Teaching Critical Teaching Critical Thinking: AbstractingThinking: Abstracting

Teaching Critical Teaching Critical Thinking: AbstractingThinking: Abstracting

Dr. Eddie BaumannDr. Eddie Baumann

““The truth is more important than The truth is more important than facts”facts”

Abstracting skills• Moby Dick

– Man striving against God

• Go to movie– Discuss the rotten themes

• Abstracting from a whale story

Steps in Skill Building1. Construct a model of the skill

• How do experts do the skill– E.g. look at good basketball shooters

2. Shaping of the skill (guided practice)• Critic while they are doing it

3. Internalize the skill (independent practice)

• practice on their own – do lots of reps

Thinking is progressive. Work through the process

Abstracting – id & articulate the

underlying theme or general pattern of info

• What is important here?– Main ideas

• How can I say the same thing in a more general way?

– Replace words referring to specific things with words referring to more general things.

– Summarize information whenever possible• Use it outside of the context given

• What else has the same pattern

E.g. 4 main ideas from article.

Specific/Literal General/AbstractC.L. Sholes invented a keyboard, QWERTY, that would slow down typists, thus solving the problem of keys sticking.

Keyboard improvementSomeone invented/created to address an issue/problem.

Improving keyboard (slow typists down so keys don’t jam)Typewriter keys stopped sticking.

The cure was worse than the problem in the long term.The issue/problem went away.

Another keyboarding was invented that was shown to be superior to QWERTY. Slow not valuable anymore-Dvorak developed better system in 1930.

Something else was invented that was shown to be superior to the original invention.

QWERTY is still used despite the fact that keys no longer stick and another keyboard configuration was shown to be better.

We stick to the ways of past even though not best.

The Process

Literal LiteralAbstract

E.g. Biblical hermeneutic –

Interpretation learning from the OT

e.g. Love is a rose• Characteristics of roses

– Beautiful, smelly, must be tended, thorny, delicate

– As it unfolds you see more.– Fragrance lasts even after it dies.

– Proverbs – “Guard your heart, it is wellspring of life”

• This is a metaphor of love

Teacher vs. student directed activities

• Model the process. Teacher-directed activities allow students to imitate the process of the teacher using accepted categories

• Student directed allow for students to make the process their own.