Get Your Students Hired
Here, I learned that successful learning is both student-centered and instructor-driven, and that the instructor should have a well-designed learning plan for the students for learning to be best facilitated.
Instructors can facilitate critical thinking by:
Encouraging students to find relationships between pieces of information;
Asking students a question and let them mull over their ideas and responses for a few days;
Asking students to justify and explain their positions;
Encouraging exploration of new ideas and materials to share with the class; and
Asking open-ended questions instead of closed-ended questions like yes/no.
As the course and comfort with the instructor/peers/materials progresses, the instructor should include more critical thinking activities.
Fostering critical thinking through discussions and other group activities that are designed to engage the students in their learning.
I like the idea of using real world problems to develop critical thinking skills. Group work can be good for developing skills that will help students in the real world too.
Assigning students to use mobile devices can teach them that these devices are learning tools and offset the distraction that can come from their presence
I learned about the different learning techniques. Most of the techniques involve some type of group learning. What I hope to use the problem based learning by applying current events to the lesson we are studying.
Collaborative assignments are a great way to build classroom culture and promote student engagement. Oftentimes, students are more comfortable working with peers in shared activities and gain much from each other.
Critical thinking involves applying knowledge and experiences to look deeper into information. Critical thinking can be enhanced with problem-based learning since students will work to solve the problem presented,
Critical thinking skills need to be developed in the classroom using group/collaborative assignments.
I feel as an instructor allowing students to utilize the vast real-time technology resources available to them can motivate them in a playful fashion to quickly find resources to present to the class in real time.
Active learning enhance critical thinking by engaging students in activities that require analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information. It also foster collaboration, allowing students to exchange ideas and perspectives.
Critical thinking ask questions, encourage descision making, work in groups, connect different ideas, inspire creativity, and brainstorm.
Critical thinking is important because it helps students to build up strategies to approach different situations in multiple ways.
I had not used PBL in my film making courses but actually this course opened up the possibilities of how it could be an effective active learning technique.
I am very interested in the Problem Based Learning model. I studied it as an undergrad and found it to be a truly unique way of making coursework personally relevant and much more engaging for students. I will definitely be exploring the model more in my classes moving forward.
I learned the different strategies to encourage critical thinking. I will be using the strategy of asking students to justify and explain their positions.
I look forward to continuing to learn more about how I can implement these practices into my own classroom.
This module was a effective introduction to some of the theory and methods for encouraging critical thinking in students. I appreciated the specific suggestions for the use of group based work, collaborative/cooperative learning, and problem based learning. The suggestions in these sections provide concrete mechanisms for building critical thinking into a course. Based on these suggestions I have already begun to construct critical thinking exercises for my course.
I have learned about the importance and need for critical thinking in my classroom. Students do not need to just memorize facts and complete assignments. Students need to learn how to critically think through each problem and exercise. Theses skills will help them be successful in their lives and careers.