The innate skill of critical thinking is undoubtedly lost by the time students reach third level education. However this is not through the fault of the students themselves. Our society and our education system value the knowledge of given assumptions over the search for the meaning behind, and evidence for these assumptions. This results in students losing the drive to question given knowledge and their longing to know, which Hooks (2010: 7) says is the ‘heartbeat of critical thinking’. They resort to memorizing information without exploring its accuracy.
We are all born critical thinkers. Hooks (2010: 8) describes children’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge by referring to them as ‘interrogators’. This effectively depicts my three-year-old
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Hooks (2010: 9) defines it as answering the ‘eternal questions of the inquisitive child’ and using this knowledge to decide what’s most important. Brookfield (2011: 11) states that there the four activities in critical thinking; hunting, checking and viewing assumptions from different viewpoints and then taking informed actions based on evidence, which produce desired results. The latter is the reason we engage in critical thinking. Lipman (1998b: 39) states that it relies on criteria, is self-correcting and sensitive to context. He highlights the importance of teaching students how to think critically (1998b: 42); it enables students to move from learning to thinking, to exercise good judgment and to increase the quantity and quality of the meanings they get from what they read. Critical thinking is imperative not just for individuals, but also for society. If everyone were to accept given knowledge without question, crucial discoveries would never occur and we would never evolve and improve as a …show more content…
She highlights that when information is regurgitated, it is forgotten once it is no longer needed to pass the course. In contrast, in a good conversation the important material is highlighted and remembered (Hooks, 2010: 45). Hooks (2010: 45) believes that conversation highlights the importance of having a voice by giving students confidence that their voice can be heard. It also empowers students to see and know things in a different way (2010: 46). Lipman (1998b: 43) states that communication is crucial in order to practise critical