Critical Thinking Beyond Skill

The aim of this article is to investigate possibilities for conceptions of critical thinking beyond the established educational framework that emphasizes skills. Distancing ourselves from the older rationalist framework, we explain that what we think wrong with the skills perspective is, amongst other things, its absolutization of performativity and outcomes. In reviewing the relevant discourse, we accept that it is possible for the skills paradigm to be change‐friendly and context‐sensitive but we argue that it is oblivious to other, non‐purposive kinds of rationality that are indispensable to critical thought. Our suggestion is that there is an aporetic element in critical thought that is missing from contemporary educational positions. We consider some other efforts to redeem the surplus of criticality that performativity fails to take into account and conclude that the aporetic element that we highlight accommodates better than other theories do the significance of thematizing the taken‐for‐granted instead of focusing on problem solving.     

超越传统:走向批判与本土化的比较教育学

比较教育学即将迎来学科创立200周年。在经历了多次研究范式的转换之后,当代比较教育学呈现出新的发展趋势,即走向"批判"并回归"本土化"。伴随着传统的"描述与借鉴"范式的日趋式微,比较教育研究越来越受到社会批判理论和后现代主义理论的影响,由此带来了批判性的学术话语。在全球化时代,比较教育学的学科功能被重新定义,聚焦本土化问题成为新的取向,这意味着我们需要在"国际性"与"本土化"之间寻找新的融合点与平衡点。     

超越对齐梁宫体诗的偏见

全盘否定宫体诗的审美价值必然会违背审美形态的嬗变规律 ,暴露出审美视野的狭窄和审美观念的僵化。审美者要消除门户之见 ,要有开放的心胸和眼光 ,才能领略美的多姿多态 ,超越对齐梁宫体诗的偏见。     

Cultivating Excellence: Moving Beyond Engineering Thinking to Living‐Systems Thinking

For the past several centuries, Western society has been guided by a mechanistic view of the world and of work. Now, that story is steadily being overtaken by a view of the world not as a predictable machine but as a vibrant, dynamic ecosystem. This shift has profound implications for every field of human endeavor, including performance improvement. Furthermore, embracing this perspective may be critical to the survival of our species.     

Beyond the Given: Stretching Mathematical Thinking Through Journaling

This paper reflects on a teaching experiment and presents details of a pedagogical technique where students periodically write down their clearest interpretation of the conditions imposed on various discrete mathematical subjects they are learning in class. Through iterations, students generate a more complete understanding of the material, one that they themselves can justify. This experiment was conducted in the Discrete Mathematical Structures course; as it contains several subtopics, each of which uses a discrete set of elements with specific conditions. The textbook does not mention how those conditions are effectively put to use, and often uses the natural numbers as the default domain. Students are required to identify in their journals the exact properties that the elements need to have, justify how they are being put to use, and in ambitious cases attempt to sharpen them if possible. This activity can be adapted to different contexts and is not specific to the topic of Discrete Mathematical Structures.     

Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: Creating a Social Justice Agenda in the Classroom

ABSTRACT

A social justice classroom agenda relies on the ability of educators to create a space free from microaggressions that can be strengthened through an approach of cultural humility. Utilizing Bonnycastle’s social justice continuum, this article explores how to create a classroom grounded in social equality and guided by social work values to foster participation from students across all social identities.     

Beyond the Sex Binary: Toward the Inclusive Anatomical Sciences Education

Developments in biology and genetics in recent decades have caused significant shifts in the understanding and conceptualization of human biological variation. Humans vary biologically in different ways, including individually, due to age, ancestry, and sex. An understanding of the complexities of all levels of biological variation is necessary for efficient health care delivery. Important steps in teaching medical students about human variation could be carried out in anatomy classes, and thus, it is important that anatomical education absorbs new developments in how biological variation is comprehended. Since the early 1990s biological sex in humans has been vigorously investigated by scientists, social scientists, and interest groups. Consequently, the binary division in male and female sex has been called into question and a more fluid understanding of sex has been proposed. Some of the major textbooks teach anatomy, particularly of the urogenital system, as a male-female binary. Anatomical sciences curricula need to adopt a more current approach to sex including the introduction of the category of “intersex”/“differences in sexual development” and present sex as a continuum rather than two sharply divided sets of characteristics. This approach offers a better understanding of the complexity of sex differences and, at the same time, provides students with an improved theoretical framework for understanding human variation in general, transcending the limitations of biological typology. When well delivered, the non-binary approach could play a significant contribution to the formation of competent and responsible medical practitioners and avoidance of problematic practices such as non-consensual “normalizing” surgeries.     

