True. Funny thing about critical thinking—it is domain specific. In other words, you must have a certain level of background knowledge of the subject to be able to think critically about it. Example—the Tax Code. Most of us are pretty ignorant of it and spout off stupid things we hear on the news, but a CPA and a bookkeeper will have more knowledge and can therefore think critically about it. The more you know (no longer a novice) the higher level of critical thinking and problem solving you will have. This is true for all areas. You may know a lot about say, cars or sports, and will think at a much more analytical way about them than someone who doesn’t know much about them. A good sports analyst is someone who knows a lot about that sport.
Therefore, when we teach students to “think critically” or analytically, we must first teach background information so they have a structure of knowledge to build from. Children are novices, not experts.
True. Funny thing about critical thinking—it is domain specific. In other words, you must have a certain level of background knowledge of the subject to be able to think critically about it. Example—the Tax Code. Most of us are pretty ignorant of it and spout off stupid things we hear on the news, but a CPA and a bookkeeper will have more knowledge and can therefore think critically about it. The more you know (no longer a novice) the higher level of critical thinking and problem solving you will have. This is true for all areas. You may know a lot about say, cars or sports, and will think at a much more analytical way about them than someone who doesn’t know much about them. A good sports analyst is someone who knows a lot about that sport.
Therefore, when we teach students to “think critically” or analytically, we must first teach background information so they have a structure of knowledge to build from. Children are novices, not experts.
I hope that make sense.