Dear Colleagues,

Marty and Cynthia have agreed to stay on as guests for a few more days
(thank you!). This gives us an opportunity to explore more strategies
based on a working understanding of what we mean by critical thinking
(CT) and student involvement. I hope we'll hear from others who've not
yet contributed. 

 

Last week, we explored what we mean by critical thinking and a bit about
what we mean by student involvement. We generated a rich list of
defining phrases for critical thinking, which can be found below and at:
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Critical_Thinking:_Summary .
These ideas sift out into several categories: cognitive, disposition,
questioning assumptions, and purpose (see next email) and can be
compared to definitions from research and literature.

 

We discussed areas for teaching and learning to prompt critical
thinking, such as health literacy, integrating technology, project-based
learning, and ESL instruction. Subscribers shared several instructional
ideas and questions to prompt CT.

 

Students become "involved" when instructors involve them early, such as
deciding how they want to be involved, whether they want to pursue a
project (meaningful to and chosen by them) and their roles in that. We
have much to tease apart still about student involvement.

 

Subscribers requested to open the discussion floor to critical
literacies as this may prompt more instructional strategy-sharing and
generate ideas. We touched on what CT means for professional development
and have yet to hear a wide range of views. Hopefully, more staff
developers will chime in on this soon.

 

I've included a list of our statements on critical thinking below.
Summaries-by-thread on the above topics can be found at:

 

*
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/ESL_and_Critical_Thinking_Summary

 

*
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Health_Literacy_as_Catalyst_for_C
ritical_Thinking:_Summary

 

*
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Integrating_Technology%2C_Critica
l_Thinking%2C_and_Learner_Leadership:_Summary 

 

Messages are also sorted by theme and links are found in the right-hand
box of the main page:

 

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Student_Involvement_and_Critical_
Thinking

 

You are welcome to edit anything in the wiki to ensure accuracy, balance
(and proofing!).

 

Best, Jackie

 

Jackie Taylor, List Moderator, jataylor at utk.edu 

 

 

Question: 

Both student involvement and critical thinking in adult literacy can
mean many things to many people. What do we mean when we say we're
teaching critical thinking? How do you teach critical thinking? 

 

Cognitive Abilities 

*        Maybe it's a continuum of sorts - to engage in a project, we
analyze what we'll do, what the goals are, what the outcomes might be,
etc. But to then push ourselves a bit more critically, we might ask why
the project is important, who gains or loses / in whose interest are we
undertaking the project...? 

 

Practicing critical thinking with students in adult literacy... 

*        Enables students to move from more concrete, personal
perception to 'critical thinking', i.e. the ability to analyze, evaluate
and de personalize ideas, themes and issues 

*        Exercises cognitive pathways to higher-order thinking 

*        Requires people to form their own opinions and to learn how to
present them effectively and yet deal with contrary opinions 

*        Is understanding possibilities, possible outcomes (if I do X,
Y, Z, or A could happen), and making informed decisions with the
knowledge and information I have on hand < and/or knowing how to get the
information I might need in order to make whatever decision it is I'm
making. ("Decision" here could mean deciding what something means, as
well as deciding what to do about something). 

*        Is when the instructor creates a framework for students to take
their thinking in new directions. Thus inspiring critical thinking! 

*        Gathering information and acquiring tools to put that info to
immediate, constructive use epitomize today's critical thinking. 

 

On Purpose 

Critical thinking to maintain a democracy with caution against promoting
ideologies 

*        Critical thinking is about using your mind fully. I think to
have a true democracy, we can do with nothing less than everyone's fully
functioning minds. That means we have to work to make sure that minds
are not shut down by fear, by the feeling that maybe they're not good
enough, by the worry that they don't have a right to their own voice,
etc. Lots of messages, in society (and in schools) instruct students to
not trust themselves and to not believe in themselves and to buy the
idea that *others* are experts. Teaching for critical thinking attempts
to counter those messages and reverse those tendencies. 

*        We can not promote an ideology, however exalted, and at the
same time encourage critical thinking. Surely critical thinking requires
people to form their own opinions and to learn how to present them
effectively and yet deal with contrary opinions. 

