31-Oct-2002
California State University; every student in the system must take a critical thinking subject.
SUNY - State University of New York - has a required CT course for all undergrads (Harvey Siegel)
Athabasca University, Canada - Bachelor of Professional Arts
Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University SA, Bachelor of Health Sciences - requires Critical Thinking in Health Care
McMaster University, Canada - a requirement in all or most Social Sciences programs, and one way of meeting a requirement in all or most Science programs
Universiteit Maastricht Faculty of Law - first year includes extensive training in reasoning and argument
Baker University - requires every freshman to take a two-semester sequence that provides instruction in CT and written composition
Palm Beach Atlantic University, M.S. In Organizational Leadership - Critical Thinking and the Formation of Value Systems is a required core course
University College of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada, Associate and Bachelor of Arts degrees require a reasoning subject
Edith Cowan University, Western Australia - Critical Thinking required in the BA.
Charles Sturt University, NSW Australia - Reasoning, Values and Institutions required in BA
Australian Catholic University - MA by coursework students must do a unit called Research and Critical Thinking
Al Akhawayn University, Morocco - all undergraduates required to take two CT subjects, Skills for Learning and Research, and Critical Reading and Problem Solving
St. Bonaventure University, NY - requires all students take a course in critical thinking and writing, which involves some very basic formal logic as well as inductive reasoning and recognition of fallacies.
Atkinson College, York University, Canada - all students must take either a maths course or Modes of Reasoning - a two-semester course.
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 15:20:42 -0500
From: Jean Saindon <jsaindon@yorku.ca>
You might want to add Atkinson College of York University, Toronto, Canada to the list of institutions requiring a critical reasoning / informal logic course for graduation. Atkinson requires that students do either a mathematics course or Modes of Reasoning (the technical name is Methods and Criteria of Reasoning with a number of variants) as a General Education requirement for their degree. Those doing math, science, computer science and business generally do the math prerequisite, whereas most other students do the Modes. A surprising number of students who are exempt because of the math take Modes as an elective. The course is a year-length (two semester) course in our system. With various instructors teaching the curse, it has some variability. However, all instructors are committed to including elements of informal logic and critical reasoning, fallacies analysis, and conceptual analysis in their versions.
Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 15:09:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Adrianne McEvoy
The issue for philosophers in the states, at least those of us who are also
teachers, is that many students coming into college do not have the skills
necessary to immerse themselves in, understand, discuss and write philosophy.
For myself, it is an issue because I believe the students need to learn basic
skills - like recognizing that different questions require different types of
answers or different ways of answering - in order to be successful in school
and beyond. St. Bonaventure University requires all students take a course in
critical thinking and writing, which involves some very basic formal logic as
well as inductive reasoning and recognition of fallacies. The course is
taught by members of the philosophy department, but this pulls us away from
the upper-level courses. I suspect that many believe it is not "real
philosophy" and either burdensome or a waste of time, but I think part
of our responsibility to our students is to teach them how to think
critically - to be able to discern good arguments from poor ones.
the Bonas faculty does not fall into the group that believes teaching
critical thinking is a waste of time or over-burdensome.
Dr. Adrianne McEvoy
Philosophy Department
St. Bonaventure University
2 Plassman Hall
St. Bonaventure, NY 14778
From: C.Owens@notes.alakhawayn.ma
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 15:03:42 +0000 (GMT)
The Centre for Academic Development and Study Skills at Al Akhawayn
University has a 5 course requirement for every undergraduate entering the
university since Fall 2000. Two of the courses explicitly teach and
practice aspects of Critical Thinking embedded with other learning
development skills. One of them is my course, SSK 1201: Skills for
Learning and Research, and the other is SSK 1202: Critical Reading and
Problem Solving, designed and developed by Robert Burgess.
All CADS courses are given 2 Credits, and we consider them to be very
rigorous for both teachers and students.
They are accessible on the web at
http://mail.alakhawayn.ma/~A.Cads/courses.html
I hope this is of some use to you.
