Situation

The Center for Critical Thinking, based at Sonoma State University, is arguably the first academic center created to specifically foster Critical Thinking skills and intellectual standards in education. Founded by Dr. Richard Paul in 1980, in response to a number of practices that undermine the abilities of teachers to teach and students to learn, it has been the epicenter for defining intellectual standards, traits, concepts, and best practices fundamental to educational reform for over a quarter century.
   The Center was first to articulate the critical nexus between thinking and learning, and it also defined the consequences that evolve from uncritical thinking in relationships, in businesses, in economies, and in societies. While there are now many other centers worldwide, it is the only center that conducts research about Critical Thinking.
   Pressured to cover required course content, teachers have been administering their course work in ways that tell students what questions will be asked on tests. Pressured to do well on tests, students have been developing a proficiency for memorizing answers to questions in all domains without ever having to crack a book or visit the domains in which those questions relate. As one business leader put it, "Our schools are turning out graduates -- even those with Phi Beta Kappa credentials -- who can't think their way out of a paper bag." Companies that hire today's graduates are having to teach the remedial concepts, integrity and virtues of objective independent thinking to their incoming employees, to say nothing of the specific skills those employees went to school to learn.
   Critical Thinking is a seminal subject that is integral to all areas of inquiry, discourse, and learning. As a pedagogical theory and cadre of best practices, it is a tool that emphasizes intellectual humility, Socratic questioning, and independent thinking which questions assumptions and the integrity of information, resources, media, and all arguments by authority. Thinking affects everything we believe, plan and do. The values we defend and the decisions we make need constant scrutiny and reexamination. Therefore, it is essential to cultivate those intellectual tools that enable us to think well and perform well.  As opposed to a stand-alone subject, Critical Thinking is best taught and assessed across the curriculum within the contexts of other subjects.
   Each of us are born into a set of circumstances. Each of us is dealt inherent belief systems and prejudices that can only be overcome and reconciled by intellectual openness, scrutiny, and critical thought. You can't really understand what you've never thought. It is our ability to climb outside of our social conditioning, to entertain points of view other than our own, that allows us to reconcile our beliefs with the world's realities. It is our ability to integrate realities across domains, which allows us to develop our integrity as individuals. Our character.
   Rote memorization, blind leaps of faith, defending long held positions, or accepting so called "truths" or legacy beliefs without continual rigorous reevaluation, dilutes the integrity of what we do as people and as societies. We may all have an equal vote at the ballot box, but - given our differences in perspectives and the varying levels of deliberation among us on the issues -- not everybody's vote is equal in its significance.
   All forms of government carry different assumptions. In democracies that allow the governed to change their governance, there is a prevailing assumption that because the majority rules, the majority is always right. This is obviously not true unless voters are well informed and able to climb out of their prejudices.
   Therefore, there's a moral imperative for every individual in a democracy to the others in that democracy to get educated, to integrate their beliefs with critical deliberation, and to have well informed opinions about issues that they have critically processed and arrived at themselves. Conversely, it is morally reprehensible to blindly accept or promote "truths" as if we knew what the truth is, especially without the rigors and processes that are inherent in critical thought. It is unconscionable for anyone to impose on others that which they have accepted on faith. Much easier said, than done.
   The Foundation for Critical Thinking, a non-profit organization, was established off campus to support the business needs of the Center as well as the needs of The National Council For Excellence in Critical Thinking (NCECT) and The International Center for the Assessment of Higher Order Thinking (ICAT). The goal of NCECT is to articulate, preserve, and foster intellectual standards in critical thinking research, scholarship, and instruction. The goal of ICAT is to help colleges and universities design cost-effective ways to evaluate students’ Critical Thinking abilities. ICAT evaluates course design and provides assessment tools to assess student Critical Thinking skills.
   When it was first introduced as the pivotal hub of learning, Critical Thinking was immediately embraced by colleges, universities and K-12 teaching professionals world wide. Yet, like so many new ideas, the term soon became the latest buzzword throughout academia. The overwhelming majority of those who paid it lip service never took the time to understand it. They simply slapped the new label onto their old practices as something they'd always used in their teaching and learning.
   Since its founding, the FCT has worked with the College Board, the National Education Association, the US Department of Education, as well as numerous colleges, universities and school districts world wide. It has been written about in Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Nation, Education Week, The Chronicle for Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook, etc. (Click here to read more)
   Bootstrap from day one, the Foundation sustains itself through sale of books, textbooks, mini guides, PBS TV mini-series videos, research as well as honoraria from in-service professional development. It also hosts a number of workshops and seminars, the National Academy for Critical Thinking, the International Academy for Critical Thinking, the National Conference on Scientific Thinking, and the Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking. (Click here to learn more )

