COGITO
“stalwart pioneers toward frontiers yet unknown”
While we as professors have the ability
ourselves to think critically (we had to
learn these skills to earn advanced
degrees in our disciplines), many
students--including our own--never
develop critical thinking skills.
Steven D. Schafersman
asks pertinent questions assesses
statements and arguments is able
to admit a lack of understanding or
information has a sense of curiosity
is interested in finding new solutions
is able to clearly define a set of
criteria for analyzing ideas is willing
to examine beliefs, assumptions, and
opinions and weigh them against facts
listens carefully to others and is able
to give feedback sees that critical
thinking is a life long process of self-
assessment suspends judgment until
all facts have been gathered and
considered looks for evidence to
support assumption and beliefs is
able to adjust opinions when new
facts are found looks for proof
examines problems closely is able
to reject information that is incorrect
or irrelevant Ferrett, S.
Peak Performance
A wind turbine on top of one of our buildings.
Got to wonder what equivalent installation
might could inform the way we “do” academics:
our auto motivation industry, so to speak, new
ways to tap an ancient resource: air, wind, spirit
—conspiracy, our breathing together; knowing
environ-mental & sustainable devotion cut both
ways—internally as well as externally, trans-
formational changes without & within these
days of anxiety and opportunity..
Can you imagine a college course in THINKING?
Years ago a student told a mess of faculty engaged
in re-assessing our whole program a-to-z…
(up for grabs the President said,
question everything, )
…“Your job is to
teach us to think.”
Of course we knew that,. goes-without-saying,
it’s what-we-do: teach critical thinking thru a
study of texts, comparing & contrasting writing
well-documented thesis-driven papers prompting
study with pop quizzes & examinations, talking
in guided discussion (points for participating) &
poster presentations, doing original research: all
this standard, norm-al: the procedure whatever
the token topic, subject & object matter again and
again and again. The same.
We teach “The Course.”
Critical Thinking is built-in: dynaflow fluid drive
automatic transmission & comes with the territory
called institutionalized education from grades 9, 10,
11, 12 , 13, 14, 15, 16 and up to grade 22 if you
“go on” for your Phdegree. .
&&&
The Ludic Frame
SAMES & DIFFERENCES
Name of a game I sometimes play to collapse
my coursers, reduce them to fundamentalism.
One and the Many,
the classical Greeks called IT. In Latin:
E Pluribus Unum. E Unum Pluribus.
Différance
What's the difference2 between
SAME & DIFFERENT1
as well as the difference 3
(and the same) between
the 2 “differences 1&2 ”
and how are they all related:
the differences and the sames?
1) Drawing distinctions,
2) Turning up the GAPS and then
3) Establishing the relationship (all 3 crucial)
without doing injustice to sameness or differences
and their sibling relationship: that’s the game—
playing with some cerebral infrastructure without
the nagging affective distraction of token topic,
course material, current affairs & whether it’ll be
on the exam or not.
.
Madness or consummate sanity? Like building ice
cream parlors in hell without damage to hot or cold.
LIKE I said. Not IS. You can maybe see that talk-
like-this (sames & differences talk) does not occupy
the same logical territory as talk about fiction or
linguistics or economic recession or political
corruption or Chicago Cubs or Golden Globes or
environmental sustainability or normal instrumental
discourse and exchange—what you might talk about
in standard courses.
What a joke! But we love a good joke.
Waste of time: of course—“school mode”
(L. schola: leisure-time)
Same and yet different. Bored by the same.
Threatened by difference Comforted by
the same. Provoked by difference.
My courses are all the same. Like basketball or ping pong..
air hockey or Old Maid: same old same old & yet each game
different and any one might could get better at it. Over time.
Like piano. PLAY & BE PLAYED. Not for every body. .
xxxooo, Codger
“stalwart pioneers toward frontiers yet unknown”
While we as professors have the ability
ourselves to think critically (we had to
learn these skills to earn advanced
degrees in our disciplines), many
students--including our own--never
develop critical thinking skills.
Steven D. Schafersman
asks pertinent questions assesses
statements and arguments is able
to admit a lack of understanding or
information has a sense of curiosity
is interested in finding new solutions
is able to clearly define a set of
criteria for analyzing ideas is willing
to examine beliefs, assumptions, and
opinions and weigh them against facts
listens carefully to others and is able
to give feedback sees that critical
thinking is a life long process of self-
assessment suspends judgment until
all facts have been gathered and
considered looks for evidence to
support assumption and beliefs is
able to adjust opinions when new
facts are found looks for proof
examines problems closely is able
to reject information that is incorrect
or irrelevant Ferrett, S.
Peak Performance
A wind turbine on top of one of our buildings.
Got to wonder what equivalent installation
might could inform the way we “do” academics:
our auto motivation industry, so to speak, new
ways to tap an ancient resource: air, wind, spirit
—conspiracy, our breathing together; knowing
environ-mental & sustainable devotion cut both
ways—internally as well as externally, trans-
formational changes without & within these
days of anxiety and opportunity..
Can you imagine a college course in THINKING?
Years ago a student told a mess of faculty engaged
in re-assessing our whole program a-to-z…
(up for grabs the President said,
question everything, )
…“Your job is to
teach us to think.”
Of course we knew that,. goes-without-saying,
it’s what-we-do: teach critical thinking thru a
study of texts, comparing & contrasting writing
well-documented thesis-driven papers prompting
study with pop quizzes & examinations, talking
in guided discussion (points for participating) &
poster presentations, doing original research: all
this standard, norm-al: the procedure whatever
the token topic, subject & object matter again and
again and again. The same.
We teach “The Course.”
Critical Thinking is built-in: dynaflow fluid drive
automatic transmission & comes with the territory
called institutionalized education from grades 9, 10,
11, 12 , 13, 14, 15, 16 and up to grade 22 if you
“go on” for your Phdegree. .
&&&
The Ludic Frame
SAMES & DIFFERENCES
Name of a game I sometimes play to collapse
my coursers, reduce them to fundamentalism.
One and the Many,
the classical Greeks called IT. In Latin:
Différance
What's the difference2 between
SAME & DIFFERENT1
as well as the difference 3
(and the same) between
the 2 “differences 1&2 ”
and how are they all related:
the differences and the sames?
1) Drawing distinctions,
2) Turning up the GAPS and then
3) Establishing the relationship (all 3 crucial)
without doing injustice to sameness or differences
and their sibling relationship: that’s the game—
playing with some cerebral infrastructure without
the nagging affective distraction of token topic,
course material, current affairs & whether it’ll be
on the exam or not.
.
Madness or consummate sanity? Like building ice
cream parlors in hell without damage to hot or cold.
LIKE I said. Not IS. You can maybe see that talk-
like-this (sames & differences talk) does not occupy
the same logical territory as talk about fiction or
linguistics or economic recession or political
corruption or Chicago Cubs or Golden Globes or
environmental sustainability or normal instrumental
discourse and exchange—what you might talk about
in standard courses.
What a joke! But we love a good joke.
Waste of time: of course—“school mode”
(L. schola: leisure-time)
Same and yet different. Bored by the same.
Threatened by difference Comforted by
the same. Provoked by difference.
My courses are all the same. Like basketball or ping pong..
air hockey or Old Maid: same old same old & yet each game
different and any one might could get better at it. Over time.
Like piano. PLAY & BE PLAYED. Not for every body. .
xxxooo, Codger
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