Kathryn ColburnCHEP

In my Critical Thinking class, I have students use the questioning method to explore their given topic. They create and answer the reporter's questions. They find that this gets them curious about the possible answers and leads to even more questions.

Something I find very interesting is that we teach the four aspects of a critical thinker to be: Knowledgeable, open-minded, creative and curious. I'm wondering if these qualities will come up in the remainder of this course.

I love this idea. I have my students create a Plagiarism Contract in week one of my class and it has the same effect. Let them research what plagiarism is, let them tell you what the consequences are and have them write down why they aren't going to do it.

It seems, through reading these posts, that instructors have a general aversion to teaching Gen Y students. They are often deemed as lazy, inconsiderate, "sheep" that tweet and Facebook all day. We have to embrace that this is the environment in which they grew up in, and work with them to mold them into the learners we want them to be! After all, they didn't create the technology that they are using incessantly, the generations before them did-- so why are we blaming them for using it, when we should be teaching them to use it responsibly?