Stages of Critical Thinking Development
Six stages of development
| Stage | Name | What characterises it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unreflective thinker | Unaware of the role thinking plays |
| 2 | Challenged thinker | Initially aware that problems in thinking cause problems in life |
| 3 | Beginning thinker | Trying to take charge; making hit-and-miss attempts |
| 4 | Practicing thinker | Sees the need for systematic practice; analysing thinking regularly |
| 5 | Advanced thinker | Good habits in place; insight into deeper problems; fair-minded |
| 6 | Accomplished thinker | Critical thinking is conscious and intuitive; continuous improvement |
The pattern
Each stage builds on the last. Movement is not automatic; it requires deliberate work.
Critical thinking develops over time. A teacher does not arrive at full critical thinking in a workshop or a single course. The skill builds in stages, each one requiring the work of the previous stage to be in place. A six-stage account, drawn from the critical thinking literature, names the steps and what each one looks like in practice.
Stage 1: The unreflective thinker
Unreflective thinkers are largely unaware of the role that thinking plays in their lives. They do not notice that problems in their thinking are causing problems in their work and relationships. The implications, viewpoints, and assumptions inside their thinking go unexamined.
Most people start here, including most teachers. The unreflective thinker is not lacking intelligence. She is lacking awareness that her thinking itself is something that can be examined and improved.
In teaching, an unreflective thinker may explain a difficult class entirely by external causes (the students, the timetable, the syllabus) without noticing that her own thinking about the class shaped what happened. The thinking is invisible to her.
Stage 2: The challenged thinker
Thinkers move to the challenged stage when they become initially aware of the role thinking plays in their lives, and that problems in their thinking are causing serious problems. The awareness is the beginning of change.
Movement to this stage requires deliberate reflective thinking about thinking. Something happens that makes the unexamined thinking examinable. A difficult experience, a sharp comment from a colleague, a course on critical thinking, a specific moment of self-recognition.
The challenged thinker now sees that there is something to work on. She does not yet know how to work on it. The next stage begins with the attempt.
Stage 3: The beginning thinker
Those who move to the beginning thinker stage actively take up the challenge of bringing thinking under explicit command across multiple domains of their lives. They recognise basic problems in their thinking and make initial attempts to better understand how to take charge of and improve it.
Beginning thinkers modify some of their thinking based on this initial understanding. The attempts are real. The results are uneven.
Two limits at this stage:
- Limited insight into deeper levels of trouble in their thinking. The thinker addresses surface problems while deeper assumptions remain.
- Lack of a systematic plan for improvement. Efforts are hit and miss.
A beginning thinker reads about a critical thinking move in a book on Monday, applies it on Tuesday, and forgets it by Friday. The intent is there; the system is not.
Stage 4: The practicing thinker
Thinkers at this stage have a sense of the habits they need to develop to take charge of their thinking. They recognise that problems exist in their thinking and recognise the need to attack these problems globally and systematically.
Based on their need to practise regularly, they actively analyse their thinking. They are becoming knowledgeable about what it would take to systematically monitor concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, and points of view as they show up in their own thinking.
Practicing thinkers recognise the need for systematicity in critical thinking and for deep internalisation of the skills as habits. They clearly recognise the natural tendency of the human mind to engage in egocentric thinking and self-deception.
The limits at this stage are still real. Practicing thinkers are only beginning to approach the improvement of their thinking systematically. They have limited insight into deeper levels of thought. The system is in place; the depth is still developing.
Stage 5: The advanced thinker
Thinkers at this stage have established good habits of thought, and the habits are paying off. Advanced thinkers actively analyse their thinking in all the significant domains of their lives, and they have significant insight into problems at deeper levels of thought.
Advanced thinkers have good general command over their egocentric nature. They continually strive to be fair-minded. They sometimes lapse into egocentrism and reason in a one-sided way; the lapses are noticed and corrected rather than going unseen.
Advanced thinkers have keen insight into the role of egocentrism (thinking that places the self at the centre) and sociocentrism (thinking that places the thinker’s social group at the centre) in their own thinking. They notice both in themselves and in others.
For a teacher, this stage often arrives after years of deliberate practice. It is not a destination so much as a sustainable working level.
Stage 6: The accomplished thinker
Accomplished thinkers have systematically taken charge of their thinking. They continually monitor, revise, and rethink their strategies for ongoing improvement.
The basic skills of thought are deeply internalised. Critical thinking, for accomplished thinkers, is both conscious and highly intuitive. The two are not in tension; the discipline has become a habit, and the habit operates without effort while remaining accurate.
Accomplished thinkers are rare. Most reflective practitioners do not reach this stage and do not need to. The point of the stage is not that everyone arrives there. The point is that the development continues; there is always a next stage of refinement available.
Systematic practice replaces hit-and-miss attempts
The beginning thinker is trying to apply critical thinking but has no systematic plan, so the work is inconsistent. The practicing thinker has the plan: she sees the need to attack thinking problems globally and systematically, and she actively analyses her thinking on a regular basis. The system is in place, even if the depth is still developing.
What the stages mean for a teacher
The stage theory is a description, not a ranking. A teacher does not need to be at stage 6 to be a good teacher. Most working teachers move through the early stages over the course of their careers. The stages are useful for a few specific reasons.
Self-recognition
A teacher reading the stages can often place herself. The placement itself is the start of movement. An unreflective thinker who realises she is unreflective has just become a challenged thinker.
Diagnosis of stuck-ness
A teacher who has been a beginning thinker for five years can ask why she has not moved to practicing thinker. The usual answer is that she lacks a system. Building a system, often through a regular reflective practice, is what produces movement.
Patience
The stages take time. A teacher who expects to become an accomplished thinker in a year will be disappointed. A teacher who expects steady, year-on-year movement through the stages will get further.
Modesty
The accomplished thinker stage exists. Most teachers, including most experienced ones, are not there. This is normal. The point is to keep moving forward.
What does not move a teacher between stages
Several things sometimes get treated as developmental shortcuts. Most are not.
- Reading more books. Reading is useful, but reading without practice does not move a thinker between stages.
- Attending workshops. Workshops can introduce ideas. Stages move with sustained practice, not single events.
- Talking about critical thinking. Discussion is part of the work. Discussion alone is not the work.
- Years of teaching experience. Experience alone does not produce movement. Reflective practice on the experience does.
The reliable mover between stages is sustained, deliberate, systematic practice.