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Steve's Youtube Videos - General Language Learning, Critical Thinking Skills: Can They Really Be Taught?

Critical Thinking Skills: Can They Really Be Taught?

In fact, the students should be encouraged to search for whatever they're interested in and the teacher should help that person find that information. Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Can critical thinking be taught, and how does that relate to language learning? So remember, by the way you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications.

Those of you who follow my videos know that I'm a great believer in listening and reading. I believe that the language has to come into us from outside. We have to listen and read and acquire words before we can start speaking. Uh, at some point we have to start speaking. At some point, we have to speak a lot.

Uh, when we do start speaking, obviously we want to work on improving, uh, our ability to speak,our accuracy and the use of words, our pronunciation, and so forth, but we first have to get the language into us. Well, I think much the same is true when it comes to our ability to reason, okay. And I have been on, what's known as list serves.

In other words, email communities with teachers, and very often teachers are very interested in the subject of teaching critical thinking or what they call higher order thinking. I have always been very suspicious of the ability of the average teacher to teach critical thinking skills or higher order.

If in fact, such a thing exists, thinking skills. The assumption there is that their students have a lower order thinking, these are teachers of English. Uh, and so rather than focusing in on how do I get my students to read more? How do I get my students to listen more? Uh, how do I provide them with content of interest, things that are relevant to them, things that they're familiar with, that they're going to want to engage with?

How do I stimulate them? How do I create that, that thirst for reading and listening rather there is this sort of what I call a myth that they can teach a set of skills that will enable their, in this case these were English teachers teaching, uh, you know, English as a second language that these foreigners might be, um, immigrant from Iran or from Poland or from Nicaragua that somehow because they didn't speak English well, somehow their, uh, critical thinking skills weren't, uh, as developed as, as, as the skills of the teacher, I have always felt that the most important sort of prerequisite for critical thinking is knowledge of the subject matter. You cannot judge because part of this whole critical thinking is that, uh, people need to be better equipped to, uh, you know, uh, judge, uh, what's true or not true in the media and, and so forth, which is all fine and dandy.

We should be, uh, a little, uh, skeptical about what we read and, and we should be trying to read through and see what we agree and what we don't agree with. However, in most cases, the positions that we hold are based on our emotions, we jump to a conclusion and then we try to justify that conclusion. I do that.

Everyone does that. If we didn't all do that, we'd all arrive at the same conclusion because we've been follow some irrational method of critical thinking and, you know, objectively evaluate all the information and we'd arrive at the only correct, uh, conclusion, but there is no only correct conclusion.

There's lots of different conclusions, but generally speaking, the more knowledgeable a person is about a particular subject the more I value their opinion. I don't think you can, uh, somehow skip the stage of just as in language learning, acquiring words and phrases. You can't speak before you have a lot of words and phrases in you until you have good comprehension.

You're not going to speak well. Well, until you have read a lot on a subject or experienced that situation, acquired a lot of information and knowledge and experience about that subject, your opinion is perhaps not that important. And there's no amount of theoretical, you know, critical thinking skills that are going to substitute for solid knowledge of the subject matter.

And the way to get knowledge of the subject matter is to read a lot, to read well. And so rather than, with these ESL teachers trying to teach critical thinking, if you encourage those learners to read a lot, to read widely initially, to read on subjects of interest to them, they will find different sources of information because the chances are the teacher who's teaching critical thinking wants to sort of direct the learner in a certain way direction so that the learner will come to the same conclusion as the teacher. And so that this whole teaching of critical thinking in effect becomes a way of controlling what the learner thinks. And I think there's already too much control by teachers. In other words, this is the book you're supposed to read.

This is the newspaper you should read. This is a subject matter you should read is sort of the teacher directing the student. In fact, the students should be encouraged to search for whatever they're interested in and the teacher should help that person find that information just as I'm doing with Sahra.

