Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

1. TRENDS, NETWORKS,
AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21ST CENTURY

2. UNIT I
21st Century: My New
World, My New Being

3. Chapter 2
How Do I Think of My
Thinking?

4. Lesson 1
Critical Thinking

5. • To discover thinking and critical thinking in
relation to everyday life
• To outline a set of practical tools used to
develop critical thinking skills
• To discover more strategies on how critical
thinking can be applied to everyday tasks in
the real world as well as in accepting and
rejecting trends to get better results
• To discover why critical thinking is an essential
tool to problem-solving and responsible
decision-making
Learning Objectives

7. DIRECTION:
Put a check (√) on each blank if the preceding sentence is
true to you.
1. I think several times before I do something. ______
2. I often assume and it usually works. ______
3. When people relay information to me, I easily believe it.
______
4. I tend to believe what I read. ______
5. I take responsibility for everything I hear and say. ______
6. I verify and look for basis before concluding. ______

8. 7. I answer questions which I do not know. _______
8. I randomly click “Like” in Facebook without any reason.
______
9. I ask questions why I need to do my assigned tasks.
______
10.I just yield to whatever I am asked to do. _____

9. What Critical Thinking Is
According to Dr. Richard Paul, an internationally
recognized authority on critical thinking:
“Critical thinking is that mode of thinking—about any
subject, content, or problem—in which the thinker
improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully
taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and
imposing intellectual standards upon them.”

10. Why Critical Thinking?
Dr. Richard Paul and Linda Elder
The Problem
Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of
our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial,
uninformed, or downright prejudiced. Yet the quality of
our life and that of what we produce, make, or build
depend precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy
thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life.
Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically
cultivated.

11. The Result
A well-cultivated critical thinker:
• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them
clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information, using
abstract ideas to interpret it
• effectively, comes to well-reasoned conclusions and
solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and
standards;
• thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of
thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their
assumptions, implications, and practical
consequences; and
• communicates effectively with others in figuring out
solutions to complex problems.

12. Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-
disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.
It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of
excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails
effective communication and problem-solving abilities
and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism
and socio-centrism.

13. Raising a Question Today
The current state of our society should lead us to critically
ponder if we have done our moral obligation.
When professor and Christian educator Dr. Billy Tusalem
delivered his lecture at the Silliman University, he raised two
vital questions:
1. Were we able to provide an education that is
instructive of the individual’s responsibility to society?
2. Have we provided them an attitude that promotes
societal change?
These two questions require a questioning mind—that which
does not only accept what is but what ought to be.

14. Raising questions was the pedagogy of Socrates.
• Questions were used as a key learning tool.
• Questions also were the most important teaching tool.
• To examine moral concepts, he introduced the
dialectic method of inquiry, a practice which involves
asking a series of questions surrounding a central
issue, and answering questions of the others
involved.
• He led everyone to ask the right questions and
explore, oblivious of bounds.
With the society we have now where anything goes despite
how evil they may be, we really have to raise the right
questions. Having been into the culture of violence, it is
imperative for us to really look into the plight of Filipino
people.

15. Pair and Share
DIRECTION:
• Listen to the song “One Tin Soldier”.
• Look for a partner and sing it with him/her.
• After singing the song, reason together by answering
the questions that follow the song.
• Write your answers in the Pair and Share Answer Sheet
provided in the worktext.
Song Analysis on Genocide

16. One Tin Soldier
(The Legend of Billy Jack)
Words and music by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
Copyright © 1969 by ABC / Dunhill Music, Inc.
Listen children to a story that was written long ago
‘bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.
Refrain
Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowin’ come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after… one tin soldier rides away.

17. So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: “With our brothers we will share
all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.”
(Refrain)
Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword!
And they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
turned the stone and looked beneath it. “Peace on earth” was all it said.
(Refrain)

18. QUESTIONS:
1. What does the song tell us? Does this really happen?
2. How can this happen?
3. What is genocide? What are the forms of genocide?
4. What is the implication of committing genocide?
5. How does this relate to our life now?
6. Why would people adhere to arrogance and greed?
Why would people crave for more? Why would
people kill?
7. Is it true that people never get contented? Why?

19. DIRECTION:
• After reading the article, highlight the unfamiliar words.
• List the words and find their meanings using any
dictionary.
• Then answer the questions given after the article.

