Advocating for Devils (Comprehension: Part III)
Eliminating dichotomies forces students to critically think because their responses are no longer objective. There is no paved path forward. There is no beaten-down walking trail. Critical thinking compels students to navigate an untamed mental wilderness where the only correct response is how well the student presents their case.
When dichotomous choices are eliminated, conflict is created, arguments are catalyzed, and passion is elicited. It is the obligation of classroom teachers to encourage and moderate those arguments, but that is not the teacher’s primary function. Rather, the teacher’s role should be that of the Devil’s Advocate. If you’re unfamiliar with a Devil’s Advocate, their purpose is to be a contrarian. In other words, the Devil’s Advocate always takes an adversarial position that contradicts or counters the student’s argument or conclusion. The purpose is to challenge the students’ processes of thinking so they are forced to defend their point of view. My experience has been that students rarely acquiesce their point of view for the argument which they’ve risked communicating in class, but the experience of being out-maneuvered in a heated-discussion tends to leave a lasting mark on how those students approach future topics. In other words, though students may be unwilling to publicly change their positions in the middle of a fierce debate, they will not fail to analyze the perspectives or thinking processes that hindered the formation of their poorly formed, previous critical conclusion. Few people like being wrong or losing an argument, and being wrong publicly is a good motivator for next time.
Education is functionally a one person activity, but the development of critical thinking always requires multiple. Critical thinking obligates students to talk to other people and argue about a bunch of shit. We have to heed the perspectives, experiences, and facts from people that do not operate our individual minds. And once we’ve argued the shit out of something – once we’ve heard all the evidence, perspectives, and experiences students are willing to offer — it is time to write about what we think.
