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The Effect of Richard Paul's Universal Elements and Standards of Reasoning on Twelfth Grade Composition


The Effect of Richard Paul's Universal Elements and Standards of Reasoning on Twelfth Grade Composition
A Research Proposal Presented to the Faculty Of the School of Education Alliant International University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Education: Teaching

Study conducted by J. Stephen Scanlan, San Diego (2006)


This proposal describes the procedures used by a student teacher in a San Diego area twelfth grade Rhetoric and Composition class that were designed to improve the critical thinking (CT) skills of his students. Emphasis was placed on improving the CT skills of the students by incorporating researcher Richard Paul's "Elements and Standards of Reasoning" into all standards-based curriculum, which included persuasive essays on the topics of child abuse, language, gender and culture, and the value of life. Students were identified as high-range, mid-range, low-range achievers, or ELL's. The progress of each group was measured through a progressive series of rubric assessments of their writing, examining five key areas important in rhetorical composition: Clarity of Writing, Analysis of author's argument, Use of supporting information, Organization, and Grammar and Syntax. Through the introduction of this focused critical thinking training, student composition improved dramatically in all of the five key areas, among all the groups. The researcher proposes to introduce focused CT practices in a trial set of Language Arts classes within the district at large, modeled on this action research.

For the full study, click here.


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  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

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