Catherine Owens
Centre for Academic Development and Study Skills
Al Akhawayn University
Ifrane, Morocco
From: Scriven@aol.com
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 10:41:13 -0400 (EDT)
Couple of reflections on this discussion... Harvey Siegel said that students
at the Cal State colleges all have to take 'a critical thinking course' i.e.,
500.000 a year. More precisely, they have to take what is cleared by a
college committee as a critical thinking course, and this has turned out to
be the Achilles heel of the system. For example, the Black Studies Department
on one campus enrolls heavily in a course on Racial Prejudice in the U.S.,
which has been officially pronounced to meet the requirement. On the same
campus, and many others, the critical thinking course in the philosophy
department is in fact a 'baby logic' course, and, as on many campuses in the
U.S. where such a course is not required, has damned little to do with
critical thinking. (Achilles had two heels, after all.) As usual, the job of
teaching it is given to some low-status member of the department, since
critical thinking has low status value in the halls of philosophical academe,
compared to formal logic, for the usual disgraceful reasons.
The alternative of a test is also hazardous, as Alec Fisher and I demonstrate
in a recent book (CRITICAL THINKING: Defining and Assessing it, available via
Amazon U.K., not the U.S. branch). Sorry about the plug, but it's mainly for
Alec who has since developed a pretty good test of critical thinking for
senior civil servants in the UK. Most tests are out of touch with reality and
with the extensive recent developments in 'informal logic', the theory of
critical thinking. Examples from the teaching section in the excellent
journal Informal Logic might provide the best source; the key is to use
realistic arguments and avoid multiple-choice items, but of course that means
expensive scoring.
Good luck!
Michael Scriven (MA Melb, D.Phil. Oxon; in philosophy)
Professor of Psychology &
Director of the Evaluation Program
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California
Professor-Elect of Evaluation
Auckland University
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 12:30:58 +0930 (CST)
From: Chris Mortensen
Tim: Adelaide has a large (450) CT course though it isn't compulsory.
It used to be compulsory in the B.Inf.Sc. but it was found that some
who were ESL were having difficulty. I strongly suggest a language level
of at least 7 should be required. There are moves to make it compulsory
in the media degree but those moves are being resisted by the media
people at present. Best wishes, Chris
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 07:21:41 +1000
From: john quilter
Dear Tim
At Australian Catholic University, there is requirement in all degrees to
do some kind of ethics unit. Many of these include a CT-ish element of
content. In the BA, they can do a CT unit to satisfy an area requirement
(all BAs have to do at least one Theology unit or one Philosophy unit, from
a list of possible units, one of which is CT).
In our MA by coursework, all students do a unit called "Research and
Critical Thinking", whatever specialisation they do.
All the best
John Quilter
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 11:22:21 -0400
From: "Siegel, Harvey"
Tim,
Your list mentions all the places I was aware of (and many more!) except 1: I believe that the state university system of New York (the SUNY system) also has a required course for all undergrads. If so, it'd be the second largest number of students (behind CA's state system, which is about 500,000 students/year) taking a CT course under such a requirement. Hope that helps. Good luck with your project! --Harvey
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 12:52:42 +0800
From: Alan Tapper
Dear Tim
Critical Thinking (PHR1102) is a required core first year unit in the BA
(Generic) at Edith Cowan University. It has been a core unit since the
formation of this degree in 1998. In that time we have had no student
complaints about this requirement that I am aware of. Many say that it has
helped them in their other studies. Currently it is taught and coordinated
by Dr Jim Beattie.
Alan Tapper
School of International, Cultural and Community Studies
Edith Cowan University
Joondalup 6027
Australia
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 07:37:30 -0700
From: Betsy Decyk
Hi Tim,
Thank you for you inquiry and also your offer to compile the responses.
In the California State University system every student must pass a
critical thinking course. (I do not think that a student can just take a
test to pass through this requirement, but I will check that.)
At California State University, Long Beach our general education program
has recently been reformed so that students take foundational skill
courses in the first year and a half. These include writing, critical
thinking, mathematics and communication. In addition, every general
education course is supposed to articulate, teach (not just model), and
provide students opportunities to practice and develop critical thinking
skills in that content area.
