CRITICAL THINKING DISCUSSION THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM Stephen Brookfield

CRITICAL THINKING, DISCUSSION & THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM Stephen Brookfield University of North Carolina – Greensboro th Thursday Nov. 30 , 2017

Home Page – STEAL!!! • www. stephenbrookfield. com • Click on ‘Resources’ link & then ‘Workshop Materials’ • Scroll for power point presentations & pdf files • Click on link for Critical Incident Questionnaire • Listen to The 99 ers while you steal (www. the 99 ersband. com)

Todays Meet • Go to www. todaysmeet. com/ • Create a nickname for yourself & log in – don’t use your real name • Greet us by posting a welcome! • Anytime you have a question or comment post it on the Todaysmeet feed • I’ll check the feed & respond throughout the session

Critical Thinking Happens When We… • Identify the Assumptions Informing Our Thoughts & Actions • Check Our Assumptions for Accuracy & Validity – Contextual ‘Fit’ • View Ideas, Protocols & Decisions from Alternative Perspectives • Take Informed Actions

How do students display critical thinking? • Providing evidence for their assertions, arguments, statements, hypotheses • Giving reasons why an argument, theory or statement is valid and accurate • Demonstrating the ability to build arguments by showing inferential ladders & chains of reasoning • Looking for significant information that’s missing, omitted or ignored • Developing the intellectual flexibility to seek out alternative perspectives and viewpoints • Practicing continuous self-appraisal & welcome critique

What Do Students Say Helps Them to Think Critically? • WHEN IT’S MODELLED EXPLICITLY & PUBLICLY BY TEACHERS • WHEN ACTIVITIES ARE SEQUENCED SO STUDENTS ARE GRADUALLY INITIATED INTO PRACTICING THIS ON THEMSELVES • WHEN IT’S PRACTICED IN SMALL, PEERLEARNING GROUPS

Exercises to practice critical thinking are designed to help students… • Understand that multiple perspectives exist on issues, knowledge & practice • Become aware that the assumptions they bring are not held by everybody else • Look for what’s missing or ignored • Get comfortable with ambiguity

SCENARIO ANALYSIS • Brief (1 page) vignette of someone reasoning, choosing & acting in a specific situation • Students are asked to put themselves in that person’s shoes & propose: • Assumptions informing the reasoning, acting or choices that are described • How the person profiled could check these out • Important data or information might be missing • Different perspectives that could be taken on the person’s reasoning, actions or choices

SOME EXAMPLES • A clinical psychologist diagnoses a child with learning difficulties as autistic • A biologist trying to understand the spread of an infectious disease sets up an experiment to test a plausible hypothesis. • An historian designates a particular primary source as fabricated or otherwise unreliable • A civil engineer proposes an adobe structure for a public building in an earthquake zone

• Karen, a wife and mother of two young children in her thirties, is considering going back to work. She has watched as her husband Jack, a busy professor, has taken on more and more work outside of his college to help provide his family a decent quality of life in the city. She sees how tired he is and hears his complaints of how he never has enough time with his family, how he's being pulled in so many different directions, & how he wished things would slow down • To ease the situation, Karen has interviewed for, and been offered, a full time job with a company in the suburbs. She intends to put the children into day care and commute back and forth each day to her work. She reckons that with the money her job brings into the home Jack will be able to give up many of his commitments outside of the college. This will give him more time with his family and reduce the pressures and tensions he feels. Overall, the family will be happier their economic situation will be the same but the burden of producing income will be shared & Jack will be able to spend more time at home.

• What assumptions is Karen operating under in this scenario? • Of the assumptions identified, which could she check by simple research & inquiry ? How could she do this? • What data or information might Karen be missing? • What’s an alternate interpretation of this scenario? A version of what's happening that’s consistent with the events described but that Karen would disagree with.

MODELING – 6 TECHNIQUES TO TRY • Using Classroom Geography • Assumptions Inventories • Instructor Point – Counterpoint • Structured Self-Critique • What Do YOU Think Professor? • Ending with Questions

Using Classroom Geography (1) • A technique to illustrate multiple viewpoint, theories, frameworks • Post 3 -4 signs around the auditorium, each reflecting a distinct theory, viewpoint or analytical framework • When you stand under a sign you speak ONLY in the language & perspective of that theory • When students ask questions you go to different stations & answer them ONLY from that perspective • The visual element of this helps students enormously

Using Classroom Geography (2) • After explaining theories, frameworks & views from 3 or 4 different perspectives, divide the class into 3 or 4 groups • Put a group under each of the signs you’ve just lectured from • Pose the same substantive question to the whole class • Each group has 5 minutes to discuss how someone working from within that particular group’s theory, framework or viewpoint would respond to the question posed • Whole class reassembles & each group shares their response • Teaches different perspectives & checks for understanding

ASSUMPTIONS INVENTORIES: Talking Out Loud • Here’s the Assumptions I’m Working Under • Here’s Why I Think They’re Accurate & Valid – Experience as Corroboration • Here’s How My Assumptions have been Confirmed / Deepened by My Practice • Here’s How My Assumptions have Been Challenged by My Practice or Peers • Here’s the New Perspectives & Information I’ve Discovered Over Time

Assumptions Inventories - Students • In assignments or at the end of class students post: • Assumptions I had about this topic that were confirmed • Assumptions I had that were challenged • New assumptions about the topic I discovered • Significant information I discovered that changed my perspective on the topic • New perspectives on the topic I stumbled on

Instructor Point-Counter Point • Here a duo or trio of faculty model a critical analysis of a concept or practice in front of students. • They seek to understand each other’s viewpoints as best they can and raise questions about each other’s positions. • They clarify points of dissension and disagreement and make public the evidence or reasoning behind their disagreements.

