Tim Moore

The critical thinking debate: how general are general thinking skills?

This paper takes up the issue of whether the skill of critical thinking in university education is best thought of as a broad universal generic skill or rather as only a loose category taking in a variety of modes of thought. Through the linguistic analysis of some sample texts, I argue that the discourse of general thinking programs should not be thought of as a generalist discourse at all, but in fact a quite specific one. The implications both for the teaching and testing of critical thinking are considered in the light of this position.This paper takes up the issue of whether the skill of critical thinking in university education is best thought of as a broad universal generic skill or rather as only a loose category taking in a variety of modes of thought. Through the linguistic analysis of some sample texts, I argue that the discourse of general thinking programs should not be thought of as a generalist discourse at all, but in fact a quite specific one. The implications both for the teaching and testing of critical thinking are considered in the light of this position.

Critical thinking: seven definitions in search of a concept

The article reports a study that investigated ideas about critical thinking as held by academics working in three disciplines: history, philosophy and cultural studies. At least seven definitional strands were identified in the informants’ commentaries, namely critical thinking: (i) as judgement; (ii) as skepticism; (iii) as a simple originality; (iv) as sensitive readings; (v) as rationality; (vi) as an activist engagement with knowledge; and (vii) as self-reflexivity. This multiplicity of meanings is thought to have important implications for university teaching and learning. The design of the study and the conclusions drawn from it draw heavily on Wittgensteins idea of meaning as use.

Critical thinking and disciplinary thinking: a continuing debate

I report a study that investigated ideas about critical thinking across three disciplines: Philosophy, History and Literary Studies. The findings point to a diversity of understandings and practices, ones that suggest the limitations of a more generic approach. I argue that a more useful conception of critical thinking is as a form of ‘metacritique’ – where the essential quality to be encouraged in students is a flexibility of thought and the ability to negotiate a range of different critical modes.

Knowledge and agency: a study of ‘metaphenomenal discourse’ in textbooks from three disciplines

Abstract This paper investigates variation in knowledge construction in three disciplines—sociology, economics and physics—by drawing on Hallidays notion of “metaphenomenon”. Specifically, the study analysed the frequency and type of agentive elements (participants and processes) in textbooks to find out the extent to which knowledge in these disciplines is attributed to individual scholars, schools of thought, conventional wisdoms and the like, as opposed to being realised in a non-attributed canonical form. The findings suggest that with respect to the feature of metaphenomenon, economics textbook discourse is arguably more akin to that of physics than its social science counterpart, sociology. The implications of the findings—both pedagogical and ideological—are discussed.

The myth of job readiness? Written communication, employability, and the ‘skills gap’ in higher education

Recent developments in higher education have seen a strong emphasis placed on making graduates ‘job ready’ for their work in the professions. A driver of this agenda has been the many mass-scale surveys conducted with business and industry about the abilities and general employability of graduates. This Australian-based study is focused on perceptions and attitudes around one such ability – professional writing skills. ‘Discourse-based interviews were conducted with managers and supervisors from a range of professional areas. Their responses were most interesting, and served, among other things, to challenge some of the emerging ideas about ‘job readiness’ in current debates about the directions of higher education.

Transforming learning support: an online resource centre for a diverse student population

