I try to help my students develop their skills by demonstrating the use of the Socratic technique in class. The get very tired of me asking them to explain what they mean by their statements
Janet,
The more mature learners are a joy in many ways.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Dr. Vaillancourt,
Working with students who are in college with the intent to change their lives for the better is a dream job for me. Yes, there are those who are looking for a "free" ride (grades for little/no work). However, since most of the students are older, this problem is not frequent.
Janet
Janet,
This is a terrific approach! What a great vehicle to open lives to 'a better way' and tremendous growth opportunity. Many thanks, both (1) for doing this as a great teacher and (2) for sharing it with us.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Ann Marie,
This is one place where "haste makes watse" probably applies very well, particularly in today's Internet world where anyone 'publishes' whatever they want to publish.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Most of my students are already in the work force and encountering experiences where critical thinking is needed on the job. Since we have assignments where critical thinking is needed/used/discussed, questions about long term improvement in critical thinking skills are frequent.
As many of my students, unless they have been in the military, have had little exposure to the world beyond their comfort zones, I suggest, directly or indirectly,things like the following: Read a book on a topic with which you are not familiar. If you are a country music buff, try watching an opera on PBS (or vice versa). In other words, step past your usual pattern and involve yourself in something "new" and unexpected for you.
From the feedback I have received, the experiences have been enlightening, and sometimes life changing. As an example, I now have a former Marine in training to work with autistic kids.
Good idea. As information gatherers some of us are too gullible.
Ken,
Your comprehensive approach must see a great deal of success with students. The context of real-life scenarios is a key component to provide relevancy to the adult learner. Very nice job. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Yes Pilar,
Many students in today's postsecondary environment have not had proper training in many types of analyses. Nudging the students and down this road of analysis to validate sources of information has been all but ignored. I like your approach.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Practice! Practice! Practice!
Throughout courses I teach/facilitate/instruct/lecture/etc., I provide students with real-life scenarios that contain a problem. I then take them through the process of stating the problem, identifying causes of the problem, identifying potential solutions to the problem, understanding the consequences of each potential solution, selecting and implementing one of the solutions, evaluating the success of the selected solution and taking further action if needed. This is very simplified.
I agree, a big challenge is to get students to analyze the background of who they are getting information from. I have them look things up and then we go through together and decide if a source is trustworthy. It starts them down the road of analyzing.
Denise,
You are expressing the experience of many. For you to continue to model the different (more productive) way to look at the information is one of the best strtegies. Modeling the correct process in scenario-based learning gives the student a strong contextual understanding at the (Bloom's) application level. Discussing it in the abstract sometimes does not give the student the ability to apply the information appropriately (depending on the learner). Excellent approach - thanks for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
