Teaching Critical Thinking: A Framework for Graduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

This paper argues that Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are uniquely positioned to model a learner-centred approach to critical thinking, mentoring undergraduates in the intellectual, emotional, and social skills necessary to develop as independent learners. Adapting Jenny Moon’s pedagogical model (2005), the paper adopts a whole-person approach, taking the view that critical thinking is not limited to intellectual skills of analysis, logic, argument, and presentation. It also encompasses the emotional and social attributes required to learn with and from others. Moon combines all of these approaches in a framework which defines critical thinking as; 1) working with complex ideas, 2) offering evidence, 3) demonstrating understanding of how knowledge is constructed, 4) situating that knowledge in context, 5) representing the thinking process and conclusions with clarity and precision and, 6) demonstrating self-reflexivity.

In my experience, critical thinking is rarely taught as a set of competencies that sit alongside, but separate from, subject knowledge. This paper focuses on developing these skills in classroom-based settings, adapting Moon’s (2005) approach to create an inter-disciplinary framework, linking lesson planning to learning outcomes. These learning outcomes build on students’ unique life experiences, encouraging experimentation, building self-confidence, self-reflexivity, awareness of broader social contexts, and the social implications of knowledge. In academic settings (and wider society) where so much cultural capital is invested in performative self-confidence as well as examined “knowledge”, this paper argues that, paradoxically, critical thinking skills are best acquired in settings where undergraduates can learn to enjoy the risk of uncertainty, experimentation, and the accompanying vulnerability this requires. This liminal space which GTAs are all too familiar with, ideally positions GTAs to mentor undergraduates through this developmental process.