Transcript for Critical Thinking Movie:

Welcome to the first Walden Critical Thinking Conference in Honolulu Oahu. Our sponsor is Partnership for 21^st Century skills. Their Above and Beyond concept on Teaching and Learning include the four C’s: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Today we will present seven well-known professionals in the field of critical thinking. Our first speaker on Critical Thinking is Doctor Timothy Powell. Dr. Powell is a professor at Walden University, teaching Principles of Distance Education with a focus on engaging critical thinking in learners across distance. Author of High Tech Marketing Machine. Dr. Powell uses his expert knowledge in the business arena to develop higher levels of critical thinking skills in students taking distance-learning courses. He will share how technology can enhance critical thinking across disciplines. Our next speakers are Drs. Richard Paul and Linda Elder. They are leaders of the Center for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State University, CA.

They define critical thinking as: “Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you’re thinking, in order to make your thinking better.” Joint authors of Critical Thinking. They will be showing you how to take your thinking apart by improving all three components of thinking: analysis, evaluation, and rethinking. Then, through brain-on exercises, you will discover and improve new thinking skills that will soon become second nature. Our 4^th speaker is Dr. Gerald Nosich, a Professor at the University of New Orleans and a frequent speaker at critical thinking seminars.   “He believes that…the only way for students to master content in any course is to think their way through it. And the only way to effectively control their own lives and choices is by learning to think more critically about them.” Author of Learning To Think Things Through: A guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum.

Nosich will be sharing Richard Paul’s model of critical thinking:

      1)   Elements of Reasoning

      2)   Standards of Critical thinking

      Dr. Stephen Brookfield is our fifth speaker from the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN.  He will be sharing his rationale for critical thinking: “The ability to think critically about one’s assumptions, beliefs, and actions is a survival necessity.” Author of Teaching for Critical Thinking, Brookfield explains how to enhance attention span, encourage reading, and develop higher critical thinking skills. He will share his six elements necessary for teaching critical thinking. Carol Mac Knight, our final speaker from the University of Massachusetts. She is well-known for her work on interface design and evaluation, managing technology resources, and electronic publishing. Her goal is to help students develop higher analytical reading and thus be able to create new knowledge. Teaching Critical Thinking Through Online Discussions, Published in Web Higher Education, is specifically written for teaching staff seeking to foster critical thinking among students using Web communication tools. “Students need to develop and apply critical thinking skills to their studies, to the complex problems they will face in the future in order to compete and survive…” Richard Paul’s Wheel of Critical Thinking presents the elements of thoughts. They are: Purpose of thinking, question at issue, evidence, inferences and interpretations, concepts, assumptions, implications and consequences and finally points of view. Purpose of thinking: Why examine the issue? Question at Issue: The question at hand is teaching online critical thinking skills. Evidence from research indicates that experiences motivate the thinking process to incorporate a deeper level of thinking when faced with a problem. 1)   That critical thinking is best experienced as a social learning process,

      2)   That it is important for teachers to model the process for students

      3)   That critical thinking is best understood when grounded in very specific events or experiences

      4)   That some of the most effective triggers to critical thinking are having to deal with an unexpected event (or disorienting dilemma, as it is sometimes called) and

      5)   That learning critical thinking needs to be incrementally sequenced. 

Students like to learn to apply the process to relatively impersonal situations or data and then, slowly over time, bring the process to bear more and more on their own direct thinking. Researchers indicate that Critical Thinkers Routinely apply intellectual standards  when solving  dilemmas. The standards must be applied to the elements as we learn to develop intellectual traits. The next scenes show how Clarity, point of view, and information, evolve into intellectual courage. Meet Zach. He is learning how to ride a bicycle without training wheels for the first time. He is nervous, quiet, and observant. Using his critical thinking skills he is determined to figure out how to stay up with the rest of the group as he masters the challenge in front of him.  Similar to Zach, distant learners undertake the task of using critical thinking skills to master the discussion format and assignments. Traditionally quiet students must venture out, and voice their thoughts. Participation in group discussions has been determined to be the key to promoting higher level critical thinking in distant learners. Finding solutions and integrating the knowledge when engaged in social discussions, triggers the higher-level critical thinking faculty seeks in all students. And he’s off!  Zach has figured out how to maintain balance while pedaling faster to keep up with the group. His active engagement in the activity, modeling the riders in front of him, and persevering when the road gets bumpy, helps him master bicycling. Left by himself, Zach may have given up the bicycle, but with the group, he persevered.

Much like the online/distant learner, each must take it upon his or her self to seek higher levels of critical thinking. Motivation to achieve higher-level critical thinking must come from within the learner, thus a less instructor involvement and a higher student interaction is necessary

So, Welcome once again to our Critical thinking conference! Please join us in an exciting adventure into critical thinking on a new level.