Against didacticism (original) (raw)
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Against didacticism: A psychologist's view
Educational Research Review, 2006
Quality thinking and quality teaching are desirable but difficult to achieve. Although lectures are necessary to teach information, one cannot rely on them to promote critical and constructive thinking skills. Nevertheless, didacticism remains the dominant teaching strategy in secondary education and in university, perhaps because it is viewed as the most efficient way of imparting large quantities of information. In this comment, research and theory in psychology are used to argue the case that the development of critical and constructive thinking skills necessarily involves the cultivation of dialectic, flexible attitudes toward thinking and teaching in context.
Slavonic Pedagogical Studies Journal, 2018
In the educational process, the teacher should respect the brain-compatible and psychodidactic aspects: how to select and organize the subject, respect the learning styles and teaching styles, develop the metacognitive processes of the students, and support the development of critical thinking. In the present paper, the authors focus on students' work with text, which is strongly determined by several attributes described in the paper. The authors carried out research about the perception of text and text structure at students of the Slovak pedagogical college. Key words brain-compatible teaching, psycho-didactic aspects of education, critical thinking 1. Delineating the concepts In the recent past rejecting transmissiveness in the teaching process has been occurring in the pedagogical as well as the psychological environment, and gradually teaching that respects the principles of brain-compatibility has been coming to the fore and methodologies are being developed that address psycho-didactic issues (such as respecting the learning styles of students and teaching styles of teachers, developing metacognition, meaningful teaching, and using appropriate ways of structuring the subject matter). This means that the psycho-didactic approach in school teaching focuses primarily on the student's performance, yet the emotional aspects of education should be considered as well. A teacher respecting the principles of brain-compatible teaching discusses the new subject matter in a systematic way, creates a logical structure of respective knowledge items and puts emphasis on the internal motivation of students and encourages their interest in the discussed subject matter, makes sure that the already discussed subject matter is reviewed with the students, and prefers teaching based on involving as many senses as possible because that is when the synapses in the student's brain become more stabilized. E. Petlák et al. (2011) understand brain-compatible teaching as teaching based on the principle of how the knowledge related to brain structures and functions is transformed into the instructional and educational process. The authors discuss how the human brain works within the educational process, what principles and strategies teachers deliberately choose to accomplish the instructional and educational goal and more. This is where one can see
Philosophical Didactics: How Creativity Can be Compatible with Critical Thinking
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2015
The modernistic model of upbringing emphasizes more cognitive, instrumental competence, and underlines the importance of critical thinking. The postmodern model of upbringing induces more interdisciplinary and creative thinking. The authors of the article raise the following question: is creativity compatible or incompatible with critical thinking? Relying on their own experience of textbooks writing and implementing in practice, the authors of the article are searching for a concordance between these two seemingly different capacities of the human mind and the two models of upbringing. The article deals with the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of modern and postmodern philosophical didactics and discerns the practical perspectives of their possible conformity.
Critical and discursive teaching in psychology
Pedagogy and the Human …, 2009
American youth are more adept at multi-tasking and multi-processing the fast-paced media and technology information than prior generations . During this new wave of "post-modernism," youth can interact globally with a far more culturally diverse yet interdependent society. Questioning, risk-taking, conflict resolution, and continuous innovation are the systems-level skills required to live and prosper. These skills should be integrated with more "modernist" skills, such as learning the truths of one's field as the teachers of that field present them. This paper presents an example of how teaching about conflict can be used to help students critically examine the massive amount of information available to them, and understand the socially, historically, and politically situated nature of truth. Implications of standardization, critical discourse, and discursive teaching that bring real life problems and conflicts into the education process are discussed.
