Structure the curriculum around the language of reasons in each discipline¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Siegel recommends that in all curriculum areas, education fostering critical thinking should emphasize the nature and role of reasons, the active consideration of alternative theoretical and critical perspectives, and the philosophical issues studied by the philosophy of the relevant discipline that inform the evaluation of reasons. He writes that 'the focus on reasons in history is central to critical history education; the focus on reasons in literature is central to critical literature education,' and hopes his science-education remarks can be generalized to other curriculum areas.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Instructors must attend to what counts as a reason in their own discipline and to the discipline's philosophical underpinnings

Constraints¶

• What counts as a reason, and the language in which reasons are discussed, may differ between curriculum areas such as literature and biology

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate students across the curriculum

Target Learning Goals¶

• evaluating reasons within a discipline
• considering alternative theoretical perspectives

Affordances¶

• Language Of Inquiry As Language Of Reasons

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Weinstein, Mark, Ed.; Oxman-Michelli, Wendy, Ed. (1989). Critical Thinking: Language and Inquiry across the Disciplines. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Institute for Critical Thinking (Upper Montclair, New Jersey, 1988). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED351305