Examination dialogue: proposal of a dialectical model for the promotion of critical thinking in classroom.

Abstract

Critical thinking can be defined as a reasonable and reflective kind of thinking about what to do or believe. Its insertion and promotion in schools and universities consists of an ideal supported by philosophers of education since, at least, the beginning of the 20th century. The ideal critical thinker, an archetype designed to represent the individual who ideally thinks critically when it is appropriate and does it well, can be characterized by his abilities and dispositions. A dissonance arises when we contrast the dispositions of what would be the ideal critical thinker and its viability as an educational goal with evidence from empirical studies that suggest tendencies to cognitive biases and other reasoning flaws characteristic of humans when evaluating and arriving at judgments and operating logically. Although, despite such evidence, there are good reasons to consider the development of critical thinking as a achievable and valid goal to to be pursued educationally, the available literature lacks pragmatic models that contribute to the exercise of such dispositions in an environment of classroom. This papper defends the interpretation of a dialectical structure, the examination dialogue, as a valid and effective pedagogical tool in the exercise and development of some dispositions of someone who thinks critically. I will argue that this model supports the acquisition of habits suitable to the environment that favors dialogue and articulation of ideas characteristic of educational contexts that seek critical thinking as one of its paradigms.