Posted by dereklane on June 1, 2019, 8:34 am, in reply to "Some"
" "School leavers lack the critical thinking skills needed for university, exam board warns"
You are missing the point, viewing the world through the microcosm of higher education as a solution. Life/time gives us the potential to develop our critical thinking skills. Yes, secondary education doesn't develop these skills, in main I believe because both curriculum and teachers are in a deficit in general on the tools for such themselves.
I grew up on a farm, and developed my critical thinking from observing the land, the animals (native and stock) and fixing stuff. I didn't develop it from being educated, though learning to read was useful (which I learnt mostly before school). You mentioned universities saying students are encouraged to work independently. This is the point about viewing things from a particular paradigm. Take away the uni perspective and you'll find that apprentices are encouraged to work independently and think for themselves too. As are programmers, gardeners, labourers. No one in certain industries wants questions every five minutes to achieve a goal.
On the other hand, factory and office workers are not encouraged. Teachers are not encouraged (to think for themselves and work independently). Soldiers are not. There are rules, protocols, curriculums to follow.
We might reach the same page if you admitted that it's not degrees of education responsible for our free thinking, but our ability to apply compassion and logic and reason simultaneously which is certainly not the sole remit of any societal structure or career path. Nor, I would suggest, is there even a clearly defined pattern. Hunter gatherers in the Amazon or the slum scavengers in Mumbai probably possess more of it than the average educated city worker if you use critical thinking to determine exactly what that means.
Just to make a point, I said I needed evidence, and you gave me other people's ideas. This is surely an example of not thinking for oneself. I acknowledge that references are useful, but it was your thoughts and connections I objected to in the first place, because I think you should know better.