Project Title

Developing students’ critical thinking skills and critical dispositions through engagement in causal argumentation



Overview

As schoolchildren go through school, their epistemological understanding typically evolves in stages which have been referred to as realist, absolutist, multiplist (or relativist), and evaluativist. Unfortunately, many students, especially teenagers, get mired in the multiplist stage where they view knowledge as consisting not of facts but of freely chosen opinions that are not open to challenge (Kuhn, 2005). Consequently, schoolteachers face an uphill task helping their students to develop critical thinking dispositions predicated on an understanding that reliable human knowledge is constructed on the basis of considered judgments requiring support in a framework comprising justifications, alternatives, evidence, and argument. Like their counterparts worldwide, Singapore teachers face the same kind of challenge. With a view to helping our teachers rise to this challenge and assisting them to instill critical thinking dispositions and independent thinking skills needed in the 21st century, we propose to use a structured argumentation board to help students evolve their epistemological understanding and develop their argumentation skills. We propose to do this in the context of everyday causal reasoning (Kuhn, 1991). In line with the theme of new literacies, we seek that students (i) become aware that all knowledge claims arise through social dialogue and construction, (ii) understand that such claims need to be supported by evidence, and (iii) develop a sense of personal identity through engagement in the learning process.
 
This project will augment the current collaboration with teachers in S7 cluster where the research focus is on argumentation for problem solving.

Project Reference

LSL 10/05 CYS