Module 7_Activity 3: Critical Thinking (REFLECTION)

       CRITICAL THINKING is a powerful learning tool and inorder to get students to think critically, I realise that I too must engage in this practice. As I thought about it at first I became overwhelmed but as I took  time out to read and to watch the 5 videos shared in the activity, think about it for myself; I began to get a grasp of it and to realise that I have been engaging in critical thinking and therefore became calm about it all.
       Critical Thinking will help students to think for themselves, to observe, listen, analyse and come to rational conclusions and to think beyond what they see and hear. They should be encouraged to think out of the box in a logical way.
While reading and doing this activity on Critical Thinking, there are many things that caught my attention however I have chosedn to highlight two (2) which  stood out the most.

1. The INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS:
     Be CLEAR: dont confuse people, state exactly what you mean and give examples to make your
     argument easily understood.
      Be ACCURATE: be sure the information given and received is correct and authentic.
      Be RELEVANT: make sure the information is in relation to what you are thinking about.
      Be LOGICAL: make sure that all the information fit together and make sense.
      Be FAIR: consider how your actions and behaviour make others feel; consider  the thinking and
      feeling of others.

2. The INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES
     Intellectual virtues are good qualities in one's mind to think and learn well. They include:
     Intellectual INTEGRITY: being the kind of person you expect others to be e.g. resepecting others
     because you want to be respected and considering the feelings of others because you expect  
     others to consider your feeling.
     Intellectual INDEPENDENCE: Thinking for oneself and figuring out for oneself while listening to
     others to learn what they are thinking and to come to a conclusion based on your thinking to
     decide who and what to believe.
     Intellectual PERSEVERANCE: Telling your mind that YOU CAN!. Convincing yourself that you
     can by sticking to a problem and keep trying to figure it out. Sticking to it to be better - working
     hard in your mind.
     Intellectual EMPATHY: Understanding how others think and even if you disagree, try to see
     things from their persepctive and to make some sense of it.
     Intellectual HUMILITY: Recognising and admiting that you don't know everything; don't say
     things that are not true. Ask questions to help you find out about what you dont know.

I also found the activity of  creating a concept map using online technology (Mindmeister) to be very intriguing. At first it all seemed overwhelming but as I out my mind to work and using the teaching strategy provided by our tutor to watch the youtube demonstation video I realised that it was soo easy and I found myself creating new pages and playing around with the tool and getting all creative with it.

I  tend to be intimidated  when I have to do alot of reading and this is because I am a visual learner so  even though there was a bit of reading in this activity, I welcomed the use of the videos and Mindmeister as well. Thanks Gerald for the variety of teaching and learning tools that you are usingg. I intend to become equip enough to be able to model your teaching techniques used in this course in my teaching real soon.