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TitleCritical thinking and knowledge in liberal studies: ways ofseeing

Author(s) Leung, Hai-ka, Elaine.;h• ñV

.

Citation

Issued Date 2010

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/177230

RightsThe author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)and the right to use in future works.

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Critical Thinking and Knowledge in

Liberal Studies:

Ways of Seeing

Elaine Leung Hai Ka

(2008875425)

Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree

of Master of Education, the University of Hong Kong

August 2010

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II

Declaration

I hereby declare that this dissertation represents my own work and that is has

not been previously submitted to this University or any other institution in

application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications.

August 2010

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III

Acknowledgements

I express my deepest gratitude and warmest appreciation to my supervisors, Prof

Cheng Kai Ming and Dr Ki Wing Wah for their valuable time and intellectual

contributions to this dissertation, as well as their continuous support and

encouragement.

I thank Prof. Cheng for his inspiring advice and being a role model as a profound

scholar. It is has been a privilege to learn from Prof. Cheng, who has provided

insight into academic research as well as life more generally.

I thank Dr. Ki for his open-mindedness, help, support and patience. Dr. Ki is a

superb teacher and motivator who helped me be more proactive and creative.

Their expertise helped me complete the dissertation, as well as become a more

rounded person and critical thinker.

Special thanks also to the participants in this research. Thank you all for

valuable time and for sharing information and insights.

Lastly, I heartily thank my wonderful parents, beloved one, and friends for their

encouragement and support during the work. This dissertation would not have

 been possible without the help of so many people, in so many ways.

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IV

Content

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction P.1

1.2 Research focuses P.2

1.3 Guiding questions P.3

Chapter 2 Literature review

2. 1 Definitions of critical thinking P.4

2. 2 Dispositions of critical thinking P.10

2.3 Habits of mind P.13

2.4 Importance attitude for thinking P.16

2.5 The importance of critical thinking in Liberal

Studies

P. 17

2.6 Critical thinking and daily life P.19

2.7 Subjects and critical thinking P.20

2.8 High level thinking P.21

2.9 Expert and novice in high order thinking P.22

2.10 Pedagogy of high level thinking P. 23

2.11 Assessing critical thinking P.25

2.12 Critical thinking as educational capital P.30

2.13 Ideal critical thinker P.30

2.14 Critical thinking and democratic society P.31

2.15 Subject knowledge in Liberal Studies P.33

2.16 Knowledge, truth and power P.34

2.17 Schooling and the ownership P.37

2.18 Pedagogy of the oppressed in Liberal Studies P.41

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Chapter 3 Methodology

3.1 Interviews P.44 

3.2 Interview Settings P.45 

3.3 Stages of interviews P.45 

3.4 Let informants lead  P.51 

3.5 Participants  P.52 

3.6 Profile of each participant  P.53 

Chapter 4 Findings

4.1 Case Study of Participant A  P. 59

4.2 Observations and analysis of Participant A  P. 66

4.3 Case Study of Participant B  P. 69

4.4 Observations and analysis of Participant B  P. 91

4.5 Case study of Participant C P. 95

4.6 Observations and analysis of Participant C  P. 109

4.7 Case Study of Participant D P. 112

4.8 Observation and analysis of Participant D  P. 128

4.9 Case Study of Participant E P. 132

4.10 Observations and analysis of Participant E P. 158

4.11 Case study of Participant F P. 162

4.12 Observations and analysis of Participant F P. 146

4.13 Case study of Participant G P. 175

4.14 Observation and analysis of Participant G P. 200

Chapter 5 Summary of the Findings

5.1 Table 5  Focus and nature of Liberal Studies  P. 204

5.2 Table 6.  Interpretation of critical thinking  P. 207

5.3 Table 7.  Interpretation of knowledge in Liberal

Studies

P. 210

5.4 Table 8.  Correlation of critical thinking and

knowledge

P. 213

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VI

5.5 Table 9.  Own ways/approach of teaching Critical

thinking

P. 215

5.6 Table 10.  Issues of teaching critical thinking  P. 218

5.7 Table 11. Constrains and difficulties of teachingcritical thinking in Liberal Studies

P. 219

5.8 Table 12.  P. 220

5.9 Table 13. Can Liberal Studies liberate? P. 221

Chapter 6

6.1 Nature of Liberal Studies P. 223

6.1.1 Interpretation of knowledge in Liberal Studies P. 2246.1.2 Critical thinking P. 228

6.1.3 Correlation of critical thinking and knowledge P. 232

6.2.1 Pedagogy of critical thinking P. 233

6.2.2 Critical thinking and Liberal Studies assessment P. 236

6.3 Difficulties and constraints of teaching critical thinking

in Liberal Studies

P. 238

6.4 Liberal studies: prospects and suggestions P. 240

6.4.1 Teacher’s attitude P. 2406.4.2 Discussion in class P. 241

6.4.3 Non-written tasks for critical thinking P. 241

6.4.4 Asking questions and arguing P. 242

6.4.5 Critical thinking: data and materials P. 243

6.4.6 Critical thinking in the young P. 243

6.4.7 Critical thinking in Liberal Studies assessment P. 245

6.4.8 Marking the exam P. 245

6.4.9 Rubrics and complexity of critical thinking P. 246

6.5 Can Liberal Studies liberate? P. 247

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VII

Chapter 7 Conclusion P. 249

Chapter 8 Limitations and further study P. 254

References P. 256

Appendices

Appendix 1 The Holistic critical thinking scoring rubric P. 271

Appendix 2 Sample Transcripts 1 P. 272

Appendix 3 Sample Transcripts 2 P. 297

Appendix 4 Sample Transcripts 3 P. 310

Appendix 5-7 News article about critical thinking inLiberal Studies

P. 325- 340

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VIII

List of Illustrations

Figures

Figure 1

Liberal Studies and the Three-year Senior Secondary Curriculum

Figure 2

Picture of the illustration of Liberal Studies drew by participant D

Tables

Table 1Dimensions of Habits of Mind

Table 2

Critical thinking Habits of Mind

Table 3

The Dimensions, Types, and Categories of Higher-Level Thinking

Table 4

Summary of the background of participants

Table 5

Focus and nature of Liberal Studies

Table 6

Interpretation of critical thinking

Table 7

Interpretation of knowledge in Liberal Studies

Table 8

Correlation of critical thinking and knowledge

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IX

Table 9

Own ways/approach of teaching critical thinking

Table 10

Issues of teaching critical thinking

Table 11

Constrains and difficulties of teaching critical thinking in Liberal

Studies

Table 12

Subject is best at developing critical thinking

Table 13

Can Liberal Studies liberate?

Table 14

Comparison of the elements of critical thinking

Table 15

Ultimate desirable goals of critical thinking

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X

Abstract

The study explores perceptions of critical thinking and knowledge by New Senior

Secondary Liberal Studies teachers in Hong Kong. The insights in this study have

implications for the curriculum development and pedagogy, particularly regarding

how we can improve the teachers training of critical thinking.

Seven Liberal Studies teachers (with various levels of teaching experience and

differing backgrounds) were invited to in-depth interviews about their experience

teaching Liberal Studies, and particularly regarding critical thinking and

knowledge, as well as their pedagogies and views of this subject.

Factors such as work experience, personality, school training, and cultural identity

affect ways of seeing ‘critical thinking’ and ‘knowledge’. Also, these interviews

 provide insights into a better pedagogy in high order thinking. We can gain

understanding of the difficulties and constraints of teaching critical thinking in

Liberal Studies. The research is also a critical thinking process, which is explored

in conversations with participants. The study asked them to reflect on what they

thought and had experienced. The participants gave useful insights and

suggestions.