20. Many teachers say they strive to teach their students to be
critical thinkers. They even pride themselves on it; after all,
who wants children to just take in knowledge passively?
But there is a problem with this widespread belief. The truth
is that you cannot teach people to be critical unless you are
critical yourself. This involves more than asking young
people to “look critically” at something, as if criticism was a
mechanical task.
As a teacher, you have to have a critical spirit. This does
not mean moaning endlessly about education policies you
dislike or telling students what they should think. It means
first and foremost that you are capable of engaging in deep
Let’s Stop Trying to Teach Students Critical Thinking
Dennis Hayes

21. conversation. This means debate and discussion based on
considerable knowledge—something that is almost entirely
absent in the educational world. It also has to take place in
public, with parents and others who are not teachers, not
just in the classroom or staffroom.
The need for teachers to engage in this kind of deep
conversation has been forgotten, because they think that
being critical is a skill. But the Australian philosopher John
Passmore criticized this idea nearly half a century ago:
If being critical consisted simply in the application of a
skill then it could in principle be taught by teachers who
never engaged in it except as a game or defensive
device, somewhat as a crack rifle shot who happened to
be a pacifist might nevertheless be able to teach rifle-
shooting to soldiers. But in fact being critical can be
taught only by men who can themselves freely partake
in critical discussion.

22. The Misuses of Criticism
The misuse of the idea of “criticism” first became clear to
me when I gave a talk about critical thinking to a large
group of first-year students. One student said that the
lecturers she most disliked were the ones who banged on
about the importance of being critical. She longed for one of
them to assert or say something, so she could learn from
them and perhaps challenge what they say.
The idea that critical thinking is a skill is the first of three
popular but false views that all do disservice to the idea of
being critical. They also allow many teachers to believe they
are critical thinkers when they are the opposite:
1. “Critical thinking is a skill.” No it is not. At best, this view
reduces criticism to second-rate or elementary
instruction in informal and some formal logic. It is

23. usually second-rate logic and poor philosophy offered in
bite-sized nuggets. Seen as a skill, critical thinking can
also mean subjection to the conformism of an
ideological yoke. If a feminist or Marxist teacher
demands a certain perspective be adopted, this may
seem like it is “criticism” or acquiring a “critical
perspective,” but it is actually a training in feminism or
Marxism which could be done through tick box
techniques. It almost acquires the character of a mental
drill.
2. “Critical thinking means indoctrination.” When teachers
talk about the need to be “critical,” they often mean
instead that students must “conform.” It is often actually
teaching students to be “critical” of their unacceptable
ideas and adopt the right ones. Having to support
multiculturalism and diversity is the most common of the

24. “correct ideas” that everyone has to adopt. Professional
programmes in education, nursing, social work, and
others often promote this sort of “criticism.” It used to be
called “indoctrination.”
3. “Critical theories are uncritical theories.” When some
theories have the prefix “critical,” they require the
uncritical acceptance of a certain political perspective.
Critical theory, critical race theory, critical race
philosophy, critical realism, critical reflective practice all
explicitly have political aims.
What Is Criticism?
Criticism, according to Victorian cultural critic Matthew
Arnold, is a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate
the best that is known and thought in the world. We should
all be as “bound” by that definition as he was. We need only

25. to teach the best that is known and thought and “criticism”
will take care of itself. That is a lesson from 150 years ago
that every teacher should learn.
Matthew Arnold knew how to be critical. Critical thinking as
Arnold defined it is more like a character trait—like having
“a critical spirit,” or a willingness to engage in the “give and
take of critical discussion.” Criticism is always about the
world and not about you.
The philosopher most associated with the critical spirit is
Socrates. In the 1930s, another Australian philosopher John
Anderson put the Socratic view of education most clearly
when he wrote: “The Socratic education begins … with the
awakening of the mind to the need for criticism, to the
uncertainty of the principles by which it supposed itself to be
guided.”

26. But when I discuss Socratic criticism with teachers and
teacher trainers, I miss out Anderson’s mention of the word
“uncertainty.” This is because many teachers will assume
that this “uncertainty” means questioning those bad ideas
you have and conforming to an agreed version of events, or
an agreed theory.
Becoming a truly critical thinker is more difficult today
because so many people want to be a Socrates. But
Socrates only sought knowledge and to be a Socrates
today means putting knowledge first.

27. QUESTIONS:
1. How does one possess critical spirit?
2. When does critical thinking become an
indoctrination?

28. Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking
which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a
fair-minded way.
People who think critically consistently attempt to live
rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly
aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking
when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of
their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the
intellectual tools that critical thinking offers—concepts and
principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve
thinking.
Conceptualization of Critical Thinking
Linda Elder

29. People work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of
intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility,
intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and
confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how
skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their
reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to
mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices,
biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and
taboos, self-interest, and vested interest.
They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can
and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the
same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in
doing so. They avoid thinking simplistically about
complicated issues and strive to appropriately consider the
rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the

30. complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit
themselves to lifelong practice toward self-improvement.
They embody the Socratic principle “the unexamined life is
not worth living,” because they realize that many
unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust,
dangerous world.

31. Exercise
DIRECTION:
• Form a team of four members.
• Rephrase each paragraph of the “Conceptualization of
Critical Thinking” by Linda Elder.
• Select a name for your team.
• Present your work in the class.

32. 1. Who am I? What is my connection to the
people and institutions in my community and
the whole world?
2. How do I diligently develop my fair-
mindedness?