Robert,
Your three step process listed at the end of your comments is a very good model to follow. I know these steps will be valuable to other instructors that are seeking to expand the critical thinking abilities of their students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Personal discipline I feel is important to critical thinking because of its need to put order and logic in play. For example knowing how to be organized in time management (which a lot of students these days are not) helps one set aside time for good study habits. If one has good study habits they more likely do well in class and are more prepared. This in turn helps them become more involved in questioning behavior during class.
Students tend to seek instant gratification, as was mentioned in the course content. They are looking for easy answers, without inputing much effort to arrive there. The tools and processes needed must be developed within them, with guidance from their instructors. Many students, especially younger adults who are informationally distracted via items such as smart phones and all of the associated media involving them, do not remain focused enough, or for long enough, to easily develop the personal disciplines needed in order to follow the steps required for effective problem solving. Providing the students first through examples, and then through scenarios which require their participation, tends to allow for them to build confidence involving their own critical thinking skills.
Loretta,
I agree. They often come to us without what we call "attach skills" meaning they are not sure how to analyze a situation, propose a solution and then implement the solution. They often lack the skills needed to acquire the information essential to the situation.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Good Point - We have noticed at our school that each group of students coming in is a little less structured than the group before, especially in the area of study habits. I believe if students are taught "how to study" properly, they will be critical thinkers.
Judy,
Good observations about a lot of the students we have in our classes today. You are right about the absence of personal discipline. We should not have to teach this on the college level but we do. I find that I have developed a set of conduct rules for my college classes that reflect the rules of a middle school. (i.e. cell phones, bringing books and supplies to class) I am amazed at times when I think that the students have paid a lot of money to enroll in school to secure the knowledge and skills needed for career success and I am spending time telling them to turn their cell phones off.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The idea of helping students develop personal discipline is intriguing. It is interesting, for example, that many students enroll in school but need to be reminded to shut their cell phones off during class. In our world of instant gratification and results, I have noticed that many students do not know how to structure their learning. Perhaps taking the time to talk about the need to develop a strategy for school will really help them.
Larry,
Thank you for this great example of how discipline can impact success. Yes, we know it does as a result of the life experiences we have had but younger students often don't want to put effort or discipline into what they are doing. The girl you tutored once given a discipline strategy to follow became a successful student. The reason was she knew how to work through a problem in a manner that yielded results. We need to introduce more discipline into the development of our students' critical thinking skills.
Gary
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Discipline is critical to stay on task. As a writer and musician, I've had to develop a great deal of discipline over the years. Without it there would be no completed novels, no acquisition of advanced harmony. In the classroom, math is discipline. A friend asked me to tutor his daughter many years ago. I asked her to solve her problems by writing her solutions in an orderly manner. Within weeks she went from a failing student to an A student. Her parents think I walk on water, but all I did was introduce some discipline in her problem solving. From that point on, she was able to see her own efforts and then correct errors. These are anecdotal, but illustrative of accomplishments with a little focus.
