1. CRITICAL THINKING, DISCUSSION & THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM
Stephen Brookfield
University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Thursday Nov. 30th, 2017

2. www.stephenbrookfield.com Home Page – STEAL!!!
Click on ‘Resources’ link & then ‘Workshop Materials’
Scroll for power point presentations & pdf files
Click on link for Critical Incident Questionnaire
Listen to The 99ers while you steal (

3. Todays Meet Go to www.todaysmeet.com/
Create a nickname for yourself & log in – don’t use your real name
Greet us by posting a welcome!
Anytime you have a question or comment post it on the Todaysmeet feed
I’ll check the feed & respond throughout the session

4. Critical Thinking Happens When We…
Identify the Assumptions Informing Our Thoughts & Actions
Check Our Assumptions for Accuracy & Validity – Contextual ‘Fit’
View Ideas, Protocols & Decisions from Alternative Perspectives
Take Informed Actions

5. How do students display critical thinking?
Providing evidence for their assertions, arguments, statements, hypotheses
Giving reasons why an argument, theory or statement is valid and accurate
Demonstrating the ability to build arguments by showing inferential ladders & chains of reasoning
Looking for significant information that’s missing, omitted or ignored
Developing the intellectual flexibility to seek out alternative perspectives and viewpoints
Practicing continuous self-appraisal & welcome critique

6. What Do Students Say Helps Them to Think Critically?
WHEN IT’S MODELLED EXPLICITLY & PUBLICLY BY TEACHERS
WHEN ACTIVITIES ARE SEQUENCED SO STUDENTS ARE GRADUALLY INITIATED INTO PRACTICING THIS ON THEMSELVES
WHEN IT’S PRACTICED IN SMALL, PEER- LEARNING GROUPS

7. Exercises to practice critical thinking are designed to help students…
Understand that multiple perspectives exist on issues, knowledge & practice
Become aware that the assumptions they bring are not held by everybody else
Look for what’s missing or ignored
Get comfortable with ambiguity

8. SCENARIO ANALYSIS
Brief (1 page) vignette of someone reasoning, choosing & acting in a specific situation
Students are asked to put themselves in that person’s shoes & propose:
Assumptions informing the reasoning, acting or choices that are described
How the person profiled could check these out
Important data or information might be missing
Different perspectives that could be taken on the person’s reasoning, actions or choices

9. SOME EXAMPLES
A clinical psychologist diagnoses a child with learning difficulties as autistic
A biologist trying to understand the spread of an infectious disease sets up an experiment to test a plausible hypothesis.
An historian designates a particular primary source as fabricated or otherwise unreliable
A civil engineer proposes an adobe structure for a public building in an earthquake zone

10. Karen, a wife and mother of two young children in her thirties, is considering going back to work. She has watched as her husband Jack, a busy professor, has taken on more and more work outside of his college to help provide his family a decent quality of life in the city. She sees how tired he is and hears his complaints of how he never has enough time with his family, how he's being pulled in so many different directions, & how he wished things would slow down 
To ease the situation, Karen has interviewed for, and been offered, a full time job with a company in the suburbs. She intends to put the children into day care and commute back and forth each day to her work. She reckons that with the money her job brings into the home Jack will be able to give up many of his commitments outside of the college. This will give him more time with his family and reduce the pressures and tensions he feels. Overall, the family will be happier - their economic situation will be the same but the burden of producing income will be shared & Jack will be able to spend more time at home.

11. What assumptions is Karen operating under in this scenario?
Of the assumptions identified, which could she check by simple research & inquiry ? How could she do this?
What data or information might Karen be missing?
What’s an alternate interpretation of this scenario? A version of what's happening that’s consistent with the events described but that Karen would disagree with.

12. MODELING – 6 TECHNIQUES TO TRY
Using Classroom Geography
Assumptions Inventories
Instructor Point – Counterpoint
Structured Self-Critique
What Do YOU Think Professor?
Ending with Questions

13. Using Classroom Geography (1)
A technique to illustrate multiple viewpoint, theories, frameworks
Post 3-4 signs around the auditorium, each reflecting a distinct theory, viewpoint or analytical framework
When you stand under a sign you speak ONLY in the language & perspective of that theory
When students ask questions you go to different stations & answer them ONLY from that perspective
The visual element of this helps students enormously

14. Using Classroom Geography (2)
After explaining theories, frameworks & views from 3 or 4 different perspectives, divide the class into 3 or 4 groups
Put a group under each of the signs you’ve just lectured from
Pose the same substantive question to the whole class
Each group has 5 minutes to discuss how someone working from within that particular group’s theory, framework or viewpoint would respond to the question posed
Whole class reassembles & each group shares their response
Teaches different perspectives & checks for understanding

15. ASSUMPTIONS INVENTORIES: Talking Out Loud
Here’s the Assumptions I’m Working Under
Here’s Why I Think They’re Accurate & Valid – Experience as Corroboration
Here’s How My Assumptions have been Confirmed / Deepened by My Practice
Here’s How My Assumptions have Been Challenged by My Practice or Peers
Here’s the New Perspectives & Information I’ve Discovered Over Time

16. Assumptions Inventories - Students
In assignments or at the end of class students post:
Assumptions I had about this topic that were confirmed
Assumptions I had that were challenged
New assumptions about the topic I discovered
Significant information I discovered that changed my perspective on the topic
New perspectives on the topic I stumbled on

17. Instructor Point-Counter Point
Here a duo or trio of faculty model a critical analysis of a concept or practice in front of students.
They seek to understand each other’s viewpoints as best they can and raise questions about each other’s positions.
They clarify points of dissension and disagreement and make public the evidence or reasoning behind their disagreements.

