Structures of Critical Thinking

When posting my initial thoughts on critical thinking I did not intend for it to be part of a larger three-part series. However, as I mentioned in my first post, it is a huge and important topic and I believe the manifestation of this blog reflects that. There is another really interesting piece developed by the Foundations for Critical Thinking which I felt did not fit within the other posts. It is a critical thinking tool, of sorts. You start with a concept and apply the different aspects of the tool.

The logic tool is available at: http://www.criticalthinking.org/ctmodel/logic-model1.htm#

I found this tool very useful for assessing our last assignment, but it could be applied to any situation which requires critical thinking. You move your mouse around the wheel and it presents you with different considerations for each aspect of the problem or topic you are assessing. Personally, I like to start with Point of View and move clockwise around the circle. Each pie gives you a series of questions. Eventually, these questions become second nature whenever tackling a new problem - which is a great outcome for any tool!

"Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or downright prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. If you want to think well, you must understand at least the rudiments of thought, the most basic structures out of which all thinking is made. You must learn how to take thinking apart."
Critical Thinking Community
form Critical Thinking: Where to begin

Education and Innovation talk

Everyone today seems to be talking about George Siemen's latest blog post White House: Innovation in Higher Education and I felt I would be remiss not to mention it myself. In the post George presents his personal reactions to a meeting on Innovation and Quality in Higher Education which he was invited to at the White House.

The two big points that seem to be getting the most discussion are #3:

"No one knows what HE (higher education) is becoming. Forget the think tanks and the consultants and the keynote speakers. No one knows how these trends will track or what the university will look like in the future. This unknowability stems from HE being a complex systems with many interacting elements. We can’t yet see how these will connect and inter-relate going forward. The best strategy in a time of uncertainty is not to seek or force the way forward, but to enter a cycle of experimentation. The Cynefin Framework provides the best guidance that I’ve seen on how to function in our current context."

and #12:

"I’m getting exceptionally irritated with the narrative of higher education is broken and universities haven’t changed. This is one of the most inaccurate pieces of @#%$ floating around in the “disrupt and transform” learning crowd. Universities are exceptional at innovating and changing. Explore any campus today. It’s a new world on most campuses, never mind the online, competency, and related systems. And if your slide deck includes an image of desks and argues that nothing has changed, you’re being dishonest and disingenuous. Repent. Healing is possible for you, but first you must see the falseness of your words."

Both seem to be getting a resounding amount of "here, here" but I can't help but think that perhaps the bigger story is the amount of conversation this post has generated.