Educating for professional responsibility: From critical thinking to deliberative communication, or why critical thinking is not enough

Abstract

Complexity and challenges characterise twenty-first century western democratic societies, and our everyday lives are highly dependent on well-qualified professionals. We need to trust that professionals perform in a competent and responsible way within the uncertainty of current societies and work life. Realising this calls for deliberate professionals who are able to understand and cope with the unforeseen. Thus, students in higher education qualifying for work must not only learn and critically evaluate the knowledge of their profession, but also develop an awareness of the relationship between theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and the moral and social dimensions and implications of and in professional work. To develop the capacity needed, critical thinking is often referred to as an important learning outcome of higher education. In this chapter, we review the ways in which different meanings of critical thinking are articulated within some of the highly ranked research literature on higher education. We argue that critical thinking, as an individual capacity, is necessary yet insufficient for learning and enacting professional responsibility and propose an extended mode. Deliberative communication provides a more adequate model for building the necessary collective capability for making nuanced judgments and decisions tailored to individual circumstances.