The Ethics Centre - Ethics Explainer: Tolerance The yes result of the same-sex marriage survey is in. Now parliament is dealing with the minefield of tolerance: how will it change legislation so it honours family diversity and religious freedoms without discriminating against either? What should be tolerated, accepted and prohibited? Prohibition----------------------Tolerance----------------------Acceptance The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle called this middle point of the spectrum, the golden mean. Cowardice----------------------Courage----------------------Recklessness Although Aristotle’s doctrine of the golden mean can help us understand tolerance, quite a bit more needs to be said. Unacceptance ≠ prohibition However, there are some things you might reasonably not accept, yet not want to prohibit. Tolerance to acceptance The word ‘acceptance’ rang out loud when it was revealed a majority of Australian voters answered yes to the same-sex marriage postal survey. The ethics of tolerance
How to Teach CT? Robert H. Ennis, rhennis@illinois.edu The actual teaching of critical thinking is a function of many situation-specific factors: teacher style, teacher interest, teacher knowledge and understanding, class size, cultural and community backgrounds and expectations, student expectations and backgrounds, colleagues’ expectations, recent local events, the amount of time available to teachers after they have done all the other things they have to do, and teacher grasp of critical thinking, to name some major factors. I here suggest some general strategies and tactics gleaned from years of experience, research, and others’ suggestions. They are guidelines and must be adjusted to fit the actual situation. Underlying Strategies (The three underlying strategies are “Reflection, Reasons, Alternatives” (RRA): 1. 2. 3. Fundamental Strategies 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Tactics 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Mid-level Strategies 21. Be patient, but show that you are interested in their thoughts.
The Path to CT Few of us are effective critical thinkers—who has time? The good news, says Stever Robbins, is that this skill can be learned. by Stever Robbins Can you write a refresher on critical thinking? We business leaders so like to believe that we can think well, but we don't. What's logic got to do with it? Purely emotional decision making is bad news. Critical thinking starts with logic. We also sloppily reverse cause and effect. There are many excellent books on logic. The trap of assuming You can think critically without knowing where the facts stop and your own neurotic assumptions begin. When we don't know something, we assume. Finding and busting "conventional wisdom" can be the key to an empire. Assumptions can also cripple us. Some assumptions run so deep they're hard to question. Next time you're grappling with a problem, spend time brainstorming your assumptions. The truth will set you free (statistics notwithstanding) Have you ever noticed how terrified we are of the truth? Help!
‘Critical’ Information Literacy The capacity for local conditions and issues to influence the way information literacy is defined and taught, is a concept that has gained significant momentum over the last decade among librarians and educators around the world. This growing realisation has resulted in an increasing body of research produced at the intersection of critical pedagogy and information literacy. From this research, the concept of ‘Critical Information Literacy’ has emerged. Jacobs and Berg (2011) explain: “In its focus on engaging with questions about information, critical information literacy is an attempt to help students see that information questions are deeply embedded within cultural, social, political, and economic contexts”. In other words, whether we realise it or not, information literacy never occurs in a socio-cultural vacuum. Simply put, those of us who are responsible for developing information literacy programmes, need to think hard about: Recognising the ‘feeling’ of an information need I don’t.
10 Examples of CT We all encounter opportunities in our daily lives to engage problems and decisions using strong critical thinking. Everyone needs to think ahead, to plan and to problem solve. Here are ten positive examples of critical thinking: *Facione, P. & Gittens C. Think Critically, Pearson Education Insight Assessment www.insightassessment.com Measuring Thinking Worldwide A CT Model To Analyze Thinking We Must Identify and Question its Elemental Structures Standard: Clarityunderstandable, the meaning can be grasped Could you elaborate further? Standard: Accuracyfree from errors or distortions, true How could we check on that? Standard: Precisionexact to the necessary level of detail Could you be more specific? Standard: Relevancerelating to the matter at hand How does that relate to the problem? Standard: Depthcontaining complexities and multiple interrelationships What factors make this a difficult problem? Standard: Breadthencompassing multiple viewpoints Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Standard: Logicthe parts make sense together, no contradictions Does all this make sense together? Standard: Significancefocusing on the important, not trivial Is this the most important problem to consider? Standard: FairnessJustifiable, not self-serving or one-sided Do I have any vested interest in this issue? Why the Analysis of Thinking is Important Think About...
Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions by Terry Heick Essential questions are, as Grant Wiggins defined, ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term. I collected the following set of questions through the course of creating units of study, most of them from the Greece Central School District in New York. Or maybe I’ll make a separate page for them entirely. See also 8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions Decisions, Actions, and Consequences What is the relationship between decisions and consequences? Social Justice What is social justice? Culture: Values, Beliefs & Rituals How do individuals develop values and beliefs? Adversity, Conflict, and Change How does conflict lead to change? Utopia and Dystopia Chaos and Order Creation Sources
Conditional Logic and Children From 180 primary children of varied backgrounds half were selected for instruction in conditional logic by means of an audio-tutorial method. At the termination of 15 weekly lessons the experimental students did no better than the control students on our individually-administered conditional logic test ("Smith-Sturgeon Conditional Reasoning Test"), but there was wide variation among age demonstrated mastery of basic principles of conditional logic. Thus, although out methods were not effective in the teaching of conditional logic to young children, many have somehow learned it anyway. In the control group significant relationships between conditional logic ability and verbal intelligence (.6) and socioeconomic status (.4) were found. Descriptors: Children, Cognitive Processes, Critical Thinking, Intelligence, Logic, Readiness, Sex Differences, Socioeconomic Status, Students, Teaching Methods
All About Asking Better Questions Asking questions is such a basic tool of teaching, yet how many of us have ever been taught to ask good questions? As I started researching for this post, I realized how little I actually knew about asking questions. I asked hundreds of questions a day but had zero training. I know I’m not alone! Here’s the plan: So, we’ll actually start in perhaps a strange place, which is to open with the idea of asking fewer questions as teachers and allowing more room for students to be the questioners. Mrs. Let me take you back to 1997, when my sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Why would a teacher have such a hard time getting her advanced 10th graders to ask a darn question? Well, as one of those students, I can tell you that I had been trained to answer questions, not ask them. I pledged to ask two questions and doubt I lived up to my bargain. Who Asks Whom? So, as we dig into questioning, let’s start with wondering who asks the questions in your classroom and who gets asked. Students Asking Students 1.