Schools, Businesses Focus on Critical Thinking By Marisa Taylor September 12, 2010 While the ability to think critically is, well, critical in the workplace, employers have long complained that many of the young college graduates they hire seem to lack this skill. Now, universities are trying to fix the problem before their grads ever meet a recruiter. When asked which skills new college graduates needed to improve most, more than half of the respondents to the question on The Wall Street Journal’s survey of 479 college recruiters named some combination of critical thinking, problem solving skills, and the ability to think independently. These results echo what the Business Roundtable, a network of company chief executives, found in a 2009 survey of 600 employers. Despite the recession and high jobless rate, 61% of respondents said it was difficult to find qualified employees. Susan Traiman, the Roundtable’s director of public policy, says the skills companies felt were most lacking were work ethic, communication skills, and analytic skills. “We heard this over and over again,” she said. Sara Holoubek, chief executive of Luminary Labs, a boutique consulting firm in New York, says the recent graduate analysts she hires, though “extremely smart,” can’t seem to turn their isolated observations about a client’s business into a strategy—despite the fact that they are often better observers than their superiors. This inability to assert an opinion holds young employees back in client presentations, she adds. George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences is one of the schools addressing the problem. Its new core curriculum will focus on developing reasoning and critical thinking. Beginning in 2011, for example, freshmen will no longer simply complete a science class and get credit for a required course. They’ll have to prove proficiency in scientific reasoning to pass. To measure that, professors are designing evaluation standards and assignments to test students on their reasoning skills. Other schools are reformatting classes to shorten lectures and include peer teaching. Harvard University physics professor Eric Mazur first pushed the concept in the 1990s when he began using a short lecture that ends with a problem that students discuss with peers, instead of spending an hour lecturing. The student-to-student aspect helps cement understanding of the concepts, say experts. The model has been adopted in other science and math courses at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California at San Francisco, among others. Similarly, in the last few years, the National Center for Academic Transformation has led the redesign of large lecture courses at dozens of colleges to ramp up the time students spend working on problems in small groups or in guided learning labs. Villanova University’s School of Business is taking another approach, recently combining its introductory accounting and f.

1. Schools, Businesses Focus on Critical Thinking
By Marisa Taylor
September 12, 2010
While the ability to think critically is, well, critical in the
workplace, employers have long complained that many of the
young college graduates they hire seem to lack this skill. Now,
universities are trying to fix the problem before their grads ever
meet a recruiter.
When asked which skills new college graduates needed to
improve most, more than half of the respondents to the question
on The Wall Street Journal’s survey of 479 college recruiters
named some combination of critical thinking, problem solving
skills, and the ability to think independently.
These results echo what the Business Roundtable, a network of
company chief executives, found in a 2009 survey of 600
employers. Despite the recession and high jobless rate, 61% of
respondents said it was difficult to find qualified employees.
Susan Traiman, the Roundtable’s director of public policy, says
the skills companies felt were most lacking were work ethic,
communication skills, and analytic skills. “We heard this over
and over again,” she said.
Sara Holoubek, chief executive of Luminary Labs, a boutique
consulting firm in New York, says the recent graduate analysts
she hires, though “extremely smart,” can’t seem to turn their
isolated observations about a client’s business into a strategy—
despite the fact that they are often better observers than their
superiors.
This inability to assert an opinion holds young employees back
in client presentations, she adds.
George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and
Sciences is one of the schools addressing the problem. Its new
core curriculum will focus on developing reasoning and critical
thinking. Beginning in 2011, for example, freshmen will no
longer simply complete a science class and get credit for a

2. required course. They’ll have to prove proficiency in scientific
reasoning to pass.
To measure that, professors are designing evaluation standards
and assignments to test students on their reasoning skills.
Other schools are reformatting classes to shorten lectures and
include peer teaching. Harvard University physics professor
Eric Mazur first pushed the concept in the 1990s when he began
using a short lecture that ends with a problem that students
discuss with peers, instead of spending an hour lecturing. The
student-to-student aspect helps cement understanding of the
concepts, say experts.
The model has been adopted in other science and math courses
at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the
University of California at San Francisco, among others.
Similarly, in the last few years, the National Center for
Academic Transformation has led the redesign of large lecture
courses at dozens of colleges to ramp up the time students spend
working on problems in small groups or in guided learning labs.
Villanova University’s School of Business is taking another
approach, recently combining its introductory accounting and
finance courses and its introductory management and marketing
courses to form co-taught, cross-disciplinary classes more
aligned with what students will encounter on the job.
The idea, says marketing professor James Glasgow, who co-
teaches the marketing and management course for sophomores,
is to “take the concept… and then [show] the application of that
knowledge so the student comes up with a better
understanding.”
Meanwhile, many employers say they are trying to help new
hires develop these skills. Ms. Holoubek, for example, recently
signed up an employee for external training. Other companies
make it a point for managers to spend extra time developing
independent and critical thinking skills in their new hires.
The Business Roundtable has launched the Springboard Project
to find ways to bridge the gaps. Chaired by Accenture PLC
Chairman and Chief Executive William D. Green, the group’s

