Absolutely: how quickly I forgot my wonderful multiple intelligences course from Windy Quinones. How to discern and provoke critical thinking in different ways of being "smart." Best, Bonnie



----- Original Message ----
From: "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com>
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 5:11:29 PM
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2234] Re: What do we mean bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?


Hi, Steve and Bonnie and others 
 
I'm not sure that the ability to carry an argument requires good language skills first and foremost - native speakers often are at a loss of how to set up an argument, defute an argument, or recognize faulty thinking or manipuation.  Certainly, being able to articulate once thoughts requires strong language skills - so these skills may be necessary but by no means sufficient . 
 
In terms of schooling, I come from the tradition that Bonnie describes where there was great value attached to "logical reasoning" and setting up a dialogical essay (thesis, antithesis, synthesis). However, while this is a great skill to have in debates and makes it possilbe to trounce others in bar conversations as you punch holes in their assertions, it does leave out "other ways of knowing" (and if only ever the twain could meet). 
 
So on to "critical literacies" then and the possibilities for teaching and learning these notions present? 
 
All the best 
 
Heide Spruck Wrigley
Mesilla, NM 
 
 

________________________________

From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov [professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Steve Kaufmann [steve at thelinguist.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:03 PM
To: Bonnie Odiorne; The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2231] Re: What do we mean bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?


With regard to Bonnie's post, I feel that critical thinking is not the same as the ability to present an argument. The former exists to some extent in all of us, and I doubt that it can be deliberately taught as a skill without getting pretty condescending. It is dependent on our personality, culture, and exposure to a variety of experience and points of view.

The ability to carry an argument requires good language skills, first and foremost. I do not mean getting the article, tenses and prepositions right, I mean control of a wide vocabulary. In an academic setting it means being able to look at both sides of an argument, to describe competing points of view, and then explain convincingly why one is superior or truer than others. Even ancient Roman rhetoric had the Refutatio where the orator at least pretended to present a view contrary to his own, only to then take it apart.

Steve


On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Bonnie Odiorne <bonniesophia at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

I'm very interested in writing and critical thinking at the moment. Stay with me here: this may get a little convoluted. Don't get me wrong: I don't for a heartbeat think that most ESOL students, even fairly "advanced" ones who might be taking college courses, have the language capacity to express clearly and concisely the critical thinking that may be going on in their heads but they just can't express. I'm thinking of agency and writing, and got into a bit of a conundrum in an English class recently. I'd always though an "argument" paper was one in which one stated a position and supported it with evidence, documented, or from personal experience. It turns out that the author of our text thought the argumentative paper is one that seeks to convince someone to change a thought or value or to do something, and the writer can use many strategies to effect this task. 
    So I'm wondering whether critical thinking is taught in how I used the argument, the abiity to connect thoughts, support them, and come to a sustainable conclusion: could be called expository, the presentation of information, that could demonstrate many levels of critical thinking. The argumentative or persuasive paper, on the other hand, would be to convince, and therein lies agency, I think, the "active" part of "activism": actually doing something to change a situation. 
    I'd relate these ideas in writing/thinking to Bloom's Taxonomy, and the verbs that are associated with various positions on the pyramid. For a good link to that, go to http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/learning/bloom.htm
Just thinking out loud, critically or not.... :-) 
Bonnie Odiorne

 
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Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
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