DOCUMENT RESUME CS 010 984 ED 347 511 Maiorana, ViCtor P. AUTHOR Critical Thinking across the Curriculum: Building the TITLE Analytical Classroom. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication INSTITUTION Skills, Bloomington, IN. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), SPONS AGENCY Washington, DC. ISBN-0-927516-35-7 REPORT NO PUB DATE 92 CONTRACT RI88062001 184p.; Also published by EDINFO Press. NOTE ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication AVAILABLE FROM Skills, 2805 E. 10th St., Suite 150, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698 ($14.9!, plus $3 postage and handling). Guides - Classroom Use - Teaching Guides (For PUB TYPE Teacher) (052) -- Information Analyses - ERIC Clearinghouse Products (071) MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Classroom Techniques; *Critical Thinking; Higher DESCRIPTORS Education; High Schools; Methods Research; Student Needs; Teaching Guides; *Teaching Methods; *Thinking Skills Critical Listening; *Thinking across the ID'NTIFIERS Curriculum ABSTRACT Based on the idea that certain critical skills mark the thoughtful person, inform the workplace, and provide for lifelong learning, this book provides classroom teachers with the ability to teach various subjects to students in a manner that simultaneously develops students' critical thinking, reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. A key purpose of the book is to offer teachers an understanding of how conventional pedagogical practices inhibit the teaching of cognitive skills, and to introduce a methodology for teaching cognitive skills throughout the high school and college curriculum. Chapters are as follows: (1) What Is Critical Thinking (2) What Is the Purpose of Critical across the Curriculum?; Thinking?; (3) Why We Normally Fail To Teach Critical Thinking in the Classroom; (4) Attributes of an Effective Methodology for Teaching Critical Thinking; (5) Introduction to Means-Ends Critical Analysis of Subject Matter (MECA/SM); (6) Fundamentals of MECA/SM Methodology; (8) Critical (7) How to Use MECA/SM Methodology in Your Classroom; Thinking across the Curriculum with MECA/SM; (9) An Invitation; and (10) The Principles of Critical Thinking across the Curriculum: A Manifesto for the Analytical Classroom. A bibliography containing 87 references and an index are attached. (HB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** T.A.44 OM. AO, EDUCATION U.$ DEPARTMENT OF Improvement ()Mc* of Educjttonal Research and INFORMATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERIC! been reproduced as O This document has ut qrganization received from the person originating it made to improve Ct Minor changes nave been reproduction q delay _Ja in this doct Points Of view or OpiniOos stated represent official ment do not necesSamt OERI position or policy HAUB E ST COPY Critical Thinking across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom Victor P. Maiorana Queensborough Community College 1992 ft ERICI Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills Press EIPINFIG Published 1992 by: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills Carl B. Smith, Director 2805 East 10th Street, Suite 150 Bloomington, Indiana 47408-2698 and EDINFO Press Editor: Warren Lewis Cover Design: Lauren Gottlieb Design: Lauren Gottlieb Production: Theresa Hardy ERIC (an acronym for Educational Resources Information Center) is a national database network of 16 clearinghouses, each of which Is responsible for building the ERIC by identifying and abstracting various educational resources, including research reports, The curriculum guides, conference papers, journal articles, and government reports. Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills (ERIC/RCS) collects educational information specifically related to reading, English, journalism, speech, and theater at all levels. ERIC/RCS also covers interdisciplinary areas, such as media studies, reading and literature, and writing technology, mass communication, language arts, critical thinking, many aspects of literacy. This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RI88062001. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or opinions of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The photo of John Dewey was taken at his summer retreat on Sawlor Lake, Hubbards, Southern Nova Scotia. It was used with permission from Special Collections, Morris Library, Illinois University at Carbondale. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maiorana, Victor P. Critical Thinking across the Curriculum : Building the Analytical Classroom ./ by Victor P. Maiorana cm. p. ISBN 0-927516-35-7 1. Critical thinking-Study and teaching -United States. I. Title. 2. Educational change-United States. 92-20683 LB1590.3.M35 1992 CIP 307.15'2-dc20 II ER1C/RCS Advisory Board Members Joan Baker Donald Gray Cleveland State University Department of English Cleveland, Ohio Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana Douglas Barnard Richard P. Johns Mesa Public Schools Mesa, Arizona Dept. of Journalism and Mass Communication University of Iowa Nancy Broz Iowa City, Iowa Language Arts/ Reading Supervisor P. David Pearson Moorestown Public Schools Moorestown, New Jersy College of Education University of Illinois Champaign, Illinois Jeanne Chall Reading Center M. Donald Thomas College of Education Harvard University Educational Consultant to Cambridge, Massachusetts Governor of Tennessee Salt Lake City, Utah James Ecke Dept. of Defense Samuel Weintraub Dependents' Schools School of Education Centerville, Virginia SUNY-Buffalo Buffalo, New York George A. Gonzales Bilingual/Bicultural Program Pan American University Edinburg, Texas Table of Contents the Curriculum? I. What Is Critical Thinking across 1 2 Empowering the Underprepared 5 Challenging the Crystal Gatherers 6 Making Learning Purposeful 9 Faculty Development Reinventing Teacher Education and 13 of Critical Thinking? 