Exploring the psychological and sociological factors affecting critical thinking with students of English for Academic Purposes, using the topic of climate change

Higher education students in the UK and elsewhere are expected to display critical thinking. Critical thinking may be impeded by psychological and sociological factors such as: belief and confirmation biases, framing, social pressure to conform, and poor assessment of probability and risk: factors which also hinder action on climate change. Although some studies suggest that raising awareness of biases improves critical thinking, none to my knowledge has examined the effects of systematically exploring these factors with students of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The aim of my research, for which I took an interpretivist stance, was to discover the impact of such an exploration on EAP students’ concept of critical thinking, and on their own critical thinking as they perceived it. I ran workshops for EAP students at the University of Sheffield focusing on each of the above factors, using climate change as a topic, and then interviewed the participants. The resulting data was analysed using thematic analysis and code development.
Participants reported an improved understanding of the skills of questioning and analysing, using multiple perspectives, and argument building; and new awareness of confirmation bias, the use of evidence and sources, framing, independent thinking and culture in relation to critical thinking. There was also evidence of development in critical dispositions relating to the self (such as self-awareness) and to other people (such as respect for others’ views), and in criticality in their response to climate change. My study suggests that EAP students may find their understanding and practice of critical thinking benefits from learning about how it can be affected by psychological and sociological factors. The role of EAP teachers might therefore extend beyond an instrumental focus on specific critical thinking skills needed to complete academic tasks, towards the fostering of critical thinking dispositions and criticality in their students.