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Editor-in-Chief
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH, MA, FASEP, EPC
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Exercise Physiologists, Critical Thinking,
and the Questioning Mind
Tommy Boone
Professor and Chair
Department of Exercise Physiology
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN
“The quality of our life is determined
by the quality of our thinking. The quality of our thinking, in turn,
is determined by the quality of our questions, for questions are the engine,
the driving force behind thinking. Without questions, we have nothing
to think about.” [1]
Members of the American Society of Exercise
Physiologists (ASEP) do not have their own Center for Critical Thinking
or even a Board for Critical Thinking. Perhaps, there should be a
Board of critical thinking exercise physiologists. Developing a community
of critical thinkers within exercise physiology to get at the root of their
problems and to propose solutions is an excellent idea. After all,
the quality of exercise physiology as a healthcare professional is directly
linked to its self-reflection and openmindness. As an exercise physiologist,
I’ve come to understand the role of intellectual perseverance, integrity,
and humility. Each is important to our future, and each is the engine
that drives the quality of our thinking.
Join me in this brief article so that we
may collectively begin the buiilding of a community of exercise physiologists
as critical thinkers. Join me as we strive to make exercise physiology
a core profession in the healthcare setting. Learn to ask questions
about why exercise physiologists ought to be considered as a key member
of the scientific community. Join us within the ASEP organization
to reform our educational programs and social interactions as emerging
professionals based on self-reflection and fair-minded critical thinking.
Help us to ask questions to know what we should be thinking about, what
actions we should be taking, and how we are going to accomplish our goals.
It is important that we articulate an exercise physiology that is different
from past decades, to preserve the quality of the significant changes in
recent years under the ASEP leadership, and to foster intellectual standards
in practice and research. The work is challenging. How it will
be fostered, assessed, and applied to professional and public issues remain
to be defined by the quality of our questions?
In other words, the quality of our professional
development is determined by the quality of our professional thinking.
The quality of our professional thinking, in turn, is determined by the
quality of our critical thinking, for critical thinking is the engine,
the driving force behind our professionalism. Without critical thinking,
we have little reason to think we are meaningfully interlocked with other
healthcare professionals. All the scientific papers, presentations,
and posters by exercise physiologists at national meetings cannot define
exercise physiology as a profession. This point is within our understanding
if we work at critical thinking as we have taught ourselves to think scientifically.
Yet, many academic exercise physiologists continue to present paper after
pager without internalizing the concepts and principles essential to the
professional development of exercise physiology. Despite having the
doctorate degree and after teaching college and university courses, few
professors have the skill or the questions to become self-directed, self-monitored,
and self-corrective critical thinkers to guide the path towards professionalism.
Critical thinking is vital to well-reasoned
solutions to become skilled professionals, who have their own rigorous
standards of practice. Therefore, it is within the systematic questioning
and self-assessment of our issues and concerns that we learn to become
effective teachers, counselors, researchers, and practitioners. With
a questioning mind, exercise physiologists will learn to focus their thinking
in a disciplined manner to think analytically, conceptually, and empirically.
Such a mind questions:
“…information, inferences, and
implications. It questions world views, perspectives, and implications.
It questions politics, culture, and academics. It questions laws,
policies, and human behavior. It questions contradictions, double
standards, and false integrity. It questions media bias and propaganda.
It questions our innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires.” [1]
Most exercise physiologists have never thought
about what it means to embrace a “constructive discontent” way of thinking
[2]. Yet without it, we often fall victim to just about everything
we read or hear. We learn to think historically, sociologically,
and psychologically, and otherwise. Our policies, inferences, and
behavior become significantly consistent with that of mass thinking or
groupthink. This is highly unfortunate and hugely problematic.
Interacting with the questioning minds of colleagues and friends is an
important dimension of all evolving professionals. Seldom do we appreciate
this point, and even less so do we challenge what we think.
The art of questioning is grossly undeveloped
in academia and needs serious repair. Yet, university teachers are
in an excellent position to ask powerful analytic questions and to break
exercise physiology topics into its logical parts. Each teacher has
the opportunity to explore ways and means to cultivate the questioning
mind on the part of the students who need to produce written work that
is both clear and well reasoned. To cultivate students as fair-minded,
intellectually responsible professionals, teachers must develop intellectual
humility, courage, integrity, and autonomy. Each intellectual virtue,
including empathy and perseverance, is essential to developing fair-minded
thinkers with the foundational ideas that define the professional development
of exercise physiology. It is not just possible but imperative that
we become critical thinkers through actively questioning and organizing
ideas for understanding. We must learn to question to evaluate our
history, what we are presently doing, and how we will bring our new reality
forward.
When conflicting ideas compete with new
ideas and viewpoints, the questioning mind explores ways and means for
getting students more actively involved in their own learning. Intellectually
responsible teachers understand the importance of teaching students how
to ask questions, how to help them gain insights, how to detect bias and
propaganda, deception, and illusion [2]. The classroom becomes an
in-depth interactive experience for teachers and students who seek to an
advanced understanding of professional self-expression and commitment.
Students, in particular, learn to develop hands-on skills, analytic abilities,
and professional values critical to trans-disciplinary success in the healthcare
professions.
All of this however is dependent upon the
university teacher’s role in developing critical thinkers. While
it should be ongoing, that is not the case in most academic settings.
Far too few teachers tack on professional development and critical thinking
to their otherwise duties. Some are even hard press to teach two
courses in one semester! Others are seemingly too engage in the idea
of research or actually doing research to involve students and/or a commitment
to critical thinking. The truth is that bringing critical thinking
and a questioning mind into the classroom is not always easy. In
fact, it is always a challenge because it requires laying the foundation
for a new way of thinking and teaching. Commitment is the key to
incorporating critical thinking in class instruction and follow-up laboratory
experiences.
It is time to get started. It is
time to join in the professinal development of exercise physiology [3].
It is likely the only way exercise physiologists are going to move quickly
down the path of professionalism. And, it is the way
to control the future of exercise physiology. Hence, why not learn
more about empowering yourself, your students, and your profession?
Why not discover the possibilities that exist for exercise physiology once
the quality of your thinking becomes shaped by the quality of your questions?
New career opportunities await all of us. Why not get over the past,
where failure to ask questions kept us trapped [4]? Why not make
more effective decisions about our future by thinking strategically, particularly
in accordance with the ASEP vision [5]. This way we will collectively
overcome our ineffectiveness in helping our students develop as professionals.
“The quality of the professionalism
of exercise physiologists is determined by the quality of the questions
they ask about exercise physiology.” -- William T. Boone, Jr.
References
1. Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2003).
Developing the Questioning Mind. Critical Thinking. Events and Resources
Catalog 2003, Vol 1, page 6.
2. Boone, T. (2001). Where is the Skeptic
Exercise Physiologist? Professionalization of Exercise Physiologyonline.
Vol 4 No 3 [Online]. http://www.asep.org/asep/asep/SkepticExercisePhysiologists.html
3. Boone, T. (2001). Professional Development
of Exercise Physiology. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
4. Boone, T. (2002). Exercise Physiologists
Locked in the Past. Professionalization of Exercise Physiologyonline.
Vol 5 No 5 May [Online]. http://www.asep.org/asep/asep/EPsLockedINthePast.html
5. American Society of Exercise Physiologists.
(2003). The ASEP Vision. [Online]. http://www.asep.org/asep/asep/vision.htm
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