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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCritical Thinking Is Best Taught Outside the Classroom
A democracy relies on an electorate of critical thinkers. Yet formal education, which is driven by test taking, is increasingly failing to require students to ask the kind of questions that lead to informed decisions.
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This type of learning is not confined to museums or institutional settings. One of the best examples is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in which the eponymous host expertly shreds political, commercial and scientific-sounding claims in the press by using numbers, logic and old video. The Maker Faire, which conducts techie do-it-yourself projects, has reintroduced the idea that our learning is richer for our mistakes: D.I.Y. experimentalists get stuck, reframe the question and figure things out.
Informal learning environments tolerate failure better than schools. Perhaps many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum and for standardized tests. But people must acquire this skill somewhere. Our society depends on them being able to make critical decisions, about their own medical treatment, say, or what we must do about global energy needs and demands. For that, we have a robust informal learning system that eschews grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.
I'm not so sure it is "best" taught outside the classroom, because there are a number of places, such as Summerhill or the "Deweyite" school mentioned in a Noam Chomskey article I read again today where individual exploration and failing, and thus learning, is not replaced so much by the regimented curriculum and testing of today. But it's certainly worth thinking about where there might be other opportunities outside the classroom, given that the majority of public schools aren't likely to change behavior that has been so long in the making any time soon.
Even places like DU sometimes encourage one to think more in depth or challenge assumptions about something. Once in a while, anyway
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Critical Thinking Is Best Taught Outside the Classroom (Original Post)
jtuck004
Feb 2013
OP
elleng
(130,974 posts)1. It CAN happen in schools, but we have to search for and nurture it.
At my daughters' former school:
'Today's 3rd-5th grade Gathering honored Black History Month with 3rd grade presentations about change agents and special guest, Elaine Jonesa civil rights attorney and activist who joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1970 and became the organization's first female director-counsel and president in 1993.'
https://www.facebook.com/lowellschooldc?ref=stream
cbrer
(1,831 posts)2. Critical thinking is best taught
Consistently through society. Openness, and honesty being prerequisites.
If we're to progress, it will only be through these means.
Peace out!