18. STRUCTURED SELF-CRITIQUE
If you teach solo you state an argument, summarize an analytical framework, describe a practice, or outline a theory, standing or sitting at one position in the room.
You then move to another position, turn to face where you were sitting/standing, and review the arguments and practices you’ve outlined. You point out all the omissions, distortions, problems & contradictions in your position.
Online you can post as another individual. (My ‘avatar’ / doppelganger online identity is Steve Shannon.)

19. What do YOU think professor?
You give 2 or 3 Answers – Only ONE is Your Opinion
Students Vote on Whether They Think Answer A), B) or C) is Correct
Students Assemble in Groups Based on their Responses – all A’s, all B’s & all C’s
In Answer Groups they Discuss Why They Chose Their Particular Answer
Class Assembles & Groups Give their Reasons
You Disclose Which Was Your Actual Opinion

20. ENDING WITH QUESTIONS
At the end of a lecture or discussion you end by asking….
What’s been missing from this analysis?
What most needs further scrutiny?
What are the chief critiques of what I’ve been saying?
What unresolved questions am I left with?
What are the most troubling questions we’ve raised today
You can respond to these or ask students to respond

21. Circle of Voices
Requires every student to speak but in a way that’s as non-threatening as possible – important for subsequent participation
Designed to elicit a variety of perspectives & to stop the discussion being channeled prematurely into one analysis
Teaches habits of careful listening for assumptions
Focuses on building connections

22. Circle of Voices
Individuals reflect silently & individually on the discussion topic or question (1-2 minutes). Then they form groups of 4 or 5.
Participants go round the circle in order - each person has up to 1 minute of uninterrupted air time to give their viewpoint on the topic. No interruptions are allowed
After all have spoken, people move into free discussion with the ground rule that every comment offered must somehow refer back to a comment made by someone else in the opening circle of voices. This need NOT be agreement - it can be a disagreement, a question, an elaboration or extension, an illustration, etc.

23. Circular Response
Developed by adult educator Eduard Lindeman in the 1930’s
Designed to deepen analysis so that one or two leads, themes or hypotheses get probed – rather than having problem-solving discussions get distracted by too many possible avenues of analysis
Designed to teach very attentive listening for understanding & subsequent questioning

24. Circular Response Individuals think silently about a question (1 min)
Participants go round the circle in order - each person has up to 1 minute of uninterrupted air time to give their viewpoint on the topic. No interruptions are allowed
Move into free discussion with the ground rule that every comment offered must somehow refer back to a comment made by someone else in the opening circle of voices. This need NOT be agreement - it can be a disagreement, a question, an elaboration or extension, an illustration, etc.

25. Getting Students to Talk About Race (1)
Adjust your definition of success – success is having the conversation & keeping it going
Frame the need for conversation in terms of the mission, purpose, strategic plan etc.
Leaders must talk about their own struggles with racism & their struggles to acknowledge it
Multiracial teams model a public conversation
Terms are defined – racism, white supremacy etc.
Racism understood as structural, systemic - a virus, learned behavior, all pervasive, air we breathe

26. Getting Students to Talk About Race (2)
Ground rules – brave space, challenge behavior not the person, only questions, discomfort, anger
Videos & testimony studied by community
Specific protocols – Bohmian dialog, methodological belief, circle of voices, circular response etc.
Anonymous backchannels –
Explanations of your process as facilitator / leader; eg. Applying fairness, why you stay with a particular person/issue, why you call on people
Regular formative evaluation shared w/ community

27. Todays Meet
Todaysmeet is a useful way to get students to ask questions, provide examples, respond to questions & offer reactions to the class
It by-passes the dynamics of verbal participation – giving everyone an equal chance to speak
It provides anonymity – meaning nobody runs the risk of looking stupid
It allows students to ask questions as they occur to them – not only when the professor invites questions in class

28.
Post your response to this question on the todays meet feed…
WHEN HAVE YOU WITNESSED OR ENACTED A RACIAL OR GENDERED MICRO-AGGRESSION?

29. CHALK TALK – A VISUAL TECHNIQUE
Chalk Talk focuses on creating multiple perspectives & identifying connections
At the end of the exercise students have created a visual mind map of what their thinking is on an issue
The final Chalk Talk graphic surfaces multiple viewpoints on a topic
Chalk Talk usually gets above 50% participation
It appeals to ESL/ELL students & introverts
Students who think visually appreciate this exercise

30. HOW CHALK TALK WORKS
Instructor writes a question in the middle of the board
Students stand by the board to do the exercise
5-10 minutes of silence is declared
Students write responses to the question on the board whenever they feel ready
Students & instructor draw lines between similar comments & add reactions & comments/questions
Ends when board is full or posting stops
Students photo board & post on Canvas, Moodle etc.

34. WHAT DOES A TRULY INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM LOOK, SOUND OR FEEL LIKE?
CHALK TALK QUESTION
WHAT DOES A TRULY INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM LOOK, SOUND OR FEEL LIKE?

35. RESOURCES www.stephenbrookfield.com
Teaching for Critical Thinking (2012)
The Skillful Teacher (2015 3rd. Ed.)
The Discussion Book (2016) w/ Stephen Preskill
Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (2017 2nd Ed.)
Teaching Race (2018 Forthcoming)
All books published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley