Critical thinking skill development is being questioned by a sociologist in new book that examines the data gathered from students at 24 U.S. colleges and universities.

Richard Arum, a New York University sociologist, is the author of “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.” The book uses testing data, and student surveys collected from 2005 to 2009 from 2,322 students to determine their development of critical thinking skills.

At Cerritos College, most students and faculty agree that critical thinking skills are one of the most important things a college student can develop.

Daniel Guerrero, communications major, said, “I think it’s [critical thinking skills] very important. I think it’s at the wayside right now, because there are too many things that our society is just spoon feeding us.”

Karen Fliss, speech communication professor, thinks critical thinking skills are important and said, “In order to evaluate speeches, in order to be able to evaluate information that is being received, you need to be able to know how to do it.”  

Students and faculty might agree on importance of critical thinking, but what about definition? A potential problem occurs when the structure of information is not defined and differs from professor to professor.

Dennis Falcon, political science professor, said, “I am not one of those, not a detractor, but I am a little skeptical because I don’t think we [professors] all agree on what we mean by critical thinking.

“I think when some people talk about critical thinking, they’re really promoting a particular set of ideas. I think if we were to look at teaching in general, the vast majority of our classrooms are all based on getting our students to learn certain things, which is memorization, it is not critical thinking,” Falcon said.  

The weight of responsibility, while split, does not reside primarily on the shoulders of Cerritos College faculty.

Bryan Reece, dean of academic success and institutional effectiveness, said, “When it comes to learning anything, the student is the number one indicator of success. The amount of time a student spends engaged in the lecture, engaged in the reading and engaged in the assigned materials, that’s the number one factor in whether the student will gain critical thinking skills.”

The environment should reflect the focus of the student and the instructor,  which is educational success. To foster the critical thinking skills, an environment that is conducive to learning and that provides additional support to students that require that extra support place the decision to succeed into the hands of the student.