The diverse student population at large multi-campus universities requires English language and academic skills support which is targeted to their needs and easily accessible. The Online Student Resource Centre website, developed at Monash University, provides opportunities for students, no matter where they are, to make contact with staff and to access information, but more significantly offers a suite of stand-alone tutorials and downloadable resources, using NetObjects Fusion as the platform. These derive from some 100 print booklets covering academic writing, reading, listening, speaking, grammar and study skills/exam strategies. This paper outlines the process and philosophy of development of these tutorials, based on a constructivist framework, with guided and self-directed learning paths designed to accommodate a range of learning styles. Two tutorials are analysed to highlight some of the pedagogical challenges in translating print resources for the online environment. The paper concludes by reporting on a pilot evaluation of the two tutorials. Transformation d’un support d’enseignement: un centre de ressources en ligne pour une population variée d’étudiants. Les populations trés variées d’étudiants dans les grand campus multiples de certaines universités exigent une langue anglaise et des compétences académiques adaptés À leurs besoins et facilement accessible. Le centre de ressources en ligne pour les étudiants grÂce au site web, mis au point À Monash University fournit aux étudiants, où qu’ils soient, des occasions de contacts avec les enseignants et d’accès À l’information, mais de facon plus significative, offre une série d’actions de tuteurs alors que les étudiants sont seuls et de ressources que l’on peut télécharger utilisant la fusion d’objet du Net comme platforme. Ceux ci sont extraits d’une centaine de livrets imprimés concernant l’écriture, la lecture, l’écoute, la parole, la grammaire et les compétences pour les études et les stratégies des examens. L’article donne les grandes lignes et la philosophie du développement de ces exercices de tutorat, basés sur un cadre constructiviste comportant des cheminements d’apprentissage guidés et dirigés par les étudiants pour faire face À toute une série de styles d’apprentissages. On analyse 2 exercices de tutorat pour mettre en valeur certaines challenges pédagogiques en traduisant des ressources imprimés pour un environnement on ligne. L’article se termine par le rapport d’une évaluation pilote de ces 2 exercices. Veränderte Lernhilfen: Ein Online Resource Centre für unterschiedliche Studentengruppen. Unterschiedliche Studentengruppen an grossen Campus Universitäten benötigen Unterstützung in der englischen Sprache und bei der Verbesserung der akademischen Fähigkeiten, die auf ihre Bedürfnisse zugeschnitten und einfach zugänglich ist. Das Online Student Resource Centre, das auf der Webseite von der Monash Universität entwickelt wurde, bietet den Studenten Gelegenheit, unabhängig von ihrem Wohnort, sich mit den Lehrern in Verbindung zu setzen und Informationen abzurufen, aber darüber hinaus bietet es ein Forum für Tutorials and kopierfähiges Informationsmaterial unter Anwendung von NetObjects Fusion als Plattform. Dieses Unterstützungsmaterial stammt von 100 gedruckten Büchern über die Disziplinen, wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Lesen, Hören, Sprechen, Grammatik und Lernfähigkeiten /Prüfungsstrategien. Dieser Artikel beschreibt den Prozess und die Philosophie, die der Entwicklung dieser Tutorials zugrunde liegen und auf einem ausbaufähigen System basieren und mit vorgegebenen und selbst bestimmten Lernpfaden so angelegt sind, dass sie mehrere Lernstile berücksichtigen. Zwei Tutorials werden analysiert um an ihnen einige der pädagogischen Herausforderungen zu verdeutlichen, die bei der übertragung von gedrucktem Material in das online Lernfeld entstehen. Der Artikel endet mit einem Bericht über die Pilot Evaluierung dieser beiden Tutorials.

Rhetoric and realities: on the development of university-wide strategies to promote student English language growth

This article describes the results from a national project that investigated institutional approaches to the development of student English language capabilities in Australian higher education. The project aimed to identify the various approaches and strategies that higher education providers have established and to gauge whether they have been evaluated by those in the field as successful in attaining their objectives. The results of the study indicated that those institutions identified as successful had a number of elements in common, elements missing from those universities which were considered as less effective. The article concludes by identifying the key factors that were identified by project participants as being essential in the development of successful institution-wide strategies for promoting student language growth.

The ‘Processes’ of Learning On the use of Halliday’s transitivity in academic skills advising

Of the different uses of discourse analysis, one of the more significant is the way it can be used to introduce students to the culture and literary practices of the disciplines. This article describes how one type of analysis - Halliday’s transitivity - has been used in an academic advising context to assist students struggling to write effectively in a range of discipline areas: history, visual art and sociology. Analysis of this kind, it is argued, has the potential not only to clarify to students the immediate requirements of the academic tasks they have to complete, but also to help them understand some of the broader epistemological issues that may be at stake.

A Testing Issue: Key skills assessment in Australia

Maintenance of academic standards, assessment and monitoring are key tasks for tertiary education, as the system attempts to meet government targets for universal participation. Tertiary education therefore demands more attention to the measurement of outcomes. However, the use of a graduate skills assessment test, we contend--particularly in the form this currently takes in Australia--implies a limited sense of the value added by a university education. We question the validity of national testing both on grounds of its suitability to assess the skills cultivated by university study and on grounds of equity and cultural inclusiveness.

On the Teaching of Critical Thinking in English for Academic Purposes

The teaching of critical thinking is seen as a key component of many English for Academic Purposes programmes. There is a degree of uncertainty and confusion, however, first about how critical thinking is best understood, and then how our conceptualizations of it might translate into coherent programmes for students. The chapter identifies three distinct strands of thinking about critical thinking in the literature: a skills approach, an ethics approach, and a “language of evaluation” approach. A critical discussion of these approaches is provided, alongside some recent empirical research into critical practices across a range of discipline areas. It is suggested that the framing of critical thinking curricula needs to be guided by a number of broad principles arising from this research, namely: that critical thinking typically takes in a variety of discursive practices; that the types of critical judgements students need to make are subject to a good deal of variation; that the quality of these critical judgements is strongly related to the degree of knowledge students have of the entities they need to consider. The chapter concludes with some practical advice about how these principles might be given effect in the design of English for Academic Purposes programmes, both in pre-sessional and concurrent contexts.