Intermezzo

• One of the most influential tools human beings can always have is the ability to think. • The ability to think is very important. It is more

important than money, good job, our boy/girlfriends, and so on.• It also makes us different from other creatures.

Animals can’t think, plants don’t think.

Intermezzo (cont’d)

• But the question is, in what way we have to think??• Do we have to believe whatever others said?• Do we have to take for granted what our teachers told?

This is what you need …

Critical Thinking

What is it??

• Critical thinking approach to learning has been applied two thousand years ago for the first time by Socrates. He was interested in carefully questioning people’s claims, seeking evidences, and reasons and analyzing concepts to figure out what to believe. That is why it’s called Socratic Method.

I am the father of Socratic Method

What is it?? (cont’d)

• The Socratic Method is a philosophy that encourages people to correct inconsistent and irrational thought processes, including confused meanings, inadequate evidence, contradictory beliefs and empty rhetoric.• Later this method is also followed by Plato, Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics,

who emphasized that things are often very different from what they seem to be and that only the trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface to the way they really are beneath the surface.

What is it?? (cont’d)

• There are many definitions of critical thinking. For decades, scholars proposed a variety of definitions. • We also have our own definitions of critical thinking synthesized by

definitions proposed by several experts in this area.• Based on the several definitions, the writers believe that critical

thinking is a complex process, and it is generally higher order thinking or cognitive processing. A critical thinker is able to solve problems, make decisions, evaluating information and formulating inferences. This means that critical thinking involve the ability to use our minds to achieve our goals.

Criteria for Critical Thinking

1. It must be reasonable as opposed to arbitrary or unreasonable.Critical thinking must rely on the use of valid supporting evidence and appropriate inference from which, in general, the best conclusions are drawn.2. Critical thinkers must be reflective.They must consciously evaluate their own and others’ thinking in an effort to improve it. 3. Critical thinking is focused thinking.It is thinking with a purpose. That purpose is to make the best decision about what to believe or do.

A visual representation of critical thinking

DECISION ABOUT BELIEF OR ACTION

Clarity Critical Thinking Disposition D

EDU

CTIO

N

IND

UC

TION

JUD

GIN

G

INFERENCE

Basic Support: Information from others Observation Previously drawn conclusion Background knowledge

PROBLEM SOLVING

Interaction with the world & other people

Let’s try this …Your challenge is to discover a path from any point on the bottom edge of the map to any point on the top edge without running into quicksand (black splotches). To make it more challenging, the path must consist of only two straight lines.

Another one …

There are 13 lines in this picture. Can you remove 4 lines to make it 10?

Critical Thinking in ESL/EFL Pedagogy• Changes of teacher roles in the 2013 Curriculum.• Students roles are active roles discovering something for their self. • thus, critical thinking helps them to discover.

Advantages of Implementation of Critical Thinking for Students• learn content at a deeper and more permanent level,• are better able to explain and apply what they learn,• are better able to connect what they are learning in one class with what they are learning in other

classes,• ask more and better questions in class,• understand the textbook better,• follow directions better,• understand more of what you present in class,• write better,• apply more of what they are learning to their everyday life,• become more motivated learners in general, and• become progressively easier to teach.Elder and Paul (2010)

Disadvantages of Implementation of Critical Thinking for Students• Egocentrism (the tendency to see reality as centered on oneself).• Sociocentrism (group-centered thinking).• Unwarranted Assumptions and Stereotypes (a belief without “good

reason.”).• Relativistic Thinking (truth is a matter of opinion).• Wishful Thinking (believing something not because you had good

evidence for it but simply because you wished it were true).Bassham, et al., (2011:10-25)

Vantage Points

• The promotion of critical thinking into the language learning classrooms is of high significance for several reasons.• Educators have emphasized the importance of developing higher-

order thinking skills in foreign language classrooms and empirical evidence supports the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking skills along with the foreign language.• In fact, language learners who have developed critical thinking skills

are capable of doing activities of which other students may not be capable.

Vantage Points (cont’d)

• However, The critical thinking skill-based learning is not yet cultivated well in EFL teaching and learning in Indonesia due to the cultural constraints.• This can be minimized by cultivating critical thinking skill in all levels

of education in Indonesia and integrating critical thinking skill with four language skills.