Teaching Critical Thinking in a Community College History Course: Empirical Evidence from Infusing Paul's Model

Paul's model for critical thinking was infused into a community college history course by teaching the model explicitly and training students to use the model to analyze primary documents. Pretests and posttests included an Advanced Placement Examination, the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory, and a History Content Exam. ANCOVA indicated that the experimental group performed significantly higher than the control group in historical thinking and in general critical thinking skills, with large effect sizes in each case. No significant differences were found on the other tests. Infusing Paul's model into classroom activities appeared to promote students' abilities to think historically and critically without lessening their end of term knowledge of history content. For over 20 years now, the importance of critical thinking as an educational objective has been widely acknowledged by educators as well as by business and political leaders (Association of American Colleges, 1985; Hunt, 1995; National Education Goals Panel, 1991; Norris, 1985; Paul, 1993; Scriven, 1985; Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991). Scholars have responded to increased demands for students who can think critically by theorizing about necessary and sufficient components of the concept, researching factors that may contribute to its enhancement, developing instructional models to strengthen critical thinking, and creating and revising assessment instruments. While much has been accomplished, critical thinking is a complex construct not easily limited to a single definition, and many areas of uncertainty and disagreement remain as cognitive scientists, educational researchers, and philosophers continue to pursue their own visions of critical thinking based in diverse research traditions (e.g., Ennis, 1992; Facione, 1984; Halpern, 1993; Johnson, 1996; Lipman, 1988; McPeck, 1981; Paul, 1993; Perkins, Jay, & Tishman, 1993; Resnick, 1987). In spite of some contentious differences, experts have made attempts at consensus (e.g. Facione, 1990) and general characterizations of critical thinking and lists of component skills and dispositions overlap considerably. These typically include the ability and propensity to analyze complex issues and situations, to recognize and to evaluate assumptions and alternative points of view according to acceptable criteria, to make sound inferences and to draw reasonable conclusions based on reliable information, and to make interdisciplinary connections and to transfer insights to new contexts. Research has provided some insights into factors that may enhance students' abilities to think critically. Clearly, more years of education are associated with higher scores on tests for critical thinking, but performance in general is poor and many students graduate from college lacking proficiency as critical thinkers (Bangert-Drowns & Bankert, 1990: Browne & Keeley, 1988: Keeley, 1992: Kuhn, 1992; McMillan, 1987: Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Perkins, 1985). Although findings from studies examining the magnitude of gains in critical thinking have varied, tentative estimates of around 0.50 SD improvement seem to be about average for the freshman year (Dressel & Mayhew, 1954; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Evidence strongly favors explicit instruction over implicit instruction, and more intense programs have been shown to be more effective than programs focusing only periodically on explicit instruction in critical thinking. On the other hand, efforts to examine specific instructional programs for methods that enhance critical thinking have provided mixed, even inconsistent, results (Bangert-Drowns & Bankert. 1990: Keeley, 1992). Tsui (1999) concludes that types of instructional methods influence gains in critical thinking slightly more than kinds of courses students take. Numerous instructional models based on varied conceptions of critical thinking have been developed to teach students to become better thinkers (for examples of models used for post-secondary instruction, see Browne & Keeley, 1994: Ennis, 1996: Chaffee, 1994: Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1998; Halpern, 1996; King, 1994). …