Kritisk tekning i norskfaget (og andre fag)

Når en har vært i skolen noen år og har hardisken full av powerpointer, hylla full av filmer og ringpermene fulle av transparenter kan en slippe unna med ganske mye. "KJør i vei, legg på, sett igang snakkemaskinen, fyr opp powerpointen", og ingen vil antakelig reagere annet enn å si at jo - dette her er jo skikkelig undervisning. Av elevene krever det ikke mer en viss grad av fysisk tilstedeværelse. "Legger du ut powerpointen?"

Jeg har i en tidligere blogg kommet inn på begrepet "higher thinking skills", og jeg ble idag nok en gang minnet om at mye av undervisningen vi driver med ikke er god nok fordi den ikke oppøver elevene i kritisk tenkning. Dette er hardt arbeid for både elever og lærere. Jeg siterer nedenfor fra American School Board Journal der Susan Black skriver om "Habits of thought", blant punktene som nevnes, er ikke direkte bloggskriving, men det er for meg opplagt at bloggene med sin åpne intertekstuelle form åpner for elevrefleksjon og dialog mellom andre tekster, mellom lærer og elev.

Richard Paul and Linda Elder of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, have some answers. Students, Elder says, need opportunities to "take thinking apart" -- that is, analyze their own thinking according to standards of clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, and fairness.

To put students' thinking at the center of their daily lessons, Paul says, teachers should encourage students to:

? Summarize what others have stated

? Elaborate on concepts and ideas

? Relate topics to their own knowledge and experience

? Give examples to clarify and support ideas

? Make connections between related concepts.

Too often teachers allow students to get by with random and undisciplined thought, Paul says. Instead, he recommends developing students' creative and critical reasoning through what he calls the basic building blocks of thinking:

? Beginning with clearly stated goals and purposes for study and inquiry

? Formulating and framing problems and questions

? Developing a defensible perspective and point of view

? Assessing resource materials and texts for honesty and fairness

? Questioning assumptions and biases

? Making valid inferences

? Evaluating consequences of judgments and reasoning.

Students should be taught to "reason their way" into school subjects, Paul says, instead of being spoon-fed information that they memorize and then forget. Schools should see to it that students become progressively "more disciplined in their reasoning, and more self-critical and self-directed in the process and products of their thinking" as they advance through the grades.