CRITICAL THINKING

PROJECT
Amanda Reimer

DECEMBER 11, 2021

EDUC 4391
Artist’s Statement:

This poem illustrates how critical thinking is analogous to the structural development and

biochemical processes of terrestrial fungi. Through this piece, I hope to demonstrate how critical

thinking and its processes can be found all around us. I also endeavour to exemplify how creative

interpretations of critical thinking can reinforce its concepts and ultimately spur more critical

thinking and creativity. I am interested in the relationship between critical and creative thinking

and how both can bolster and maintain one another.

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Poem:
Mycological Musings

Whether woodland, desert, bog, or creek,

I am a creature of microbial mystique.
To the naked eye, I’m small and few, a diffuse basidiocarp.
But beneath I reach far beyond your view, a rumination with no end or start.

My expansive mycelium has depth and breadth, intellectual standards I’m told.
And I recycle the detritus of former timber, building new while incorporating old.
My saprotrophic decomposition sets nitrogen and carbon free,
Which then can be supplied to living flora practicing mycoheterotrophy.
My chitinous walls are hard to digest, though some may try in a litany,
I’ll often resist and stubbornly cling to my morphological fixity.

Some of us try to deceive one another or even beguile ourselves,

With fallaciously edible colours or shapes, its convincing and often compels.
The persuasive power of Batesian mimicry exceeds its evidential worth,
This illusory power of fictitious fungi is the fallacy of the earth.

My outstretched hyphae, one cell wide, can penetrate roots they find,
Identically to how foreign ideas infiltrate one’s mind.
This intrusion of peripheral thought could advise or misinform us,
Could inspire novel ponderings or bring about our blind conformance.

Mutualistic partnerships benefit all involved in mycorrhizal networks,

The exchange is open, curious, and fair, both parties are inquiry experts.
But reciprocation must be civil, reasoned, and analytic,
If biases dominate and obstinacy ensues, it devolves and becomes parasitic.

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I’m not autotrophic, and therefore rely on external sources for sustenance,
Organic matter in soil and wood provides glucose and other nutrients.
Improper reservoirs stunt my growth, dioxin pollutants are heinous.
Thus, we must be aware of the soundness of the sources that sustain us.

I am but a mushroom, and yet my functions mimic critical thought.

The elements of thinking are ubiquitous and anxious to be sought.
So, investigate and ponder why things are the way they are.
Not so far away a microbe emulates your memoir.

Deciphering the Poem:

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 Throughout the poem, many allusions are made to concepts of critical thinking. To begin,

the poem starts with a description of how what one sees of a mushroom on the surface of the

forest floor (the basidiocarp) is merely a fraction of a much larger being hidden within the soil.

The classic mushroom (cap and stalk) is just the reproductive structure of the actual organism,

surfacing to distribute spores. This aspect of mushrooms being so much more extensive than

what the naked eye can perceive is comparable to thinking because it is only when we dive

deeper that we begin to see the bigger picture with all of the connections that are being made

between strands of thought.

Next, the poem refers to the depth and breadth of mycelium and relates these attributes to

the intellectual standards. This comparison is far more blatant as it directly relates physical

aspects of the mycelium to the conceptual aspects of the intellectual standards. Depth refers to

the complexity and profundity of thought and breadth refers to the consideration of a broad scope

of different perspectives on a topic. In this way, the poem uses equivocation of the words ‘depth’

and ‘breadth’ to relate their cognitive interpretations to their spatial meanings.

The role of mushrooms as ecosystem ‘recyclers’ hints at how our own judgements are

often modified and recycled. This metaphor is designed to illustrate the provisional nature of

judgements and how what we know is always changing. Reasoned judgements are ever-evolving

and founded on careful analysis of relevant information and arguments. While old beliefs may be

able to be incorporated into our judgements, novel modifications are also made and integrated

into our judgements such that they are always being updated. Similarly, fungi decompose old

wood for different elements (nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous) and can supply these nutrients to

living flora. Fungi also modify the structure of these elements so that they are in new forms that

are usable to plants (like mycoheterotrophs—plants that feed on fungi). The incorporation and

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revision of old compounds bolsters the development of new growth just like the incorporation

and revision of pre-existing knowledge can enhance new reasoned judgements.

The reference to fungi’s ‘chitinous walls’ and ‘morphological fixity’ is meant to

communicate the sometimes-stubborn nature of people’s thoughts and their tendency towards

ideological fixity. These are barriers to inquiry. However, just as people fall victim to these

obstinate tendencies, the metaphor of the mushroom can also demonstrate this inflexibility.

The mention of ‘fallaciously edible colours and shapes’ is an acknowledgement of

mushrooms that mimic the morphologies of other mushroom species. For example, false morels

look extremely similar to true morels, but while true morels make a delectable dinner varnish,

consumption of the false morel will deliver a dose of the potentially lethal toxin gyromitrin. This

deceptive nature of mushroom mimics is akin to how fallacious arguments can prove misleading.

Just as a fallacy’s persuasive power greatly exceeds its probative value/evidential worth, a false

morel’s convincing appearance greatly exceeds its genuine potential as a buffet side. While both

fallacies and trick mushrooms are compelling, they’re best to be avoided if one is sincerely

seeking the truth.

