Critical thinking and Jewish education

Re: Critical thinking and Jewish education

Jen Glaser — Fri, 16 Feb 2001 22:00:00 -0700

Thanks Dr. Teller for pointing out the enormous amount of work being
done in critical thinking in the US. While some of this is informed
by psychology, the field also gains much from the field of philosophy -
both theoretically and practically. The philosophical approach to
critical thinking (if I may be so bold as to generalize) offers an
alternate approach to that of the Piagetian (and Kohlbergian) inspired
"moral dilemmas" and cases. The philosophical approach has a stronger
focus on deepening and building on students understanding through
exploration of concepts/meaning and strengthening logical reasoning.
For instance, where the 'moral dilemma' approach might present a situation
and then ask "should I lie to protect my friend?", the philosophical
approach might ask "what is friendship?" and "Is friendship compatible
with lying?". The educational aim here is described as developing
*reasonableness* (where we might describe reasonableness as sound
reasoning+sound or appropriate judgment). This is, I think, vital to
Jewish education.

There was a series of articles addressing critical thinking and
religious education in *Inquiry* - one of the leading critical
thinking journals. The details are below for anyone interested. On a
more general note I'd suggest *Reasonable Children: Moral Education
and moral Learning* by Michael Pritchard and *Teaching for Better
Thinking* by Laurance Splitter and Ann Sharp.

The following articles were all in *Inquiry: Critical thinking across the
disciplines* (specific vol/date follows title).

"Religious Life and Critical Thought: Do They Need Each Other?" by
William Reinsmith (vol.14, no.4, 1995)
"Three Types of Critical Thinking about Religion: A response to
William Reinsmith" by Jack Weinstein (vol.15, no.3, 1996)
"A Brief Response to Jack Weinstein" by William Reinsmith (15/3,
1996)
"Do Religious Life and Critical Thought Need Each Other? A Reply to
Reinsmith" by Richard Carrier (vol.16, no.1, 1996)

Regards,
Jen Glaser
School of Education, Hebrew University

Re: Critical thinking and Jewish education

Dr. teller — Sat, 13 Feb 1999 22:00:00 -0700

There is a great deal of work being done in the United States on Critical
Thinking. There are several yearly conferences and many texts which have
been published. They are generally from the field of cognitive psychology.
Critical thinking is generally introduced in the adolescent years and
deals with ethical dilemmas and case studies.

As religious educators, we must apply the principles of critical thinking
within the framework of our halachick system. There must be an
understanding that the critical mind works within the system. The task of
the educator is to foster critical thinking, yet to provide young people
with a framework so that the process does not get out of hand and lead in
a direction which is not acceptable. Perhaps this is one of the topics for
critical thinking.

Re: Critical thinking and Jewish education

Jack Bieler — Sat, 13 Feb 1999 22:00:00 -0700

While I think that the development of critical thinking is extremely
important in terms of all education, Jewish and otherwise, I do not
approach the concept in the same manner that David Bernstein does. From my
perspective, critical thinking is defined as developing the ability to
analyze, to see differences in emphasis and approach, rather than to find
flaws and inconsistencies.
While analysis does have the potential to be destructive and ultimately to
devalue that which is being analyzed, I believe that one can
simultaneously promote the postulate, "Eilu VaEilu Divrei Elokim Chayim"
and also force students to engage in higher-order thinking. To this end,
whenever I teach anything, I am sure to provide more than one approach to
the issue, i.e., more than one commentary, more than one means for
understanding the commentary, more than one reason for a particular issue,
etc., and then proceed to challenge the students to articulate why each
position developed, what the pros and cons of the relative positions may
be, and even which they personally prefer and why.
The latter demand is designed to attempt to have students endow what they
are learning with personal meaning, rather than treat all ideas and
concepts at arms length. The Shakla VeTarya that results among the
students discussing their various ideas, then combine with the statements
of the Meforshim or Manei D'Amar being considered, allowing the students
to participate in the "Great Conversation" that the enterprise of learning
constitutes.

Jack Bieler
Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington

Critical thinking and Jewish education

David I. Bernstein — Thu, 11 Feb 1999 22:00:00 -0700

I am teaching a course at Midreshet Lindenbaum called "Seminar in Jewish
Education," and would like to deal with the topic of "Critical Thinking in
Jewish Education." I would be very happy to hear what other mechanchim
have to say about teaching critical thinking in a religious Jewish
educational setting.

Most of us probably agree that we want our children and students to be
able to read and think critically. (I myself especially like to sit with
my children and show them how advertisements/commercials attempt to
manipulate the consumer, in an attempt to make them critical consumers,
and to be wary of the Western consumer culture.)

Does training our students to be critical readers/thinkers pose a problem
for us as Jewish religious educators? How critical of our texts do we
want our students to be? Most of us probably want them to read
Chumash/Talmud critically enough to see the problems in the text, and to
then try to work through the mefarshim. But how far do we want their
critical facilities to go in limmudei kodesh? What if it leads to their
feeling "manipulated" by our texts, rituals, etc.?

What is the role of age in all of this?

I welcome your communications.

David I. Bernstein, Ph.D.
Dean, Machon Pardes