Angela Hutchinson,
Well said. Excellent approach. Thank you for your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
When a Student has strong discipline skills it is much easier to teach critical thinking. The trick has been to teach discipline to students that lack discipline in there daily life skills.
julia,
That is a trick that varies with almost every student. ;-]
Nevertheless, the more transparent we are with the consequences and rewards of undisciplined and disciplined, respectively, the better the learning of this discipline will be. Setting standards and then having the integrity to follow through is a much better teacher than sheilding students from the consequences of their actions in the name of compassion/understanding. If a teacher maintains strict adherence (with sincere encouragement and care for the person - not punitive harshness) to the small items of the agreement (syllabus, or whatever) from the begining, the students will choose their rewarding behavior and/or consequence imposing behavior with a higher level of confidence of the outcome. Our society often sees this as harsh instead of good pedagogy. However, the research bears it out.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I teach a critical thinking course and students are very quick to apply judgments and reasons to an issue presented. I make students to slow down and write down their initial thoughts on the issue before reaching a quick conclusion.
Also, I encourage active listening to peers and speakers so that they can make a more informed and disciplined judgment.
Kristin,
Nicely done. Requiring a 'slow down' for many of our students is a must. Having them write their intial thoughts, then reflect on the intial reaction as they assimilate additional information is a great means by which they may sse the benefit of critical thinking. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
It helps build future Critical thinking skills. With time and good practice a person builds more discipline with determination and hard work. I think the more we practice at having discipline, the easier it gets.
Matthew,
I believe you are squarely on target. The more practice we have, the better we get - so the easier it gets. Good points. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I teach Veterianry Assisting so my students, say in the event that a dog is going to bite the person restraining for them, they have to react quickly with out hesitation. The reaction they have is usually one that came from a previous experience that they either witnessed or participated in. Critical thinking for them has beed developed through the discipline of knowing breeds as well as species. Their intuition must be honed in to beable to ready physical signs that the animals maybe giving such as the shifting of the eyes the coil of a snake.
Discipline comes with experience and visa versa.
Pamela,
The storing of large amounts of long-term memory information for immediate retrieval in emergency circumstances can be very useful. The discipline to continuously accumulate (add to) that storehouse can often payoff in the long run.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
It can certainly help if students buckle down and allow themselves with effort, and an open mind to tackle the tasks at hand, and to strive to extract the information presented.
Deborah,
Yes, the drive and discipline to do this is sometimes lacking. The instructor's encouragement and facilitation can help many persevere in those efforts, who may not otherwise. Thank you for contributing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
This course stresses that discipline implies time, effort, and dedication to a specific mission. If a person has personal self-discipline, they are one step closer to in learning how to be a critical thinker.
As this course states, many students do not want to take the time, effort, and dedication to their studies. Students come to the classroom with entitlement--I am paying for this course therefore I should get an "A". This type of thinking leads to many problems. Needless to say these students lack self-discipline.
Also, students want the rote learning and do not want to be challenged. I have given case studies on exams and the students were not able to discuss the case with the information that was presented.
Deborah,
This is all too familiar. Setting the correct expectations at the beginning of the course can help some, but modeling that behavior of self-discipline and commitment is often the best way to lead the students to success.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Personal discipline is key to everyday life. It takes discipline to get to work on time, complete assigned tasks, or paying billing. Personal discipline helps with critical thinking in that an individual must be committed to the mission or assignment.
Thinking before we speak, looking for solutions before asking the question, not assuming that we are right and everyone else is "not". We have to take a step back when presented with a challange and look at the Big Picture in order to come up with a solution.
Quebec,
Very basic and very true! Well stated.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Executives, professionals -- all critical thinkers. Their discipline and hard work has helped to get them where they are. By having developed the ability to critical think, helps an individual to lead productive lives.
Students who know the value of dedication and disipline have a much higher success rate.
I have witnessed students that have a lot of personal self discipline and a lot that do not. Those that have the personal discipline are well-organized and focused. When a less disciplined student introduces a little organization into there lives, it is amazing at how quickly their personal discipline is elevated.
I think discipline has two major components. First ,to be able to depend on the wealth of knowledge & experience so it can be readily used when needed. Second, to continue to accumulate more knowledge and experiences to enhance and refine as our life goes on.
Robert,
Very good point. There are those instances where we get to see, even share, in substantial student advancement.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
