Students' zone - What is a ‘critical understanding’?

“This essay is completely uncritical” - most students will hear these dispiriting words at some time or another. But what does it mean? What, exactly, is a ‘critical’ understanding? And how am I to get one?

Google ‘critical understanding’ and you will be bombarded with websites offering incomprehensible polysyllabic definitions / anecdotes from past centuries / diatribes of despair about the lack of critical thinking in society today. It’ll make your brain hurt, and you’ll be none the wiser (unless you’re very different from me).

In my view, the key thing about a ‘critical understanding’ is that it is an intellectually defensible opinion that shows a clear grasp on the issues.

• Getting a grip on the key issues in the topic:

o The crucial thing here is really understanding what the problem is.
 What puzzle is research trying to solve?
 Why does this problem matter?
 What differences of opinion are there between researchers – and why do different researchers think differently?
 What are the implications of their different theories?

• Developing your own critical opinion:

o The crucial thing here is deciding which theory or explanation you think is right – and why

 It’s NOT just a matter of opinion where anyone’s opinion is as good as any other! That is not a critical opinion – it’s a prejudice
 What you need to do is to act like a detective.
• Start with a clear understanding of the problem and an open mind
• What evidence would support one theory better than another?
• Is there any crucial evidence which rules out one theory and supports another?
• How good is that evidence – how reliable? In other words, how sound are the methods which produced it?
• Imagine you had to defend your conclusion to a court – have you got enough evidence, and is it convincing?
• Have the courage to say – ‘we don’t know the answer, we haven’t got the right evidence’ if that’s the case

• Remember: there is no absolute truth, and there are no definite facts (see Chapter 1, pages 26 to 31):

o All there is – for any scientist – is a theory which you can defend as being better than alternative theories in the light of the evidence we presently have

o Accept that, act on it and you’ll develop a critical understanding.