There are several departments on campus which offer critical thinking
courses including Philosophy, Psychology, English, Speech Communication,
History, Asian-Asian American Studies, Black Studies, and Honors. A
critical thinking course in the sciences is under development.
I would be glad to send you the CSU Long Beach general
education guidelines, and also standard course outlines of syllabi from
deparments, if you are interested in that level of detail.
Betsy
Betsy Decyk
Executive Director, AAPT
Departments of Philosophy and Psychology
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840-2408
562-985-4346
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 08:53:52 -0500
From: Donna Engelmann
Tim - we require all students to demonstrate competence in critical thinking by
the time they graduate from our liberal arts institution, and there are courses
throughout our developmentally structured curriculum which require students to
meet criteria for critical thinking as part of the course. The term we use for
critical thinking is "analysis", and this is one of eight core abilities that
all students must demonstrate in order to graduate. This is a different approach
from requiring a critical thinking course or test, and is something like the
"writing across the curriculum" approach used to teach communications skills in
some institutions. If you are interested in hearing more about this, feel free
to contact me. Our website is www.alverno.edu
Donna Engelmann
Alverno College
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 15:32:50 -0700
From: Paul Herman
At University College of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada,
Associate and Bachelor of Arts degrees require a reasoning course, of which
the only one current is PHIL 100: Reasoning.
See http://www.ucfv.bc.ca/calendar/2002_03/pdf%20versions/Arts+AplArts.pdf
We have had some version of this requirement for many years. For awhile, the
number of courses to satisfy it expanded as everyone claimed to teach
reasoning. But in the last few years, the Arts Curriculum Committee argued
that the explicit subject matter of the course had to be reasoning skills.
Paul Herman
Philosophy & Politics
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 14:41:16 -0500
From: "Allen, Virginia"
"Common knowledge" (that mythical beast) is that CT and IL have been long
lost as requirements in the United States since the turn of the 19th
century, replaced by "freshman English" aka "first-year composition." This
is true at Iowa State, and I would be very interested to find out if your
probing on the subject bears out what "everyone knows."
Last year ISU had two moderate sized (30 to 35? students) in undergraduate
"critical thinking" classes housed in the philosophy department. I tape
recorded the text [Richard L. Epstein's "Critical Thinking," second edition
(Wadsworth, 2002)] for the Disabilities Office.
Virginia Allen
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:42:00 +0930
From: "Clune, Tabitha Julie
I am in my final semester of an education degree and completed a compulsory
ethics subject last semester. I focused on critical thinking in the essay
that I wrote for that subject. I proposed in that essay that critical thinking
skills are severely underdeveloped in our education systems. I was prompted to
look at this issue when I saw how poorly developed the critical thinking skills
of my peers were, and we are in the situation where we will be expected to
teach this to our own students next year; a prospect that really concerns me.
I think that courses are often made compulsory, in order to ensure that all
students in the course are provided with the skills that are deemed necessary.
This is where students often become frustrated with the system as they are
doing a course that they feel confident in already. Perhaps the idea of a CT
test is better so that some students may be eligible for credit in the course,
or perhaps there are several streams available to cater for the needs of
students with different abilities.
There is no doubt in my mind that critical thinking skills are crucial, but
that they are not properly taught to many of our students at any time during
their schooling, students are not given adequate practice demonstration and
reinforcement, and students therefore leave the education system without
sufficient critical thinking skills.
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:56:00 -0300
From: Roberto Yunes
Tim,
Thank you for your mail. Let me tell you that at present, and to my best
knowledge, in both at the National University here in Mendoza and at the
University of Mendoza, there is no any requirement at all regarding CT or
IL for undergraduate students. Regarding graduate and postgraduate students,
there is always some kind of course dealing with the scientific method
and/or epistemology as a whole. The experience they got from these courses
are always controversial, but something is quite sure: the postgraduate
courses are not designed as practical activities but theoretical reflexions
at their very best (they are: 1.- obligatory for the students pursuing a
doctorate; and 2.- doctorate students are the only ones that engaged in
such a courses, instead of being opened to anybody who cares about the
subject).