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Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

In this post-modern age of unprecedented change and expansion, new information

multiplies as old information becomes obsolete. Constant and accelerating shifts

in information require all members of society to be equipped with the skills

necessary to assess and evaluate knowledge(Geertsen, 2003).We need to have a

critical mind to face this sea of information.

Liberal Studies is a compulsory subject in NSS which emphasizes thinking skills.

It is a hot issue because of its nature and focus and also because of the design of

the curriculum and assessment. ‘Critical thinking’ is mentioned 19 times in the

Liberal Studies Curriculum and Assessment Guide. However, it does not discuss

what ‘critical thinking’ actually is. Liberal Studies is flexible, as mentioned in the

guide. Scholars and experts might have different definitions of critical thinking or

even liberal studies. Teachers are actually the ones who deliver the curriculum and

their interpretation is important.

Most research into critical thinking focuses on definition, deposition, and the

relationship between epistemological beliefs from the educational psychology

approach rather than the ethnographic approach. It is worth understanding how

teachers interpret critical thinking and knowledge and how other factors play a

role, such as personality, school training, life experience, and cultural identity.

With this approach, we can understand more about the pedagogy, and the

constraints and difficulties involved in teaching critical thinking, so as to gain

more insights into improving curriculum planning and teacher training.

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1.2 Research focuses

This research focuses on ‘critical thinking’ and ‘knowledge’ in Liberal Studies

from the perspective of teachers, and their interpretation of the correlation

 between the two.

Through interviews, influential factors that affect ways of seeing ‘critical thinking’

and ‘knowledge’ can be explored, such as work experience, personality, and

school training,

Also, by exploring critical thinking, this study examines better pedagogy in high

order thinking. In discussing Liberal Studies, we can understand more about the

difficulties and constraints involved in teaching critical thinking in Liberal Studies.

My work as the researcher involved interpreting participants views of critical

thinking and knowledge in Liberal Studies, and included a critical thinking

 process through conversations with the participants. They were asked to reflect on

what they thought and what they had achieved. Finally, by sharing these

experiences, we can explore how Liberal Studies can liberate students and

teachers.

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1.3 Guiding questions

1.  How can teachers interpret ‘critical thinking’, ‘knowledge’ and the

relationship between them in Liberal Studies?

2.  How do personal working experiences, cultural identity, and school training

affect interpretations of ‘critical thinking’ and ‘knowledge’? 

3.  How can pedagogy be improved so as to teach critical thinking in Liberal

Studies?

4. 

Are there any difficulties or constraints in teaching critical thinking in

Liberal Studies?

5.  Are there any suggestions as to how to improve Liberal Studies particularly

regarding critical thinking and the teaching of high order thinking?

6. 

Can Liberal Studies liberate students and teachers?

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Chapter 2

Literature review

In the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, there are intensified efforts to define

and measure Critical thinking. (Kurfiss, 1988; Norris & Ennis, 1989; Jones, 1993)

2. 1 Definitions of critical thinking

There are different definitions of ‘Critical thinking’ abound from different

disciplines. (Facione, 2007) In fact, critical thinking was characterized as merely

an assortment of techniques before rather than as complex, thoughtful, purposeful

 process of forming judgments using reason and evidence. (Paul, 1990)

The ambiguous meaning of critical thinking is because there is lack of conceptual

clarity clearly towards this topic. A number of teachers and experts confused about

what critical thinking means. (Geertsen, 2003)

That is why Beyer (1987) advocates a more specialized meaning for critical

thinking:

John Dewey (1910) as one of the most influential educator was the first one who

applied the concept of reflective thinking to delineate critical thinking as ‘ active,

 persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge

in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it

tends’ (Dewey, 1910:6) 

Cognitive scientists traditionally defined thinking as problem solving. (Geertsen,

2003)There were numerous definitions of critical thinking were quite divergent

and depended on individual understandings of research needs. To define critical

thinking broadly, thinking was seen as the cognitive processes and strategies

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involved in decision making, problem solving, or inquiry. A narrow down

definition of critical thinking would be an essential element of general cognitive

 processes, such as problem solving or decision making, but was not synonymous

with them. (Alazzi, 2008)

Edward M. Glaser (1942) was one of those experts tried to define critical thinking.

He defined that there are three components of critical thinking, which are still

used as general standards today.

Those are as followings:

1. 

An attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems

and subjects that come within the range of one’s experience 

2.  Knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning

3.  Some skills in applying those methods.

He mentions critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or

supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the

further conclusions to which it tends.

On the other hand, Beyer(1984) says that critical thinking is rendering a judgment

about something. It begins with some claim, conclusion or proposed solution and

 persistently and objectively evaluates its truth or worth. He explains

‘ The term critical thinking is one of the most abused terms in our

thinking skills vocabulary. Generally it means whatever its users

 stipulate it to mean. In some circles the term critical thinking is used

to mean all thinking operations, from decision making to analysis of

 part-whole relationships to interpreting. In other circles it means the

 skills drawn from Bloom’s taxonomy. Yet critical thinking is not to

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be considered as encompassing all, or identical to any, of these

operations. Critical thinking, for example, is obviously not the same

as recall, neither is critical thinking synonymous with decision

making or problem solving.’

Beyer (1987:32-33)

With reference to this, Geertsen(2003) believes we should call this type of

thinking as ‘critical judging’ and place it in a larger category as ‘critical thinking’.

He further explains that would be two types of assessment thinking which is

critical judging and dimentionalized judging as the followings:

Two types of assessment thinking (Making judgments of worth)

Critical judging- narrowing (internal consistency)

1.  Relevance/irrelevance of information supporting claim or assertion

2. 

Factual evidence (distinguishes facts from preferences/value judgments,

reasonable inferences, credible sources)

3.  Strength of argument (consistent reasoning, unambiguous assertions, no

logical fallacies)

4.  Underlying assumptions and/or biases

Dimentionalize Judging- broadening (other dimensions)

1. 

Relevance/ irrelevance of information supporting alternative claims or

assertions

2.  Comparative factual evidence (Factual discrepancies, factual triangulation,

reasonable inferences, credible sources)

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3. 

Scope and strength of alternative arguments (limiting conditions, possible

contradictions, possible contradictions, consistent reasoning, unambiguous

assertions, no logical fallacies)

4.  Contrasting underlying sets of assumptions and/or biases

Geertsen(2003:9)

Latter, Richard Paul (1993) mentions critical thinking is about your thinking while

you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.

There are two things critical:

1.  Critical thinking is not just thinking, but thinking which entails self-

improvement

2.  This improvement comes from skill in using stands by which one

appropriately assesses thinking. It is self-improvement (in thinking) through

standards(that assess thinking).

He further explains to think well is to impose disciple and restraint on our

thinking- by means of intellectual standards- in order to raise our thinking to a

level of ‘perfection’ or quality that ins not natural or likely in undisciplined,

spontaneous thought. He emphasizes control through discipline and restraint.

Latter, Norris and Ennis(1989) defines critical thinking is reasonable and

reflective thinking that is focused upon deciding what to believe or do.

Ennis(1996) further explains critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking

what is focused on deciding what to believe or do.

‘ Reflective thinking requires the continual evaluation of beliefs,

assumptions, and hypotheses against existing data and against other

 plausible interpretations of the data. The resulting judgments are

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offered as reasonable integrations or syntheses of opposing points of

view. Because they involve ongoing verification and evaluation,

 judgments based on reflective thinking are more likely to be valid and

insightful than are beliefs derived from authority, emotional

commitment, or narrow reasoning ’

(King and Kitchener, 1994:7) 

Esterle (1993) mentions ‘a critical thinker is not only capable of reflecting,

exploring, and analyzing but choose to think in these advanced, sophisticated

ways’

Further, Geertsen(2003) points out that critical thinking and reflective thinking are

distinctly different yet complementary forms of high level thinking.

