Designing a critical thinking course

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Designing a critical thinking course for
learning

• Lynne Jump
• Senior Lecturer
• School of Health and Social Care
• University of Greenwich

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Professional practice
Public health
Critical thinking course
Social care
Complimentary therapies
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Initial design

• COMMON LOGICAL FALLACIES--1
• (from the Latin fallere, meaning to deceive, to
  trip, to lead into error, to trick in one
  sense, everything on this list is a potential
  advertising strategy!)
• Reasoning by analogy
• A is true B is like A ? B is true
• S. Baptists abandoned Biblical basis of slavery
  submission of women like slavery ?
• Ad hominem (attack the person, not the argument)
• A has a fault/virtue ? A has other
  faults/virtues
• Fran went to a second-rate college ? her
  contributions are second-rate.

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Teaching and learning

• Social constructivism
• Discussion within small groups
• Activity focussed
• Analysis of written texts

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I find it difficult to put myself out there when
the nature of the activity is based on personal
thinking, I found it difficult to reveal in
public what I think and that I dont always
understand
It is difficult to ask questions about the
activity, I took the cowardly way out and rang
the lecturer
I appreciate your honest and open response .I
can see exactly where you are coming from, I on
the other hand am going to sit on the fence with
regards to where I stand
It does feel a bit like an awkward social
situation at times, you just want to be nice
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Initial Evaluation

• My learning is helped when I enter in the results
  of my activities because this site is a sort of
  practice point for me as I have to type in
  activities and express my opinions by myself
• My learning is helped when I attempt activities
  that are set by the tutor because it guides and
  focuses my thinking
• My learning is helped when I attempt homework it
  is guiding and informative because it guides you
  in an attempt to do some work with others and
  leads you to more reading

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Evaluation continued

• My learning is helped when I participate in
  discussion because corrections can be made to my
  thinking when other peoples ideas are put
  through
• My learning is helped when I read information
  shared by others because it makes me think how I
  should present my activities and how to share
  information
• My learning is helped when I went to the
  discussion area and could read other peoples
  ideas because sometimes when I could not
  understand something because of language barrier
  I understood the idea when I read it from others
  on the course

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Evaluation contd

• My learning is helped when I am able to work at
  my own speed because I have no access from home
• My learning is helped when I used the site
  because responses were helpful
• In all areas all information has been useful to a
  greater or lesser degree

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My aim to re design the course material using an
iterative design process
Read the literature
Talk to students
Talk to programme leaders
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The literature
Critical thinking and e learning
Concentrated on the tools that promote enriched
communication between people with different views
and perspectives
Transferability of critical thinking skills

• Depended upon
• Prior knowledge and its representation
• Beliefs and motivation
• Context of learning

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Talking to students Define critical thinking
Being Broadminded Able to get a wider
understanding of the issues
Doing thinking more Criticising Breaking
down Thinking outside the box Comparing and
contrasting
Reasons for Mustnt be descriptive See the
positive and the negative Evaluate evidence
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Elaborating the definitions
Criticise and analyse other peoples opinions and
views, then interpret in your own thinking
In depth thinking, reasoning, views, opinions
with an aim to obtain meaningful results make
sense of
No attempts at contextual elaboration
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What would help you to become critical?

• Writing essays
• Presentation skills
• Research skills
• Time management
• IT skills
• Study skills

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Cycle 1
Search for suitable materials
Re establish the materials within a thinking
course
Embed the course within a framework of reflection
Test the design so far
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Common sense?
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Class?
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Gender?
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Power?
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Cycle 2
Talk more to programme leaders, this time about
VALUES!!
Design activities that situate learning within a
commonly agreed value system based upon future
employment/ professional affiliations
Use systems of co reflection to support the
construction of an individual journal
Work towards using social learning tools such as
Wikis to support concept development