designing a critical thinking course – for learning lynne jump senior lecturer school of health...
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Designing a critical thinking course – for learningLynne JumpSenior LecturerSchool of Health and Social CareUniversity of Greenwich
Initial design
COMMON LOGICAL FALLACIES--1 (from the Latin fallere, meaning “to deceive, to trip,
to lead into error, to trick”; in one sense, everything on this list is a potential advertising strategy!)
Reasoning by analogy A is true; B is like A; ? B is true S. Baptists abandoned Biblical basis of slavery; submission of
women like slavery; ? … Ad hominem (attack the person, not the argument)
A has a fault/virtue; ? A has other faults/virtues Fran went to a second-rate college; ? her contributions are
second-rate.
Teaching and learning
Social constructivism Discussion within small groups Activity focussed Analysis of written texts
I find it difficult to put myself out there when the nature of the activity is based on personal thinking, I found it difficult to reveal in public what I think and that I don’t always understand
It is difficult to ask questions about the activity, I took the cowardly way out and rang the lecturer
I appreciate your honest and open response ….I can see exactly where you are coming from, I on the other hand am going to sit on the fence with regards to where I stand…
It does feel a bit like an awkward social situation at times, you just want to be nice…
Initial Evaluation
My learning is helped when I enter in the results of my activities because this site is a sort of practice point for me as I have to type in activities and express my opinions by myself
My learning is helped when I attempt activities that are set by the tutor because it guides and focuses my thinking
My learning is helped when I attempt homework it is guiding and informative because it guides you in an attempt to do some work with others and leads you to more reading
Evaluation continued……
My learning is helped when I participate in discussion because corrections can be made to my thinking when other people’s ideas are put through
My learning is helped when I read information shared by others because it makes me think how I should present my activities and how to share information
My learning is helped when I went to the discussion area and could read other people’s ideas because sometimes when I could not understand something because of language barrier I understood the idea when I read it from others on the course
Evaluation cont’d……
My learning is helped when I am able to work at my own speed because I have no access from home
My learning is helped when I used the site because responses were helpful
In all areas all information has been useful to a greater or lesser degree
My aim: to re design the course material using an iterative design
process
Talk to students
Talk to programme leaders
Read the literature
The literature
Critical thinking and e learning
Concentrated on the tools that promote enriched communication between people with different views and perspectives
Transferability of critical thinking skills
Depended upon
•Prior knowledge and its representation
•Beliefs and motivation
•Context of learning
Talking to students:
Define critical thinking
Being:
Broadminded
Able to get a wider understanding of the issues
Doing:
thinking more
Criticising
Breaking down
Thinking outside the box
Comparing and contrastingReasons for:
Mustn’t be descriptive
See the positive and the negative
Evaluate evidence
Elaborating the definitions
Criticise and analyse other peoples opinions and views, then interpret in your own thinking
In depth thinking, reasoning, views, opinions with an aim to obtain meaningful results – make sense ofNo attempts at
contextual elaboration
What would help you to become critical?
•Writing essays
•Presentation skills
•Research skills
•Time management
•IT skills
•Study skills
Cycle 1:
Search for suitable materials
Re establish the materials within a thinking course
Embed the course within a framework of reflection
Test the design so far
Cycle 2:
Talk more to programme leaders, this time about VALUES!!
Design activities that situate learning within a commonly agreed value system – based upon future employment/ professional affiliations
Use systems of co reflection to support the construction of an individual journal
Work towards using social learning tools such as Wiki’s to support concept development