Critical thinking should involve both responsible assessment of reasons and

arguments. It also mentioned critical thinking is typically understood by educators

has at least three features: it is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind

about what to believe or do; the person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill

standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking; and the thinking

fulfills the relevant stands to some threshold level.(Bailin, Case, R., Coombs, &

Daniels, 1999)

Paul and Elder (2003) define critical thinking as self-directed learning spiral in

which intellectual standards are applied to the thinking process with the goal of

improving the quality of thought. The intellectual standards of their definition of

critical thinking include clarity, logic, accuracy, precision, breath, depth,

relevance, significance, completeness, and fairness.

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They defined a set of intellectual traits of virtues that are characteristic of critical

thinking as followings:

  Intellectual humility  –   or the recognition that we might discover new

information and admit we were wrong

  Confidence in reason  –   an agreement to rely on logic as a standard for

determining the veracity of a claim

  Autonomy  –   the ability to say what one thinks without coercion or

compromising conflicts of interest

Courage –  to take an unpopular perspective

  Perseverance –  to track down important details relevant to the question

  Intellectual empathy –  to understand others’ points of view 

  Fair-mindedness –  to consider arguments without bias

  Integrity  –   to present all information with correct attribution of sources

and fair representation of others’ work  

King and Kitchener (2004) argue that the notions of critical thinking as limited to

either logical thinking or problem-solving skills. They point out that those

definitions ignore the underlying epistemic assumptions. Instead of using the term

critical thinking, they present a developmental theory of reflective judgment.

On the other hand, some critical thinking theorists have assumed that critical

thinking is the analysis and assessment of statements, arguments or reasons. It

involves judging an intellectual product on the basis of appropriate standards.

Thinking critically could be considered as to assess reasons properly and the

willingness, desire, and disposition to base one’s actions and beliefs on reasons.

Also, it should involve appropriate deliberation or reflection.

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There is a widespread agreement that most of the definitions share some basic

features and probably address some component of critical thinking (Potts 1994)

The cognitive skills of analysis, interpretation, inference, explanation, evaluation,

and of monitoring and correcting one’s own reasoning are at the heart of critical

thinking (APA,1990)

The following is the expert consensus statement regarding critical thinking from

the empirical research held in 1990 under the sponsorship of the Committee on

Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association:

“We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self -regulatory

 judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and

inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual,

methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon

which that judgment is based. CT is essential as a tool of inquiry. As

 such, CT is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in

one’s personal and civic life. While not synonymous with good  thinking,

CT is a pervasive and self-rectifying human phenomenon.’  

(APA, 1990)

Generation a consensus definition is less important than simply choosing

definition that meets the needs and consistently applying it. (Bissell and Leomons,

2006)

2.2 Dispositions of critical thinking

There are researchers stressed the importance of dispositions of critical thinking

that involved in analyzing individuals’ critical thinking abilities which mean a

 person might possess critical thinking skills but not use them.

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John Dewey described the dispositional aspects of thinking as ‘personal attributes’

it is applied to humans to refer to characterological attributes of individuals.

(Dewey, 1933) He focused on the attitude of the thinker. He considered attitude to

 be more crucial than knowledge reasoning, He believed that in the absence of a

thoughtful and perspective disposition, knowledge of how to think had limited

value. He concerned about attitude because he believed that all ‘supposed forms

of knowledge’ are tentative and time-bound.

French and Rhoder(1992) believe the disposition of the thinker is a crucial

element in high level thinking. Facione (2000) further explains people who have

the talent for skillful thinking but lack the consistent internal motivation to use

that talent. He mentions the disposition toward critical thinking is the consistent

internal motivation to engage problems and make decisions by using thinking’ 

Habits of mind are different critical thinking disposition. Disposition it means an

inclination, tendency or willingness to behave in a particular way. It is a tendency

to exhibit frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a pattern of behavior that is

directed to broad goal. (Katz, 1993) It is composed of three endurable

 psychological elements: sensitivity, inclination and abilities (Ritchhart &

Perkins,2000)

People with critical thinking dispositions has the tendency toward critical thinking

and are able to sense when it is needed and apply it. But for the habits of mind of

critical thinking, it has four more elements: attitudes, values, commitment, and

 policy. For the habits of mind, they are the intellectual tendencies or dispositions

to act in a particular way.(Ip, 2010)

An empirical research on the concept of Critical thinking was held in 1990 under

the sponsorship of the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American

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Philosophical Association gave the conceptualization of critical thinking for

 purposes of instruction and educational assessment. From this project, critical

thinking was characterized as a self-adjusting process of judging what to believe

or what to do in a given context. In so doing a person engaged in critical thinking

uses a core set of cognitive skills to form that judgment and to monitor and

improve the quality of the judgment (APA, 1990) from this we can see critical

thinking skills requires that one take into reasoned consideration the evidence,

methods, contexts, theories, and criteria which, in effect, define specific

disciplines, fields, and areas of human concern.

It went beyond a brief definition and offered lists of core critical thinking skills

and sub-skills and a robust expression of the positive side of dispositional aspect

of critical thinking in its description of the ideal critical thinking. (Facione, 2000)

Facione describes Truth-seeking as the desire for best knowledge in any given

situations, asking the tough questions, and being willing to follow reasons and

evidence wherever they lead even if the result is contrary to one’s own

 preconceptions and interests.

Skills and dispositions are mutually reinforcing and that is why they should be

explicitly taught and modeled together. (King & Kitchener, 1995) The linkage

 between motivation and learning that responds best to the insight that critical

thinking skills and the disposition to use critical thinking should come together in

 practical and important ways.

Disposition toward critical thinking can be described as an intellectual virtue and

in order to teach thinking, teacher must nurture truth-seeking, open mindedness,

analyticity, systematicity, intellectual curiosity, confidence in the proper use of

reason and evidence, and maturity of judgment. That is why people must be

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disposed to use what they have learned because being skilled does not assure one

is disposed to use critical thinking and being disposed toward critical thinking

does not assure that one is skilled.(Facione, 2000)

2.3 Habits of mind

There is shift of the study in critical thinking from skills(e.g. Glaser) to

dispositions(e.g. Ennis), then to habbits of mind. (Scheffer & Rubenfeld, 2000)

Costa and Kallick(2008) defined a habit of mind as ‘ having a disposition toward

 behaving intelligently when confronted with problems with dichotomies,

dilemmas, enigmas and uncertainties’ which is ‘ a composite of many skills,

attitudes, cues, past experiences, and proclivities. (Costa, 2008:17)

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Table 1. Dimensions of Habits of Mind

Dimension Description

Value Choosing to employ a pattern of intellectual behaviors

Inclination Feeling the tendency to employ a pattern of intellectual

 behaviors

Sensitivity Perceiving opportunities for, and appropriateness of,

employing the pattern of behaviors

Capability Possessing the basic skills

Commitment Constantly striving to reflect on and improve

 performance of the pattern of intellectual behaviors.

Policy Making it a policy to promote and incorporate the

 patterns of intellectual behaviors into actions, decisions,

and resolutions of problematic situations.

Source: Costa and Kallick (2008:17)

Tishman (2000) further explained that habits of mind were the intelligence

expressed as characteristic patterns of intellectual behavior in everyday situations.

