1. A MOVE FROM CRITICAL THINKING TOWARDS CRITICAL PRACTICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A REVIEW OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS
Author: Hesaam Kashi
Deakin University (AUSTRALIA)

2. Content Introduction Literature Answer to the Existing Gap:
Defining Critical Thinking and the Emerging Themes
Transfer and Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills
Answer to the Existing Gap:
A Change of Perspective in Critical Thinking Research
Critical Thinking and the Social-Cultural Context of Iran
Critical Practice & Recommendation for Further Research

3. Introduction
Critical Thinking (CT) has been mostly viewed as a set of cognitive skills in the literature.
A cognitive perspective of CT argues whether it is:
a) Teachable:
whether those skills can be taught to our students
b) Testable:
whether there are assessment techniques to measure CT
When a socio-constructivist perspective is adopted, by considering studies of scholars such as:
Kaplan (1966, 1976, 1986)/ Atkinson (1997)
Paton (2005, 2015)/ Crago (1992)
CT and socio-cultural factors become very much interrelated.

4. Literature Review Philosophy Defining CT and the Emerging Themes:
CT has been defined through the following perspectives:
Philosophy
Rooted in the teachings of Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle, focusing on skills such as: Interpretation, Evaluation, & Argumentation
Encourages ideas such as:
‘perfection of thought’ and ‘ideal critical thinker’
with the ability of:
‘reflective skepticism’, ‘reasonable thinking’, &
‘self-regulatory judgment’.
However issues such as thinking and judgment could be open to interpretation and subjective according to different socio-cultural contexts.

5. Psychology Truth seeking Open-mindedness Analyticity Inquisitiveness
Form this perspective, the cognitive aspects are mostly focused on. These aspects are mainly defined as a set of personal disposition skills such as:
Truth seeking
Open-mindedness
Analyticity
Inquisitiveness
Systematicity
Judiciousness
Facione (2011) strongly supports the necessity of personal dispositions if one wishes to address scientific issues, questions, and problems.
Criticism by Lai (2011) and Bailin (2002) points to its reductionist approach and believe it to be only descriptive in nature.

6. Education
This perspective borrows ideas from Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
This taxonomy focuses on six levels of students’ intellectual behaviour, on which the classroom activities and design of the curricula should be based:
Simple = Knowledge/ Comprehension/ Application
Complex = Analysis/ Synthesis/ Evaluation

7. Teaching and Assessing CT Skills:
Approaches to Teaching CT
Instructional Strategies to Teaching CT
Influential Elements in Teaching CT
Domain-Specific Approaches
General (No Subject Matter)
Distance of Transfer
Infusion (Explicit CT Teaching)
Duration of Transfer
General-Course Approaches
Immersion (Implicit CT Teaching)
Mix of Immersion & Infusion

8. Either through domain-specific or general approaches to teaching CT, the following are the main assessment tools for measuring CT:
California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory
Cornell Critical Thinking Tests
Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal
Issues with any CT assessment tool:
Internal Validity
Limited if only domain-specific approaches are used
Maturity of students
Transfer of skills from one specific context to another

9. A Change of Perspective
As a result of the limitations of the cognitive approach to understanding CT, a socio-cultural perspective can be adopted to understand the educational aspect of CT.
Applying this change, and considering the works of scholars like Freire (1985), Giroux (1992), and Resnick (1987), the role of the educational system and its accepted and adopted philosophical orientation becomes, if not the only, but one of the most prominent criteria in understanding thinking.
As mentioned in Canagarajah (2002), when a socially-grounded and context- bound approach is applied to our research on critical thinking, we are inherently talking about Critical Practice (CP).

10. Critical Practice in the Social Context of Iran
Issues to be considered:
Religion
Literature
Educational System
Religion:
After 1979 Islamic Revolution:
A change in the political philosophy of the country
Suppression of Ideas and criticisms
Theocratic and Authoritarian Approach

11. Literature:
Long influences from prominent literary figures have influenced the literary teachings:
Ferdowsi (10th Century AD): Importance of empowerment through knowledge
Naser Khosrow (11th Century AD): Importance of liberation through knowledge
Sa’adi (13th Century AD): Importance of modesty, respecting the higher rank, and avoidance of criticism
Rumi (13th Century): Importance of gaining knowledge to push boundaries, and considered thinking with a critical eye to be the path to salvation

12. Educational System:
As the result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the educational system also experienced drastic changes in its philosophy and view of knowledge and education:
Islamicisation of the Educational Organizations
Islamic control and censorship over the content of the textbooks
Islamic approach towards defining new educational goals and designing new curricula and syllabi
Pervasion of Islamic and theocratic thoughts

13. Characteristics of Iran’s Educational System
Traditional Pedagogy
Teacher Dominant
Rote Learning
Inefficiency of the Educational System as the result of Religious, Literary, a Political Influences
Lack of Productivity
Surface-Level
Thinking
Lack of Creativity

14. Suggested Interrelations among Socio-cultural Factors, Educational System, and Thinking
Curricula
Politics
Cultivation of Critical Skills
Imposing the ‘preferred’ educational
Policy
Syllabi
Religion
Instructional Strategies
Assessment Policies
Inhibition of Critical Skills
Literature
Textbooks

15. Conclusion and Recommendations:
Understanding the socio-cultural context of Iran suggests how a nation’s thinking processes can be influenced by factors such as Literature, Politics, Religion, and as a result, the Educational System.
Adoption of socio-cultural perspective will help understand how ‘thinking’, ‘judgement’, and ‘reason’ are cultivated.
A shift of focus on CT research towards CP research to understand the socio-cultural context of our international students’ home country.

16. Thank you Author: Hesaam Kashi Deakin University (AUSTRALIA)