Introduction
3
millions. All educators across all the disciplines are interested—or should be
interested—in critical thinking. It is arguably a central concern of higher edu-
cation of our time. We have, therefore, been keen in embarking on this volume
to solicit contributors from around the world and from all continents, as well
as from a range of disciplines and wide perspectives. To this end, this volume
includes contributions from five continents, ten countries, and over eighty
institutions, making the resulting book a truly global product of the collective
efforts of dozens of scholars.
Considerations
“Critical thinking in higher education” is a phrase that means different things
to many people. Does it mean a propensity for finding fault? Does it refer to an
analytical method? Does it mean an ethical attitude or a disposition? Educating
to develop
critical intellectuals
and the Marxist concept of
critical consciousness
are very different from the logician’s interest in identifying fallacies in pas-
sages of text, or the practice of distinguishing valid from invalid syllogisms.
Critical thinking in higher education can encompass debates about critical
pedagogy, political critiques of the role and function of education in society,
critical feminist approaches to curriculum, the development of critical citizen-
ship, or any other education-related topic that uses the appellation “critical.”
Equally, it can be concerned to develop general skills in reasoning—skills that
all graduates might possess. With all of these multiplying interpretations and
perspectives, and after more than four decades of dedicated scholarly work,
critical thinking remains more elusive than ever. The concept is, as Raymond
Williams has noted, a “most difficult one” (Williams 1976, 76).
Traditional philosophical definitions of the concept of critical thinking do
not necessarily inform debates in all of the areas of critical thinking scholar-
ship. Definitions of critical thinking are not central to areas such as critical ped-
agogy or critical feminism. Learning about such definitions does not help one
develop a critical attitude about the society in which one lives. Philosophical
definitions of critical thinking do not directly assist—or so many believe—in
becoming a critical citizen. It may be that the core attributes of critical think-
ing will always remain fundamental to what we mean by “critical thinking”
since, at a basic level, critical thinking is about having skills of a certain sort
(inference making, reasoning, and so on). Yet, critical thinking is also much
more than this. Traditional philosophical definitions of critical thinking seem
impotent in relation to these wider areas of critical thinking scholarship as
they apply to the field of higher education.
There are significant practical matters at stake here. An American book,
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses
(2011), provoked wide-
spread interest and media attention in the United States (Mataconis 2011; NPR
Staff 2011; Rimer 2011). The study on which the book was based tracked the
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