I tell her what I'm interested in. I'm interested in history. So she gives me this wonderful series on persian history. Um, this again stimulates me to not only read on in Persian, which I'm limited in my ability to do, but also to look up books in English on Iranian history. And so I'm constantly, through reading I'm acquiring more information, not with a goal that I'm going to think critically, but obviously if I read a book on iranian history and then I read a book on Turkish history and, and then the Arabic history and written by different people. Or when I was doing a Ukrainian and Polish and Russian, then I would listen to a, you know, a Russian version of Ukrainian history, a Polish version or Ukrainian version.

And out of all of these different bits of info, based some extent on my, you know, um, conclusions I arrived at because of say a, a degree of sympathy for the Ukrainians, underdogs. Uh, but someone else who is more sympathetic to the Poles or to the Russians might find that the Polish or Russian version is, is closer to the truth.

Uh, but I don't think it's any particular critical thinking skill that's going to take us to those conclusions. It's more a mindset that we have. We've arrived at for whatever emotional, uh, whatever emotion-based reason. Of course, we use reason to try and justify our position. And hopefully we're open-minded enough to listen to other people present, you know, the justification for their position using reason.

But ultimately I think, I mean, it's very difficult to persuade people, uh, to give up a point of view that they have. That's been my experience. Uh, it can be interesting. And if we're open-minded enough to accept the, the fact that people can have different points of view and that doesn't necessarily make them a bad person.

That doesn't mean that I have to agree with them because I asked for their opinion. Uh, they don't have to agree with me. We can just share our views and continue to disagree and that's fine and dandy. But, uh, I say this because so often I think that teachers are prone to pursue certain fads, like teaching critical thinking, higher order thinking or this learning styles myth, which has been largely debunked by which a whole bunch of teachers pursued that the, you know, are you a kinetic learner?

Are you a visual learner? And of course, Uh, cognitive scientists, uh, assure us and, uh, all kinds of tests have demonstrated. This is not the case that the learning styles is, is a bit of a, a bit of a red herring. So I just thought, I'd mentioned that my view on this whole subject of critical thinking, uh, it's possible that there are people who are expert at critical thinking.

Who are, you know, methodical and follow the scientific method and, uh, pursue a variety of different sources of information and then apply very, uh, you know, consistent, uh, uh, rational methods for arriving at their conclusions. I still suspect they're going to be, you know, it'll be flavored by their, uh, prejudice going, preconceived idea going in, but that people who can do that is a small minority.

The vast majority of people don't have those skills. And therefore the vast majority of teachers are not in a position to teach those skills. And I don't really think those skills exist outside of what we call domain knowledge, knowledge about the subject matter and to get that good knowledge of the subject matter, you have to read a lot.

So the focus should be on getting students to read more. Anyway, that's just a bit of a rant there off my normal subject yet related because as with language learning it's input that helps us grow whether in language or in discovering more about the world. Thank you for listening. Bye for now.


Critical Thinking Skills: Can They Really Be Taught? 批判的思考スキル:彼らは本当に教えられることができますか? Навыки критического мышления: можно ли им научить?

In fact, the students should be encouraged to search for whatever they're interested in and the teacher should help that person find that information. Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Can critical thinking be taught, and how does that relate to language learning? 批判的思考を教えることはできますか?それは言語学習とどのように関連していますか? So remember, by the way you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications.

Those of you who follow my videos know that I'm a great believer in listening and reading. 私のビデオをフォローしている人は、私が聞いたり読んだりすることを大いに信じていることを知っています。 I believe that the language has to come into us from outside. 言語は外部から私たちにもたらされなければならないと私は信じています。 We have to listen and read and acquire words before we can start speaking. Uh, at some point we have to start speaking. At some point, we have to speak a lot.