超越傲慢与偏见:信息技术时代的课程慎思与技术自觉

信息技术深刻影响着课程发展,课程在信息技术时代"危"与"机"并存.检视技术与课程相遇的历程,发现技术在不断"受宠"中被崇拜,而课程在渐趋"失宠"中式微.时至今日,技术的傲慢之势显露无遗,课程的偏见之为悄然发力,技术之傲慢与课程之偏见正在迸行深层博弈.为此,从技术本身的科学性、作用的实效性和结果的可解释性研判技术之"技"的内在尺度,从技术使用的内在一致性、伦理规范性和价值发展性解析技术之"术"的外在尺度,厘清技术何以影响课程的机理,迸而基于"技"与"术"的和谐共振使课程中的技术归位.同时,着眼课程的事实、价值和方法问题,迸行课程之"课"的本体追问,聚焦课程运作全过程中技术的角色与功能,求解课程之"程"的发展诉求,迸而在课程育人旨趣的重申中促成技术时代的课程自觉.如此,在技术与课程的融合共生中,促成技术时代技术的铅华洗净和课程的返璞归真.     

超越“引课” 走向“引思”

创设情境引入数学学习的方法已经被广泛应用于课堂教学,但教师在运用这种方法的过程中存在不少问题.课堂情境创设存在着4个主要问题:(1)不问价值,牵强附会;(2)远离学生,自我欣赏;(3)零碎堆砌,不成系统;(4)只求引课,不求引思.引课的情境创设和引思的活动线索设计的根本区别是:(1)引课是教师教的需要,而引思是学生学的需要;(2)引课把情境设计当作开课的敲门砖,是零散堆砌的,而引思的线索设计则贯穿课堂,具有整体性;(3)引课的情境设计往往追求数学的现实背景,而引思的线索设计则以引发学生自然合理的数学思考为原则.数学课堂学习活动线索设计的基本原则和基本策略是:线索效应原则;注意选择原则;激发动机原则;模型理解与建构原则;启发探索原则.     

Dispositions Toward Critical Thinking: The preservice teacher's perspective

This study examines the critical thinking (CT) dispositions of 202 preservice physical education students in the US. All were juniors or seniors and enrolled in physical education secondary teaching methods classes. Results provided evidence of a positive inclination toward CT on six of seven subscales and the total score of the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI). When compared with other university populations, the preservice physical education sample generated higher scores than community college students, but were generally outscored by students from a private 4-year university cohort. Knowledge of the CCTDI data can be used to assist physical education teacher educators as they prepare teachers capable of fostering CT in their students.     

Preservice Teachers' Attitudes Toward Inclusion and Toward Students with Special Educational Needs from Different Ethnic Backgrounds

Drawing on social cognition frameworks, we experimentally examined preservice teachers' implicit attitudes toward students with special educational needs (SEN) from different ethnic backgrounds and preservice teachers' explicit attitudes toward inclusive education. Preservice teachers (N = 46) completed an evaluative priming task and questionnaires. Results showed indifferent implicit attitudes toward students with SEN with immigrant backgrounds and positive implicit attitudes toward those without immigrant backgrounds. Furthermore, participants reported a high motivation to act without prejudice toward minorities but held less favorable explicit attitudes toward inclusion of students with SEN, especially students with behavioral problems. Differential patterns of implicit and explicit evaluations could bias teachers' interactions with students. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for educational practice and research.     

Knowledge: Genuine and Bogus

Pseudoscience is error, substantive or methodological, parading as science. Obvious examples are parapsychology, ??intelligent design,?? and homeopathy. Psychoanalysis and pop evolutionary psychology are less obvious, yet no less flawed in both method and doctrine. The fact that science can be faked to the point of deceiving science lovers suggests the need for a rigorous sifting device, one capable of revealing out the worm in the apple. This device is needed to evaluate research proposal as well as new fashions. Such a device can be designed only with the help of a correct definition of science, one attending not only to methodological aspects, such as testability and predictive power, but also to other features of scientific knowledge, such as intelligibility, corrigibility, and compatibility with the bulk of antecedent knowledge. The aim of this paper is to suggest such a criterion, to illustrate it with a handful of topical examples, and to emphasize the role of philosophy in either promoting or blocking scientific progress. This article is a revised version of a chapter in the author??s forthcoming book Matter and Mind (Springer). [The Appendix on inductive logic was written at the request of the editors in order to elaborate claims made in #10 (4).]