Promoting the Integration Critical Thinking into Middle School Civics, Government, and Economics

All too often, the teacher presents a slate of unrelated concepts in the form of bits of data. Students invariably attempt to master these floating data usually demonstrated by way of a multiple choice test. Students and teachers engaging in this process of fragmentation are not asked to move beyond the first or second level of Bloom's hierarchy of learning, and consequently, much of the data is lost after it has been assessed. Real learning takes place when connections are made between topics within a subject, and by extension, between subjects in the form of interdisciplinary units of learning. Otherwise, teachers force their students into a sort of balkanization of knowledge. Unless students use it (their thinking), they will lose it (their understanding).

Students in Civics classes must take on the guise of a political scientist, whether it be in the form of college professors, media analysts, civil service workers, campaign managers, or public opinion pollsters. Teachers must make their students aware that Civics, like any academic discipline, is a mode of thinking or system of thought because it is made up of interrelated concepts rather than disconnected pieces of irrelevant information.

The elements of thought and intellectual standards can be applied to Civics in the following way:

People interested in political science (remember, we're thinking like political scientists now)...

have purpose: To understand how government works and what it means to be a good citizen.
ask questions: How do governments work and what are the rights of citizens?
gather data: in the form of public opinion polls, election results, economic trends, historical documents.
offer conclusions and consequences: of human interaction in the form of democracy, freedom, authoritarianism, capitalism and other ideas that stem from human interaction.
must be clear when communicating, relevant when discussing the issues, and fair to all groups involved in the discussion.
Summary: Political scientists want to determine how major institutions work to protect human rights. These institutions include Congress, the Presidency, the Courts, the Media, Businesses, educators, and artists, among others.

In whichever academic discipline you operate, have your students think like practitioners of that discipline. Also give them practical applications of your content field so they see there is relevance to it in the modern global economy.

Using Inspiration Software, I have adopted the idea of a discipline as a system of thought and applied it to Civics. The core idea is at the center consisting of a definition of Civics. The first concentric circle represents concepts that are basic to the topic and that drive the curriculum as it would be taught in the classroom. The teacher would provide instruction that scaffolds these concepts first. Once students have not only mastered the definitions of each concept but also their relationships to each other, then the teacher can move up the hierarchy and introduce more complex and abstract ideas, as represented by the outer pink circle. It must be pointed out, though, that highly complex and abstract reasoning is a developmentally achieved skill. According to the well-known cognitive stage theorist, Jean Piaget, adolescents begin to master abstract thinking around age 14, give or take a few months. Students not yet adept at this more complex level of thinking have the ability to do so, but they may need more time, smaller conceptual chucks, and concrete examples to make the connections. (Check out Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development for more information).

Note that some of the concepts are in both regions of the diagram. Some concepts lie almost outside the second circle, making up a third outer circle of concepts. Knowledge is more fluid than can be captured on a diagram. There are hidden relationships between these concepts that can be brought out in the form of class discussion, formal essays, class projects, and through application of these ideas to current events. Also, not all concepts found in the Civics curriculum could be shown here due to the space constraints of the computer screen or the printed page. But it would be a starting point for students of Civics or of teaching methods to consider.

The Center for Critical Thinking outlines eight intellectual traits that characterize the way people engage in teaching and learning. You can check out these concepts independently to see how each is defined. I will state the trait and its corresponding negative characteristic below:

Positive Trait	Negative Trait
Intellectual Humility	Intellectual Arrogance
Intellectual Courage	Intellectual Cowardice
Intellectual Empathy	Intellectual Close-mindedness
Intellectual Autonomy	Intellectual Conformity
Intellectual Integrity	Intellectual Hypocrisy
Intellectual Perseverance	Intellectual Laziness
Confidence in Reason	Distrust of Reason and Evidence
Intellectual Fair-mindedness	Intellectual Unfairness