Critical thinking? You need knowledge
Diane Ravitch,
Boston Globe,
Sept 15, 2009
Diane Ravitch states the case for (what is to me) the other side. "We have neglected to teach them that one cannot think critically without quite a lot of knowledge to think about. Thinking critically involves comparing and contrasting and synthesizing what one has learned. And a great deal of knowledge is necessary before one can begin to reflect on its meaning and look for alternative explanations."
How do I want to put my response to this? Ravitch presents a picture of knowledge and reasoning where knowledge is something distinct from the forms in which knowledge can be expressed. Critical reasoning is the study of those forms, though, and you cannot understand, you cannot acquire, knowledge, without understanding those forms. The idea that we could first just give people a whole bunch of 'facts', and then teach people to reason about them, shows a significant misunderstanding of just what it is for something to be a fact. Teach Paperless also repsonds.
How do I want to put my response to this? Ravitch presents a picture of knowledge and reasoning where knowledge is something distinct from the forms in which knowledge can be expressed. Critical reasoning is the study of those forms, though, and you cannot understand, you cannot acquire, knowledge, without understanding those forms. The idea that we could first just give people a whole bunch of 'facts', and then teach people to reason about them, shows a significant misunderstanding of just what it is for something to be a fact. Teach Paperless also repsonds.
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