LTGR Ep. #34 - “Critical Thinking”
In this episode, Dan and Susan explore the idea of critical thinking in online learning. Can you create the same kind of dynamic, spontaneous pursuit of a topic when you move online?
Show Notes:
In this episode, Dan and Susan explore the idea of critical thinking in online learning. Can you create the same kind of dynamic, spontaneous pursuit of a topic when you move online?
Susan first asks whether there is the possibility to work synchronously. But for those who teach asynchronously, most would argue that the technology can be used to bring about greater depth, participation and critical thinking.
What is the disconnect that keeps faculty from making the transition and building courses that are driven by critical thinking?
Susan says this starts with instructional design. What are you asking students to do and how?
How are we asking the questions? A couple resources: A Questioning Toolkit - old ’97. And then Introduction to Crafting Questions for Online Discussion
Dan also suggests looking at the verbs you use when asking questions, but Susan reminds us to keep it within the vocabulary range of the learner.
How do you know when someone has thought critically? Facilitators must not assume learners understand the roles needed to bring about critical thinking. Instructions, rubrics and rewards are three strategies discussed.
Poorly inter-related monologues; how do we get beyond these? Susan admits she’s struggling in this area!
Final nuggets: get training in pedagogy, set up your course for discussion to be central, craft appropriate questions, know what outcomes you want in advance, facilitate accordingly. Of course, it is never that simple!
Listeners, what are your ideas and experiences in bringing about critical thinking in online discussions?
A final resource we forgot to mention:
Teaching Critical Thinking through Online Discussions [PDF]
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December 4th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I am just getting around to listening to this episode (life has been more chaotic than usual the last few months!) I’m sad to see no comments following this Green Room episode on Critical Thinking and how we can foster it in an online environment.
My first thoughts during the session were about whether we have a formal definition of “critical thinking”. I was aware that I have a functional definition but I couldn’t point to an educational theorist or an “in-print” definition. That is an obvious concern, unless everyone else accepts me and mine as definitive.
Is is fostering critical thinking to ask the class members to move beyond the knowledge base and into the synthesis of various (discreet) data and/or apply the knowledge in the professional setting?
Next spring I will be teaching a course that (I hope) will encourage participants to do that. We’ll look at what are usually discreet knowledge sets (theology as a written set of knowledge and art as visual representations of similar or different truthes). Then the participants will be encouraged to find ways to “remix” the data so as to create a different learning/experiencing environment in a church congregation (where they will do most of their teaching/proclaiming.)
Thanks for the suggestions of online documents that explore elements of critical thinking. Those will be among my goals immediately after sending in this comment.
Alan