[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-597929-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-597929-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","what-makes-critical-thinking-critical-for-adult-esl-students","What Makes Critical Thinking Critical for Adult ESL Students","","Critical-thinking skills are positioned as essential for adult ESL learners to successfully transition into college degree programs and advance in employment. The article argues that fostering critical thinking is challenging for ESL instructors, yet proposes a pathway centered on helping instructors uncover students’ assumptions. It outlines three Brookfield-informed critical-thinking tasks—modeled, coached, and gradually internalized—then summarizes adult students’ responses in an intermediate ESL writing course, highlighting both benefits and challenges of integrating such tasks into ESL curricula.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/what-makes-critical-thinking-critical-for-adult-esl-students/597929/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/what-makes-critical-thinking-critical-for-adult-esl-students/597929.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Indoniesian Boy","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why does the article emphasize critical thinking for adult ESL students?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It links critical-thinking skills to successful transition into college and improved job advancement. It also reframes learning as analyzing arguments instead of simply memorizing information.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What role does uncovering assumptions play in critical thinking?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Brookfield is used to describe critical thinking as “hunting assumptions.” The article explains that instruction should model how to discover and question one’s assumptions.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Which critical-thinking tasks are implemented in the course?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Three tasks from Brookfield’s framework are introduced: speaking in tongues, the critical incident questionnaire, and scenario analysis. The article describes how students respond to these tasks in an intermediate ESL writing course.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},597929,1792192015,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":111,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":117,"preview_page_count":4},962090760608,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","What Makes Critical Thinking Critical for Adult ESL Students  \nCritical-thinking skills help to prepare adult education students for a successful transition to college degree programs and for job advancement. Yet fostering critical thinking poses a challenge to ESL instructors. Brookfield (2012) provides a way forward for adult educators when he explains that the crux of critical thinking is to discover one’s assumptions. The author describes how instructors can model uncovering their assumptions, thus creating a safer environment for students to engage in critical thinking. Three of Brookfield’s criticalthinking tasks—speaking in tongues, the critical incident questionnaire, and scenario analysis—implemented during an intermediate ESL writing course at a community college are explained. Students’ responses to these tasks are summarized and reflections on both the benefits and challenges of using critical-thinking tasks in ESL classes are described.  \nAdult education students must learn to engage in critical think  \ning. Because of recent changes in legislation, the ability to  \ncritically analyze arguments—rather than to merely memorize information—has become a prerequisite for college. California’s Common Core State Standards (2012) uphold that 11th-and 12thgrade students should be able to “introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.” Because the new 2014 GED has been designed to reflect state standards, the writing section of the new GED now assesses students’ability to “develop an argument in which they use evidence directly from the passages they are given in order to support their assertions”(GED Testing Services, 2012, p. 8) . As adult education administrators and instructors consider their mission to prepare students for transi  \nThe CATESOL Journal 25.1 • 2013/2014 • 143  \ntion into degree programs, how can they integrate critical-thinking tasks into the curriculum?  \nAs I reflected on this question, I prepared three critical-thinking tasks for an eight-week noncredit ESL writing course that I taught inan adult education program at a local community college. What follows is an account of my experience implementing these tasks with one group of adult ESL students. The findings below are based on written feedback that students provided at the end of each class as well as the notes that I took as I reflected on our class sessions. In the first section of this article, I review the literature on critical thinking. Then, I describe how teaching critical thinking begins with modeling critical thinking. In each of the final three sections, I explain the tasks I implemented and students’ responses to these tasks. I conclude by affirming that while there are challenges to introducing critical-thinking tasks, such tasks provide adult students with formidable learning experiences and are essential for transition into college degree programs.  \nLiterature on Critical Thinking  \n“Critical thinking is essentially learning to ask the right questions,” explained an audience member at a 2011 TESOL Convention presentation. Brookfield (2012) identifies what constitutes the right questions when he explains that the “core process” of critical thinking is “hunting assumptions”(p. 7). That is, people learn to think critically when they question whether their assumptions about anything—discrimination, what makes a good résumé, how to get a job—are true or not. Scriven and Paul (1987) define critical thinking as “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action’’ (as cited in Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2009, par","cbCailbyLawDjQus","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailbyLawDjQus","pdf",114452,"English","# What Makes Critical Thinking Critical for Adult ESL Students\n## Why Critical Thinking Matters in Adult Education\n## Literature on Critical Thinking\n## Introducing Three Critical-Thinking Tasks","[{\"question\":\"Why does the article emphasize critical thinking for adult ESL students?\",\"answer\":\"It links critical-thinking skills to successful transition into college and improved job advancement. It also reframes learning as analyzing arguments instead of simply memorizing information.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does uncovering assumptions play in critical thinking?\",\"answer\":\"Brookfield is used to describe critical thinking as “hunting assumptions.” The article explains that instruction should model how to discover and question one’s assumptions.\"},{\"question\":\"Which critical-thinking tasks are implemented in the course?\",\"answer\":\"Three tasks from Brookfield’s framework are introduced: speaking in tongues, the critical incident questionnaire, and scenario analysis. The article describes how students respond to these tasks in an intermediate ESL writing course.\"}]","What Makes Critical Thinking Critical for Adult ESL Students | PDF",1792085970]