Bailin, Case, R., Coombs, & Daniels (1999) point out that thinking critically in

terms of intellectual resources should be included the following kinds: background

knowledge, operational knowledge of the standards of good thinking, knowledge

of key critical concepts, heuristics(Strategies or procedures) and habits of

mind(respect for reasons and truth, respect for high-quality products and

 performances, an inquiring attitude, open mindedness and fair mindedness)

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Also, one of the influential experts in critical thinking, Facione (2011) also

emphasizes on the habits of mind especially in critical thinking. He points out that

there are positive and negative habits of mind as the following:

Table 2. Critical thinking Habits of Mind (Facione, 2011)

Positive Negative

Truth-seeking

Open-Minded

Analytical

Systematic

Confident in reasoning

Inquisitive

Intellectually dishonest

Intolerant

Heedless of consequences

Disorganized

Hostile toward reason

Indifferent

Imprudent

He further asks a question which is very inspiring for teacher. Is a good critical

thinker automatically a good person? From his view, there is a difference between

‘strong critical thinker’ and ‘good critical thinker’. A person can be adept at

developing cogent arguments and very adroit at finding the flaws in other people’s

reasoning. Then he or she use these skills unethically to mislead and exploit

another person or frustrate a project. It is possible that people with superior

thinking skills and strong habits of mind would use their talents for ruthless,

horrific and immoral purposes. Experience, knowledge, mental horsepower, and

ethical virtue are not all one and the same.

Event there is no guarantee that becoming educated and practicing good judgment

would have a life of happiness, virtue or economic success, Facione still believes

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that teach people to make good decision and equip them to improve their own

futures and become contributing members of society, rather than burdens on

society is important. 

On the other hand, Geertsen (2003) believes there should be three elements of

 proper attitude with critical thinking. First, a reflective thinker has a tendency

toward carefully consider and pondering a new possibilities when confused,

 bewildered, or filled with doubt. These illustrated the open-minded element of

 proper attitude. Further, a critical thinker has a tendency toward scrutinizing new

as well as existing knowledge and to base evaluations on compelling and/or

logically consistent evidence. Also, the third essential element of proper attitude is

a tendency to be inquisitive or ask questions.

2.4 Importance attitude for thinking

Robert K. Merton(1968) mentions that when we have the proper attitude, we make

use of the current knowledge at hand while leaving the door open to new evidence

and insight.

Thayer-Bacon(2000) emphasizes the need to transform critical thinking into

socially constructive thought. She proposes a constructionist view of higher level

thinking directed outward to others a view that values imagination, feeling and the

social construction of meaning.

Open-minded is of the essential characteristics of proper attitude towards high

level thinking. It means having respect for other viewpoints and a willingness to

consider those alternative ideas. It also includes an intellectual curiosity in

considering new questions and seeking new answers. Also, evidence-mindedness

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is another essential element of proper attitude. Withholding judgment until proper

evidence is obtained includes a systematic skepticism and objectivity. (Geertsen,

2003)

Richard Paul (2006) as the leading expert critical thinking believes the

information flux in the modern world requires considerable rethinking about how

teachers teach.

2.5 The importance of critical thinking in Liberal Studies 

Critical thinking is important to liberal studies because it helps the student to

develop the ability to think critically. Having critical thinking in liberal studies

comes with a range of skills for life-long learning, including creativity,

 problem-solving skills, communication skills etc. All these can help to develop the

student identify the values underlying different views and judgments on personal

and social issues, and apply critical thinking skills, creativity and different

 perspectives in making decisions and judgments on issues and problems at both

 personal and social levels. (CDC&HKEAA, 2007)

Liberal Studies emphasizes in critical thinking. It is just like what Siegel (1988)

mentions critical thinking is about striving for the student’s early achievement of a

significant degree of autonomy and self sufficiency and aimed to get the student to

 be an active participant in the establishment and creation of his or her adult life.

He believes that Critical thinking can promulgate the development in students of

autonomy, self sufficiency, the skills of reason assessment, and the attitudes,

dispositions, habits of mind, and character traits of the critical spirit and erects

those features of persons as the fundamental guidelines for the evaluation and

transformation of society.

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Liberal studies as a compulsory and core subject for the higher form secondary

students, it is a subject which has moral and value education in order to render

student-self sufficient and capable of determining their own futures. With critical

thinking, it can foster student’s capacity for life-long learning, so that they can

face the challenges of the future with confidence. (CDC&HKEAA, 2007)

With reference to this, the development in students of the promulgation of critical

thinking is quite similar to the five curriculum concepts: Academic rationalism,

social efficiency, cognitive processes, humanism and social reconstruction.

Further, having critical thinking in liberal studies comes with a range of skills for

life-long learning, including creativity, problem-solving skills, communication

skills etc. All these can help to develop the student identify the values underlying

different views and judgments on personal and social issues, and apply critical

thinking skills, creativity and different perspectives in making decisions and

 judgments on issues and problems at both personal and social

skills. (CDC&HKEAA, 2007) It states as follows:

‘Classroom  interaction is primarily teacher-directed. This allows

more control over the aims, content, organization, pace and direction

of lessons. However, students can be invited to raise questions about

the content and discuss them at points that encourage critical thinking.

Teachers must allow sufficient time for discussion-based enquiry in a

 Liberal Studies classroom.’

(CDC&HKEAA, 2007:107)

From this, we can see to a certain extent, student’s moral worth is respected. Also,

students and teacher should respect for persons has ramifications. With reference

to the Issue-enquiry and multiple perspectives , the approaches and strategies in

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Liberal Studies curriculum are all try to encourage students to have critical

thinking.

‘Allows for different points of view, representing different values and

interests. Teacher should guide the students to make reasoned

 judgments and take action for the betterment of society, rather than

remain merely ‘critical’ in a negative way.’  

(CDC&HKEAA, 2007:101) 

As it mentions, in the teaching of Liberal Studies, teachers honor student’s

demand for reasons and explanations, deals with students honestly, and recognizes

the need to confront student’s independent judgment.

2.6 Critical thinking and daily life

Even when Chairman of JCS , US Navy Admiral Mullen was giving out the

leadership lesson to National Defense, he mentioned about critical thinking. ‘ You

will recall how you were inspired to think critically and to question without fear,

to seek out radically different solutions and to voice them without reprisal, to read

widely and deeply, and to examine without end and grow intellectually…. What I

ask is this: pass it on.’

Also the author of ‘Thinking critically’   (1991), John Chaffee mentions how

critical thinking changed his life.

‘Critical thinking is my life; it’s my philosophy of life. It’s how I

define myself…I’m an educator because I think these ideas have

meaning. I’m convinced that what we believe in has to be able to

 stand the test of evaluation.’ 

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Even on the internet, there are lots of information about critical thinking and

 problem solving and the ‘Six steps to effective thinking and problem-solving’ is

the quite common one.

Six Steps to Effective Thinking and Problem-Solving1 

Identify the problem. —  What’s the r eal question we’re facing here? 

Define the context.  —   What are the facts and circumstances that frame this

 problem?

Enumerate choices. —  What are our most plausible three or four options?

Analyze options. —  What is our best course of action, all things considered?

List reasons explicitly.  —   Let’s be clear: Why we are  making this particular

choice?

Self-correct. —  Okay, let’s look  at it again. What did we miss?

In everyday situations and in every domain of knowledge or professional practice,

good critical thinking involves attending to the contexts, theories, methods,

evidence, and standards within which problems are framed and decisions formed.

(Facione, 2000 )

2.7 Subjects and critical thinking

There are some researches mentions that many introductory science, technology,

engineering and math courses do not encourage the development of critical

1  Original source is from: http://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/cthinking7.htm 

http://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/cthinking7.htmhttp://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/cthinking7.htmhttp://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/cthinking7.htmhttp://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/cthinking7.htm

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thinking abilities. (Fox and Hackerman 2003; Handelsman , 2004)

Further, Ahrash and Paula(2006) tried to try to understand why so many faculty

want their students to think critically but are hard-pressed to provide evidence that

they understand critical thinking or their students have learned how to do it. They

identified two major impediments. First, there is a problem of defining ‘critical

thinking’. Second, it is difficult to develop critical thinking in the classroom it is

not easy to measure critical thinking ability

2.8 High level thinking

Geertsen(2003) mentions assessment thinking is one of several dimensions of

higher-level thinking. Critical thinking judging is critical assessment thinking and

dimensionalized judging is reflective assessment thinking.

