Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Week Seven: Thinking Critically

The most challenging aspect of Module 7 for me was deepening student critical thinking using extension and redirection in forum discussions.  I was surprised by how long it took me to compose the nine questions for our discussion of using prompts to develop critical thinking.  In twenty plus years of teaching I have asked a lot of kids a lot questions, and I am usually very conscious about deepening the level of questioning. 

But, creating online prompts is not identical to asking questions aloud. The feedback from students is much less immediate online, and I found myself carefully crafting the language that would extend or redirect students.  In class I can quickly see the puzzled looks when a prompt that I toss out is too abstract or opaque.  Julie K's suggestion to provide the students with some of the specific areas of analysis in the follow up prompts was useful.  For instance when redirecting students to focus on the role of the cold war in Latin America I could briefly describe a cold war dynamic such as ideological polarization, in the prompt.  Online discussions have the potential create discussions rich in critical thinking, but creating these discussions requires careful planning.

The other activities in Module 7 were especially collaborative this week, particularly the synchronous chat.  In giving and getting feedback on this experience I think that we are still having a little difficulty being critical with each other.  I'm not thinking of anything in particular, and I do think that the chat was productive.  But, there is a lot of "good job" type of commenting that is not useful.  The difficulty is how to provide constructive criticism when people are meeting the standard of the task.  Put another way how do I give feedback that helps participants move from proficient to excellent?  This is a question that I will keep asking myself.

2 comments: