Critical period

different writing styles that are both extremely important. Do we sacrifice fantasies for structure, or critical thinking for our minds to wander? Neither of these are expendable, there has to be a compromise between the two. I believe in elementary school there should be a balance and as you get older the creativity side will fade naturally, which is okay, and students then focus on the critical writing…

1. Being Critical (Page: 213) Critical thinking is a way of thinking that does not need any form of education to do so. Critical thinking includes theory, reflection, and action based on the first two. Critical theory gives us a foundation for our critical thinking. It is our beliefs and values that our thoughts stem from. When we reflect we are taking our thoughts and beliefs and critiquing them in order to make them remain the same or change them based on when we know and what we have…

body are different from each other although it may appear that they are connected as one, they only have a close relationship with each other but are different. Descartes main premise was that if you are a thinking thing than evidently you are thing period. Essentially the mind is a thinking thing therefore it is, whereas the body does not possess the ability to think therefore it helps him conclude that the mind and the body are two very distinct substances. In his second meditation he quotes…

Higher education institutions are now more than ever being pushed to provide large amounts of data and information to accrediting bodies and governing boards. This push for continuous evaluation and improvement has increased the need for new ways to measure student learning and development (Kuh, Pace, and Vesper, 1997). Institutions have turned to student surveys as a convenient avenue for assessing outcomes that would be impractical or difficult to measure with existing tools (Astin, 1993).…

“Facilitator’s Goal: Students will improve as readers, writers, speakers, viewers, listeners, critical thinkers, reflectors, self-learners.” The rhetorical situation is central to each of these communication opportunities, and whether students encounter the communication opportunities individually, with another person, in a small group, or in a large group, the rhetorical situation remains crucial. When students grasp the critical significance of the rhetorical situation and incorporate it in…

Bradley Hammer writes an argument focused on the question of what writing medium should be used nowadays to teach effectively composition classes. His aim is to prove that classes of composition should use the mediums available today, rather than maintaining the same old format that does not favor students’ expression. Hammer supports that with our world that is constantly evolving, it is imperative for composition classes to embrace the new ways of communication that technology brought to our…

TEACHER UNDER AUTHORITY Speaking in general about the relationship between authority and school, Giroux and MacLaren (1986) put it in this way: “Authority is inescapably related to a particular vision of what schools should be” (p. 224). Voices for liberal education and egalitarianism have led to the collapse of teacher authority. Neither the conceptualisation of “teacher as an authority” nor reconceptualisation of “teacher in authority” can ensure the equality of intelligence between the…

Is our universe one complicated computer game with us being mere artificial intelligence made of ones and zeros? This is a strange question, one that I believe cannot be totally disproven or proven but what can we know no matter the answer? The philosopher Descartes wrestled with similar questions. He was concerned about the nature of our reality and more specifically the nature of our knowledge. (Descartes 166-167) He wanted to form a base for knowledge and a method to prove that what we know…

you imagine or picture in your mind”. The appropriate context is that this is an academic environment, and that such environments demand academic rigor. Academic rigor entails encouraging assumptions and beliefs to be constructively questioned, and critical thinking rather than just “regurgitation” (Great Schools Partnership, 2014). It is intended to challenge students, and to build the skills that will ensure our work…

If I’ve learned one thing in the last semester, it’s to never study abroad. Upon our less-than-graceful arrival on Snake Island, it was made clear very quickly that survival might very well be impossible for the lot of us, given our diverse collection of ethical models and the resulting struggle to work together. From the get-go, we had troubles with communication: we couldn’t agree on how to establish rules, we couldn’t decide how to approach island researchers, and we certainly couldn’t form…