Title: Choose an educational podcast on any subject and critically analyse the argument presented.
Word Count: 1,000 words (+/- 10%)
Guidance
Assignment 3 asks you to choose an educational podcast on any subject and to analyse the argument presented. You are specifically thinking about whether the arguments presented are clear and whether you are convinced by them. You can discuss any areas that have not been explored fully or looked at critically.
I have included an example below so you can get a sense of the structure and content, as well as some ideas about the critical areas that might be explored. It is not a whole assignment.
Example
Podcast: Developing critical thinking skills with Tine Reimers (see link below)
Section 1 (short intro to podcast)
The chosen podcast involved a discussion of how to encourage critical thinking in university settings. The initial discussion suggests that critical thinking is desired in universities and is highly valued despite the fact that there is no agreed definition of what it is. The speaker outlines the fact that different disciplines see critical thinking very differently and this will impact on what we expect from our students in university classrooms. Tine Reimers talks about students being constructed as deficit in some way when they are unsure or reluctant to take part in critical thinking activities. She goes on to present a framework with a number of theorists who have contributed models of critical thinking. The models are divided in to four categories, but Reimer suggests that we can borrow from a number of them and different elements can help us choose our pedagogy.
Section 2 (some areas for further discussion)
There are a number of arguments woven through the podcast that can be explored and supported with reference to literature. For example:
- The discipline specificness of critical thinking.
- The lack of a shared definition of critical thinking that is uniform to all disciplines.
- The problematic nature of lecturers’ expectations around students’ capacities to think critically.
- The contested nature of models of learning – for example, learning styles.
- The nature of critical thinking activities and how best to execute them.
Section 3: Arguments and counter-argument.
In the contemporary era, there is an increasing awareness that developing critical thinking should be an aim of educational institutions across the world. (Paul, 1995; Wegerif, Li & Kaufman 2015). Although there is an acceptance that critical thinking is really important, this does not mean that there is a universal consensus on a definition of what it is. The lack of unity on a definition is indicative of the differing perspectives from which disciplines view critical thinking.
Podcast Link
Developing critical thinking skills
Like Assignment 2, you are free to choose any theme that you wish to explore, as long as you apply a critical lens to it. It must be supported by literature and critical thinking models/evidence.
Examples of areas explored in previous years:
Is That Higher-Order Task Really Higher Order?
Inquiry-based Learning
Is Your Classroom Academically Safe?
https://player.fm/series/critical-thinking
https://teaching.temple.edu/programs-events/teaching-higher-ed-podcast-developing-critical-thinking-skills-tine-reimers
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