Uh, when we do start speaking, obviously we want to work on improving, uh, our ability to speak,our accuracy and the use of words, our pronunciation, and so forth, but we first have to get the language into us. ええと、私たちが話し始めるとき、明らかに私たちは話す能力、正確さと単語の使用、発音などの改善に取り組みたいと思っていますが、最初に言語を私たちに取り入れなければなりません。 Well, I think much the same is true when it comes to our ability to reason, okay. ええと、私たちの推論能力に関しても同じことが言えると思います。 And I have been on, what's known as list serves. そして、私はリストサーブとして知られているものを続けてきました。

In other words, email communities with teachers, and very often teachers are very interested in the subject of teaching critical thinking or what they call higher order thinking. 言い換えれば、教師との電子メールコミュニティ、そして非常に多くの場合、教師は批判的思考または彼らが高次思考と呼ぶものを教えるという主題に非常に興味を持っています。 I have always been very suspicious of the ability of the average teacher to teach critical thinking skills or higher order. 私は常に、平均的な教師が批判的思考スキル以上を教える能力に非常に疑いを持っていました。

If in fact, such a thing exists, thinking skills. The assumption there is that their students have a lower order thinking, these are teachers of English. 彼らの生徒は低次の思考を持っているという仮定があります、これらは英語の教師です。 Uh, and so rather than focusing in on how do I get my students to read more? ええと、それで、どうすれば生徒にもっと読んでもらうかということに集中するのではなく、どうすればよいでしょうか。 How do I get my students to listen more? Uh, how do I provide them with content of interest, things that are relevant to them, things that they're familiar with, that they're going to want to engage with?

How do I stimulate them? How do I create that, that thirst for reading and listening rather there is this sort of what I call a myth that they can teach a set of skills that will enable their, in this case these were English teachers teaching, uh, you know, English as a second language that these foreigners might be, um, immigrant from Iran or from Poland or from Nicaragua that somehow because they didn't speak English well, somehow their, uh, critical thinking skills weren't, uh, as developed as, as, as the skills of the teacher, I have always felt that the most important sort of prerequisite for critical thinking is knowledge of the subject matter. どうすればそれを作成できますか、読むことと聞くことへの渇望は、彼らが彼らを可能にする一連のスキルを教えることができるという私が神話と呼ぶこの種のものがあります、この場合、これらは英語の教師が教えていました、ええと、あなたは知っています、これらの外国人が、イラン、ポーランド、またはニカラグアからの移民である可能性のある第二言語としての英語は、どういうわけか彼らが英語を上手に話せなかったために、どういうわけか彼らの批判的思考スキルは、として、教師のスキルとして、私は常に批判的思考の最も重要な種類の前提条件は主題の知識であると感じてきました。 You cannot judge because part of this whole critical thinking is that, uh, people need to be better equipped to, uh, you know, uh, judge, uh, what's true or not true in the media and, and so forth, which is all fine and dandy. この批判的思考全体の一部は、ええと、ええと、あなたが知っている、ええと、裁判官、ええと、メディアで何が真実かそうでないかなど、すべて元気でダンディ。

We should be, uh, a little, uh, skeptical about what we read and, and we should be trying to read through and see what we agree and what we don't agree with. 私たちは、ええと、少し、ええと、私たちが読んだものと、私たちが同意するものと同意しないものを読み通して見るように努めるべきです。 However, in most cases, the positions that we hold are based on our emotions, we jump to a conclusion and then we try to justify that conclusion. しかし、ほとんどの場合、私たちが保持する立場は私たちの感情に基づいており、私たちは結論にジャンプし、次にその結論を正当化しようとします。 I do that.

Everyone does that. If we didn't all do that, we'd all arrive at the same conclusion because we've been follow some irrational method of critical thinking and, you know, objectively evaluate all the information and we'd arrive at the only correct, uh, conclusion, but there is no only correct conclusion.

