From passive learners to critical thinkers

Mr. Masum Billah : Learning must stimulate the inner faculties of the learners and this stimulation must give rise to new things and the existing ones to think very critically. And this process of stimulation and excitement must be roused among the students by a teacher. But there are teachers who regard learners as empty vessels which need to be filled with knowledge. The teachers tend to assume that the learners do not have prior or little prior knowledge and experiences regarding the subject matter that is going to be taught in classrooms. These teachers ignore, knowingly or unknowingly, the individuality of students. They fail to understand and appreciate the learners own unique experience and concepts, notions and views of the world. Teachers who do not acknowledge each learner's individuality will often lead a boring and unimaginative language classroom because of the minimal participation and involvement of learners. The learners will feel left out and assume their opinions and believes as not relevant or important enough to be heard in the classroom. Eventually this would pave the way to a molding process of passive language learners and be a cause to the detriment of creative and critical thinking. A teacher can use the students' responses from the activities that promote critical thinking to assess whether they are, indeed, reaching his critical thinking goals. It is important to establish clear criteria for evaluating critical thinking. Even though many of us may be able to identify critical thinking when we see it, explicitly stated criteria help both students and teachers know the goal toward which they are working. An effective reiteration measures which skills are present to what extend and which skills require further development. The following are characteristics of work that may demonstrate effective critical thinking. Accurately and thoroughly interprets evidences, statements, graphics, question, literary element etc. Asks relevant questions Analyses and evaluates key information, and alternative points of view clearly and precisely Fair-mindedly examines believe, assumptions and options and weighs them against facts Draws insightful, reasonable conclusions Justifies inferences and opinions Thoughtfully addresses and evaluates major alternative point of view Thoroughly explains assumptions and reasons The current situation is that teachers widely practice the pedagogy of answers, whereby teachers provide the answers and solutions to learners. Most frequently, this is done subconsciously. They never realize thaty they are 'spoon-feeding' the learners most of the time. By giving answers, teachers deny the learners the opportunities and the right to question, to doubt and to reject. In addition, the learners will not be exposed to challenges and stimulation of thoughts. ( Freire, in Bruss and Macedo, 1985). Freier's problem-posing methodology to develop critical and creative language learners is based on the life situations and realities of learners whereby their life situations are made into problem-solving situations. It concentrates on showing learners that they have the right to ask questions. The process of problem solving begins when the teacher listens to learners' issues. Next the teacher selects and brings familiar situations to students in a pictorial form. Then the teacher asks series of inductive questions regarding the discussion of the situation. In that discussion, the learners should experience five steps of the problem posing methodology. (Nixton-Ponder1995) The communicative approach to language teaching began to overshadow the systematic approach in the 1950s. The latter outlined that if learners are to be proficient in the language they must master the mechanism by which the language works, and learn the language system. On the contrary the communicative approach emphasized that learners become proficient by using the language and not by just merely learning about the language. However, by only using and knowing the meaning learners do not become proficient in the target language. I strongly believe that learners can only become proficient language users if they besides using the language and knowing the meaning could display creative and critical thinking through the language. This implies that the learners must be creative in their production of idea and critically support them with logical explanation, details and examples. Nevertheless, creative and critical thinking skills should not be taught separately as an isolated entity, but embedded in the subject matter and woven into the curriculum. ( Mrman and Tishman, 1988) The creative language learners should be able to combine responses or ideas in novel ways. ( Smith and Finker 1995) and to use elaborate , intricate and complex stimuli and thinking patterns ( Feldmna 1997). Learning in which students ' by acting on objects and interacting with other people, ideas and events, construct new understanding ( Luckner and Nadler 1997 p.13)Learner is conceived of as something a leare does, not something that is doen to a learner. (Johnson, Johnson and Smith 1991 p.7)Goal of active learning is students will construct their own knowledge about a subject area, discover relationship that exist among item of information and organize subject matter themselves so that it is meaningful. Learning in the information age demands students to develop a process of encountering new information. The transmission model of teaching fails to prepare individuals for the future. ( Luckner and Nadler 1997 p.12) Passive learning means poorer retention, lower order thinking, teacher-centred, same information, same pace, lower attention-level, student isolation, emphasis on memorization. Whereas, active learning tells us better retention, higher order thinking, student -centerd, prior knowledge and pacing, greater student attention students' involvement, encourages collaboration and emphasis on process. Activ

20 June, 2013 Thursday

From passive learners to critical thinkers