2. What Is the Purpose 14 Thinking Various Views of Critical 17 Dewey Challenges the Crystal Gatherers 19 Critical Thinking Significance of Various Views on . Fail to Teach Critical Thinking 3. Why We Normally 21 in the Classroom ?I Thinking Barriers to Teaching Critical 33 Thinking in the Classroom New Affirmations of Critical . Attributes of an Effective Methodology 4. 35 Thinking for Teaching Critical 35 Method Criteria for an Ideal Teaching 43 Methodologies A Review of Existing 45 Going beyond Socrates 47 Method: A Comparison Existing Methologies and an Ideal 49 the Curriculum A New Method for Thinking across . . . Analysis Introduction to Means-Ends Critical 5. 51 of Subject Matter 51 MECA/SM 53 A Typical Text-based Analysis 55 Analysis A Typical Experi,nced-based 56 MECA/SM and Subject Matter 58 Material Information-loaded versus Rhetoric-loaded E; iv 60 Developing Cognitive Skills with MECA/SM Strategy . . 65 Fundamentals of MECA/SM Methodology G. 65 The Framework of MECA/SM 68 Fundamentals of MECA/SM Methodology 70 MECA/SM on MECA/SM 71 Carrying MECA/SM to an Nth Degree 75 Waves, Pathways, and Styles 84 A Taxonomic View of MECA/SM 96 Recycling the Results of Analysis How to Use MECA/SM Methodology 7. 97 In Your Classroom 97 Building the Analytical Classroom 99 Presenting Subject Matter Analytically 104 Reading and Writing with MECA/SM Critical Thinking across the Curriculum 8. 109 with MECA/SM 110 Establishing Purposeful Statements 114 Arranging Entries in Logical Order 119 Experienced-based Analyses 125 Text-based Analyses 149 An Invitation 9. An Experience-based MECA/SM Analysis 149 of Your Field of Expertise 153 A Narrative of Your Analysis The Principles of Critical Thinking 10. across the Curriculum: 155 A Manifesto for theAnalytical Classroom Summary: The Analytical-critical Principles 157 of Teaching and Learning Classroom 158 flow to Tell If Your Classroom Is an Analytical .-1 163 Bibliography Index 171 s vi Preface Consequential solutions to today's educational crisis will not be found in the areas of finance, management, curriculum, school choice, computer technology, televi- sion programming, assessment, or testing standards. So- lutions lie in providing all classroom teachers with the ability to teach all subject matter to all students in a students' critical manner that simultaneously develops thinking, reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. These skills mark the thoughtful person, inform the work- place, provide for lifelong learning, and are the human tools of a democracy. Learning how to teach critical skills and subject mat- ter at the same time, presents to us educators a rare opportunity to reinvent our profession. The purpose of this essay is to offer to you, the classroom teacher, curric- ulum specialist, educational technologist, or educational administrator, an understanding of how conventional ped- agogical practices inhibit the teaching of cognitive skills, and to introduce a thorough, practical, and assessable classroom methodology for teaching cognitive skills throughout the high-school and college curriculum. Chapter 1 is a discussion of the uses and implications of critical thinking across the curriculum and an introduc- tion of the concept of "the analytical classroom." In chap- CRITICAL THINKING ACIOSS THE CURRICULUM viii thinking, and I ter 2, I address the purpose of critical provide an overview of the various concepts of critical thinking and their significance for classroom instruction. In chapter 3, I argue that conventional teaching and learn- skills in ing approaches inhibit the development of critical thinking, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In chapter 4, I present the attributes of my ideal teaching methodology. Chapters 5 through 8 are a thorough intro- duction to a new thinking/teaching/learning strategy called Means-Ends Critical Analysis of Subject Matter (MECA/SM), a strategy that can be used across the curric- ulum to teach cognitive skills and subject matter at the 9, I extend an invitation to apply same time. In chapter the MECA/SM analytical approach to a topic in your field of of expertise. Chapter 10 is a summary of the principles checklist for the analytical classroom, and it contains a whether your classroom is an you to use to determine analytical classroom. send I will be happy to comment on any analysis you following address. Please me. Send typed analyses to the be sure to include your name and address. Victor P. Maiorana Room A405 Queensborough Community College Bayside, New York 11364 I would like to acknowledge the assistance of col- leagues and students who have developed many of the analyses that appear herein. A special note of thanks to Warren Lewis, ERIC/RCS Director of Publications, for his development encouragement and insightful help in the and preparation of the manuscript. This book is dedicated Rosalie, to all teachers and students, and especially to Lauren, Joseph, Michael, and Richard. Victor P. Maiorana 1992 Al