There's lots of different conclusions, but generally speaking, the more knowledgeable a person is about a particular subject the more I value their opinion. さまざまな結論がありますが、一般的に言って、特定の主題について知識が豊富であるほど、私は彼らの意見を高く評価します。 I don't think you can, uh, somehow skip the stage of just as in language learning, acquiring words and phrases. どういうわけか、語学学習のように単語やフレーズを習得する段階をスキップすることはできないと思います。 You can't speak before you have a lot of words and phrases in you until you have good comprehension. よく理解するまで、たくさんの単語やフレーズが入る前に話すことはできません。

You're not going to speak well. Well, until you have read a lot on a subject or experienced that situation, acquired a lot of information and knowledge and experience about that subject, your opinion is perhaps not that important. まあ、あなたが主題についてたくさん読んだり、その状況を経験したり、その主題について多くの情報や知識や経験を積んだりするまで、あなたの意見はおそらくそれほど重要ではありません。 And there's no amount of theoretical, you know, critical thinking skills that are going to substitute for solid knowledge of the subject matter. そして、あなたが知っているように、主題の確かな知識の代わりになるであろう批判的思考スキルの量はありません。

And the way to get knowledge of the subject matter is to read a lot, to read well. そして、主題の知識を得る方法は、たくさん読むこと、よく読むことです。 And so rather than, with these ESL teachers trying to teach critical thinking, if you encourage those learners to read a lot, to read widely initially, to read on subjects of interest to them, they will find different sources of information because the chances are the teacher who's teaching critical thinking wants to sort of direct the learner in a certain way direction so that the learner will come to the same conclusion as the teacher. したがって、これらのESL教師が批判的思考を教えようとしているのではなく、学習者にたくさん読むこと、最初に広く読むこと、興味のある主題について読むことを奨励すると、チャンスがあるため、さまざまな情報源を見つけることができます。批判的思考を教えている教師は、学習者が教師と同じ結論に達するように、学習者を特定の方向に向けたいと考えています。 And so that this whole teaching of critical thinking in effect becomes a way of controlling what the learner thinks. そして、批判的思考のこの全体の教えが事実上、学習者の思考を制御する方法になるように。 And I think there's already too much control by teachers. そして、私はすでに教師によるコントロールが多すぎると思います。 In other words, this is the book you're supposed to read. 言い換えれば、これはあなたが読むことになっている本です。

This is the newspaper you should read. これはあなたが読むべき新聞です。 This is a subject matter you should read is sort of the teacher directing the student. これはあなたが読むべき主題であり、生徒を指導する教師のようなものです。 In fact, the students should be encouraged to search for whatever they're interested in and the teacher should help that person find that information just as I'm doing with Sahra.

I tell her what I'm interested in. I'm interested in history. So she gives me this wonderful series on persian history. Um, this again stimulates me to not only read on in Persian, which I'm limited in my ability to do, but also to look up books in English on Iranian history. And so I'm constantly, through reading I'm acquiring more information, not with a goal that I'm going to think critically, but obviously if I read a book on iranian history and then I read a book on Turkish history and, and then the Arabic history and written by different people. Or when I was doing a Ukrainian and Polish and Russian, then I would listen to a, you know, a Russian version of Ukrainian history, a Polish version or Ukrainian version.

And out of all of these different bits of info, based some extent on my, you know, um, conclusions I arrived at because of say a, a degree of sympathy for the Ukrainians, underdogs. そして、これらのさまざまな情報のすべてから、ある程度、ウクライナ人、弱者へのある程度の同情のために私が到達した結論に基づいています。 Uh, but someone else who is more sympathetic to the Poles or to the Russians might find that the Polish or Russian version is, is closer to the truth.

