Displaying: 1-20 of 1417 documents

0.178 sec

1. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Robert L. Williams, Sherry K. Bain, Susan L. Stockdale Role of Critical Thinking in Judging Accuracy and Sources of Claims Regarding Human Development
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
Teacher-education students in a large Human Development course took a generic critical thinking test and 2 companion questionnaires related to the accuracy of human-development claims andperceived sources of information for evaluating those claims. Based on their initial critical thinking scores, some students were identified as high or low critical thinkers and subsequently compared ontheir evaluations of developmental claims and perceived sources of information for their evaluations. The critical thinking groups differed in the following respects: High critical thinkers better judged theaccuracy of developmental claims both at the beginning and end of the course; high critical thinkers made greater gains during the course in judging the accuracy of course-related claims; and high andlow critical thinkers differed in the sources of information used in evaluating developmental claims.
2. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Marie-France Daniel, Louise Lafortune, Pierre Mongeau The Development of Dialogical Critical Thinking in Children
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
In this paper, we study the manifestations of what we call “dialogical critical thinking” in elementary school pupils when they are engaged in philosophical exchanges among peers: What are thecharacteristics of dialogical critical thinking? How does it develop in youngsters? Our research was conducted during an entire school year, with eight groups of pupils from three different cultural contexts: Australia, Mexico and Quebec. Our findings were constructed in an inductive manner, inspired by qualitative analysis as defined by Glaser and Strauss (1967). From our analysis, a grid was developed, illustrating the process by which dialogical critical thinking developed among the pupils involved in our research. This process is manifested via four modes of thinking (logical, creative, responsible and meta-cognitive), which become increasingly complex according to three epistemological perspectives (egocentricity, relativism and inter-subjectivity oriented toward meaning).
3. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Tapio Puolimatka Constructivism and Critical Thinking
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
The problem with the traditional model of education is that the student is largely receptive. The constructivist model corrects this defect by promoting learning within a highly interaction oriented pedagogy. The problem is that sometimes it combines this with a constructivist view of knowledge, which does not provide an adequate epistemological framework for critical thinking. Even though individual creativity should be encouraged, students’ constructions must be subject to critical scrutiny. This assumes the development of the capacity for critical evaluation on the basis of generally valid rational criteria. The constructivist view of learning is most useful, when it is combined with moderate foundationalism about knowledge. Adequate knowledge constructions presuppose the development of the capacity for critical thinking with its constitutive habits, skills and attitudes.
4. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Don Fawkes Critically Thinking Through Visual Arts
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
This paper applies the Sonoma Model of Critical Thinking to visual arts in an educational setting. The analysis produces insights into the functioning of the model, insights into visual arts, and pragmaticconclusions regarding relationships among art historians, visual artists, and others. We summarize the Sonoma Model of critical thinking and apply it to thinking about art history and visual arts. We use these insights to apply the Sonoma Model to thinking critically about visual arts in an educational environment. One application of the model for visual artists and art historians is in appreciating these disciplines, something that is often lacking among and between them. We find further insight in the application of the elements of the model to themselves, and close with practical affective conclusions for applications of the model by faculty and administrators.
5. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
James J. Delaney Tolerance and Tact: A Critical Thinking Strategy for Dealing with Relativism
6. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Dale Jacquette Socrates on Persuasion, Truth, and Courtroom Argumentation in Plato’s Apology
7. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 22 > Issue: 4
Robert L. Williams, Renee Oliver, Jessica L. Allin Knowledge and Critical Thinking as Course Predictors and Outcomes
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
Pre- and postmeasures of course knowledge correlated more strongly and consistently with course performance variables (essay quizzes, course project, multiple-choice exams, and total course credit)than did pre- and postmeasures of generic critical thinking. In addition, the total sample (N =126) improved significantly on course knowledge from the pre- to the postassessment but changed minimally on critical thinking. The extent and pattern of change in critical thinking differed somewhat for students making high and low grades in the course. High-grade students achieved significantly more favorable changes on both critical thinking and course knowledge than did the low-grade students.
8. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Sandra M. Estanek, Patrick G. Love Critical Thinking and Seamless Learning: A Post-Modern Approach
9. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
John Follman Teaching Critical Thinking to Adults
10. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Desi Larson, Peter Caron Freire and Family Literacy: Promoting Critical Thinking with an Engaged and Critical Approach to Learning
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
The purpose of this paper is to present a Freirean perspective of family literacy education using the example of an Even Start family literacy program in Maine. This program, the Center and Home-based Instructional Program for Parents and Youth (CHIPPY) family literacy project, illuminates Freirean tenets and promotes critical thinking in its work serving at-risk families in the northernmost part of Maine in Fort Kent and surrounding towns that comprise Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) #27. Freire argued that education has the potential to promote transformation and liberation. He also argued that education could only be transformational if it includes components of critical thinking and reflection.A participatory action research (PAR) evaluation of the CHIPPY program was conducted during the 2001-2002 academic year. Interviews, observations and document reviews were conducted for the evaluation. Adults participating in the program completed a participant survey. This paper draws on findings from this evaluation, which found evidence of significant positive impacts and effects of program participation, for child and adult participants alike, in each of the components of family literacy: adult education, parenting education, intergenerational education, and childhood education.The evaluation revealed evidence of more than simply the improvement of basic literacy skills for adult participants in the CHIPPY program. From various evaluation sources, positive impacts were consistently reported tor adult participants, including: increased community involvement (volunteering), further education, and people going on to college, gaining educational and work skills, changed dispositions, participants and graduates appear to be more independent, and participants are reported to be more positive, assertive, and self-sufficient reflecting a Freirean humanizing pedagogy.Through the active promotion of critical thinking and critical reflection, educators in the CHIPPY program facilitated transformational and liberatory outcomes for program participants; “nurturing... self-directedempowered adults [who would] see themselves as proactive ... and not as reactive individuals, buffeted by uncontrollable forces of circumstance” (Brookfield, 1987, p. 48).
11. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
David G. Lebow, Dale W. Liek, Hope J. Hartman HyLighter and Interactive Annotation: New Technology to Develop Higher-Order Thinking Skills
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
The ability to gain knowledge from text in widely different subject matter areas is key to academic success and lifelong leaming. The process of attaining critical understanding of ideas in text requires a robust repertoire of leaming or study strategies, metacognitive knowledge for regulating their use, and willingness to apply them. Although much is known about the basic design of leaming environments to develop higher-order thinking skills and motivation to learn, educators have, in general, not changed their practices to reflect new knowledge. The lack of procedures that are easy for teachers to administer and provide results that teachers may use in their classrooms for assessment of complex cognitive skill development is a major obstacle to widespread adoption of new approaches. This paper describes a new technology, referred to as HyLighter, and a pedagogically sound implementation of this technology, referred to as the Interaclive Annotation Model. This approach suggests a promising direction for improving the quality of instruction and promoting active reading (i.e., an approach to the development of leaming ability that combines reading with critical thinking and a range of learning-to-Iearn skills) for students in higher education across academic disciplines.
12. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Joe Norden, Jr., Gary J. Dean Thinking Critically About the Assessment of Adult Students in Even Start Family Literacy Programs
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
During the past decade and a half, the field of family literacy has gone from its infancy on the educational periphery toward a position closer to the mainstream. Characteristic ofthe field’s growth is the nation’s largest endeavor in family literacy, the federal Even Start program, which began from scratch in the late 1980s and now claims more than 800 local programs in 50 states and Puerto Rico.Despite several national evaluations of Even Start, no comprehensive study in the family literacy literature specifically focuses on this quarter-billion dollar program’s attempts to measure the progress of its adult students. Accordingly, this study sought to discover the ways in which adult assessment is performed by Even Start programs.This essay emphasizes critical thinking with regards to assessment in Even Start programs Critical thought and reflection drive the exploration of several themes in the study’s data that carry itnplications for the families served by Even Start. These implications, gleaned from what Brookfield (1987) calls “reflective skepticism” and careful study of the data, bring the survey’s numbers to life and ultimately yield useful, potentially program-enhancing information.The article offers background on family literacy and Even Start programs and briefly illustrates the study’s methodology. Then follows a discourse that views the study’s findings through the lens of critical thought, drawing meaning from selected findings that contain repercussions for Even Start families. The piece concludes with recommendations for the improvement of Even Start programs through enhanced assessment and continued study.
13. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
T. Ross Owen Introduction to the Special Issue on Critical Thinking and Higher Education
14. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Joseph L. Armstrong, John A. Dale A Freireian Critique of American Adult Literacy Policy
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
At first glance, legislation intended to shape American adult Iiteracy programs appears egalitarian and hopeful. After a more thorough reading, the legislative objectives are Iimited, culturally biased, and largely unattainable. In order to develop coherent Iiteracy pedagogy, we explore Paulo Freire’s definition of critical thinking. From a critical theory perspective, we argue that a vocational education of learning basic skills is insufficient. Furthermore, we believe that more is needed to help adult learners beconle self-sufficient in a modern, dynamic economy. Critical thinking, as defined by Freire, along with vocational education allows individuaIs to develop their ontological right to become aware of historical and social forces.
15. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Tom Nesbit, Daniel Schugurensky, Darlene Clover Building Research Capacities in Adult Literacy: Bridging the Gap between University Researchers and Practitioners
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
There is growing interest in developing co-operation between adult literacy researchers and practitioners to further research skills and approaches. Canada’s National Literacy Secretariat has recently initiated a series of policy debates that suggested several possibilities: targeted research grants, research internships for practitioners, practical sabbaticals for researchers, support for networking between literacy researchers and practitioners, and joint seminars and workshops between researchers and practitioners. A common theme throughout these discussions is the need to develop critical thinking about both collaborative research and adult literacy. In this paper we discuss two collaborative initiatives between university-based researchers and adult literacy groups in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. Each project was based on the notion of “research circles” and specifically designed to enhance research capacity and critical thinking about literacy research.
16. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Jean Toner, Michele Rountree Transformative and Educative Power of Critical Thinking
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
Critical theory and critical thinking emphasize the power of self-reflection and educative analysis where students in higher education become motivated to change their present societal reality by being strategic and action orientated. Central to these theories is the enlistment of strategies that utilize educational vehicles infused with critical thinking to engage students in the process of intensive evaluation of the theory, values, knowledge and skiIls of their respective fields with the often transformative impact upon a student’s worldviews. This article reviews the theoretical and historical tenets of ctitical theory and its interdependence and reinforcing relationship with critical thinking. An illustration is offered that represents the cyclical and often transformative relationship between critical theory and critical thinking. Along with a definition of critical thinking there is a discussion of the difference between critical thinking and other forms of thinking. Last, at the core of the article will be suggestions for designing trans disciplinary teaching methods based upon Freire’s critical consciousness with an emphasis upon an instructor’s self-evaluative, liberating stance towards education. Strategies will be introduced that engage students in the act of intensive critical thinking becomes transformative.
17. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Christine M. Cress Critical Thinking Development in Service-Learning Activities: Pedagogical Implications for Critical Being and Action
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
This study investigated student development of critical thinking skills in senior-level service-Iearning courses. The methodology included a pre- and post-test design. Findings indicate that facilitating critical thinking as a function of developing critically engaged students is related to the pedagogical types of course content, discussions, and activities.
18. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Elizabeth J. Allan, Susan V. Iverson Cultivating Critical Consciousness: Service-Learning in Higher Education
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
In this article, we blend the Piagetian informed understanding of critical thinking with the scholarship of critical theory to analyze service-Iearning as a pedagogical strategy to promote critically conscious thinking among Students in higher education. We draw from our teaching experiences and student reflections in three different courses at two universities. In these courses, service-leaming was designed to: promote understandings of course content related to societal systems of advantage and disadvantage, develop self-awareness, promote understanding of sociocultural identity differences, and to instill a sense of responsibility for social change. Recommendations are provided.
19. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
Donald J. Yarosz, Susan Willar Fountain Facilitating Reflection Among Family Literacy Participants
abstract | view |  rights & permissions
In this paper, we reflect upon our experience in Mexico, as weIl as review the literature on reflection developed by adult educators in the United States in order to begin to develop a theory of “relevant retlection” useful for family literacy practitioners. We feel that engaging in relevant reflection can help to empower family literacy practitioners in the United States to work more effectively with participants and help participants think more critically about the meaning of literacy in their lives. It is the participant’s perception of their life-world that we hold to be valid. In the context of family literacy, our initial interest is in promoting the exploration of the educational validity of a certain form of reflection as it relates to learning process and outcomes. Our theory derived from reviewing the literature on reflection and critical reflection is thus stated: When family literacy paticipants are encouraged to reflect upon the relevance of literacy as it relates to their life-world, learning is significantly enhanced. Relevant reflection can be facilitated through engaging participants in reflecting upon the relevance of literacy to their lives, their families, their communities and their livelihoods. Indeed, this can be done individuaIly, in dialogue with another and/or as a group. Family literacy practitioners are provided a framework for facilitating relevant reflection for participants.
20. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines: Volume > 23 > Issue: 1/2
T. Ross Owen Introduction to the Special Issue on Critical Thinking and Adult Literacy