Table 3. The Dimentions, Types, and Categories of Higher-Level Thinking

Six Dimensions Twelve types of Higher-Level Thinking

Strategy thinking Decision Marking Problem solving

Referential thinking Conceptualizing Contexuatlizing

Assessment thinking Critical judging Dimensionalized

Judging

Scientific thinking Researching Theory Building

Reflective thinking Foundational Constructional

Comparative thinking Typological Analogical

Two broad categories Critical Thinking Reflective thinking

(Geertsen, 2003:9)

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2.9 Expert and novice in high order thinking

In order to see the difference between expert and novice in high order thinking,

Samuel Wineburg(1991) had done a program of expert and novice as the combine

of empirical research with historiographic writings. In this program found out the

differences between the two groups were striking, and not only in the depth of

knowledge exhibited by the working historians.

The most distinguished two groups were the working heuristics employed by the

historians in approaching the evaluation of historical sources. The historians

(experts) approached every historical account with the assumption that it reflected

selective use of information and interpretive reconstructions of actions and

motives.

Those ‘experts’ imposed their conceptions of history on their readings, seeking

motives, causes, and explanations rather than merely reciting chronologies or

genealogies. In this program, even the most academically accomplished high

school students rarely exhibited the historian’s frame of mind in reading historical

texts. For those ‘experts’, reading for understanding was a matter of recollection,

recitation, and relating one set of facts to another. Another contrast is how

historians and students examined source materials. Even when reading original

sources, as yet uninterrupted by an intervening historian, the experienced

historians employed critical heuristics unique to history, such as the ‘sourcing

heuristic’

Written essays are frequently cited as the most appropriate means for assessing

thinking. However, given the current lack of conceptual clarity with respect to

critical thinking, a student’s writing style can fool not only teachers but also some

of the so-called experts who develop the tests. (Geertsen, 2003)

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2.10 Pedagogy of high level thinking

Context has important implications for teaching high-level thinking. That is why

there are many educators and policy makers’ call for an infusion approach to the

teaching of thinking. (Geertsen, 2003)

Jones and Idol(1990:5) describe the logic of infusion as follows:

‘ According to this approach, thinking occurs within the context of

 specific tasks; therefore, instruction for thinking should be situated in

 specific problems and functional context that are embedded in the

disciplines, rather than in adjunct programs taught as ends in

themselves. This approach has also yielded powerful instructional

 strategies calling for a change in the role of the teacher away from

 giving information to teacher as model, decision maker, mediator,

 strategist, and collaborator… infusion instruction for thinking

requires restructuring curriculum, instruction, and assessment in each

content area as well as teacher education and models of instructional

leadership generally.’  

Some researchers advocate using rubrics as a way of achieving more authentic

assessments of high level thinking. (Leming, 1998;Montgomery, 2002)

Brookfield(1997) suggests out that a scenario analysis technique using pre-post

test assessments and Yeh(2001) thinks the standardized tests can measure and

encourage critical thinking defined and taught as argumentation.

On the hand, timed testing restricts critical and reflective thought. It rewards quick

 judgments and hasty conclusions rather than the carefully reasoned, thoughtful

 judgments typical of good critical thinking. (Paris, Lawton and turner 1992)

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Teachers should promote the proper attitude towards high level thinking. They can

facilitate the development and continued use of higher-level thinking by modeling

 proper attitude and repeatedly demonstrating its utility in the classroom. (Geertsen,

2003)

Teachers themselves should be the models because the deficiency in academic

training has far-reaching consequences. Students learn to think, write and speak in

critical ways by watching respected leaders model these behaviors. (Brookfield &

D, 1997) Stehphen Brookfield believes it is crucial and important for the

educators model critical thinking in their own actiosn. (Esterle, 1993) It might be

hard for teachers to expect our students to be truth seeking and open-minded if

they are not.

Some researchers have hypothesized that critical thinking is positively correlated

with the consistent internal motivation to think. There is a possible relationship of

critical thinking skill and the consistent internal motivation, or disposition, to use

that skill. That is why effective teaching must include strategies for building

intellectual character rather than relying exclusively on strengthening cognitive

skills. (Facione ,2000)

Facione emphasizes that we must nurture the dispositions even as we teach the

skills. The following is the pedagogy of critical thinking:

Problem-Framing and Problem Solving

  Model CT skills and dispositions

  Reward good CT

  Challenge poor CT

  Create a climate of reasoned inquiry

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  Diversify judgment contexts

  Engage students in critical thinking

  Reflect on the use of critical thinking

He believes through practice, and with guidance from a good instructor, we can

develop our thinking skills. He believes critical thinking is judgment, reflective

and purposive.

2.11 Assessing critical thinking

In order to evaluate critical thinking and argumentation, there were various

analytical tools and rubrics developed by researchers.

Bloom 1956 placed knowledge or memorization at the concrete end of the

continuum, followed by comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis. But

latter Beyer(1987) revised Bloom’s continuum into recall, translation,

interpretation, extrapolation, application, analysis(compare, contrast, classify),

synthesis and evaluation.

Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) 

Bloom’s taxonomy subdivides the academic skills that students might need into

six different categories as the followings:

Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives: 

1.  Knowledge: memorizing of appropriate, previously learned information,

facts, figures or process

2.  Comprehension: understanding and illustrating the informational

materials.

3.  Application: generalizing the facts to other contexts and use of previously

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learned information in new situations

4.  Analysis: Understanding the organizational structure of information and

 breaking problems down.

5.  Synthesis: making connections between different elements on one’s own

6.  Evaluation  : judging or value base on one’s knowledge to ascertain the

quality of the information

The first two categories, knowledge and secondary comprehension, do not require

critical thinking skill, but the last four-application, analysis, synthesis, and

evaluation-all require the high order thinking that characterize critical thinking

that characterize critical thought. (Bissell and Leomons, 2006)

Even though, there are still some faculty believe that critical thinking cannot be

assessed or there is no method to do so. (Beyer 1984 and Aviles 1999) But there

are large body of literature already exists show that critical thinking can be

assessed. (Cromwell 1992, Fisher and Scriven 1997)

SOLO taxonomy (Biggs and Collis, 1982) has are different levels to assess the

quality of student’s thinking in the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes.

SOLO taxonomy describes the level of increasing complexity of a student's

 performance by understanding of a subject, through five stages.

1. 

Prestructural: inability to grasp at the material (or problem)

2.  Unistructural: able to understanding or comment on only one aspect of the

material

3.  Multistructural: able to identify or view all the aspects of the material

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4. 

Relational: able to relate all the different aspects of the material

5.  Extended abstract: able to move away from the superficial features of the

material to develop new ‘knowledge’ or abstract principles

Since the early 1980s, attention to critical instruction has increased significantly.

Ennis (1993) mentions the concept of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational

objectives (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) is a good beginning, but it has

 problems. The levels are not really hierarchical, as suggested by the theory, but

rather are interdependent. Although synthesis and evaluation generally do require

analysis, analysis generally requires synthesis and evaluation. (Ennis 1981) He

thinks the five concepts are too vague to guide in developing and judging critical

thinking assessment.

Ennis defines critical thinking is ‘reasonable reflective thinking focused on

deciding what to believe or do.’

He mentions a person characteristically needs to do most of the following things

(and do them interpedently) in order to decide what to believe or do reasonably

and reflectively.

