Spinning the Cognitive Wheels
"I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students." - Carl Sagan "Critical Thinking" - these two words are almost ubiquitous in the world of higher learning. I can't recall a single course throughout my meager undergraduate experience that did not spend at least some portion of its curriculum on the fundamental importance of critical thinking. After all, isn't the ability to critically analyze, and contribute to the evolution of any given field, at the heart of higher learning? Unfortunately, as they usually do, such platonic scholarly ideals remain unrealized within the boundaries of real academic culture. Dogmatic teaching, biased interpretation, and simply bad science, are all prevalent, at least within my anecdotal experiences. Yet all these are wrapped and sold to us as critical thinking, careful analysis, and an empirical evaluation of data. How ca...