*        Our job is not to instill or impose beliefs, as we know, but to
work with learners to help them articulate their own thoughts, engage in
dialogue with one another and with others in their communities, in ways
that help them accomplish whatever it is they're wanting to do. 

*        [Critical thinking] shows us ways for students and teachers to
hear alternative experiences and perspectives and to remind ourselves
that things can be different (and they ARE different for different
groups of people). And this is what Cynthia was talking about when she
supported the idea of students recognizing their agency - that we don't
have to just accept things as they are. 

*        Is about asking questions that encourage people to see
themselves as individuals, yes, but also as members of a community, as
people who are *affected* by how their environment and their health care
systems, jobs, families, etc. are structured. 

 

On the Disposition of Being a Critical Thinker: 

*        Critical thinking starts as an attitude and in overcoming the
possibility of being wrong. To think critically one must be willing to
take risks. Considered how overcoming the possibility of being wrong
intersects with culture; for example, it goes against the American grain


*        A willingness to accept risk is paramount. 

*        Even more stunning is the experience of following through in a
way of thinking or acting that instinctively feels wrong--actually, it
may be right, but because the way of thinking / behaving is so new, it
feels wrong. 

*        Just because something "feels right" doesn't mean it is, and
just because something "feels wrong" doesn't mean it is wrong. Think of
learning a new sport--EVERYTHING will feel wrong, yet that is probably
the only way to learn. 

 

On Rhetoric, Organizing Thoughts, and Persuasively Articulating Ideas on
the Way to Critical Thinking 

*        Using rhetoric as a discipline to help organize thoughts in
order to persuade others, forcing one to think about logical connections
between ideas 

*        Knowledge of the logical fallacies is a beginning of critical
thinking--necessary but not sufficient--to grasp what it means to think
critically, but where we still need to understand assumptions,
implications, and how to apply our thinking in the concrete universe
where, as Aristotle noted a long time ago, there are "no fixed data." 

*        I feel that critical thinking is not the same as the ability to
present an argument. The ability to carry an argument requires good
language skills, first and foremost. 

*        Rhetoric is a "metacompetency" that gets students to think
about language and how they think, metacognitiion, and thus is on the
way to critical thinking. In addition to becoming more aware of their
own language, it also sensitizes students to language strategies that
can be effective, or manipulate, and so they could study their own
lives, the media and consumerism that surrounds them, and not believe
that just because something is in print (or on the Internet) makes it
so. If they see their peers becoming victimized by such manipulation,
like the advertisements of a certain phonics system on Hispanic tv, they
will take action. 

 

Some Factors That Influence Critical Thinking 

*        Our exposure to ideas: What is the range of opinions we have
been exposed to, aurally or in writing. I.e. how much do we read and
discuss things. 

*        Our culture: Some cultures, like ours, are linear, and need
things need to be logically set out, one observation at a time, with
obvious logical connections between them. Certain cultures favour a more
general, mood or emotion based way of communicating, which takes
advantage of shared values and shared assumptions. 

*        Our personality: Are we prepared to challenge ideas and have
our ideas challenged? 

*        Technique: We can acquire a technique for setting out our
ideas. The five part essay in North America is one. The balanced expose
that I learned at University in France is another. The techniques of
traditional classical rhetoric is yet another. In forcing our ideas to
conform to such formulas, we start to analyse ideas and search for
relevance, justification and logical connections. 

 

Metaphors for Critical Thinking: 

*        Learning is like placing a ladder against a building and
climbing it. Critical thinking (1) gets us to examine why we are placing
our ladder against that building and (2) helps us remain open so that we
can reposition our ladder as new information and thoughts become
available. It is a shame to finally get to the top of the ladder and
realize that we are on the wrong roof. As we remain open to new thoughts
and ideas, we can make sure that we end up on the right roof top. 

*        And how often it happens that we need to change rooftops in our
role as learning educators! 

*Retrieved from
"http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Critical_Thinking:_Summary"

 


>From the PD Area of the ALE Wiki:

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Critical_Thinking:_Summary 

 

 

 

 

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