Importance of critical thinking

Thai students taught to listen, not to question

Critical thinking is the skill most demanded by employers around the world when assessing job candidates, according to organisational and people development consultancy, APM Group.

The firm was quoting from a global survey of managers and executives while drawing attention to the fact that Thai students are taught to listen, rather than to question, and as a result are often lacking this vital skill.

The survey, conducted by the American Management Association and called the AMA Critical Skills Survey 2010, involved 2,115 managers and executives around the world. It found that critical thinking was regarded as the most important skill employees could contribute in helping their companies to grow. It ranked higher than innovation or mastery of information technology.

Globalisation, the increased flow and complexity of information and constant changes in the business environment all demand that employees have excellent critical-thinking skills so they are able to adapt to new roles, understand issues quickly and solve problems gracefully, the firm said.

APM Group compared the survey result to the Thai educational model by using the case of a student called Nok, who, like many of her peers in Thailand, learned that the best way to succeed was to avoid thinking too much.

She learned this when she was 12 years old in her mathematics class at a reputable all-girls Catholic school. She did not understand the method her teacher taught to solve a particular problem. So, when she was doing her homework, Nok's father showed her another way of solving the problem that she understood. Her teacher, however, marked Nok's homework answers as incorrect.

"When I asked my teacher why my homework had been marked as incorrect, she told me that I didn't solve the problems the way she taught me to solve them, even though I got the right answers," Nok said. Moreover, Nok would only receive credit on her exams if she solved the problems exactly the way her teacher taught her to solve them.

Nok never fully understood how her teacher's method of solving the math problem worked. She came to believe that she was not being tested on her actual comprehension and application of the subject matter, but on her ability to follow the methods of her teacher. She learned an invaluable lesson that would serve her and many of her peers well throughout primary and secondary school: it pays not to think critically.

APM Group quoted Richard Paul, author of "Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World", in defining critical thinking as "the process we use to reflect on, access and judge the assumptions underlying our own and others' ideas and actions."

At the heart of critical thinking is Socratic questioning, or the teaching method used by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who used to instruct his students by asking a series of questions to uncover whatever assumptions or prejudices supported their beliefs, resulting in more refined, accurate and carefully expressed ideas.

Returning to Nok's mathematics lesson, APM Group asked what she might have learned had she asked her teacher why she had to do it her way. What if her teacher had applauded her for asking "why", and then provided her with a reasonable answer? It is quite possible Nok's teacher wanted her to understand that particular procedure because it would be used frequently in more advanced mathematical operations.

"We won't ever know the real reason, because Nok never asked her teacher. Perhaps if she had, Nok would have learned that it pays to think critically, which, at least outside of school, would have served her very well," the firm said.

APM Group gave six conversational situations with example Socratic questions that it said "anybody with a pulse" should be asking each other as much as possible:

1. Clarification

What do you mean by ....... ?

Could you put that another way?

Can you give me an example?

2. Probing assumptions

What are you assuming?

How did you choose those assumptions?

What could we assume instead?

3. Probing reasons and evidence

How do you know?

Why do you think that is true?

What would change your mind?

4. Viewpoint and perspectives

What are you implying by that?

What effect would that have?

What is an alternative?

5. Probing implications and consequences

How can we find out?

Why is this issue important?

What generalisations can you make?

6. Questions about questions

What does that mean?

What was the point of this question?

Why do you think I asked this question?

APM Group is a leading organisational and people development consultancy in Thailand. For more information contact newgen@apm.co.th.