Critical thinking and reflection: why is it important?
Yesterday I went to a talk at U.Mass, Amherst, by an amazing South African psychologist, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. I have heard Pumla talk before (also in Boston...why is it that I connect with more South Africans when I'm in the US than at home?!!) and have read her book about her experience on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, A Human Being Died that Night. Her experience is definitely worth reading about, whether you're South African or not.
At the end of her talk last night she said something thought-provoking. In essence, she said that the most important thing we can put our efforts and resources into, in terms of helping societies move forward after trauma/upheaval, is to teach children to think critically. Really? Yup! You mean, not send in teams of psychologists, lawyers, find retribution or amnesty or whatever? It lies in education? The focus should be on the ones who were not even directly affected by it?
Interesting.
I have thought about this issue of critical thinking and reflection in the Zimbabwean context. After my several years there, I came to believe that many of the problems in that country were largely because of the schooling system and its teaching methodology, and that critical thinking is discouraged at a school and national level. But I've shied away from thinking critically about solutions to South Africa's problems. Frankly, to me, South Africa's problems seem too large, too intractable. And I have such mixed feelings, emotions, about what it means to be South African, that it's been more comfortable for me to leave South Africa's problems to....oh, those South Africans actually living in South Africa.
Last night felt like a personal challenge to me. Here I am, enjoying an incredible education at the University of Massachusetts. Why and how? Largely because I benefited from an excellent education in South Africa, and an undergraduate degree that cost me almost nothing due to South African state funding. I largely enjoyed those privileges for no reason of my own causation: because I happened to be born white, and, in then-apartheid South Africa, that meant privileged. Access to education, space, healthcare, everything really. So as a beneficiary of that privilege, does that leave me with some sort of responsibility to the country of my birth?
I have hedged that question for years, largely by going to Zimbabwe and spending time working there and allowing myself to feel like I was contributing to the region of my birth.
Taking this issue apart, breaking it into small pieces that I can look at, reflect on, then, hopefully, act on, is what I consider critical thinking: looking at an issue from multiple angles and reflecting on the consequences of multiple courses of action. So why is this important? And how should we teach it?
Why it is important is because for too long whole populations have followed orders, often without either the opportunity or the capacity to question it. And when they have questioned it has been in an instinctive manner rather than a calculated, reasoned one -- and often this has led to bloodshed and more. I strongly believe that for society to move forward in a progressive way, we need to learn how to not only trust our instincts, but also to trust our thought patterns. And we need to learn ways to train our thinking in ways that we can see or "mentalize" issues from different perspectives from our own. When we consider the effect of our action on other people and try to put ourselves in their shoes, that is when we will be making progress.
How do we teach it? Well, that's why I'm at school -- I'm trying to figure that one out!
At the end of her talk last night she said something thought-provoking. In essence, she said that the most important thing we can put our efforts and resources into, in terms of helping societies move forward after trauma/upheaval, is to teach children to think critically. Really? Yup! You mean, not send in teams of psychologists, lawyers, find retribution or amnesty or whatever? It lies in education? The focus should be on the ones who were not even directly affected by it?
Interesting.
I have thought about this issue of critical thinking and reflection in the Zimbabwean context. After my several years there, I came to believe that many of the problems in that country were largely because of the schooling system and its teaching methodology, and that critical thinking is discouraged at a school and national level. But I've shied away from thinking critically about solutions to South Africa's problems. Frankly, to me, South Africa's problems seem too large, too intractable. And I have such mixed feelings, emotions, about what it means to be South African, that it's been more comfortable for me to leave South Africa's problems to....oh, those South Africans actually living in South Africa.
Last night felt like a personal challenge to me. Here I am, enjoying an incredible education at the University of Massachusetts. Why and how? Largely because I benefited from an excellent education in South Africa, and an undergraduate degree that cost me almost nothing due to South African state funding. I largely enjoyed those privileges for no reason of my own causation: because I happened to be born white, and, in then-apartheid South Africa, that meant privileged. Access to education, space, healthcare, everything really. So as a beneficiary of that privilege, does that leave me with some sort of responsibility to the country of my birth?
I have hedged that question for years, largely by going to Zimbabwe and spending time working there and allowing myself to feel like I was contributing to the region of my birth.
Taking this issue apart, breaking it into small pieces that I can look at, reflect on, then, hopefully, act on, is what I consider critical thinking: looking at an issue from multiple angles and reflecting on the consequences of multiple courses of action. So why is this important? And how should we teach it?
Why it is important is because for too long whole populations have followed orders, often without either the opportunity or the capacity to question it. And when they have questioned it has been in an instinctive manner rather than a calculated, reasoned one -- and often this has led to bloodshed and more. I strongly believe that for society to move forward in a progressive way, we need to learn how to not only trust our instincts, but also to trust our thought patterns. And we need to learn ways to train our thinking in ways that we can see or "mentalize" issues from different perspectives from our own. When we consider the effect of our action on other people and try to put ourselves in their shoes, that is when we will be making progress.
How do we teach it? Well, that's why I'm at school -- I'm trying to figure that one out!
posted by VN at 6:26 AM
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