It seems that schools are not focussing enough on the concept of critical thinking in their curriculum. Critical thinking should in fact be an aim of education and be a large part of the school curriculum. Critical thinking is a crucial tool for students to survive and progress through the outside world after graduating school. Once in the outside world, there will no longer be teachers spoon-feeding answers; critical thinking is needed for students to process and solve any challenges and problems they face themselves.
“An array of knowledges, skills, abilities and contacts possessed and used by Communities of Color to survive and resist racism and other forms of oppression” encompasses the main idea of Community Cultural Wealth. It is vital to understand that students will step foot into the classroom with a variety of cultures zipped up in their backpacks, and it is our job as educators to make sure that equality is instilled/taught in our classrooms. The second a student feels a sense of discrimination, whether from ourselves or their fellow classmate(s), is when the safe and comforting environment of the classroom begins to diminish. Here I will discuss just how important it is to see the differences amongst students as an advantage
Firstly, I plan to explore how race has influenced my life. My mother is of Hispanic, and Irish decent whereas my father is of African decent. One of my earliest experiences with racism came from my mother’s side of the family. My grandmother would often say awful things about my dad to my brother and me when we visited and my parents were not around. She never hid how she felt about my parent’s relationship from us. My grandmother was opposed to my mother’s relationship with my father solely because he was, according to her, a “nigger” and of a different ethnic background and was not good enough for her daughter and that my mother was bringing shame to the family. My grandmother never accepted us whole-heartedly as her grandchildren compared to how she treated our other cousins simply because of their race and their complexion because they looked more like her side of the family than we did.
While critical thinking is important in all occupations, it must begin in childhood. Teachers must help their students to develop critical thinking modalities. Critical thinking helps considerably in problem solving. Without critical thinking, one must rely on old and outdated informat...
Incorporating a critical literacy perspective into the foreign language classroom may seem daunting at first, but it is not impossible. As Barbara Comber argues, curriculum that focuses on “critical social action and textual production is often reserved for adult or workplace domains" (453), however, incorporating this perspective into the classroom can help “connect them with community members about matters of immediate significance" (453). The practices of critical literacy can allow the students to think outside the box, develop both as individuals and collectively, “claim value in their experiences and critique mainstream ideals that marginalize them and their families" (Jones 60).
Translating into college, it requires enormous differences from high school because it demands college students to be independence and increased competition, temptation and expectation. Students feel stressful, and they have to struggle with tons of college standards and rules. In the “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” proves that college students not only understand the meaning well, but also they comprehend the implication of the reading. It shows that college students are able to catch up the author's main idea. What is critical thinking? A critical thinker has the ability to cultivate and point out diverse perspective that can mold new idea not the pervious knowledge. The author use rereading the title between an El Salvador student and the native student as an example. According to this example, it shows that critical thinking is not come with natural. Although both students read it as commonsense, the El Salvador has own perspective and points out that America in ethnocentric view...
This class was held at a high school for evening students. The students were African Americans and Asian Americans and Hispanics. I observed the relationship between African-Americans and Hispanics. Communication was dealt with uncertainty. Many students grouped with people of their own culture , although the class was constructed to teach these students skills that would help both into the work place, no concern for communicating was seen between this group. It was observed as cultural conflict in the classroom among adults. There were no confrontations but nonverbal oppositions were there. The Asian American s did not respond yet, kept their distant- another form of not accepting change in a diverse community.
Critical thinking leads readers to a higher level of understanding and a greater appreciation of stories read using critical thinking. Critical thinking is finding connections and patterns within a topic, issue or story. It is giving explanations with reason and citations, insights, and further asking intellectual questions. Critical thinking is a process that offers advantages and has the ability to make any ancient text relevant to modern day.
