I remember sitting at my desk in fourth grade dutifully coping my geography text.\u00a0 Perhaps my teacher was a kinestic learner that transferred her learning approach into her classroom teaching or perhaps we were just doing busy work to keep a room full of active ten year olds quiet.\u00a0 Whatever the pedagogy behind her assignment I recall feeling a sense of satisfaction when I turned it in.\u00a0 I liked the tactile approach.\u00a0 It was solid.\u00a0 The information was concrete; it was known, confirmed and not questioned. \u00a0Without realizing the teacher or the author as the authority began to define my approach to learning. He or she was the expert.\u00a0 I looked to them to tell me what I needed to know, clearly something I did not know already.\u00a0 I was the dry sponge that wanted to soak up what was presented.<\/p>\n
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It can be helpful to be a sponge, one that is eager to learn.\u00a0 Certainly it is better than a dry hard crusty sponge that can no longer receive any water because its fibers have lost absorbing capability.\u00a0 Perhaps the key to an effective sponge is keeping it moist often enough so it will indeed accomplish its intended purpose.<\/p>\n
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Reading The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools<\/em> by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder took me back to that classroom.\u00a0 Critical thinking, even critical learning it was not, it was however an elementary beginning.\u00a0 In the many years since a slow evolution has taken place. Where I did not use to question, I now do.\u00a0 Where I sought to align my understanding with what was being presented I now consider perspective and context. Without knowing it I have been growing into a critical thinker, one that embraces the \u201cart of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it.\u201d<\/a> [1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As an adult learner, returning to study in a Doctor of Ministry program, I am embracing what I do not know.\u00a0 Just as one gains strength by doing, learning to question, and exploring\u00a0 concepts from different vantage points gave me strength to stretch my boundaries. Learning to question and not take things at face value is a learning journey for me.<\/p>\n \n Not knowing what exactly I want to focus on in my DMin research, I\u2019ve found Paul and Elder are a perfect read.\u00a0 They reminded me to ask questions because research has a fundamental purpose and goal.[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a> What question do I want to answer?\u00a0 What do I want to improve? What problem needs to be solved?\u00a0 How would I analyze it?\u00a0 What are the possibilities?\u00a0 What is my bias? These are among the essential questions beginning a process of discovery.[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n \n As I read I was surprised to recognize that critical thinking itself could be, dare I say should be <\/em>among my spiritual practices? Without being too dramatic or relying only on assumption I wonder if my desire for clarity and accuracy stopped short because it lacked the wide open spaces of relevance, depth, breadth and significance among the standards of critical thinking?[4]<\/span><\/span><\/a> If I invest in clarity I explore communication: What is being said (or written)? Whom am I addressing? What is my tone of voice?<\/p>\n \n Consider just a few of the intellectual traits mentioned by Paul and Elder: humility vs arrogance, courage vs cowardice, empathy vs narrowmindness, and fairmindedness vs intellectual unfairness.[5]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 This last area is marked by a need to treat all viewpoints alike.\u00a0 It is unfair to another to discount a viewpoint I no longer hold or like.[6]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 Fairness holds me accountable to seek to understand others, rather than want only my interest or perspective to be right.\u00a0 Fairness invites listening.\u00a0 Holding the tension I recognize that at the heart of fairness is a call to love the other.<\/p>\n \n The challenge I face in this short little book is to let these tools become a resource, not only for my research topic but to explore the standards, elements and traits that comprise critical thinking so that I may pass it on to those I lead.\u00a0 Would integrating critical thinking into our spiritual rhythms help to foster hospitality?\u00a0 What if our faith communities experienced learning communities where questions are welcomed, purposes are discovered, and assumptions are recognized because trust has developed?\u00a0 What if we discover that the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:16 may have been encouraging us all when he wrote that we have the mind of Christ?<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n
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