Questioning
In my Critical Thinking class, I have students use the questioning method to explore their given topic. They create and answer the reporter's questions. They find that this gets them curious about the possible answers and leads to even more questions.
Kathryn,
Great way to engage your students and get them to see the value of developing themselves a critical thinkers and problem solvers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Hello.
Questioning in culinary lectures is hit or miss.
As discussed in this class (ED116), many times I see students questioning why THEY are being questioned. Most of them would just rather be given the answer and move on.....
Culinary arts is not really a philosophy! Pretty much what we teach the students is fact. Wheat flour is made of wheat. You turn the heat up too high, you burn your product.
In my lectures I often times struggle to find topics that generate debate. Of course we cab talk about modern controversy in food such as Monsanto or slavery in food production (3rd world), however these issues never really pertain to the lesson we are lecturing about.
Any ideas on how to question students (to provoke throught....) regarding factual culinary information?
Jean,
Teaching a foundational course can be a challenge just as you have mentioned. I teach such a course and I work very hard in trying to generate discussion on the various topics. Among the things I do is to ask the students to find examples of how an accident resulted in a new product, technique, etc.. For example would it be possible for them to find an instance where having the heat too high resulted in a burned product that was used as a dessert, topping, etc.? (As you can tell culinary arts is not field.). The point is to get them to think about the foundational procedures in different ways and why it is important for them to know these basics if they are going to move toward the more creative areas of their field.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Jean,
if you ask for a possible substitute of an ingredient (because one ingredient might cause an allergy or is in the local shops not available) students have to come up with a solution to create a variaton of the origainal receipe. You can discuss the pros and cons of different ingredients.
Armin
and create a welcoming environment
ANd the more ingredients that are added the more critical the student will think and as the instructor asks questions it allows the student's thought process to continue
Lisa,
Can you expand on this in terms of how it impacts their ability to become problem solvers? Thanks.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I feel that it can be the same way when teaching Automotive students. when questioning them sometimes you get nothing from them.
Richard,
This has happened to all of us. This is when we have to pull out another strategy that will get the students talking and sharing. Silence is deadly when you are looking out at a bunch of eyes and mouths that are not moving.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When a student (gets lost in the forest) and asks me a question in lab, I will ask them back "explain to me how this works?" I can usually have them reason the answer out for themselves with little "steering questions" to get them to think critically.
Craig,
Like the way you help them to come up with solutions on their own. This is what they are going to have to do when they are in the workplace so the more experience they have in doing this the better. Also, they value the results they get more because they came up with them on their own.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Caron,
Big fan of case studies. I use them a lot in my classes for the reasons you state. They help to make the content come alive for the students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree with this method. I don't like to give the answer. I like to give directions to them so they can formulate there own answers.
Edward,
Good approach because it puts them into a thinking situation and sometimes this can be a challenge. Students would rather google an answer rather than problem solve one. So the more we can help them to develop skill in this area the better.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
We also use case studies in an automotive course entitled "Advanced Diagnostics," for obvious reasons. The goal here isn't to teach the student technical information - they've had that. It's to apply it to problem solving. we present the students with a symptom, and several test results. Some of the test results narrow down the possible cause, while others are irrelevant. We provide more than enough test results that the answer would be obvious to an experienced diagnostic technician.
It surprised me at first to see how many of the students are hesitant to invest in the thought required to figure out what is going on. Some of them don't seem to care, others want to keep guessing until they hit the right answer by chance. With enough pressure (lost points for guesses) we have been seeing improvements in the efforts, and their results. Some of them know enough to think their way through the problem, but are hesitant to express it for fear of being wrong. Others seem to need confirmation from peers before being willing to commit to a judgment call, or make a conclusion. having them work in groups seems to help, although each of them will eventually need to acquire the skills to make their own diagnosis in the field.
Another method I've been using, which helps discourage simple guessing and encourage critical thinking is that we take points away from wrong answers, UNLESS they can explain to me why the believed their answer was correct. In doing so they will reason out answers and sometimes make mistakes. Technical mistakes are not penalized, but are corrected through review of the material. I call that learning. Only non-reasoned guesses are penalized. Each group can also ask me three questions about the test results, but only three. I think these methods are helping some of my students to learn critical thinking skills.