Acta Didactica Napocensia, 2017
In the contemporary international field of education and particularly in Science Education, there is a tendency of limiting the teacher to the role of a passive recipient of knowledge produced in research, followed by the transfer of that knowledge to the classroom. Meanwhile, the dominant tendencies on forming constructivist frameworks, where participatory procedures for discovering and constructing knowledge by the children are encouraged, are in contrast to the prevailing tendency mentioned above. This contradiction leads the teacher to failure, which we believe could be tackled with teacher training programs that promote critical thinking and reflective processes. The following text presents an attempt of a method application for educating adults (TLAE method) for teaching traditional university courses in Sciences Education. According to the findings of the research, the development of critical thinking skills in student teachers is evident. The example of the TLAE method application offers the possibility to enhance traditional teaching approaches with new innovative and experiential practices, while such a perspective could compensate for the inefficacies of teacher training.. 1. The Theoretical Framework In the last 30 years the development of Science Education, in terms of significant progress in research regarding learning and teaching natural sciences, has led to systematic revisions of science teacher training (Zeegers, 1994; Davis, 2004; Boilevin & Ravanis, 2007). Since dominant theoretical approaches in the broader context of Science Education are influenced by constructivism or/and socio-constructivism, the orientation of basic education as well as teacher training, has shifted from a traditional preoccupation of teaching subjects such as Physics, Chemistry or Biology, to cognitive processes and teaching practices that help children of all ages shape the way of perceiving phenomena and concepts of natural sciences. This new orientation was formed gradually, facing great resistance from those who insisted on the value of teacher training programs aiming to a deeper understanding of natural sciences and laboratory teaching. This created a new awareness that moved the focus from the actual subject to the obstacles created by the children's thinking and often even by the teachers' thinking. This new concept was to reposition major issues for education in natural sciences such as the transformation of scientific knowledge into 'school knowledge', the curricula, the revision of teaching practices, the role of the laboratory, the solution of problems, evaluation etc. All these efforts that are recorded internationally over the last thirty years, certainly of different intensity and form in various educational systems, have created an environment in search of recognition and autonomy associated with significant currents of humanities and social sciences, such as the branch of Psychology that deals with learning and the classic educational theoretical aspects (Ravanis, 1998, 2010; Dumas Carré, Weil-Barais, Ravanis & Shourcheh, 2003). It goes without saying that this process was not linear, consensus and systematic. Weaknesses and contradictions for all research and development issues of Science Education, difficulties of adjusting to the framework of social sciences and divergent views, created degraded areas of theoretical reflection and research. The most important among them was the issue of the
International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478)
The need to train learners to think critically has been stressed and it has become a key concern among scholars in recent years. Although there is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits of critical thinking as well as proposals for its integration in schools, scholars are still looking for evidence demonstrating how teachers instill critical thinking in the classroom and the obstacles they face. Furthering this argument necessitated lecturers’ feedback on the obstacles to teaching critical thinking in the classroom. Data was collected from academics at a South African university of technology using interpretative phenomenological analysis approaches. The lecturers identified several obstacles that inhibited them from inculcating critical thinking in the classroom. The first one is time, according to the lecturers there is not enough time to inculcate critical thinking since the average lesson last for fifty minutes. The second is the large population of students. The third is th...
Thinking styles and their role in teaching and learning
Proceedings of the 24th …, 2003
It has been well documented in educational literature that effective learning takes place if the whole brain is involved in learning. This paper introduces a model for understanding thinking styles and the important role that it has in teaching and learning. Cognitive functions are accommodated when teaching activities are constructed to comply with a learner's preferred mode of thinking. Interpreted in terms of Herrmann's Whole Brain Model, this presupposes that all four brain quadrants are included in teaching and learning activities. This model also helps to understand mental diversity and the important role that it has in effective teaching and learning as well as being a tool to design and deliver teaching and learning actvities in all four brain quadrants. Taken that "Every classroom represents a complete spectrum of learning style preference" (Herrmann 1996:151) this paper will highlight that if educational activities are designed and delivered in all the modes of Herrmann's model, successful learning will take place. A variation in design and delivery approaches by educators would facilitate the development of the full potential of a learner. This will not only accommodate learners' thinking preferences but also develop areas of lesser preference and avoidance of learners.
Beijing Normal University, 2018
Critical Thinking Skills (CTSs) are important in this world which is burdened with myriad of problems. It is critical education which could suffice to solve such problems originating in the societies we live in. The study explored how lecturers perceive CTSs; how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students; and what complexities lecturers encounter in teaching to develop CTSs in students. Finally, the study explored what lecturers propose to be the best solutions for teaching to develop CTSs in students. Given the nature of the research questions, the study adopted the constructionism epistemology. Constructionism epistemology called for the use of methods such as unstructured interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, and artifacts collection methods of data collection. The findings indicated that the perceptions of many participants about CTSs corresponded to what the literature suggests. However, a few participants thought of CTSs as being related to criticizing others‘ views. Moreover, some participants understood CTSs as being related to the discussion of facts only. On how lecturers teach to develop CTSs in students, findings uncovered that a few lecturers teach in strategies that foster CTSs in students. Such strategies included asking well-thought-out questions, classroom dialogue and discussion, real-life and reflective examples, use of cases, and group tasks. Nevertheless, some lecturers maintained the lecturer-dominated strategy. They hardly immersed or infused any of the strategies that foster CTSs in students. Regrettably, there are cases where lecturers kept lecturing even when they extremely had a small number of students. On the complexities that lecturers encounter when teaching to develop CTSs in students, almost all participants reported difficulties such as inadequate resources and its resultant large class size problem; the language of instruction (LOI); students‘ characteristics and untrained lecturers to mention a few. On the best solutions for developing CTSs in students, findings indicated that there are lecturer‘s level solutions such as developing "a can-do attitude" towards students, and policy-level solutions such as modifying the mode of assessment and revisiting the LOI policy statements. From the findings, I conclude that there is no way CTSs could be developed at their peak in such contexts where there are inadequate resources. Also, there is no way CTSs could be developed in such classrooms constructed in ways that call for the traditional way of teaching.