Critical thinking at school, an unresolved matter (Article)

Do you feel afraid of defending your opinion in front of people? Have you ever had the feeling that you were not able to think by yourself? Do you prefer to write resumes instead of essays? Do you think you are not able to evaluate arguments? Is it difficult for you to make judgements? Do you think that it your opinions and thoughts are not valued at school?

If your answer is “yes” to any of the previous questions, it is probably because you are not a critical thinker. A critical thinker can be defined as a person who has the ability to defend opinions, evaluate arguments, make judgements, organize ideas, analyze, evaluate facts and solve problems. Critical thinking is not something common in the chilean educational system.  For example, in my ELAB, it is easier to find teachers who prefer to make their students follow the rules without thinking about the reason why they have to. They do not encourage them to reflect about the causes and consequences of the things they do daily. Students can not make mistakes inside the classroom. If they do, they are punished.  Therefore, they consider it to be safer to follow the order rather than to innovate. Pupils are not allowed to defend their opinions or organize their own ideas. They have to think like the teacher does, and agree with her/him in every single thing. For instance, when I was observing a lesson once, I could notice that the teacher preferred that students kept silence during the class. She didn’t encourage them to participate and was the only one that could talk during the lesson. She only asked them short answer questions but did not take into account their opinions and mistakes as a way of learning.  Certainly, critical thinking is something non-existent in schools. Teachers do not give the possibility to children to think critically because they fear they could break the established order inside the classroom and neglect their lessons. Also, students could be dangerous to those teachers that do not consider different ways of learning to teach their students and that put into question the chosen methods. They are not prepared to teach by including another point of view, which means that they are not prepared to make their students think critically because they’re not even ready for it.

Critical thinking is the topic which is in vogue in education these days in Chile, because we realize the weakness of an educational system that lacks this approach.    It is something that must be changed in order to transform our society. Schools are forming non critical persons that are taught to reproduce the social system and perpetuate the established norms without any possibility to change our reality or to even create values. Nowadays, schools are preparing students to be ordinary people that do not think by themselves and this situation must change.  The world needs a revolution of young people that change it with critical and innovative ideas. That is when a teacher’s important mission comes into play. They should let their student think critically. They could do it by giving reflexive lessons and also promote activities that make them think, analyze, make judgement, organize ideas, and in which they can express their opinion. Debates and critical essays are critical teaching methods, among others. So, teachers should make their students think critically because it is a very important aspect which is nowadays censured by schools, and it is something essential that must be integrated not only in a classroom, but also in our everyday life. 

Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Fernanda Inostroza Müller

30 th september, 2009

Motivation in our students.

This is an essay that we did and we want to share it with you. The idea is that you understand that motivation is something very important in the classroom. we need to encourage students' motivation in order to achieve a meaningful learning.

Motivation in our students

Nowadays, many teachers know that motivation is something essential in students’ learning. They know and recognize the importance of this topic in education. In fact, we could say that a good education needs interest, participation and the motivation of the students and teachers. The motivation is something very important in people, above all, in students because they are learning, therefore, they need to be motivated. With this characteristic, they could improve their learning and equally their commitment, self-esteem and confidence. Nevertheless, the students sometimes don’t feel motivated. In this case there is a complex situation in students’ learning. As result, students aren’t interested in learning something or they don’t want to participate in class. In this situation, motivation isn’t working well. Put another way, the motivation is essential in the development of students’ learning. As future teachers, we should pay attention and improve this problem that could affect the learning of our future students. 

First, in order to improve the students’ motivation in the language class, we should recognize that students have an environment, a social life, a family, history, etc. that could influence the motivation and commitment in a good or bad way. I agree with Littlejohn (2001) who said that “There are many factors which affect students’ commitment to study. Many things – perhaps most – are beyond our control as a language teacher, and fall outside the confines of the lessons that we have with them in a week”. In my opinion, teachers should be able to recognize that students could lose their motivation because they have external problems. In the meantime, maybe the school and teachers have a great responsibility too. For example, one of these factors that affect the students’ motivation, could be how teachers organize their classes. In this point, we can see how teachers’ work is important in the students’ motivation. Thus, the labour should be integrative, with different kinds of activities and with a positive impact in the students. The main thing is that they feel motivated in class and can trust in their abilities. The idea is that students can feel a natural interest in learning with the help of the teacher.

Another crucial factor that affects motivation is evaluation (mark). About evaluation, Littlejohn (2001) said that “In the classroom, for example, teachers may reward students with good marks, or in effect, punish other students with low marks”. My point of view about evaluation is that students’ motivation could improve when a student receives a good mark. On the other hand, it could be demotivating when a student receives a low mark. The evaluation could affect several aspects in students’ motivation because don’t feel motivated means that there isn’t participation, confidence and self-esteem. In other words, a good evaluation could help to increase motivation and its aspects but, a low evaluation could do the opposite thing.

