Excellent paper. Do you have an opinion on Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed in regards to higher education? I completely agree that critical thinking is vital, but Freire, and Rebecca Cox in her treatise "The College Fear Factor" speak to the difficulties of getting such ideals and values across to students, as many educators still practice the banking system which is detrimental to the creative and abstract thinking necessary for such skills as critical thinking to flourish. Would love to hear your take. :)
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Thanks very much for your compliment, your resteeming, and especially for talking about my content. Your'e the first one to actually remark on my actual work! I came here to figure out how I'm doing...
Critical pedagogy is a threat to the education business, and (as I've opined) it's anathema to the establishment. Educators are busy with their work; they never learned critical theory and most of them seem to resist it in my experience.
As for the "learners,"I got assigned to teach a university's elite science undergrads History, Philosophy and Social Aspects of Science. It was a required course; they didn't want to be there, and they hardly cared about critical thinking or philosophy of science. They wanted to know what they needed to do to score grades, graduate and get a career. Metacognition wasn't something of interest to them...[sigh]
That's what I'm up against. It's a tough job; but does somebody have to do it? Does it have to me??
Well, everybody's gotta do something, right?
If you get a chance, you should give a look to Rebecca Cox's "The College Fear Factor", if you haven't already. Her treatise is informed largely by Freire's work, but applied to North American/Western education, particularly undergraduate work as pertaining to required/general education courses where the students are assigned, rather than choosing to be there on their own. It explores the "get it over" mentality that pervades the student body, and the difficulty in implementing Freire's "problem posing"/Socratic methodology with students who don't want to be there.
exactly. I've lived that perspective; I'm looking for inquiring learners to talk with.
I've had the same problem in my own classes, it feels like pulling teeth so much of the time. The only engagement I've seen is when I allow them agency in their learning, getting to pick their own topics and readings. Even if it's from a pre-approved list, it's still their choice, and they'll be a little more invested in the outcome.
yes, that's semi-effective (nothing's perfect!)
Do you have them critique each other's work?
Oh definitely, once they have rough drafts and have been instructed in how to do constructive peer review.
so that's an opportunity for them, great!
@vaughndemont, are you done with discussing my stuff?
Have you seen the "community discussion" which is currently being carried by me and @yvesoler?
It's at #higherorderthinking.
We're attempting to create an educational environment that supports deep inquiry and deep thinking.
If you'd drop a comment or two, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks for considering this request...
M
I might write a "failure" entry tonight, particularly in how education is failing US students currently.
omg; just saw this...
That's my main topic!
Is it posted?
Can we talk?
Just posted it a little while ago. I made sure to mention at the top that it's contributing to your and @yvsoler's discussion. :)
Thanks, Vaughn. I appreciate that very much.
(We've tagged our posts #higherorderthinking to group them, you could join the club if you'd like...)