Using Discussion for Critical Thinking EDCO 725

.docx

School

Liberty University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

725

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

3

Uploaded by MegaFire7312

Report
Using Discussion for Critical Thinking Underlying principles for teaching thought using discussion. Our ever-changing and challenging world requires students, our future citizens, to go beyond their own knowledge capacity; they need to develop their critical system thinking, decision making, and problem solving (Miri et al. 2007). The implimentation of critical thinking skills is vitally important in the advanced learning class rooms. Snyder and Wiles (2015) quote the American Philosophical Association when they define critical thinking. They say, “We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based.” The definition is all inclusive. The student can learn to think critically from a myriad of situations. The first principle for teaching thought from the text is preparing in advance for the discussion. Participation preparation assignments (PPA) PPA’s are dispersed at the end of the class and the students work on the assignment before the next class (Sveniski & McKeachie 2014). Some examples of PPA are (a) Participating in online discussion posts before the next class. The teacher reads all the posts and add their comments into the classroom discussion. The students perk up and are attentive as they hear their work and they know their comments are valuable. Since the teacher hopes for a full discussion, she may begin with a common experience that is easy for everyone to talk about. This could be a short video clip or a brief reading of an article (Svinicki & McKeachie 2014). Another idea for beginning the discussion is for the instructor to ask a question and have the students write down a brief answer followed by several people reading their answer. This helps everyone, including shy students or students who are slower, to be prepared to answer (Svinicki & McKeachie 2014). Thirdly, the instructor may use factual questions to begin the discussion. The instructor can say, “Let’s just make sure we all agree on some of the key definitions and facts before we start discussing.” (Svinicki & McKeachie 2014) Application and interpretation questions occur next. The instructor prepares questions for the discussion to progress toward relationships, application or analyses of facts and materials. For example, “How does _______ apply to ____________?”(Svinicki & McKeachie 2014) Critical questions help the discussion dive deeper. For example, An eminent authority states ___, under what conditions might that not be true? (Svinicki & McKeachie 2014). When a student says, “I don’t know,” the instructor may rephrase question.
When beginning a discussion with a problem or case, the instructor is to express her curiosity and allow the students to come up with new solutions, even if the instructor knows a good answer. Another way to deal with problems is by breaking a problem into sub-problems and working on one sub part of the problem at a time (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). When practicing problem solving in a discussion the first task is to clarify the problem; the second task is to answer the questions “What do we know?” Or “What data are relevant?” Third the instructor asks, “What are the characteristics of an acceptable solution?” and “What is needed?” In the fourth step the instructor asks, “What are possible solutions?” In the fifth and final step the instructor asks the students to evaluate the solutions against the criteria for the answer or solution (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). When some of the students are reluctant to participate the instructor can give intermittent summaries to help the students monitor their progress. Keeping a visual record on a white board or screen also helps students keep track of the lesson (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). Some students may be non-participants. In this case the instructor may design expectations of participation in the discussion. The instructor can explain the purpose of the discussion or deliberate why discussion is so important. (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). If the instructor asks students to take one or two minutes to write out their answers to questions it is much easier to embolden them to read their answer. The instructor may also reward infrequent contributors with a smile (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). As the discussion is drawing to a close the instructor may give summaries or ask a student to give the minutes of the discussion. The instructor may assign one or two students to take minutes for the class freeing the other students to be completely occupied with the discussion without taking notes (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014). List of critical thinking components 1. Critical thinking discussions generally permit deliberation of complications and alternatives. 2. Discussions with disagreements are often an indication of an alert and involved class. 3. Discussions are more interesting when the instructor tells the students that some reports can be very boring and she encourages the students to have an interesting method of reporting. 4. In a discussion being able to articulate his or her reasoning is very important to the student. 5. Discussions with critical thinking evaluate what characteristics are worthwhile and effective and what barriers, gaps or difficulties have arisen (Sviniski & McKeachie 2014).
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
  • Access to all documents
  • Unlimited textbook solutions
  • 24/7 expert homework help