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> How does this relate to the call by "educators" for students to do more
> reflection and more higher order thinking? First of all, IMHO, regular
> educators do not really know what it means for students to
> reflect or engage in higher order thinking. ...
Oh, Reatha, you have spoken volumes; what I have been trying to tell
educators for years.
And such a comment is not a slam on educators. Why should it be? They went
through the same public schools in which they teach. The professors of
education also went through the same schools, and teach "educating" as they
have known it.
So, teachers, and the rest of the population, GENERALLY, have not been
taught how to think effectively, nor have teachers been taught how to teach
others how to think effectively. (BTW, 'effective' is the one-word
definition I use with Critical Thinking. Thinking has purposes, from
solving simple day-to-day problems to answering the big problems of Life,
the Universe, and Everything. Thinking which is successful in answering
these problems is effective; shallow (examines too little) thinking is
ineffective. Critical Thinking, which is assessed by its own standards,
thus the 'criteria' which is the basis for 'critical', is the only
structured and formal means of ensuring effective thinking.
The path for educators is to understand that all of the lectures, text
books, films, etc. ARE ONLY INFORMATION to the students; NOT KNOWLEDGE. The
students must be given the opportunities and challenges to form their own
knowledge based on the information presented to them and on the knowledge
they already possess, which in turn is based upon the world in which they
live (an important point, that one!). Students need to be pressed for
why's? Both so that they can examine their reasoning, and also so that they
can understand their reasoning. Students should also be asked to assess
their own thinking, and required to answer how THEY arrived at their
In Ohio, the new OPT (Ohio Proficiency Test) standards include Critical
Thinking and Problem Solving. But is anyone teaching the students how to do
this? Effectively? No. Has anyone taught the teachers how to do this?
No. Workbooks are bought and handed out, and the class does exercises. But
the teachers do not have the training and discipline to think critically
themselves, nor to model the process to the students, nor the abilities to
facilitate collaborative inquiry and dialogues between the students
A simple example is reading. There is a world of difference between being
able to identify letters, to construct words and sentences (simple grammar)
and attach particular sounds to them, and *comprehending* what the words and
sentences are saying. Anyone who teaches inner city sees this happen all
the time. Students read text, but are unable to paraphrase and discuss the
ideas written about; students are unable to communicate their own thoughts
and feelings, usually resorting to more emotive street-speak. When they
can't communicate or be heard at all, they resort to violence. Which of
course leads into a whole other area of problem solving - conflict
management. But I'll save that for another post! What is necessary for
tutors is not only to help students with the grammatical skills, but to also
discuss the materials with the students and getting them to think about and
process the information presented to them. How does it relate to them? To
their lives? To their world?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 08:35:58 PDT