Spring Discussion Questions

According to Paul & Elder, “critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a vision of improving it.” Their argument for the need to utilize critical thinking is the fact that without focus, most of the thinking done by people is partial, many times uninformed, biased, distorted, and prejudiced. What is not easily recognized is the fact that the very fabric of life is

Browne, N. M., & Keeley, S. M. (2011). Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, (10th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Over the course of the last six weeks, I have come to realize that critical thinking is an important asset as I continue my journey in life. I have found this course to be both challenging and rewarding. Most importantly, I find myself viewing problems and conversations in a completely different light. While I would not consider myself an expert at critical thinking, I would assess myself in as a Beginner Thinker. Paul and Elder point out in the beginning thinker stage an individual actively begins to take command of their thinking process across multiple facets of their life (Paul and Elder, 2012). Furthermore, we recognize that there are problems in the way we think and begin to consciously attempt to better understand we can improve our thinking.

C. Preview of Main Points: (How many main points will you have and what exactly are they?) Today I am going to inform you about….

11. “Once a week we had current events, each child was supposed to clip an item from a newspaper, absorb its contents, and reveal them to the class.”

The teacher prepared a checklist of what she would be looking for while assessing the students during the discussion. On this

Why do you think culture (material and nonmaterial) differs from one location to another? Why do you feel that there are changes within a culture across time? In other words, how and why do ideologies change?

The warm breeze blows past me as I open the door to the Sweetwater Middle School. Shouts and hoots of excitement about the New Year came from behind me as I speak amid my social circle. It was going to be a wonderful year with delightful students and teachers. By the end of the year I knew to have been mistaken to think it would work out for me.

The youthful spring breeze drifted through the cracks in the bunkhouse and, as the sun rose, so did the men. They moved sluggishly, muscles and backs aching as they pulled themselves off their beds, still worn out from the labour of the day before. The day was hot but the small gusts of morning air were crisp and fresh, moving gently among the sycamore leaves.

Critical thinking is a vital task that must be done in our everyday lives. In “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking” found at criticalthinking.org, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul explain critical thinking as “the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances”. Even tough there are many different types of methods to achieve a better quality of critical thinking, Dr. Elder and Dr. Paul discuss four specific ones in the article. All strategies, however, force you to put yourself in an uncomfortable and difficult position to develop a better quality of thinking.

"It's almost spring, you know," Mabel said. "Have you seen how the snow is melting? The river will soon break up." (259)

Browne, Keely, McCall and Kaplan, refers to critical thinking as a "Systematic evaluation of arguments based on explicit rational criteria (1998, p.IX)." The authors go on to state that "critical thinking refers to the following: awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions,

The concepts of critical thinking and creative thinking are both gaining increasing importance in the world today. Critical thinking allows people to understand difficult concepts in a manner that is clearer and more defined. They can more readily understand those concepts if they employ critical thinking. In all portions of everyday life, a person is expected to make independent judgments. Those judgments are based on experience and knowledge. Without the ability to think critically, every situation that a person comes across would have to be considered in isolation from all other situations. When a person encounters a problem that is a new one, he or she may be able to use critical thinking to solve those problems.

The fleeting changes that often accompany seasonal transition are especially exasperated in a child’s mind, most notably when the cool crisp winds of fall signal the summer’s end approaching. The lazy routine I had adopted over several months spent frolicking in the cool blue chlorine soaked waters of my family’s bungalow colony pool gave way to changes far beyond the weather and textbooks. As the surrounding foliage changed in anticipation of colder months, so did my family. My mother’s stomach grew larger as she approached the final days of her pregnancy and in the closing hours of my eight’ summer my mother gently awoke me from the uncomfortable sleep of a long car ride to inform of a wonderful surprise. No longer would we be returning

First of all, I had initially deemed question six to be a bad question, when I assessed my pretest because only two of my students answered it correctly. However on the post test, this category saw significant growth moving from two correct answers to eight, and the girls went from a average score of one out of six to a three out of six, and the boys went from an average score of zero out of six to two out of six. Even though I was not able to teach this topic successfully the way I had anticipated, it showed me that I was still successful to a small handful of students.