Encouraging critical thinking in the classroom: An example from Aesthetics

Abstract: This paper illustrates how critical thinking techniques could be used in teaching aesthetics. Exploring unfamiliar territory and moving freely between reflective and active thought processes are components important to both aesthetics and critical thinking. In keeping with the objectives of critical thinking, a classroom exercise titled "Getting Outside of Your Own Skin" was designed to help students acknowledge and address assumptions and biases they may hold about older consumers and the aging process. Students were encouraged to move beyond personal experiences to broaden their thinking about individuals unlike themselves. By working through the project, students were given the opportunity to examine their perceptions and attitudes toward the aging process and to consider their effect on this growing market. Key Words: aesthetics, critical thinking, age stereotypes, pedagogy Article: Many perceptions about our world become fixed due to the limited nature of our personal experiences. This makes it difficult to be understanding or empathetic to the needs of those individuals who are different from us. Students studying the design, production, or distribution of clothing need to develop the ability to transcend their own experiences and preferences to understand those individuals they will serve. They need the skills to perceive and interpret changing markets. Bass, The classroom provides an ideal setting for helping students learn critical thinking skills to move outside of their personal experiences, and thereby broaden their thinking. We developed an exercise which combined concepts from critical thinking theory and aesthetic theory, where students would encounter their own perceptions and attitudes and thereby explore personal assumptions. In this exercise, students were asked to transcend their current age and life