Uh, but I don't think it's any particular critical thinking skill that's going to take us to those conclusions. ええと、でも、私たちをそれらの結論に導くのは、特定の批判的思考スキルではないと思います。 It's more a mindset that we have. それは私たちが持っている考え方です。 We've arrived at for whatever emotional, uh, whatever emotion-based reason. 私たちは、感情的な理由、感情に基づく理由が何であれ、そこにたどり着きました。 Of course, we use reason to try and justify our position. And hopefully we're open-minded enough to listen to other people present, you know, the justification for their position using reason. そしてうまくいけば、私たちは他の人々が存在することに耳を傾けるのに十分なオープンマインドであり、あなたが知っているように、理由を使って彼らの立場の正当化をします。

But ultimately I think, I mean, it's very difficult to persuade people, uh, to give up a point of view that they have. しかし、最終的には、人々を説得して、彼らが持っている視点を放棄することは非常に難しいと思います。 That's been my experience. それが私の経験です。 Uh, it can be interesting. ええと、それは面白いかもしれません。 And if we're open-minded enough to accept the, the fact that people can have different points of view and that doesn't necessarily make them a bad person. そして、私たちが受け入れるのに十分なオープンマインドであるならば、人々が異なる視点を持つことができ、それが必ずしも彼らを悪い人にするわけではないという事実。

That doesn't mean that I have to agree with them because I asked for their opinion. それは私が彼らの意見を求めたので私が彼らに同意しなければならないという意味ではありません。 Uh, they don't have to agree with me. We can just share our views and continue to disagree and that's fine and dandy. But, uh, I say this because so often I think that teachers are prone to pursue certain fads, like teaching critical thinking, higher order thinking or this learning styles myth, which has been largely debunked by which a whole bunch of teachers pursued that the, you know, are you a kinetic learner? しかし、ええと、私はこれを言います。なぜなら、教師は批判的思考、高次思考、またはこの学習スタイルの神話を教えるなど、特定の流行を追求する傾向があると思うことがよくあるからです。 、あなたが知っている、あなたは運動学習者ですか?

Are you a visual learner? And of course, Uh, cognitive scientists, uh, assure us and, uh, all kinds of tests have demonstrated. そしてもちろん、認知科学者、ええと、私たちを保証します、そして、ええと、あらゆる種類のテストが実証されています。 This is not the case that the learning styles is, is a bit of a, a bit of a red herring. これは、学習スタイルが少し赤いニシンであるというわけではありません。 So I just thought, I'd mentioned that my view on this whole subject of critical thinking, uh, it's possible that there are people who are expert at critical thinking. だから私はちょうど考えました、私は批判的思考のこの主題全体についての私の見解、ええと、批判的思考の専門家がいる可能性があると言いました。

Who are, you know, methodical and follow the scientific method and, uh, pursue a variety of different sources of information and then apply very, uh, you know, consistent, uh, uh, rational methods for arriving at their conclusions. 誰が、系統的で、科学的方法に従い、そして、ええと、さまざまな異なる情報源を追求し、そして、ええと、あなたが知っている、一貫した、ええと、ええと、彼らの結論に到達するための合理的な方法を適用します。 I still suspect they're going to be, you know, it'll be flavored by their, uh, prejudice going, preconceived idea going in, but that people who can do that is a small minority. 私はまだ彼らがそうなるだろうと思っています、あなたが知っている、それは彼らの、ええと、偏見が起こって、先入観が入ってくることによって味付けされるでしょう、しかしそれをすることができる人々は少数です。

The vast majority of people don't have those skills. And therefore the vast majority of teachers are not in a position to teach those skills. And I don't really think those skills exist outside of what we call domain knowledge, knowledge about the subject matter and to get that good knowledge of the subject matter, you have to read a lot. そして、私はそれらのスキルが私たちがドメイン知識、主題についての知識と呼ぶものの外に存在するとは本当に思いません、そして主題についてのその良い知識を得るために、あなたはたくさん読む必要があります。

So the focus should be on getting students to read more. したがって、焦点は学生にもっと読んでもらうことにあるべきです。 Anyway, that's just a bit of a rant there off my normal subject yet related because as with language learning it's input that helps us grow whether in language or in discovering more about the world. とにかく、それは私の通常の主題から少し離れたところにあるちょっとした怒りですが、言語学習と同様に、言語で、または世界についてもっと発見することで私たちが成長するのに役立つ入力です。 Thank you for listening. Bye for now.