eipman Mathew and Sharp Ann: Growing up with Philosophy (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1978).
6. Eipman Mathew, Sharp A., Oscanyan F.: Philosophy in the Classroom (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1980).
7. Me Peck, John: Critical Thinking and Education (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1981).
8. Paul, Richard: Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs in a Rapidly Changing World (Sonoma State University, Sonoma, CA, 1990).
9. Siegel, Harvey: Educating Reason (Routledge, New York, 1988).
10. The Dialogues of Plato, 4th ed., Irans, by Jowett Benjamin (The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1953) Meno, Vol 1 and Republic, Vol II.
11. See for example: Black, Max: Critical Thinking (Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1946).
12. Dewey, John: How we Think (Heath & Co., NY, 1910).
13. Dewey, John: Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, NY, 1978).
14. Glaser, Edward: An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking (Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, 1941)
15. Passmore, John: 'On Teaching to be Critical,' from The Concept of Education (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Eondon, 1967): 192-211.
16. Peters, R. S.: Reason and Compassion (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Eondon, 1973).
17. Ryle, Gilbert: The Concept of Mind (Barnes & Noble, NY, 1949).
18. Scheffler, Israel: Conditions of Knowing (Scott Foresman & Co., Chicago, 1965).
19. See for Example: The National Commission on Excellence in Education: A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1983).
20. Business - Higher Education Forum: America's Competitive Challenge: The Need for Response (American Council on Education, Washington, DC, 1983).
21. Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession: A Nation Prepared (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, NY, 1986).
22. Adler, Mortimer: The Paideia Proposai- An Educational Manifesto (Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1982).
23. Bloom, Allan: The Closing of the American Mind (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1987).
24. Hirsch, E. D. Jr.: Cultural Literacy (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1987).
25. 'Symposium: Is Critical Thinking Biased?,' Educational Theory 45, 2 (Spring 1995): 191-233.
26. Bailin, Sharon: 'Is Critical Thinking Biased? Clarifications and Implications,' 191-197.
27. Norris, Stephen P.: 'Sustaining and Responding to Charges of Bias in Critical Thinking,' 199-211.
28. Wheary, Jennifer and Ennis, Robert H.: 'Gender Bias in Critical Thinking: Continuing the Dialogue,' 213-224.
29. Alston, Kal: 'Begging the Question: Is Critical Thinking Biased?' 225-233.
30. The term 'constructive thinker' is one I have adopted from 'constructive knower' in Belenky, Mary Field, Clinchy, Blythe McVicker, Goldberger, Nancy Rule, and Tarule, Jill Mattuck: Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind (Basic Books, Harper Collins Publishers, USA, 1986). The essential qualities of acknowledging that one's personal voice is contributing to the conversation, and allowing that feelings such as caring for the other are necessary and present (not just thoughts) are what both terms share in common.
31. For ease of referencing, any quotes used from the symposium will be directly quoted and page number supplied in the text, rather than footnoting each quote. See footnote 8 for the entire reference of the symposium.
32. ggression is addressed by: Ayim, Maryann, 'Violence and Domination as Metaphors in Academic Discourse,' in Trudy Govier (ed.) Selected Issues in Logic and Communication (Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 1988)
33. and Eakoff, George and Johnson, Mark: Metaphors We Live By (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980).
34. Emotions are discussed by: Thayer-Bacon, Barbara: 'Caring and Its Relationship to Critical Thinking,' Educational Theory 43, 3 (Summer 1993): 323-40,
35. and Martin, Jane Roland: 'Critical Thinking for a Humane World,' in Stephen Norris (ed.) The Generalizability of Critical Thinking (Teachers College Press, New York, 1992).
36. Bailin uses these four criteria and references that they can be found in Ennis, Paul and Siegel's work which we referenced in footnote 3: Ennis, 'A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities,' 12. Paul, 'Critical Thinking and the Critical Person' in Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs in a Rapidly Changing World. Siegel, Educating Reason 39.
37. Siegel, Harvey: Relativism Refuted: A Critique of Contemporary Epistemological Relativism (D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht & Boston, 1987), 164. Bailin references herself as being in agreement with Siegel on this view.
38. Bailin uses Andrea Nye as an example of this view. We will see that Kal Alston, participant in the symposium, also represents this strong sense bias view. Nye, Andrea: Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic (Routledge, New York, 1990).
39. Thayer-Bacon, 'Caring and Its Relationship to Critical Thinking,' and Garrison, James W. and Phalen, Anne: 'Toward a Feminist Poetic of Critical Thinking,' in Ralph Page (ed.) Philosophy of Education, 1989 (Philosophy of Education Society, Normal, IE, 1990): 304-314. interesting enough, Sharon Bailin is the person who responded to Garrison and Phalen's paper at PES. Since Bailin takes the kind of approach with Garrison and Phalen that Norris is suggesting, we will examine the results of this advise through Bailin's response in Part III.
40. See: Bailin, Sharon: 'Belief, Doubt and Critical Thinking: Reconciling the Contraries,' in Ralph Page (ed.) Philosophy of Education, 1989 (Philosophy of Education Society, Normal, IE, 1990), 315-319.
41. Thayer-Bacon, Barbara: Ts Modern Critical Thinking Sexist?' Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines (September 1992): 3-7.
42. Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Truth and Method (Crossroad, New York, 1975).
43. Dewey, John: Experience and Nature, 2nd ed. (Dover, New York, 1958).
44. Rorty, Richard: 'Feminism and Pragmatism,' Michigan Quarterly Review 30, 2 (1991), 231-258. My understanding of this issue was greatly enhanced by this article: Kaufman-Osborn,
45. Timothy W.: 'Teasing Feminist Sense from Experience,' Hypatia 8, 2 (Spring 1993), 1-20.
46. Dewey, John: 'Experience and Philosophical Method,' in JoAnn Boydston (ed.) John Dewey: The Later Works, 1925-1953, vol. 1 (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1981): 386.
47. Frankenberg, Ruth: White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1993).
48. Garrison and Phalen: 'Toward a Feminist Poetic of Critical Thinking,' in Philosophy of Education, 1989,
49. and Bailin, Sharon: 'Belief, Doubt and Critical Thinking: Reconciling the Contraries,' in Philosophy of Education, 1989. See footnote 16.
50. Banhabib, Seyla is my source for the terms 'embedded and embodied' although many feminists are using similar terms: Benhabib, Seyla: Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism (Routledge, New York, 1992).
51. Seigfried, Charlotte Haddock: 'Where are all the Pragmatic Feminists?' Hypathia 6, 2 (Summer 1991), 1-20.
52. Teresa de Eauretis (ed.) 'Feminist Studies/Critical Studies: Issues, Terms, and Context,' in Feminist Studies/Critical Studies (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1986).
53. Derrida, Jacques: Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978).
54. Foucault, Michel: Power/Knowledge (Pantheon, New York, 1980).
55. Eyotard, Jean-Francois: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (University of Minesota Press, Minneapolis, 1984).
56. Siegel: Relativism Refuted.
57. Peirce, Charles Sanders: Values in an universe of chance: Selected writing of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), P. P. Wiener (ed.) (Doubleday & Co. Inc., Garden City, NJ, 1958).
58. Thayer-Bacon: Ts Modern Critical Thinking Sexist?' and Thayer-Bacon, 'Caring and Its Relationship to Critical Thinking.'
59. Eorde, Audre: 'Age, race, class, and sex: women redefining difference,' in Helen Crowley and Susan Himmelweit (eds.) Knowing Women: Feminism and Knowledge (Polity Press, The Open University, Cambridge & Oxford, 1992).
60. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule: Women 's Ways of Knowing. There is an entire body of theorists working on "constructivism," I don't wish to imply I am the only one. I do wish to locate my "constructivism" with feminist scholarship, in particular feminist epistemologies.
61. Berger, Peter L. and Luckmann, Thomas: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, 1966).
62. Mead, George Herbert: Mind, Self and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, Charles W. Morris (ed.) (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1934).
63. Piaget, Jean: 'The Psychogenesis of Knowledge and its Epistemological Significance,' in M. Piatelli-Palmarini (eds.) Language and Learning (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980).
64. Vygotsky, Lev S.: Thought and Language, E. Haufmann and G. Vakar, Irans. (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1962, 1934).
65. Phillips, Denis C.: 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism,' Educational Researcher 24, 7 (October 1995), 5-12, p. 5.
66. Dewey, John: Experience and Education (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1938, renewed in 1965). This quote is in reference to Dewey's 'principal of interaction, 'which he later termed 'transaction.'
67. I wish to thank Barbara Wallon for her personal correspondence telling me what the term "construction" suggested to her.
68. Belenky et al. Women's Ways of Knowing, 17-20.
69. Polanyi, Michael: 'Tacit Knowing,' in The Tacit Dimension (Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1967), 6.
70. Noddings, Nel and Shore, Paul: Awakening the Inner Eye: Intuition in Education (Teachers College Press, New York, 1984).
71. Thayer-Bacon, Barbara: 'Constructive Thinking: Personal Voice,' Journal of Thought 30, 1, Spring 1995, 55-70.
72. Jaggar, Alison M, 'Love and Knowledge: Lmotion in Feminist Epistemology,' in Ann Carry and Marilyn Pearsall (eds.) Women, Knowledge, and Reality: Explorations in Feminist Philosophy (Routledge, New York, London, 1989, 1992).
73. Greene, Maxine, Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1995), 3.
74. Britzman, Deborah P.: 'Is there a Queer Pedagogy? Or, Stop Reading Straight,' Educational Theory 45, 2 (Spring 1995), 151-165.
75. Jaggar, 'Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology." This discussion on emotions is developed from a paper I gave at the American Educational Studies Association in 1996 titled "The Role of Emotional Feelings in Constructive Thinking' which is also discussed at some length in Philosophy Applied to Education: Nurturing a Democratic Community in the Classroom (Prentice Hall, Columbus, OH, 1998).
76. Ennis, 'A Concept of Critical Thinking,' 83.
77. Ennis, 'A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities,' 10.
78. Haraway, Donna, 'The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,' Feminist Studies 14, 3 (1988): 575-599. Code,
79. Lorraine: 'Taking Subjectivity into Account,' in Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (eds.) Feminist Epistemologies (Routledge, NY and London, 1993).
80. Code: 'Taking Subjectivity into Account,' 39.