STRUCTURED SELF-CRITIQUE • If you teach solo you state an argument, summarize an analytical framework, describe a practice, or outline a theory, standing or sitting at one position in the room. • You then move to another position, turn to face where you were sitting/standing, and review the arguments and practices you’ve outlined. You point out all the omissions, distortions, problems & contradictions in your position. • Online you can post as another individual. (My ‘avatar’ / doppelganger online identity is Steve Shannon. )

What do YOU think professor? • You give 2 or 3 Answers – Only ONE is Your Opinion • Students Vote on Whether They Think Answer A), B) or C) is Correct • Students Assemble in Groups Based on their Responses – all A’s, all B’s & all C’s • In Answer Groups they Discuss Why They Chose Their Particular Answer • Class Assembles & Groups Give their Reasons • You Disclose Which Was Your Actual Opinion

ENDING WITH QUESTIONS • At the end of a lecture or discussion you end by asking…. • What’s been missing from this analysis? • What most needs further scrutiny? • What are the chief critiques of what I’ve been saying? • What unresolved questions am I left with? • What are the most troubling questions we’ve raised today • You can respond to these or ask students to respond

Circle of Voices • Requires every student to speak but in a way that’s as non-threatening as possible – important for subsequent participation • Designed to elicit a variety of perspectives & to stop the discussion being channeled prematurely into one analysis • Teaches habits of careful listening for assumptions • Focuses on building connections

Circle of Voices • Individuals reflect silently & individually on the discussion topic or question (1 -2 minutes). Then they form groups of 4 or 5. • Participants go round the circle in order - each person has up to 1 minute of uninterrupted air time to give their viewpoint on the topic. No interruptions are allowed • After all have spoken, people move into free discussion with the ground rule that every comment offered must somehow refer back to a comment made by someone else in the opening circle of voices. This need NOT be agreement - it can be a disagreement, a question, an elaboration or extension, an illustration, etc.

Circular Response • Developed by adult educator Eduard Lindeman in the 1930’s • Designed to deepen analysis so that one or two leads, themes or hypotheses get probed – rather than having problem-solving discussions get distracted by too many possible avenues of analysis • Designed to teach very attentive listening for understanding & subsequent questioning

Circular Response • Individuals think silently about a question (1 min) • Participants go round the circle in order - each person has up to 1 minute of uninterrupted air time to give their viewpoint on the topic. No interruptions are allowed • Move into free discussion with the ground rule that every comment offered must somehow refer back to a comment made by someone else in the opening circle of voices. This need NOT be agreement - it can be a disagreement, a question, an elaboration or extension, an illustration, etc.

Getting Students to Talk About Race (1) • Adjust your definition of success – success is having the conversation & keeping it going • Frame the need for conversation in terms of the mission, purpose, strategic plan etc. • Leaders must talk about their own struggles with racism & their struggles to acknowledge it • Multiracial teams model a public conversation • Terms are defined – racism, white supremacy etc. • Racism understood as structural, systemic - a virus, learned behavior, all pervasive, air we breathe

Getting Students to Talk About Race (2) • Ground rules – brave space, challenge behavior not the person, only questions, discomfort, anger • Videos & testimony studied by community • Specific protocols – Bohmian dialog, methodological belief, circle of voices, circular response etc. • Anonymous backchannels –www. todaysmeet. com • Explanations of your process as facilitator / leader; eg. Applying fairness, why you stay with a particular person/issue, why you call on people • Regular formative evaluation shared w/ community

Todays Meet • Todaysmeet is a useful way to get students to ask questions, provide examples, respond to questions & offer reactions to the class • It by-passes the dynamics of verbal participation – giving everyone an equal chance to speak • It provides anonymity – meaning nobody runs the risk of looking stupid • It allows students to ask questions as they occur to them – not only when the professor invites questions in class

www. todaysmeet. com/ • Post your response to this question on the todays meet feed… • WHEN HAVE YOU WITNESSED OR ENACTED A RACIAL OR GENDERED MICRO-AGGRESSION?

CHALK TALK – A VISUAL TECHNIQUE • Chalk Talk focuses on creating multiple perspectives & identifying connections • At the end of the exercise students have created a visual mind map of what their thinking is on an issue • The final Chalk Talk graphic surfaces multiple viewpoints on a topic • Chalk Talk usually gets above 50% participation • It appeals to ESL/ELL students & introverts • Students who think visually appreciate this exercise

HOW CHALK TALK WORKS • Instructor writes a question in the middle of the board • Students stand by the board to do the exercise • 5 -10 minutes of silence is declared • Students write responses to the question on the board whenever they feel ready • Students & instructor draw lines between similar comments & add reactions & comments/questions • Ends when board is full or posting stops • Students photo board & post on Canvas, Moodle etc.

CHALK TALK QUESTION • WHAT DOES A TRULY INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM LOOK, SOUND OR FEEL LIKE?

RESOURCES • Teaching for Critical Thinking (2012) • The Skillful Teacher (2015 3 rd. Ed. ) • The Discussion Book (2016) w/ Stephen Preskill • Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (2017 2 nd Ed. ) • Teaching Race (2018 Forthcoming) • All books published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley • www. stephenbrookfield. com