Teaching critical and creative thinking

1. Teaching critical and creative thinking Experiences from the VVOB-KTTC Learning Resource Centre Presented by Anouk Janssens-Bevernage, VVOB project coordinator

2. Our concerns are very similar… Lack of skills to think critically Lack of logical argumentation Problems with identifying bias Lack of skills to undertake a proper problem analysis, etc.  These skills are part of what we call new literacies

3. Knowledge economies: research skills are needed across professions Teachers have the responsibility to teach new literacies to their students but lack these skills themselves (note that most teachers are university graduates)

4. Trying to fill the gap requires critical and creative thinking from the training programme designers as well!

5. How do we get the teachers and teachers-to-be to think critically and creatively? By mainstreaming it in everything we do Two examples: • ICT integration training programme • Educational management programme

6. ICT integration training programme ICT skills? Well… The bulk of the programme is about: Designing problems-based learning units Strategically searching the Internet Critically analysing information Deriving meaning from this information to solve real-life problems Communicating the findings, etc.etc.

7. Meaningful ICT integration in the classroom requires critical and creative thinking 21st Century literacies have moved centre stage on our programme Linking these literacies to ICT training has reduced resistance to change

9. Educational management programme Offered through mixed-mode delivery Quality learning materials are essential! If quality education needs to include critical and creative thinking, what do quality learning materials look like?

10. These learning materials look very different compared to the traditional textbooks… Current textbooks and even study guides are mere traditional lectures on paper This is what they should be: • Tutorial in print (when there is a body of knowledge to be mastered) • Reflective action guides (building knowledge)

11. Tutorial in print • like having a good coach or tutor, working with you one-to-one • activities every few minutes with immediate feedback • activities involve thinking (preferably higher-order cognitive skills) and writing • creates a dialogue with the learner (interactive text) • the writer is able to give quite specific feedback because he/she knows the kind of thing that learners will have written • the learning is assumed to happen while the learner is interacting with the package

12. Reflective action guides • creates a dialogue with the learner (interactive text) • assumes that the important learning will take place away from the package • a guide to action elsewhere • requires learners to think critically about the why and how of what they are doing, and evaluate the outcomes • activities likely to be more time-consuming than reading the text • “development activities” are more likely to be related to the learner’s own situation than to sample situations or case studies posed by the author • the author cannot know enough about the learner’s situation to provide specific feedback, so the learner must gather his/her own

13. The development of open learning materials according to best practices is one of the most essential components of a successful distance learning programme Are we concerned if we are not involved in distance education? Absolutely! … and the development of adapted learning materials may be one of the solutions for the lack of critical and creative thinking skills.

14. One more comment: Research should be part of the learning culture at all levels Traditional role of the teacher/lecturer as a dispenser of information  in such a learning context students fail to develop their thinking skills

15. When all university faculties take the development of critical literacies seriously, the effect will also be felt at the secondary school level. I believe that, if they would be able to study in such a learning culture, your researchers would do wonderful work.

16. Thank you!