A FRAMEWORK OF FOSTERING CRITICAL THINKING IN A MULTICULTURAL, INCLUSIVE CONFUCIAN HERITAGE CLASSROOM

This paper reports our conceptual framework of culturally appropriate critical thinking pedagogy for an Art and Design Visual Communication classroom which is situated in a multicultural, inclusive, and Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) environment. The framework emerged from the second cycle of an on-going teaching and action research study that is based on practical experiences and pedagogical refinements from the first cycle. It represents a new scholarship of fostering critical thinking, considering the multiple dimensions in research, teaching, design thinking and cultural habits of mind, and the like viable forms of pedagogy for an inclusive and multicultural classroom.

Critical thinking is identified as an important 21st century skillset often embraced by educators around the world as a creative problem-solving competency. For critical thinking to take place in a classroom setting, the presence of social interaction and dialogue becomes crucial in fostering its development.

The framework makes references to theories of social constructivism in particularly interaction as the basis for developing practical pedagogy. The respectful and diligent learning style of CHC learners are considered within the framework - downplaying the instructor’s authoritative role and emphasizing classroom(peer) interactions as key to critical thinking development that is underpinned by various active, participatory and collaborative learning concepts that scaffolds the critical thinking development at appropriate phases of learning and teaching.

The current claim that there is a lack of dialectic interaction among CHC students in the first author’s design classroom posed teaching and learning challenges, especially during critique sessions which could result in a passive, teacher-centered environment putting nurturing critical thinking at a disadvantage. Critique session is a commonly used design classroom pedagogy that encourages oral discourse with peers and instructor(s) in order to advance design making process via analyzing and questioning multiple view points – essentially critical thinking which plays a crucial role in informing the design process via a cycle of informed actions and self-reflection.

Our preliminary action research observations confirmed findings over the last decade which suggested that CHC learners tend to prioritize group harmony and authoritative respect over the opportunity to engage in critical thinking that can be conflicting in nature. A collaborative critique session integrates dialectical inquiry which is at the core of critical thinking, rooted in the ‘Western’ philosophy of Socrates by frequent questioning of assumptions and knowledge as a guide to inform decision-making and solve problems. It embraces contrasting perspectives which have however surfaced positing whether CHC passive learning styles for critical thinking are problematic due to cultural and societal values or due to instructors’ teaching methodology. The diligent and respectful learning styles in the CHC, multicultural, and inclusive classroom in our study however showed positive indicators of collaborative critical thinking dispositions.

Our framework considers the importance of an increasingly multicultural and inclusive classroom in the digitally converging world and admits a pedagogy of critical thinking that embraces opportunities to dialogue while empathizing social and cultural parameters, ie. Confucius Heritage Values.