Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines

Volume 26, Issue 3, Fall 2011

Ben Hamby
Pages 47-53

Eating Flowers, Holding Hands
Should Critical Thinking Pedagogy ‘Go Wild’?

This paper is inspired by Anthony Weston’s “What if Teaching Went Wild?” (2004), in which he proposes a radical approach to environmental education, suggesting among other things a stress on “otherness.” Comparing Weston’s proposal to Richard Paul’s (1992) concept of the “strong sense” critical thinker, and to Trudy Govier’s (2010) rationale for her pedagogy of argument, I suggest that “going wild” in stand-alone critical thinking courses could provide a positive, unsettling push, helping students to reconnect through the otherness of alternative argumentation.