By incorporating critical literacy into the teaching of literacy, children are able to explore and understand inequalities between different cultures or races displayed in a text. An example would be in a newspaper article which could display how the dominant worldviews are accepted while the minority views of the indigenous are often dismissed as discussed in chapter 6. If this neglect of the indigenous culture and opinions was to continue and the teaching focus was based on western perspectives in school settings, many children would not be able find connections between their home experiences and their education. To prevent this, teachers could use resources in the indigenous community and environment to scaffold the children’s critical literacy activities. With many indigenous children having limited access to technologies and cars, the children are not exposed to the related literacy practices many other children see every day. Teachers must integrate critical literacy opportunities that the children can relate too, which will give them the chance to read, analyse, critique and question texts that the children are familiar
The aim of this book is to demonstrate the importance of critical thinking and demonstrate how critical these skills are for students to master. Just like how we learned other skills and mastered them, we also need to learn to think critically. For example, we can master let’s say a problem until we memorize a problem, however if we master critical thinking then we have tools to analyze and provide solutions to other problems. As the authors Elder and Paul (2007) states that not many students have been thought to analyze (p.41).
During this semester, I had the opportunity of working with a class of 2nd Graders in the Long Beach area. Even though in my last two serve rotations I was exposed to students from different linguistically and cultural backgrounds, this year I had the opportunity of truly experiencing multicultural diversity in the classroom. Since Jane Addams is located in the ghetto area of Long beach, the majority of the students are the so called minorities. Mrs. Chavarria classroom represented pluralism and world cultures; in her classroom there were Filipinos Samoans, African Americans, Latinos a couple of white kids, and a Hispanic/Chinese boy. This last serve rotation gave me the opportunity to experience my mentor teacher's pedagogical approaches which engage cultural multiplicity in many effective ways. My mentor teacher as expressed earlier in my journals has been teaching for the last thirteen years and has been open to learn about new concepts and ideas central to addressing cultural pluralism in the core curriculum and have tested some practices that have proved to be useful. Some of th...
Critical thinking is an important part of the actions that we take. Speaking is no exception. One needs to apply critical thinking when considering how to diversify language. This will allow the speaker to determine which words and phrases are appropriate in which setting. Sometimes thinking critically about language can cause one to feel like he or she is unable to express his or herself, but language has consequences. It is important to think critically about language, because if you aren’t someone else is.
Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing written by; Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, Eighth Edition, published April, 2007 by Bedford/St. Martin’s, is a textbook about writing and critical thinking. In the first chapter of Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths”, the Authors begin by setting a relatable scene of what it’s like for a college student. How a new found independence can be overwhelming, especially with regards to critical thinking, showing that what we have learned, needs to be re-evaluated and that an open mind in essential. "What Is Critical Thinking" In this section of the chapter the editors explain what it means to be a critical thinker. They explain that critical thinking is not just studying dates and facts, but rather taking those facts and examining them. The editors then proceed by explaining how having an open mind, and taking others' perspectives into account when formulating our own opinions on what the author is trying to say to us is important. A critical thinker takes all aspects into account and reflects on personal experience as well. The editors also point out that different cultural experiences bring different opinions. They suggest that we need to become active learners, continuously questioning the meaning behind everything, testing not only the theories of others but also our own experiences and analyzing the text rather than going for the obvious. They show that thinking outside the box is the epitome of critical thinking. Basically, we need to step outside our comfort zones and what we have always been taught. The editors also suggest that we need to re-evaluate our per...
The movie “The Class Divided” was a very inspirational movie because it taught a lesson on discrimination and racism. The film covers Jane Elliot experience with the “eye-color” exercise and it shows how the participants responded to being a victim of discrimination. The teacher who came up with the exercise was a third grade –teacher that wanted to explain to her kids the reasons behind Martin Luther King death. She divided each class she taught up by their eye color and treated them according to whatever eye color was more superior that day. Her lesson influenced and inspired the younger kids and older adults because it taught them a life learning lesson that could stick with them for years to come.
Finn, P. (2011). Critical thinking: knowledge and skills for evidence-based practice. Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools,42(1), 69-72. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2010/09-0037)