Now, we should recognize that when there are problems with motivation also there are problems in other aspects. As result, students could lose their commitment, participation and confidence. To avoid this situation, is important that teachers try to increase the students’ self – esteem. In other words, students must believe that they can do something well. Littlejohn (2001) states that ” As human beings we generally like what we do well, and are therefore more likely to do it again, and put in more effort. If we put more effort, we generally get better, and so this sustains our motivation”. To emphasize the idea, is essential that students trust in themselves and believe in their abilities. Students should be motivated in what they can do in order to develop more commitment in their learning.   

            In conclusion, it seems to me that motivation is vital in students’ learning. As teachers, we must confront these complex situation because improve students’ motivation is in our hands. Teachers must believe in their students with an integrative labour in class. The main idea is that students can develop a sense of confidence and optimism and they can believe in themselves, so, the environment and relationship between teacher and student will be better. Through these aspects, students will increase their motivation and trust in class. For these reasons, motivation is essential in the students in order to improve their learning.

 

Work cited

Littlejohn, Andrew. “Motivation, where does it come from? Where does it go?”. English teaching professional. Nineteen. April, 2001: 5 – 8.

http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2010/10/01/mapuches-presos-alcanzan-acuerdo-con-el-gobierno-y-deponen-huelga-de-hambre/

1 de Octubre de 2010

Termina prolongado ayuno de 82 días

Mapuches presos alcanzan acuerdo con el gobierno y deponen huelga de hambre

Del total de comuneros, sólo diez que permanecen recluidos en la cárcel de Angol mantienen aún la huelga. El subsecretario de la Presidencia, Claudio Alvarado, se mostró esperanzado en que dentro de las próximas horas se sumen al acuerdo que fue oficializado por el propio Alvarado y por el arzobispo de Concepción Ricardo Ezzati. [Actualizada]

por El Mostrador/ EFE

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Los comuneros mapuches en huelga de hambre, algunos desde el pasado 12 de julio, finalizaron la noche de este viernes la medida de fuerza tras llegar a un acuerdo con el gobierno, informó el arzobispo de Concepción, Ricardo Ezzati, quien participó en la mediación.
La noticia, que también la confirmó la vocera de los comuneros mapuches presos, Natividad Llanquileo, se generó luego de dos extensas reuniones, una en la ciudad de Concepción con el arzobispo Ezzati y otra en Temuco, con el ministro del Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter.
“Como es público conocimiento, el gobierno ha promovido reformas legales destinadas a modificar la denominada ‘Ley Antiterrorista’ y la norma de enjuiciamientos civiles por parte de tribunales militares”, señaló Ezzati a la prensa.
El religioso, que leyó un comunicado, añadió que “en consecuencia con estas reformas legales en curso, el Gobierno considera que ello en lo que en derecho corresponde, es no perseverar en la querella terrorista presentada en su oportunidad bajo la presidencia del gobierno de la presidenta Michelle Bachelet”.
“Ello por cuanto en este nuevo marco normativo promovido, el gobierno no tiene convicción que los hechos por los cuales se ha imputado a los denominados comuneros mapuches pueda seguir siendo calificado como conductas terroristas”, añadió la misiva.
“Procederá así el gobierno a desistirse de todas las querellas por delitos terroristas y replantear tales acciones bajo las normas del derecho penal común”, añadió Ezzati en medio de los festejos de los comuneros.
De todos modos, la autoridad informó que los comuneros en huelga de la localidad de Angol, excepto uno, entregarán este sábado la respuesta a la propuesta gubernamental.
Hasta el momento pusieron fin a la huelga ocho comuneros detenidos en Concepción, 13 de Temuco, uno de Angol y uno de Valdivia.
Los presos mapuche, que se consideraban presos políticos, exigían que no se les aplicara la ley antiterrorista, no ser sometidos a un doble juicio ante tribunales civiles y militares y que no se utilizaran testigos protegidos en sus procesos.
El gobierno había dado por fracasado el diálogo el pasado lunes debido a lo que consideró exigencias desmedidas de los huelguistas, que solicitaron conversar directamente con los tres poderes del Estado.
Sin embargo, la reunión que sostuvieron el jueves varias mujeres mapuches, familiares de los comuneros presos, con el ministro del Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, en el Palacio de La Moneda (sede del Gobierno), facilitó el reinicio de las conversaciones.

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