PG's Ponderings

Level One From the base knowledge level of the taxonomy you can see that you start with the usual 'who' 'what' 'where' and other questions. Those are useful fill-in-the-blank questions that help identification and recall of information. Level Two You're asked to re-tell and dive in a bit deeper into the topic you're researching or discussing. This helps aid in comprehension and organization / selection of facts and ideas. Level Three How do you actually apply the skills you're learning? How can your newfound critical thinking skills be used to interpret new data from outside sources? Level Four Like a good scientist (this is close to the Scientific Method after all), we must analyze the results that are now coming forth. We should pause and figure out how critical thinking skills are being incorporated into our everyday lives. Just ask the questions in level four and you're off to a great start! Level Five Time to remix and synthesize some new i...

Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritica...

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Our focus this term is on professional learning and curriculum review that is likely to lead to the sorts of changes we wish to make. It will be important to keep these complex systems dynamics in mind as we consider ways to shape learning networks to make desired outcomes more likely to be achieved. Five conditions that increase the likelihood that new insights will emerge in a complex network of learners: It is important to draw on diversity to access the power of collective thinking. While diversity of input is essential, redundancy also matters. There must be common ground where the people who are interacting can stand together and share the same vision. Control and authority must be able to be distributed across the group. Creating spaces for interaction is essential to the emergence of new insights and ideas. Somewhat paradoxically, setting a clear structure and boundaries around planned learning activities will make it more likely that the other four conditions can be met, but o...

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