3. latest effort is a free online video series called JobSTART101,
which aims to teach what Mr. Green dubs the “dot-connecting
skills.” Subjects include how to articulate a point of view.
“We need to raise the water table by improving the analytical
skills, the critical thinking skills, the communication skills that
are necessary for really almost every job in today’s economy,”
said Mr. Green. The videos will be released in the fall to
college career centers and social networking sites.
Whether today’s young graduates are less able to think critically
than their forbears, or if it’s that the current pace of the
workplace requires more independent thinking than it did in the
past, is up for debate. Some experts speculate that online search
engines and peer-generated information from social-networking
sites have dulled young people’s research skills.
Todd Davis, executive director of recruitment at Burbank,
Calif.-based Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. says he sees
increasing numbers of his recent college graduate hires relying
on such sources when creating strategies.
That means many don’t understand the reasons why a strategy
might—or might not—work. Many take search engine results as
fact, he says.
“We have individuals who are making assumptions without
doing any significant research,” says Mr. Davis, who oversees
hiring of more than a thousand employees a year. “They think
they understand what they’re saying… but they don’t have an
understanding of why.”
Multiple Choice Question
According to the article, recruiters and employers complained
that recent college graduates are often lacking which of the
following qualities?
· submissiveness
· respect for authority
· problem solving skills
· writing skills
How have universities been making changes to increase their
students’ critical thinking skills? Give at least one example

4. from the article?
According to Warner Brothers recruiting director Todd Davis,
how have online search engines possibly dulled young people’s
research skills?
· Many people take search engine results as fact and form
assumptions without doing more extensive research.
· Many people don’t understand how to use appropriate search
terms to get the information they need.
· Many people don’t exhibit enough curiosity to bother going
online to look up things they don’t know.
· Many people tend to accept claims from their superiors at face
value rather than investigating them online. Notes on Critical
Thinking
1 Thinking / Page 1.6 The Best Possible
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Possible
If a perfect argument were available, there wouldn’t be a need
for critical thinking. We tend to get intentional and rigorous
about our thinking when situations are complex, when the way
forward is not obvious and the evidence is shaky. Critical
thinking is most helpful with important issues that require us to
investigate facts, weigh evidence, and reach the best conclusion
we can.Best vs. Perfect
Not all questions have one definitive, correct answer. Certainty
is possible in math and sometimes in science. But for many
scientific claims and most of life’s questions, we’re comparing
various arguments to find the most probable conclusion. The
further we go into the humanities (questions of human nature,
society, history, politics, ethics, and metaphysics), the more we
need the skills of critical thinking.
Consider your job. How many judgment calls do you make in a
day? How many problems do you have to solve? How often do
you need to communicate effectively with supervisors,
coworkers, and customers? For most of us, each day requires
dozens of decisions, judgment calls, and discussions to arrive at
the best possible solution—not the one perfect solution.Having

5. Better Opinions
Everyone has beliefs and opinions. Does it make sense to view
some beliefs as better than others? Are some opinions more
reasonable than others?
Critical thinkers evaluate beliefs and opinions on the basis of
truth and reason. Take a given belief such as, “The tallest
building in New York is the Empire State Building,” or
something fuzzier like, “Cats are good pets.” Are these claims
reasonable? Are there facts we can check? Can the people
making the claims offer reasons for why they believe these
things? The more certain the facts are and the more support they
have, the better substantiated the opinion is. By this token,
some opinions certainly are better than others.
It is a bit counterintuitive, but listening to people who think
differently than you is one way to strengthen the quality of your
opinion on an issue. First, it’s really helpful to know the
common criticisms of your perspective. Second, you might learn
some key bit of information that, once known, will lead you to a
new conclusion. Third, listening to people who disagree with
you will push you to find stronger reasons for believing what
you do.
One word of warning: you’re not perfect. Nobody is. So once
you start reflecting on what you believe and why, you’re likely
to find some problems. When you do, dig in. Check your facts.
Seek out experts. Perform experiments. Run “what if” scenarios.
Have open-minded discussions with people you like and respect.
The end result of such efforts will be a better, truer
understanding of the issue at hand.Having Good Discussions
· In everyday speech, an argument usually means a heated
disagreement in which the goal is to “win” by dominating the
other person.
· In critical thinking, an argument consists of reasons to believe
a particular conclusion.
· Discussions are about exchanging ideas on an issue and
explaining, in a deliberate way, what you believe and why.
· Discussions should involve listening, learning, supporting

