Objectifying the critical thinker

Critical thinking is a skill that is drilled into the brains of college students day after day. This is the one skill that is supposed to carry us through our careers and even our lives. But strangely when a teacher assigns a critical thinking assignment it is returned with a grade on top of it. To me, this would seem a bit strange considering that the essence of critical thinking is your subjective interpretation of the work you are being asked to read and examine.

Critical thinking is defined as the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.


So as the astute critical thinker that I am, I wonder how can a teacher read a subjective work and try to objectively grade your opinion. Isn't that a contradiction? I believe that it is. Now I completely understand that the reasoning you turn in to your teacher must be sound and coherent and have the facts from the work you are reading or you will fail. That is obviously not the type of grading I am addressing.

The Foundation for Critical Thinking is a community that is attempting to revolutionize the classroom by changing the way concepts and ideas are being taught. 

Their definition of critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. They enforce the substantive method to critical thinking which in turn leads to improving your thinking through critical writing. There are five core dimensions defined in their study in order to become a critical thinker and writer.

The analysis of thought
The assessment of thought
The dispositions of thought
The skills and abilities of thought
The obstacles or barriers to critical thought

If a student uses this process correctly and efficiently then how would a teacher be able to grade their work? The role of grading needs to be reconsidered in our university system. It shouldn't be a matter of how much you can cram into your brain, but rather how critically you can understand and critique the ideas presented to you and then put those thoughts down on paper. Critical writing should be the grading scale, not objective memorization.

****DISCLAIMER:This post was in no way directed at our opinion journalism class. I understand the premise of the class is to grade delivery, not content.****