In early July 2023 I started a critical thinking club (CTC) at LSHTM. Everyone knows that critical thinking is important part of science and research, and especially important for PhD students to develop. But it is much harder to define what critical thinking is and provide concrete examples of how critical thinking is developed. The idea of the CTC is to focus on specific topics that make use of critical thinking and provide an accessible way to engage more with critical thinking for PhD students. This is a first draft so I expect that if we were to do again it would build upon things that went well and iterate more on topics that weren’t so helpful.
So what is critical thinking? There are many definitions used across the research spectrum, but I will use the definition developed by researchers in psychology[1] where critical thinking skills helps students evaluate the arguments of others and their own, resolve conflicts, and come to well-reasoned resolutions to complex problems. The development of critical thinking helps researchers to figure out the consensus view from varied results, evaluate the merits of a line of thought, and ultimately helps researchers develop their own thinking and independent research. For many PhD students, their own PhD studies can be the first time they experience a research area with uncertainties, and the lack of consensus view. This can sometimes be troubling, and development of critical thinking can help them navigate a path forwards and contribute to the field.
The first session was on “From Ideas to Research”. A key element of PhD research is developing your own research ideas. But for many PhD students this might be the first time facing a blank piece of paper that represents the next three years. I wanted to have a session on this because having a strategy that supports creativity and develops the ability to compare and contrast different research aims and methods is important. Also, observing how supervisors come up with projects might make it seem like new ideas come out of thin air, and some insight on how this skill is developed might be useful.
In the session we discussed a paper by Jan P Vandenbroucke and Neil Pearce, “From ideas to studies: how to get ideas and sharpen them into research questions”.[2] I found the paper very helpful – a lot of detail is given to the different ways to develop an idea. Things that stuck for me were the suggestion to include a methods plan and specifying what the expected result is likely to be, along with analysis that aligns with the objectives. I frequently recommend to people putting together a concept note to develop a research idea, which is like what is described in this paper.
The discussion group was lively…while most appreciated the idea of putting together a research plan ahead of doing a project in full, the concept of “Cargo Culture” was brought up.[3] Cargo Culture refers to the behaviours of pacific islanders during the 20th century in response to the plane loads of supplies provided as part of the WWII effort, the inhabitants developed their own runways and signalling towers with the expectation that material wealth will arrive. Without truly understanding the process, going through the actions might not result in the expected outcome…so would putting together a research plan following the instructions given by Vandenbroucke and Pearce result in high quality, critically thought research? Perhaps not… but using the skills described in the paper will support development of these skills. So what is the extra layer of critical thinking needed here? I think this relates towards the revision and feedback process, the evaluation of whether the plan answers the objective stated, and what could do this better, whether previous research has sufficiently answered the research question, and of course whether the question is worth asking in the first place. While a research plan might not directly answer all of these considerations, it provides a platform that will support the author, and discussions with their peers.
Prior to the discussion we asked a few experienced researchers how they develop their research ideas. Most researchers emphasised discussion of the ideas with others, reviewing what research in the area is out there already, and refining the research questions. Some developed research plans, and some commented that they ‘really should’! Others emphasised the need to identify a suitable funder for the project as well.
In conclusion, the CTC discussion was interesting and provided a lot more discussion than I expected. Developing research ideas was an interesting place to start; one the one hand the skills described in the discussion paper align with what I typically do and gives less experienced researchers and helping hand in developing their research. However, the element of critical thinking is an extra layer on these skills…as this discussion group continues I hope that we will delve further into this topic.
[1] Allegretti CL, Frederick JN. A model for thinking critically about ethical issues. Teaching of Psychology. 1995;22:46–8.
[2] Vandenbroucke and Pearce. From ideas to studies: how to get ideas and sharpen them into research questions 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S142940
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
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