Jeff, 

Thanks for your ladder story!  It reminded me of an Aha! moment I had
after my Peace Corps stint in the Dominican Republic.  I did projects
with farmers' groups that wanted to raise pigs and chickens for an extra
source of income.  During those days, the saying "Give someone a fish
and they will eat for today.  Teach them how to fish and they will eat
forever."  I enthusiastically gave every ounce I had to doing all I
could to be a "teacher," not a "giver."  But the day came about 5 years
later that I shared the saying with a wise elder; his response was, "But
what if the person doesn't like to eat fish?"   When I finished reading
your story, I realized how often it happens that we need to change
rooftops in our role as learning educators.

Phil 

 

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Adult ESOL Program

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Tel (850) 245-9450


 

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From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Alpha
Computer Training and COnsulting
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 1:26 PM
To: 'The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List'
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2249] Re: What do we
meanbystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?

 

Hi Kearney,

 

Excellent points everyone.  Learning is like placing a ladder against a
building and climbing it.  Critical thinking (1) gets us to examine why
we are placing our ladder against that building and (2) helps us remain
open so that we can reposition our ladder as new information and
thoughts become available.  It is a shame to finally get to the top of
the ladder and realize that we are on the wrong roof.  As we remain open
to new thoughts and ideas, we can make sure that we end up on the right
roof top.

 

Excellent discussion everyone.

 

Jeff Brown

Alpha Computer Training and Consulting

(902)956-2600

E-mail: info at alphacomputer.ca

www.alphacomputer.ca

 

From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Andrea
Wilder
Sent: July-10-08 12:42 PM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2247] Re: What do we mean
bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?

 

Kearney--

 

I agree with your statement.  It accords  with my experience in the
martial arts, where one thanks the teacher for corrections.  The
possibility of "being wrong" is a tremendous hurdle to overcome.
However, I have found it possible to transfer the skill of acceptance
for being wrong to other areas.  I think this skill goes against the
American grain.

 

Andrea

 

On Jul 10, 2008, at 11:19 AM, Kearney Lykins wrote:

 

I would proffer that critical thinking is not so much a skill as it is
an attitude; at least it starts there. 

 

Because critical thinking exposes oneself to the possibility of being
shown that he is wrong, it is more about being open to ambiguity and
change. These are not skills per se; it is really about overcoming the
will. Montaigne's essays come to mind as exemplars of critical
examinations about how one initially thinks the world and oneself "is",
and after honest reflection and observation, revising one's opinion's
about things. Critical thinking is concerned with growth and change and
these always carry risk. A willingness to accept risk is paramount.  

 

Any attempt to "teach critical thinking" will be lost on those who are
not ready to accept its consequences. 

 

I have never heard a teacher say, "today we are going to learn about
critical thinking." 

 

 

Kearney

----- Original Message ----
From: Janet Isserlis <Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu>
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
<professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 8:31:03 AM
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2243] Re: What do we mean
bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?

I think we're also losing (or maybe teasing apart?) some of the finer
distinctions between critical thinking and persuasive arguing.

Sometimes saying it again, saying it more loudly may sway a listener.
But it's easy to be loud, and even sequential , and yet still not think
critically.

Think of some politician whose views you don't share.  S/he may be
clear, have a beginning, middle and end of her/his oration, and yet, at
the end of the day, hasn't problematized anything, hasn't asked
him/herself to think about something differently and/or imagine
different outcomes and certainly hasn't moved his/her audience beyond
the thing they were thinking about the candidate or the issue before
they came to the rally, the speech, the demonstration.

In other words, it feels like some of this thread is parsing out the
things people need to be able to do to articulate ideas, but we're not
(entirely) quite digging into what has to happen to think critically.

Maybe it's a continuum of sorts - to engage in a project, we analyze
what we'll do, what the goals are, what the outcomes might be, etc.  But
to then push ourselves a bit more critically, we might ask why the
project is important, who gains or loses / in whose interest are we
undertaking the project...?

It is fascinating.

Janet

 

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