1.  Judge the credibility of sources

2.  Identify conclusions, reasons, and assumptions.

3. 

Judge the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons,

assumptions, and evidence.

4. 

Develop and defend a position on an issue.

5.  Ask appropriate clarifying questions.

6.  Plan experiments and judge experimental designs.

7.  Define terms in a way appropriate for the context.

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8. 

Be open-minded.

9.  Try to be well informed.

10. Draw conclusions when warranted, but with caution.

Ennis criticizes most existing critical thinking tests is their lack of

comprehensiveness such as they typically fail to test for important things as being

open-minded, and many even fail to test for judging the credibility of sources. He

thinks we should have clear idea of the purpose for the critical thinking test. He

mentions some major possible purposes as following:

1. 

Diagnosing the levels of students critical thinking

2.  Giving students feedback about their critical thinking prowess.

3.  Motivating students to be better at critical thinking.

4.  Informing teachers about the success of their efforts to teach students to think

critically.

5.  Doing research about critical thinking instructional questions and issues.

6. 

Providing help in deciding whether a student should enter on educational

 program.

7.  Providing information for holding schools accountable for the critical thinking

 prowess of their students.

Ennis suggests the assessment could be subject-specific which assess critical

thinking within one standard subject matter area. Also, for comprehensive

assessment, unless appropriate multiple-choice tests are developed, open-ended

assessment techniques are probably needed. He points out that critical thinking

testing is possible for a variety of purposes.

Subject-independent assessments probably can allow the measurements of critical

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thinking ability regardless of the context, so it could be possible to compare

different groups of people. (Facione, 2000)

But generalized assessment of critical thinking ability is almost never used in a

typical classroom setting (Browne and Keeley 1998).

There are several problems with these types of tests (Bissell & Lemons, 2006)

  Faculty doubt that the measurements indicate anything useful about

disciple-specific knowledge.

  Administering these test takes time away from the content of the course and

can be costly; thus, they are viewed as ‘wasted’ time.

  Most faculty lack the time to learn the underlying structure and theory behind

the tests, and so it is unclear to them why such a test would be worthwhile.

 Not only in humanities class, we require to have to critical thinking but also for

engineers because it entails not only the conventional practices: considering and

articulating assumptions in problem solving, selecting appropriate

hypotheses/methods for experiments, considering multiple perspectives in an

ethics case study, assessing social impacts of technology, and structuring

open-ended design problems. It also entails thinking critically about engineering.

(Claris & Riley, 2007) If that is the case, ma be we apply the similar flow to

Liberal Studies.

There are many ways to assess Critical thinking, including using performance

appraisals, rating forms, rubrics 2 , and portfolios (Facione & Facione 1996;

Facione and Facione, 1996b)

2  Refer to appendix 1

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2.12 Critical thinking as educational capital

The term ‘educational capital’ refers to that set of skills, abilities, and forms of

knowledge (e.g. knowledge of grammar, math skills, ability to think critically that

is valued by schools and school officials)(Lisa Tsui, 2003) The development of

critical thinking is likely to be linked to class origins. She further explains critical

thinking is but only one element, albeit a seemingly highly prized one, of a vast

array of skills, abilities, and forms of knowledge that comprise educational capital.

That is why the amount of educational capital that students begin school with is

important to their advancement through an educational system that allocates

differential resources to students through sorting.

Ideally, multiple measures of critical thinking ought to be used to triangulate

results (McMillan, 1987; Tsui, 1998) in order to have greater equality in

educational opportunity with regard to critical thinking development; there should

 be a number of strategies pursued.

Also, as one of the components of educational capital, critical thinking should be

taught earlier in formal schooling. It should be accorded the status of a ‘basic 

skills’ with reading, writing and arithmetic.  Also, it should be expected to be

mastered by all students. (Tsui, 2003)

We might need more interdisciplinary courses which emphasis on cooperative

exploration of knowledge and divergent thinking rather than information

transmittal and convergent thinking.(Tsui, 1998,2000, 2002)

2.13 Ideal critical thinker

The following is the expert consensus statement about ideal critical thinker from

the empirical research held in 1990 under the sponsorship of the Committee on

Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association:

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‘The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed,

trustful of reason, open minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation,

honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments,

willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters,

diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of

criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are

as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit.

Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this

ideal. It combines developing CT skills with nurturing those

dispositions which consistently yield useful insights and which are the

basis of a rational and democratic society.’(APA, 1990)

Also, a critical thinker must be autonomous- free to act and judge independently

of external constraint, on the basis of her own reasoned appraisal of the matter at

hand. (Siegel, 1990) With reference to this, thinking critically should be

considered as able to consult her or his independent judgment concerning matters

of concern to her or him.

A good critical thinker should be able to use scientific methods, including

emphasis on evidence and the nature of a hypothesis; possess the tendency to be

inquisitive, critical and analytical which respect to issues, personal behavior, and

son on; and employ correct principles of logic. (Alazzi, 2008)

2.14 Critical thinking and democratic society

Different theorists would have different definition of education. Teaching students

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to be a democratic citizen could be one of the important objectives through the

learning of critical thinking. A democratic citizen needs to judge intelligently the

 proposed changes or policy and she or he need to be a critical thinker. (Siegel,

1988) It is related to the social transformation.

Siegel thinks teaching critical thinking is largely a matter of teaching students to

make appropriate use of the concepts, standards, stratagems and procedures our

culture has developed for disciplining thinking and increasing its fruitfulness.

These concepts are embedded in complex practices of critical deliberation and

discussion. To a certain extent, we can see those concepts in the emphasis in the

interaction of teaching and group discussion among students in Liberal Studies.

With reference to this, Students in Liberal Studies as critical thinkers must

acquire good judgment in particular context.

They should have a variety of intellectual resources. Liberal Studies teacher as the

educators should not simply teaching student’s standards and concepts,  but also

getting them to appreciate the value of changing some of their previously

established commitments and practices. Thinking reasons and truth are important

respecting others in discussion, being open-minded and being willing to look at

issues from other’s points of view. In the Liberal Studies class, students are

expected to ask for examples before accepting them as fact. Although there are

certain peer and self assessment in Liberal Studies, in order to engage students in

dealing with tasks that call for reasoned judgment or assessment, teachers still

need to lead to student to think beyond the classroom. Instead of being exam

oriented, teachers should develop intellectual resources and providing an

environment which critical thinking is valued.

On the other hand, in such a postmodern society, people are exposed to excessive

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information especially from different types of media. When people keep talking

about the fear of terrorist from the news, should we think about what can we do in

education? Education should include a good measure of critical thinking skills and

dispositions like truth-seeking and open mindedness in order to help the people

get away from the complete control of extremists. (Facione, 2007) The world

should not be just separated into ‘black and white’ or ‘us and them’. That is  why

the society should place a very high value on critical thinking.

critical thinking should not only be considered as thinking skills in academic. As

Facione (2007) mentions critical thinking plays an essential role in Liberal

education which is about learning to learn, to think for yourself, on your own and

in collaboration with others. Further, critical thinking helps with the mind wakens

and matures, and the proper nurturing and educational nourishment is provided.

Also, it is an essential tool for performing successfully in a complex and rapidly

changing world(Alazzi, 2008) 

2.15 Subject knowledge in Liberal Studies

With reference to the knowledge in Liberal Studies, the design of the curriculum

and assessment framework for this subject is in line with contemporary views of

knowledge and of how people learn. It has taken into account overseas

experiences in cross-disciplinary studies, pertaining in particular to critical

thinking, life education, values education and civic education, with due

consideration given to their relevance in the Hong Kong context. The academic

rigor of the subject has also been benchmarked against a number of comparable

subjects in overseas secondary education curricula. (CDC&HKEAA, 2007:2) 

In Liberal Studies, as it states in the C&A guide, there is no specific subject

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knowledge but the knowledge and perspectives from other subjects to study

contemporary issues as mentions in the following graph.

