(2009-09-20) Ravitch Vs Teaching Critical Thinking

Diane Ravitch opposes trying to teach Critical Thinking (and other "21st Century" (New Economy) Thinking Tools like Creativity and Problem Solving). Inevitably, putting a priority on skills pushes other subjects, including history, literature, and the arts, to the margins. But skill-centered, knowledge-free education has never worked... In 1916, a federal government report scoffed at academic education as lacking relevance. The report's author said black children should "learn to do by doing,'' (Learning By Doing) which he considered to be the modern, scientific approach to education. Just a couple of years later, "the project method'' (Project Based Learning) took the education world by storm. Instead of a sequential curriculum laid out in advance, the program urged that boys and girls engage in hands-on projects of their own choosing, ideally working cooperatively in a group. It required activity, not docility, and awakened student motivation. It's remarkably similar to the model advocated by 21st-century skills enthusiasts... For the past century, our schools of education have obsessed over critical-thinking skills, projects, cooperative learning, experiential learning, and so on. But they have paid precious little attention to the disciplinary knowledge that young people need to make sense of the world... We have neglected to teach them that one cannot think critically without quite a lot of knowledge to think about. Thinking critically involves comparing and contrasting and synthesizing what one has learned... Until we teach both teachers and students to value knowledge and to love learning, we cannot expect them to use their minds well.

Sol Stern and Randi Weingarten agree with her.

I don't think the Socratic teachers would agree.