Are Students Thinking Critically or Playing the Game?

This week in our QEP workshops, we were further challenged in our quest for defining critical thinking. The professors were given a JITT (Just in Time Teaching) exercise in which they had to prioritize the different components that make up the definition of “critical thinking” as reached by the group in the Delphi Report.  It was interesting to note the different priorities that were given by each professor based upon his/her discipline.  So, the question is - should the definition of critical thinking be different for every field or can we all agree on one generic definition in the classrooms??

We were also shown a Doonesbury cartoon in which a college professor is lecturing to his class about Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights.  The students are copiously taking notes, but are not engaging with the professor and analyzing what he is saying.  The professor goes off on a tear of nonsense, just trying to get their attention, but they keep writing everything down.  Finally, the professor collapses on his podium and exclaims, “Teaching is Dead!”

One thought brought out from the group is the fact that students are accustomed to the method of taking notes and taking the professor’s word as “law.”  Most of us were brought up the same way. You learn what the teacher expects from you in the classroom and in your graded projects, and you deliver.  You learn quickly in school what is needed to make the “A.”  I call this “playing the game.”  What can we do to encourage both??

The professors were given the task of creating a JITT exercise about Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights that would have helped the class become active participants in the lecture, and really exercise their critical thinking skills.

Some examples that really make you think outside the box:

If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, what would he think about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy?

If you were part of a group writing the Bill of Rights today, what would you add or remove from the original?  Why?

 

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10rW7XWCVneT4KraDtEL9K9mWqpurlL7AUCXqyILeA-w

Defining "Critical Thinking"

One of the five literacies that our QEP team is addressing is the need to encourage critical thinking skills in our students.   In our workshop this week, we were given the task of defining the term "critical thinking."  You would think that would be easy to do.  However, everyone in the room had a different definition.  This started a great conversation and debate among us.  It was interesting to see how the definition tended to be biased towards the professor's field of expertise.I believe that the main commonality among us though was that critical thinking involves some set of logic. 

I know there are many different aspects of critical thinking.  However, in a nutshell,  I would define critical thinking as any endeavor that includes relying upon your knowledge and past experiences to determine a logical solution or to predict the outcome of a given situation.   This criteria can be met regardless of if you are performing a scientific experiment or determining the actions of characters in a story that you are writing. 

At our next workshop we are supposed to TRY to create a definition that everyone can agree upon.  I look forward to that debate! :-)  

And we're off....

Fall semester is off and running.  And, whew!  Have we been running!!!  It's such an exciting time right now in our QEP department.   Porsha, my fellow Writing Specialist, and I have made class visits to 10 out of 11 of this year's cohorts.  Pretty much everyone has their class wiki in place.  Now, the students are starting to trickle into the labs to work on their assignments.

It is such a joy to work with our faculty and students.  So far, everyone seems to be enjoying their QEP experience.  Just this morning, I showed four students how to use Google docs to collaborate on a group project.  They were amazed at the chat feature built in.  Now, they don't have to meet in person to work on their report.  You would have thought I'd shown them how to go to the moon, they were so excited! haha!

Just a simple exercise using Gdocs to write a collaborative research paper has allowed them to learn how to "connect" in ways they never imagined.   Seeing the students' excitement made my day.  Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceburg.  It's going to be an exciting semester!