Figure 1. Liberal Studies and the Three-year Senior Secondary Curriculum

(CDC&HKEAA, 2007:3)

2.16 Knowledge, truth and power

With reference to the Oxford English dictionary, knowledge is defined as expertise,

and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or

 practical understanding of a subject; what is known in particular field or in total;

facts and information; or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact

or situation.

One of the influential Greek philosophers, Plato defined the formulation of

knowledge is ‘justified true belief.’ Scholars, psychologists and researchers might

have different definition to knowledge and until know, there is no definite answer

towards knowledge.

Schools have been considered as the place to transmit the knowledge to the

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students through learning. But there is a number of developments in recent years

have brought an increasing focus on the relationship between knowledge, power

and learning. The issues about the importance or relevance of different forms or

types of knowledge have led to the interest in how these are legitimated. (Paechter,

Preedy, Scott, & Soler, 2001)

Foucault (1980) believes truth is to be understood as a system of ordered

 procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation

of statements

Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple

 forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each

 society has its own regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth: that

is, they type of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true

and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the

techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth;

the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true.

(Foucault, 1980:131)

Foucault identifies certain knowledge- human sciences and certain attendant

 practices as central to the normalization of social principles and institutions of

modern society. By normalization Foucault means the establishment of

measurements, hierarchy, and regulations.

He explains

‘ Every educational system is a political means of maintaining or

modifying the appropriateness of discourses with the knowledge and

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 power they bring with them.’

(Foucault 1971:46)

He further explains that there is a two-way relationship between power and

knowledge, such that the production of Truth can be said to be a political process.

 Resistance  emerges as a productive critical thinking practice inside these very

forms of power that Foucault criticizes.

In fact, everyday knowledge is not concerned with transcendent truths, but it is the

latter that are regarded as power-bearing are then more highly valued. (Paechter,

2001)

Foucault also concerns about the knowledge that remain important to learners but

which are not legitimated. He explains

‘  Perhaps, too, we should abandon a whole tradition that allows us to

imagine that knowledge can exist only where the power relations are

 suspended and that knowledge can develop only outside its injunctions,

its demands and its interests. Perhaps we should abandon the belief

that power makes mad and that, by the same token the renunciation of

 power is one of the conditions of knowledge. We should admit rather

that power produces knowledge (and not simply by encouraging it

because it serves power or by applying it because it is useful); that

 power and knowledge directly imply one another; that there is no

 power relation with out the correlative constitution of a field of

knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and

constitute at the same time power relations.’ (Foucault, 1977:27)

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There is a constant and accelerating shifts in information mean that all members

of society need grater skill in assessing and evaluation knowledge (Geertsen,

2003)

Marshall (1990) has pointed out that there is a further aspect of teacher-student

 power/knowledge relations, the imbalance in the knowledge each has of the other.

He mentions as the following:

‘  Knowledge has been developed about people, and their behavior,

attitudes, and self-knowledge have been developed, refined, and used to

 shape individuals. These discourses and practices have not ony been

used to change us in various ways but are also used to legitimate such

changes, as knowledge gained is deemed to be ‘true’. Foucault

identifies this knowledge, developed by the exercise of power and used

in turn to legitimate further exercises of power, as power-knowledge.’

(Marshall, 1990:15) 

The interaction between power and knowledge in school is not only concerned

with the imbalances between teachers and taught in the amount and importance of

the knowledge that they have. It is also about the power invested in the teacher by

virtue of his or her knowledge of the student which is further stressed as an

important pedagogic disciplinary tool (Walkerdine, 1984) With reference to

Foucault, knowledge and our understanding of the world and us, is an outcome

and part of the exercise of power in societies.

2.17 Schooling and the ownership

It seems to be accepted by the general public and educationalists that school

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knowledge is in some way different from that found and used in the world outside.

There are more concerns towards the issues of power-knowledge in the classroom

relationship in last 30 years. The imbalance between teacher and learner in terms

of whose knowledge is given legitimating and importance is an important aspect

of power-knowledge relations in schools. (Paechter, 2001)

Almost one century ago, Dewey(1902) had pointed that school knowledge is

different from the world outside already.

‘These apparent deviations and differences between child and

curriculum might be almost indefinitely widened. But we have here

 sufficiently fundamental divergences: first, the narrow but personal

world of the child against the impersonal but infinitely extended world

of space and time; second, the unity, the single wholeheartedness of

the child’s life, and the specializations and divisions of the curriculum;

third, an abstract principle of logical classification and arrangement,

and the practical and emotional bonds of child life. 

(Dewey, 1902:7)

Further, Young (1971)regards academic curricula as :

‘Social definitions of educational value, thus become problematic in  

the sense that if they persist it is not because knowledge is in any

meaningful way best made available according to the criteria they

represent, but because they are conscious or unconscious cultural

choices which accord with the values and beliefs of dominant groups

at a particular time.

(Young, 1971:38)

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Also, Keddie(1971) notes that the school

‘…may be seen as maintaining the social order through the taken for

 granted categories of its superordinates who process pupils and

knowledge in mutually confirming ways. The ability to maintain these

categories as consensual, when there are among the clients in school

conflicting definitions of the situation, resides in the unequal

distribution of power. There is a need to show how this enters into and

 shapes the interactional situation in the classroom.’

(Keddie, 1971:156)

Freire (1972) points out under the ‘banking’ model of education; knowledge is

 being possessed by the teacher and transmitted more or less intact to the learner.

He explains

‘  Education therefore becomes an act of depositing, in which the

 students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead

of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes

deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat.’  

(Freire, 1972:46-47)

In order to change the balance of the power in classrooms, items often focus on

the idea of student ownership of knowledge. (Resnick, 1987;Taylor, 1989)

Bernstein(1971) suggests to weaken the boundaries between school and

non-school knowledge:

‘ Involves a change in what counts as having knowledge, in what

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counts as valid transmission of knowledge, in what counts as valid

realization of knowledge… and so changes in the structure and

distribution of power and in principles of control .’ 

(Bernstein, 1971:63)

On the other hand, educational institutions control the access of individuals to

various kinds of discourse. According to Foucault,

‘Discourses are composed of signs, but what they do is more than use

these signs to designate things. It is this move that renders them

irreducible to the langue and to speech. It is this move that we must

reveal and describe.’

(Foucault 1974:49)

Paechter(2001) believes that there might be one way to undercut the

 power-knowledge imbalance in the classroom which is through the inclusion and

validation, within school, of more student-owned knowledge.

Students would be able to retain ownership of their non-school knowledge only if

they continue to have asses to the owner that it contains. Owned knowledge is not

simply something that is learned well and it positions its possessor as an acting

subject, able to use her or his knowledge in a dynamic way. (Peachter, 2001)

Power and knowledge are two sides of single process. Knowledge does not reflect

 power relations but it is immanent in them. (Ball, 1990)The complex relationship

 between knowledge and power is now changing by the increase of individual

access to information. This might lead to greater democracy as citizens become

more informed. But also it might allow governments and corporations to access

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more information about us as individuals as threatening our freedom of action.

(Paechter, 2001)

2.18 Pedagogy of the oppressed in Liberal Studies

If we start to ask ‘What is education?’, that might become an interesting

discussion with controversial answers. Paulo Freire(1972) in his book of

‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’ gives a very straight answer to this. He thinks

education is a political act.

Paulo believes to educate people is not only teaching them knowledge through

reading and writing but raise up the ability and increase the opportunity of

 political participation of oppressed group. Those oppressed group are struggling

of dehumanization3  and alienation4.

