Thinking Critically About Higher Education

For decades, higher education has relied on a one-size-fits-all, in-person learning model. Now, though, many institutions are realizing that this model fails to serve the best interests of many students. As Kaplan’s chairman and CEO, Andy Rosen is working to provide learning options that meet the needs of students with a variety of goals and from a wide array of backgrounds. Rosen recently spoke with author and podcaster Andy Temte* about how critical thinking can unlock opportunities within educational institutions and beyond.


What does critical thinking look like in action at the senior executive level?

For critical thinking to permeate an organization, there has to be trust that the reason that you're asking questions is to improve the business and help everyone. At Kaplan, we encourage an environment in which people are pushing each other and not just saying, "Well, this is the way it goes. That's the way we do things." Nobody will ever stab you in the back at Kaplan, but that doesn't mean they won't challenge you. If they disagree with something you’ve said or done, we encourage them to bring it up with you directly. 


What advice do you have for educators and business leaders to move the needle on critical thinking literacy?

What you want to do as a teacher or business leader is constantly encourage the people you work with to try to understand both the rule and the reason for the rule. When somebody says we ought to do it this way, you should always understand that sometimes people encourage things that are in their interest and not in the organization's interest. So it is useful to know what kind of motivations an individual might have for making an argument. Not because it means that they're wrong, but just because it might lead you to say, "I want to make a couple of additional inquiries."


How can critical thinking help change the higher education landscape for the better?

The education industry is, ironically, guilty of surprisingly little critical thinking. At some point in the 20th century, higher education decided that its model was perfect: a great professor in front of a room of students over a 13-week period. The result is that education moves much more slowly than the rest of the economy. We're still stuck with models that really don't work as well as they used to. But I think we’re seeing that higher education institutions that have challenged the model are finally starting to get some traction.

*Excerpted from a July 7, 2022, interview on The Balancing Act podcast