A MULTIDIMENSIONAL THINKING APPROACH

For the improvement of thinking in the schools, the most important dimensions of thinking to be cultivated are the critical, the creative, and the caring. A prototype of the critical thinker is the professional, the expert, the model of good judgment. A prototype of the creative thinker is the artist. Some prototypes of the caring thinker are the solicitous parent, the considerate environmental planner, the thoughtful and concerned teacher.

In each of the three cases, it will be assumed that the pedagogy will involve the community of inquiry, while the epistemology of that community will be that of the reflective equilibrium. This equilibrium should be understood in the fallibilistic sense that, in the classroom of the community of inquiry, the aim is not to find an absolute foundation of knowledge, like a bedrock. Instead, there is a constant remaking, improving, revising of all its failing parts in order to maintain the equilibrium. It is not based on a notion of absolute truth. That is why self-correction has to be always part of the inquiry process. Insofar as the inquiry process includes a caring dimension, it is concerned to protect and maintain the equilibrium. And insofar as it includes a creative dimension, it is concerned to look for new solutions and ways to maintain this equilibrium.

There are, of course, differences among the communities. A community of reflective, deliberative inquiry, the kind most likely to foster critical thinking, generally emphasizes such values as precision and consistency.