Teaching Critical Thinking in Discussion: “Challenges and Strategies” Ekta Kandhway Interdisciplinary Humanities

What is Critical Thinking? “Critical thinking is the development of discipline organized thinking that monitors itself and is guided by intellectual standards. Further, they hold that reasoning must be at the heart of good teaching, sound learning, and preparation for college, career, and civic life.” (Paul and Elder, 1995) Six essential skills necessary for developing critical thinking: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation (The Delphi report, 1990)

Why is Critical Thinking Useful? CT promotes purposeful, reflective judgment that results in a reasoned and fair consideration of evidence, conceptualizations, methods, and standards that ultimately frame beliefs and actions. Critical Thinking and the question of race CRES: Purpose My class was mainly constituted of freshmen.

Challenges in Promoting Critical Thinking Role of the instructor Participation of students Time constraint Lack of pre-reading Prior knowledge

Critical Thinking in Discussions Strategies Outcomes Increase wait time by using freewrites It helps draw shy students in to the discussion. Prime to pump: assigning questions in advance to be explored as homework Linking out-of-class exploratory writings with in-class discussion topics increases class’s readiness to engage in discussions. Have students generate questions to be discussed Students already come prepared with their own question and observation from the assigned reading. Short formal papers to allow daily paper presentations (to be discussed in the class) “To go public” forces students do their best work Weekly critical incident questionnaire. Students’ feedback helps instructor understand their progress and shortcomings Hold a discussion about discussion Students establish criteria for a successful class discussions Online discussion Forums Promotes engaged and active participation

Jigsaw technique in collaborative and critical learning Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJpVE-fQeE&t=5s

Concept mapping Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. Benefits: From declarative to reflective knowledge Analytically engaging with the subject Open-mindedness Interest and self-efficacy 100% participation

Writing Assignments Journal assignments Creative journals Event journals The role of writing centers Narrative feedback

Outcomes Direct evidence of learning: 1. More analytic papers 2. Engaged and reflective discussions 3. Better participation . Connecting to real life experiences

Indirect Evidence of Learning I liked that the class had a lot of group discussions because it made it possible to hear a lot of different viewpoints. I liked the concept maps because it tied in coursework from the entire semester and not just the topic of the week. I liked that the instructor wanted the class to discuss what we were learning and was not just going over the class and readings on her own. I enjoy doing the creative journals and the fact that my TA is available to help you with anything, as well as being understanding.

I liked how everyone was given the chance to participate and share what they thought about the readings, She also knew the subject very well, so when she gave me feedback on my assignments, I knew I did a good job. The instructor was very motivated to engage us in discussions over the assigned readings.