Problem

Solution

The Journey to Critical Discovery Campaign: After the agency discussed what the FCT was doing, it immediately sent copies of The Magazine for Critical Thinking, the FCTs quarterly, to John Sculley, then CEO and Chairman of Apple Computer. Apple had targeted academic markets for its computers for decades, dominated the niche, and had a long interest in facilitating better teaching and learning in its markets. 
   In December 1992, Sculley put Critical Thinking on the national agenda in his presentation to President-elect Clinton's Business Conference at Little Rock. A cornerstone of Goals 2000, Critical Thinking has now been legislated in some form into the laws and goals of all 50 States.
   The agency had thought the FCT needed to be using its critical reasoning skills to reveal and advance its own identity in media. As perception is the reality, the FCT needed to be using smart, contemporary design to communicate the concepts, ideals and best practices it represented. Contemporary content deserves, indeed requires, the support of contemporary media formatting.
   The Foundation's original quarterly looked like a patchwork quilt of editorial with promotion for its resources hidden deeply within those editorials. To his credit, Sculley understood the significance of the concept towards reforming education. Yet, it was obvious the FCT's resistance to all things "commercial" was unintentionally limiting its effectiveness in its communications with many of its constituencies. 
   Two months preceding the fourteenth Annual Conference on Critical Thinking, Dr Paul called a press conference at the State Capitol Building in Sacramento and charged the U.S. education establishment with "malpractice." This theme carried the Conference and was summarized in a post conference expose: (Click here to learn more )
   With critical mass materializing on several fronts, the FCT asked the agency to revamp its quarterly magazine. The agency presented a campaign strategy that would make "vision" and life's journey to "critical discovery" a campaign metaphor for the FCT, its magazine, as well as for all its other resources. It also recommended discrete advertising, or ads separate from editorial, within its magazine. The concept was immediately approved and Critical Thinking Magazine was changed to Educational Vision . . . the Magazine for Critical Thinking. 

Results

Today, the FCT continues to dominate the niche it created. It consistently ranks # 1 with the leading search engines. Its web site attracts over 2 million hits to approximately 200,000 unique visitors monthly from 150 countries world wide. Its PBS TV series, books, textbooks, in-service training programs, research, academies, workshops and conferences sell out early. Its 27th Annual Conference on Critical Thinking, held at Berkeley last year and Stanford the year before, were sold out. Its first International Academy -- held at St. John's College on the Cambridge University Campus in March '06 -- was a "smashing success" and will repeat in 2009. This year's International Academy will be held at New College, Oxford University. 
   The FCT's Thinker's Guide Series -- including Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools, How to Improve Student Learning, How to Study & Learn, The Art of Asking Essential Questions, How to Read a Paragraph, How to Write a Paragraph, Analytic Thinking, Scientific Thinking, Critical & Creative Thinking, Active & Cooperative Learning, How to Detect Media Bias & Propaganda, Understanding Ethical Reasoning, Scientific Thinking, Fallacies: The Art of Mental Manipulation & Trickery, Critical Thinking Competency Standards, Engineering Thinking, and others -- is rewriting the rules of viral marketing to professional educators throughout the world.
   We continue to assist the FCT taking great pride in advocating and  supporting an issue that we believe by far transcends the gravitas of all other academic and social issues: that is, the ability of free, democratic and interdependent people and societies to think objectively and understand significantly well the integral issues and policies that most affect outcomes serving their own principles and best interests -- clearly, accurately, precisely, broadly, deeply, relevantly, logically and significantly -- in ways that enable them to act decisively on those issues with well-concluded critical conviction.
   A video news release with B-Roll and Transcription of Dr. Paul's Keynote address at The 27th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking at Berkeley last year highlights the need for "Critical Thinking in Every Domain of Knowledge and Belief." Click here to learn more
   The relevant weight of critical thought, the unintended consequences of not teaching/learning through it in every domain and discipline -- across all curricula, in law and government, in the arts and sciences, in business and industry, and in our social relationships at home and abroad -- is without question the most urgent call we've ever received. To learn more about teaching, testing and assessing critical thinking, download this report.
   For more on the Foundation for Critical Thinking and its resources consult its website at  http://www.criticalthinking.org/