Also, according to my experience, there is nothing remotely similar to
teaching CT or IL in both elementary schools or colleges either (when I was
young there was, for sure, at least one conventional course in formal
logic). That's why I was so pleased by your program and lessons regarding
the subject. At present, I began introducing the subject to my medical
students of pharmacology (just in between of our usual lessons and, of
course, adapted in such a way that it sounds interesting to them) in the
hope of making an obligatory course in the future. Accordingly, I'm trying
also to introduce the subject/discussion on local meetings in order to gain
some local acceptance of the subject (as you can see, a very neglected
subject here, unfortunately).
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Roberto
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 18:24:52 -0700
From: Carl Vreeman
Hi Tim,
I'm a student at Athabasca University in Canada. Athabasca is a distance
learning university. I am enrolled in the Bachelor of Professional Arts
Program and am majoring in Criminal Justice. The program also has majors in
Communications Studies, Human Services as well as Governance, Law &
Management.
This program allows for someone to gain a bachelors degree if they have
already completed a two year diploma in a related field. As one of the
"common core courses" shared by students in all of the four majors, a course
in Critical Thinking is required. Here is the course description for the
Critical Thinking course:
Philosophy (PHIL) 252
Critical Thinking
Delivery mode: Individualized study or grouped study.
Credits: 3 - Humanities
Prerequisite: None.
Centre: Centre for Global and Social Analysis
Challenge for Credit: PHIL 252 has a Challenge for Credit option.
Overview
PHIL 252 is designed to improve a student's ability to analyse and evaluate
the kinds of arguments and assertions commonly met with in everyday life.
The course also helps students improve their own arguments and presentations
by showing them how to draw sound conclusions from available evidence and
how to construct well-reasoned cases to support these conclusions.
Although the course focuses on the informal logic of everyday language, it
includes some training in elementary formal logic. A student is taught how
to apply fundamental rules and standards of logical reasoning to the sorts
of arguments encountered in newspapers, magazines and other media, and
university-level textbooks in most fields.
Outline
Unit 1 Introduction: The Language of Argumentation
Unit 2 Analysing Arguments: Content and Structure
Unit 3 Evaluating Arguments: Validity, Soundness, and Problems of
Interpretation
Unit 4 Syllogistic Reasoning
Unit 5 Common Fallacies of Reasoning
Unit 6 Nondeductive Arguments
Unit 7 The Use and Misuse of Statistics
Unit 8 Explanations and Empirical Theories
Unit 9 Conceptual Theories and Definitions
Unit 10 Writing a Short Critical Essay
Evaluation
To receive credit for PHIL 252, students must submit every piece of written
work and achieve a course composite grade of at least 50 percent. The
weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
Exercise 1 Mid-term Test Essay Final Exam Total
15% 20% 25% 40% 100%
Course Materials
Textbooks
Cederblom, Jerry, and David W. Paulsen. 2001. Critical Reasoning, 5th ed.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Huff, Darrell. 1954. How to Lie with Statistics. New York: Norton.
Other Material
The course materials includes two study guides and a student manual.
You can visit the Athabasca University website at
http://www.athabascau.ca
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 11:18:58 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [critical] Query: CT or IL as a required subject
Hi Tim,
Congratulations to you and the U. of Melbourne Faculty on your efforts toward
this worthwhile goal. No such requirement existed at the U. of Vermont where I
graduated in 1994, nor at the Syracuse U. where I was a graduate student of
psychology. As a teaching assistant at S.U., in particular, it was clear that
such a requirement would have been invaluable to undergraduate students.
I am no longer affiliated with a university; however, I do have one suggestion.
"Clear Thinking: A Practical Introduction," by Hy Ruchlis, (forward by Isaac
Asimov), Prometheus Books (1990), is an excellent introduction to critical
thinking and logic. It is very readable, full of examples young adults can
understand.
Please feel free to e-mail again to request suggestions, feedback, etc.
Best of luck to you!
Shari Waxman
writer, NYC
(212) 875-9245