The next two stanzas describe hyphae infiltrating plant roots and likens this to ideas

penetrating one’s mind. Ecto and endomycorrhizal fungi have the ability to squeeze their hyphae

between or within plant cells. This is done for either the mutually beneficial exchange of

nutrients between the mushroom and the tree (tree provides carbon-containing photosynthates in

exchange for nitrogenous or phosphorous-rich compounds from the mushroom), or for the fungi

to parasitically extract nutrients from the tree without providing anything in return. This

mechanism occurs in parallel to dialogue between people regarding issues. Some exchanges

result in both participants learning what the other believes and why. These productive

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conversations are fairly mutualistic (both leave feeling content and like they have gained

something) or commensalistic (one feels as though they have gained but the other may have had

no change in belief or knowledge). These interactions are born from both participants possessing

the spirit of inquiry, where they are open-minded, curious, and fair-minded. However, if

stubbornness, biases, and fallacious arguments prevail, neither participant will gain much from

the conversation and no reasoned judgements, or even understandings will be reached. As such,

biases and stubbornness are antonymous qualities to the spirit of inquiry and serve as parasitic

drains on critical thinking. Additionally, the mention of ‘blind conformance’ that can occur when

hearing another’s view (in particular when hearing this view expressed broadly) was a reference

to groupthink. Sometimes when a particular view is widely held and confidently expressed in a

group, there is pressure on all group members to share this position. Therefore, it is important to

stay open-minded and consider all views regardless of what is popular.

The last abstract comparison the poem makes between mushrooms and critical thinking is

in regards to the validity of sources. The poem mentions how mushrooms must seek external

sources for nutrient acquisition and this parallels how we often acquire our knowledge from

external sources. This dependence on what we gather from around us is part of what makes us

fallible. We cannot always have the whole truth, the right answer, or the correct judgements

presented to us. Instead, we gather the pieces that we can and assemble the best judgement we

can manage with what we are given and how we perceive it. Only the continuous gathering of

new information and arguments can force us to revise our beliefs and opinions on the matter. If

we only obtain information from one source that is biased, fallacious, and/or has been proven

wrong with evidence, we are restricting our cognitive development much like the mushroom

growing in toxic or nutrient-deficient soils is stunted. We should strive to be aware of our

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sources, and obtain a rich assortment of different sources, like a growing mushroom requiring a

variety of minerals, elements, and organic compounds for it to flourish.

What is the Relationship Between Critical and Creative Thinking?

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 Now that we have explored the poem and its meaning, it is time to discuss its relevance to

education and teaching. In particular, I’d like to explore how it helps demonstrate the

connections between critical and creative thinking and how these two cognitive processes

manifest in the classroom. Critical thinking is defined by Robert Ennis (2011) as the “reasonable

reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do.” Alternatively, creative thinking is

defined by the APA Dictionary of Psychology (2018) as “the mental processes leading to a new

invention, solution, or synthesis in any area”. Therefore, it is reasonable to propose that critical

thinking, or thinking of an evaluative nature, can be expressed creatively. After all, reflections

and evaluations can be assembled into a new creative form, much like the poem above. Huitt

(1998) describes this connection in greater detail, using Blooms taxonomy to delineate how both

critical and creative thinking are involved in higher-order thinking:

“Synthesis and evaluation are two types of thinking that have much in common (the first four
levels of Bloom's taxonomy), but are quite different in purpose. Evaluation (which might be
considered equivalent to critical thinking as used in this document) focuses on making an
assessment or judgment based on an analysis of a statement or proposition. Synthesis (which
might be considered more equivalent to creative thinking) requires an individual to look at
parts and relationships (analysis) and then to put these together in a new and original way”.

This connection between evaluation and synthesis regarding critical and creative thinking

has implications for how we might encourage and assess these skills in our students. After all,

their interconnectedness suggests that either one is indicative of the other. Both critical and

creative thinking challenge assumptions and preceding knowledge through either determining the

accuracy and validity of statements (critical thinking), or by going beyond them to conceptualize

something new (creative thinking). Critical thinking encourages us to evaluate and analyze while

creative thinking takes these evaluations to new dimensions. Since critical and creative thinking

are interrelated and complementary aspects of thinking, incorporating and assessing critical

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thinking in the classroom should not be separated from creative tasks. Instead, we should allow

students to demonstrate their critical thinking through encouraging them to create. Creative

expressions are a means of transforming critical thinking into something tangible.

References

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Bailin, S., Battersby, M. Reason in the Balance: An Inquiry Approach to Critical Thinking 2nd

edition. Hackett Publishing Company. (2016).

Bougoure, J. J., Brundrett, M. C., & Grierson, P. F. (2010). Carbon and nitrogen supply to the

underground orchid, Rhizanthella gardneri. The New phytologist. 186, 947–956.

Chan, Z. (2013). Exploring creativity and critical thinking in traditional and innovative problem-

based learning groups. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 22, 2298-2307.

Dictionary.apa.org. (2018). APA Dictionary of Psychology. [online] Available at:

<https://dictionary.apa.org/creative-thinking>

Ennis, R. (2011). Critical Thinking: Reflection and Perspective Part II. Inquiry: Critical

Thinking Across the Disciplines. 26 (2):5-19.

Horowitz, K. M., Kong, E. L., & Horowitz, B. Z. Gyromitra Mushroom Toxicity. In StatPearls.

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Huitt, W. Critical thinking: An overview. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA:

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M., & Murphy, D. V. (2015). Exploring the transfer of recent plant photosynthates to soil

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Ogura-Tsujita, Y., Yukawa, T. & Kinoshita, A. (2021). Evolutionary histories and mycorrhizal

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Padget, S. (Ed.). Creativity and critical thinking. Abingdon: Routledge. (2013). 

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