He believes education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of

students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of

indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression. This accusation is not

made in the naive hope that the dominant elites will thereby simply abandon the

 practice. Its objective is to call the attention of true humanists to the fact that they

3  With reference to Paulo Freire, dehumanization mark not only those humanity has been stolen,

but also those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human.

‘ Because of it is a distortion of being more fully human, sooner or later being less human leads the

oppressed to struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their

humanity(which is a way to create it). Become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather

restorers of the humanity of both.’ (Freire 1972:49) 

4  Paulo Freire believes in the alienated cultural processes characteristic of dependent or object

societies, there is no authentic thought because reality does not correspond to the reality being

lived objectively but rather to the reality in which the alienated man imagines himself to be.

(Asoke Bhattacharya, 2008)

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cannot use banking educational methods in the pursuit of liberation, for they

would only negate that very pursuit. Nor may a revolutionary society inherit these

methods from an oppressor society. He disagrees with the banking education

 because he thinks the revolutionary society which practices banking education is

either misguided or mistrusting of people.

‘Authentic liberation-the process of humanization is not another

deposit to be made in men. Liberation is a praxis: the action and

reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform

it.’   (Paulo Freire, 1970:60)

He thinks those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in

its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings,

and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the

educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems

of human beings in their relations with the world. ‘Problem - posing’ education,

responding to the essence of consciousness - intentionality - rejects communiqués

and embodies communication.

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In the book of ‘ Pedagogy for liberation: dialogues on transforming education’,

Freire(1987) mentions that we can discern two moments in learning. One is the

 production of new knowledge, and the other is to know existing knowledge. He

also explains that the official curriculum asks students to submit to authority. He

 believes teachers should appeal to the students to assume a critical posture as

readers, as ones who re-write the text rather than to simply swallow it.’ 

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Chapter 3

Methodology

To investigate teacher’s ways of seeing critical thinking and knowledge,

interviewing and observation were used. Face to face interviews conducted in

Cantonese and English were carried out at. With the permission of the participants,

interviews were recorded. While the interviews were being conducted, the

 participant’s gestures and facial expressions were observed.

3.1 Interviews

Participants’ insights into critical thinking and knowledge in Liberal Studies, were

explored using interviews. An interview is a recording of an individual’s words in

response to the questions of the researcher. The interview, in whatever form it is

recorded, constitutes an official record and must be treated (and preserved) as such.

Participants were interviewed once to twice, and both instances were recorded

Critical thinking and knowledge, within Liberal Studies, is defined in academic

 journals or books. But teachers deliver the curriculum and concepts. Teachers’

interpretations and notions of critical thinking, knowledge, and Liberal Studies

more generally are therefore important, with reference to individual experience.

Interpretations of critical thinking and knowledge involve cultural identity, life

experiences, and interaction, and therefore interviewing is used as a principal

method of research. This does not necessarily involve oral history, but

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semi-structured interviewing does preserve interviewee perspectives and views,

which are spoken and spontaneous, and involve judgments and recollections

(Lofgren, 2006).

3.2 Interview Settings

The interviews were mainly held from May to July. The venue was chosen by

 participants for convenience, relaxation, and so that they could express themselves.

Interviews mainly took place after 4:30pm (after work for most of the

 participants). Timing was at the behest of the participants, to fit in with their

schedules.

Interview situation vary based on the degree of control exercised by the

interviewer (Dohrenwend and Richardson, 1965; Gorden, 1975). Interviewees in

this study enjoyed unstructured or semi-structured interviews which allowed them

space to expand on their notions of Liberal Studies (Bernard, 1994). The

informant was told the purpose of the interview, with brief explanation of the

questions to be asked. The questioning allowed time and space for free discussion

(Cannell and Kahn, 1968). These arrangements were outlined by email and

telephone before commencement.

3.3 Stages of interviews 

With reference to the Bernard’s four -stage continuum of interviews (1994), four

stages were developed for interviews in this study: 1) informal interviewing; 2)

unstructured interviewing; 3) semi-structured interviewing; and 4) structured

interviewing. 

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At this stage, prepared questions were not used. Most participants by this stage

had moved on to discuss critical thinking and knowledge, except participant D. He

talked about his radio interview and how he got the chance to become a LS

teacher.

(3) Semi-structured interviews

For the semi-structured stage, guiding questions were drafted such as: ‘According

to your own interpretation, what is the main focus of liberal studies?’, and ‘how

would you interpret critical thinking?’ However, even at this stage, there was no

strong control exerted over the interviewee.

(4) Structured interviewing

Structured interviews involved stronger direction and questioning. The key

questions, expressed in chronological order, were as follows:

Part A

The nature of Liberal Studies:

1. According to your interpretation, what is the main focus of Liberal

Studies?

2. 

Are there any required skills or knowledge in this subject?

Part B

Knowledge/content in Liberal Studies

3. What do you think about the content /knowledge in Liberal Studies?

4. How would you interpret that?

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5. 

Do you think students have to learn a large amount of knowledge in

Liberal Studies?

Part C

Critical thinking

6. Do you think critical thinking is important in Liberal Studies?

7. How do you define critical thinking? What is critical thinking to you?

8. 

Do you think you can teach critical thinking? In what way?

9. 

Do you think liberal studies can teach students how to think particularly

as regards critical thinking or high order thinking?

10. Can you give me some examples, related to Liberal Studies, of

teaching critical thinking?

Part D

Correlation between critical thinking and knowledge

11. Is there any connection between critical thinking and knowledge?

12. Do you think students have an in-depth knowledge so as to have

critical thinking? Is there a priority?

Part E

The Questions about pedagogy of critical thinking and high order thinking

13. 

Do you have your own ways to teach Liberal Studies particularly

regarding critical thinking or high order thinking? Can you give

examples?

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14. 

Can the Liberal Studies examination help students’ critical thinking

and high order thinking? In what ways?

15. If no, how is it possible to improve examinations?

16. Can you suggest any other way to examine critical thinking in Liberal

Studies instead of this exam?

Part F

Teacher training and professional development

17. 

Do you think any teacher can teach liberal studies? Why?

18. What are the qualities necessary to be a Liberal Studies teacher,

 particularly as regards teaching critical thinking?

19. Does teaching professional training help you learn how to teach critical

thinking and high order thinking?

20. How do we need to improve teacher training, particularly the pedagogy

of critical thinking?

21. Do you think you are capable of teaching critical thinking in Liberal

Studies? In what ways?

Part G

Constraints in teaching critical thinking in Liberal Studies:

22. Are there any difficulties when you are teach Liberal Studies,

 particularly in critical thinking?

23. Are there any solutions you can suggest?

24. How do you foresee this subject in the future?

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Studies would provide the best support the teaching of critical thinking). The

research questions were then modified (in all interviews) to take account of this

insight.

During interviews, important data was gleaned and interviewing techniques were

honed. Most participants were willing to talk about their views and experiences,

 but a probing style2  was used, particularly for parts G and I of the questions.

As far observed, there were not many response effects3  among the participants.

Even the senior curriculum officer from the educational department did not use a

 bureaucratic tone when answering questions.

This research focuses on how liberal studies teachers view critical thinking and

knowledge. The study explores how teachers interpret this subject and what

factors and personal experiences contribute to the teaching of critical thinking.

Observation of the classroom was not used in this research, as it does not fall into

the remit of the study.

3.5 Participants

Six Liberal Studies teachers and one Liberal Studies senior curriculum officer

(who was also a former Liberal Studies teacher) were invited to participate in this

research. The participants were chosen according to their background,

teaching/work experience and cultural identity. There were six males and one

female, and this gender balance was not intention