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Educational Researcher, Vol. 18, No. 3,
4-10 (1989)
DOI: 10.3102/0013189X018003004
Critical Thinking and Subject Specificity: Clarification and Needed Research
Robert H. Ennis, Professor of Philosophy of Education
Department of Educational Policy Studies, College of Education, University of Illinois, 1310 S. 6th St., Champaign, II 61820, specializes in critical thinking and philosophy of educational research
The claim that critical thinking is subject specific appears, to be of practical importance and theoretical interest. Its meaning is unclear, however, and discussions of its are often confusing and at cross purposes. In an attempt to clarify the topic, Ennis offers a number of distinctions, including a distinction among three versions of subject specificity: domain, epistemological, and conceptual subject specificity. He holds that the first two versions contain valuable insights, but that all three suffer from excessive vagueness of their basic concept (domain, field, and subject, respectively). If the proposed clarification and critique are appropriate, then a number of avenues of research—at both practical and theoretical levels—need to be pursued, some of which are outlined in this essay

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