6. your beliefs with evidence, asking questions, responding to
others’ points, and trying to deepen your understanding.
· These kinds of exchanges will help you strengthen your own
thinking and clarify the nuances of your position.
In the end, critical thinking isn’t just about asking what’s true;
it’s about asking why you believe what you do. When you ask
yourself why you believe this or that, you’re engaging in
critical thinking. Test the facts you can. Listen to opposing
viewpoints with an ear open for truth. Substantiate your beliefs
by knowing why you hold a particular opinion. Be prepared to
defend your position on controversial issues. Every time you
pursue these goals, you’re thinking critically.
Which of the following questions is MOST likely to have a
single, definitive answer?
· How much did Uncle Tom’s Cabin influence antebellum views
on slavery?
· What’s the best and quickest way for an economy to get out of
a recession?
· What combination of atoms makes up a molecule of baking
soda?
· To what extent should parents’ religious beliefs be allowed to
override the rules of a public school system?
·
·
· Short Answer Question
· Why is it beneficial to listen to people with opposing
viewpoints on issues you feel passionately about?
Describe a time when you had a productive discussion with
someone that compelled you to alter your opinion about an
issue, and explain why you changed your point of view?
Notes on Critical Thinking
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Practice: The Best Possible
“Okay... You’re Right”
If you’re arguing with a friend about whether New Hampshire

7. or Vermont has the nickname “the Green Mountain State” and
then outside sources confirm that you were correct, there’s
nothing like the smugly satisfying feeling of being able to say,
“I told you it was Vermont.” But when the tables are turned and
you’ve been proven wrong, admitting defeat is usually much
less pleasant. This reluctance to concede becomes much more
problematic when the debate isn’t over a simple empirical fact,
but over a complex, multifaceted issue on which both parties
might have both good points in some areas and flawed thinking
in others.
Massimo Pigliucci is a philosopher and professor at the City
University of New York and the creator of the blog Rationally
Speaking. In the blog post below, “How to Want to Change
Your Mind,” he explains why a willingness to concede is such a
valuable skill and offers advice on how to make this unpleasant
practice easier to do.
Poll Question
How easy do you find it to admit you’re wrong in an argument?
Top of Form
· Very easy
· Easy
· Difficult
· Very difficult
· Impossible
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Short Answer Question
How does the writer differentiate between being “actually right
as much as possible” and “being right in a particular
disagreement”?
No response saved yet.
Multiple Choice Question
Why does the author advise that you view things you believe as
“a belief” rather than “your belief”?

8. · It reminds you that you were not the first person to formulate
this viewpoint and it does not belong to you alone.
· It makes the belief less personal and enables you to examine it
more objectively.
· It allows you to have multiple beliefs about a single subject.
· It helps you develop a more personal attachment to your
beliefs so that you will be more defensive when they are
attacked.
Multiple Choice Question
Nikita and Desmond are debating whether high school students
should be allowed to use cell phones in school. Desmond says
they shouldn’t; Nikita secretly agrees with him for the most
part, but she argues from the opposing side just to keep the
debate lively. Why would the author have a problem with
Nikita’s behavior?
· It’s dishonest and unethical for Nikita to deceive her friend
about what her true beliefs are.
· The practice of playing devil’s advocate turns the discussion
into a competition instead of a collaboration.
· Nikita’s argument probably won’t be as strong or rational if
she is arguing against what she truly believes.
· Nikita will probably lose the argument, and then she’ll feel
disappointed or ashamed.
Multiple Choice Question
What does the author recommend doing if you have a
competitive streak that you can’t get rid of when you argue,
even when you’re being proven wrong?
· Do more research in advance so you can enter every argument
with all the answers prepared.
· Imagine winning your next argument with the improved
knowledge you’ve acquired.
· Subtly divert the topic of the argument to a different issue that
you’re positive you’re right about.
· Use the time while your opponent is talking to brainstorm
clever responses.
· Response Board Question

9. Top of Form
Give an example of a disagreement where neither party sees eye
to eye, but at the same time it’s hard to empirically prove one
side or the other wrong.
Bottom of Form