Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Thinking for Success



I spent some time today reviewing the upcoming Assignment 4, which is an annotated bibliography and critical review. The support materials for this assignments weigh heavily on critical thinking. Critical thinking is always an important topic in undergraduate programs, not only because it is an important, transferable job-related skill but also because it is directly related to problem solving – which is a critical skill for success in all facets of life. Critical thinking has become one of the standard requirements on program and course outcomes and it is rare to see any sort of curriculum development at the undergraduate level not make reference to it.
Last year I had the opportunity to manage a large project which developed a series of student modules – on of them being critical thinking. Each of the modules was chosen based on it being a skill that first year professors reported as lacking in new students and one that they had to take time from their discipline to teach. The module was originally called critical thinking but one a business professor insisted that we rename it to “Thinking for Success” to better inform students on the topic of the module.
The module varies from some of the resources provided in this course in that it addressed attitudes, arguments and fallacies. One of the most interesting sections referenced https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com, which is a fun look at a common logical fallacies.They also produce some nifty posters - which would probably been equally useful in the previous course.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Lillian,
    What a great resource! I'm going to get some of these ordered for the classroom where I work. I agree that critical thinking is very important in the development of students and professionals and like the way your colleague put a twist on naming it; it really puts the attention on the importance of this skill.
    Yvonne.

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  2. Love the poster! Thank you for sharing! I also agree with Yvonne and like the positive spin that your colleague put on the name for the module.

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