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[relaxtischina]

Well I have been asked by the director of studies at a local university to teach students not only English but also help students to develop critical thinking skills: I define critical thinking as a type of thinking that questions ANY assumption. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or false.
My question is: Is it possible to effectively teach critical thinking skills in mainland China considering issues of cultural difference and how many topics are off limits? .
As "foreigners" (even if you are married to a Chinese national) we are often reminded not to say or do anything that could interfere with the internal affairs of China so perhaps it becomes easier to make a list of topics we are allowed to teach/discuss than topics which could interfere with a government officials interpretation of "interfering in internal affairs". If so does this prove that teaching critical thinking skills on the mainland is at least very difficult or can we still have a good result for students by teaching only examples that are not off limits (Critical thinking with CC perhaps).

BTW Would discussing the merits of labor camp detention be off limits? considering it has passed the local censors it seems? Or would applying critical thinking skills to this topic make me or others a candidate for requiring "re-education"? :

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-08/16/content_15679394.htm[url]

[Miles Smiles]

I've been through similar challenges, though it was self-imposed. I've never heard of of a DOS requesting a critical thinking exercise. Kudos to him.

Your best bet is to use deductive logic fallacies. If i could find my thumb drive, I'd post a lot of them.

Stay away from Lewis Carrol's deductive logic examples. They are frustrating.

Simple fallacies turn them on a lot, and if you can make them humorous, you'll captivate them. I use them for argumentation, but they can be used for discussion.

You are very fortunate to be given this task, You'll find the extra work stimulating, and the students' response to be gratifying. Most students will find them to be turn-ons because they've NEVER used that part of their brains.

DON'T make the exercises moral or political. That just complicates things. Daily life is full of fallacies. You don't need to go much farther than the kitchen to find decisions based upon faulty logic.

Example: I cannot find a pin in my apartment. therefore, there are no pins in my apartment. What's wrong with this argument?

The internet is full of examples of humorous deductive fallacies.

[Shroob]

I'm not sure if this counts as critical thinking but a friend of mine once told me about a litttle activity that the students enjoyed.

You're driving home in terrible weather, it's very cold and raining heavily when you see three people waiting at a bus stop. An old lady who looks very ill, your best friend who saved your life and your perfect partner. You only have one spare seat in your car. What do you do?

The "correct" answer is that you get out, help the old lady into the car and ask your friend to driver her home while you wait at the bus stop with your perfect partner.

[Sashadroogie]

I'd question the assumption that EFL lessons are in any way suitable for 'critical thinking' skills development.

[relaxtischina]

Thanks for the very useful feedback Miles and Shroob.

[mike w]

Sometimes it's a good idea to step back a little and not dive straight in. For some Chinese students, critical thinking as totally alien to the way they have been schooled.

Try an easier approach first, and gauge their response, reaction, and willingness to question. I started by just trying to get them to think 'outside the box.' Looking at something that is always accepted as 'the norm' and approaching it from a different viewpoint.

The example I have used in the past, is a darkroom. I saw a slogan in a T-shirt once that said 'Darkroom - keep door closed'. We all know why - keep the room dark. But underneath the slogan was the different viewpoint.
It said 'if you leave the door open, the dark will leak out'. From that we went to look at other accepted norms and behaviours from different viewpoints.

Later we went in to the 'challenging' aspect of critical thinking.

[Sinobear]

For the critical thinking portion of your class, I'd suggest using these books:

Bowell & Kemp - Critical Thinking, A Concise Guide
Mal Leicester - Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum
Bassham, Irwin, Nardone, Wallace - Crtitical Thinking - A Student's Introduction

When teaching critical thinking in China, you don't need to avoid sensitive topics (depending on the age/maturity level of your students), what you have to avoid is telling the students why what they've been told to believe is wrong.

[Miles Smiles]

[relaxtischina]

[relaxtischina]

This glossary with some examples might be of some use to anyone else out there who may teach or is interested in the subject of critical thinking:

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html

I enjoyed these examples from another site: http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/funny-logical-fallacies.34362/

A couple get a divorce and negotiate custody of their children in court.
the wife claims "the children are mine. i carried them for nine months and spent hours in labor birthing them! he didnt do anything"
after this the judge asks for the husbands defense and he replies;
"your honor, if you put a dollar in a coke machine and a soda pops out, does the soda belong to you or the machine?"

A guy walks into work with both of his ears bandaged up.
His boss asks, "what happened to you?"
The man replies "I was ironing my clothes when my phone rang and I accidentally answered my iron"
His boss then says "Well, that explains one ear, what about the other one?"
The man says "Well, I had to call the doctor!"

Nothing is better than eternal happiness.
Eating a hamburger is better than nothing.
Therefore, eating a hamburger is better than eternal happiness.

Freedom fighters do not fight freedom ........


Perhaps discussing logical fallacies found in creative writing could also be a useful way to make topics like poetry more interesting for students :

One day we realize that our white lies have become too dark as we wear too many
One day our plans fall apart because we cannot escape with a new white lie
One day we learn to understand that our white lies have not helped our problems at all
One day we choose to stop wearing so many white lies so our real life can come true

[waxwing]

CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) offers a qualification in "Thinking Skills", the second component of which is "Critical Reasoning". You can take a look at some sample exam papers, with mark schemes and examiner reports, on this page:
http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/uppersec/alevel/subject?assdef_id=765

The papers in question are papers 21, 22 and 23 (the 1,2,3 refer to world regions; the question papers are theoretically of the same difficulty).

I guess the language level would be challenging but some of the questions might actually lend themselves to very good English lessons, for example Q1 in Paper 21 talks about an incident of violence in a supermarket and asks you to evaluate the reliability of statements from protagonists and witnesses etc.

Worth a look anyway.

[Gtomas]

I think it all eventually leads to questioning the governments mandate to rule.

They are taught not to think critically for this reason.

I would let the students discover/choose the subject and wheel them in a little if it gets too off limits.

[relaxtischina]