Dan Voltz

I become uncomfortable with the dogma of intelligences when we get blanket statements such as "there are six types of intelligences." I worry about this limiting out definitions of intelligence as much as the notion that there is ONE type of intelligence. Certainly, there are students who are more adept at online forum posts than in-class discussion... but they're still, in a way, socially interacting. So what type of intelligence is on display there? I wonder if it would be better to simply consider our students ALL intelligent. When I think about reflective thinking, I never forget to think about… >>>

So, the more I read about today's "entitlement culture," the more I think this term needs a dose of critical thinking. First of all, it's an incredibly broad term. What do we mean by entitlement? What do we mean by culture? And, furthermore, to think that our students feel entitled because the government somehow supplies so much to them seems to be a notion that comes from a very narrow worldview. I think students' focus on results is quite understandable. Especially in a career college setting, education is sold to prospective students as a gateway to a better career and,… >>>

So, this is something I think about a lot. We can let students know that they need to strengthen their body of background knowledge, but we also know that no amount of background knowledge is ever going to be enough. I'm also not sure developing this kind of step-by-step process to critical thinking is useful, because critical thinking is by nature supposed to resist a step-by-step approach. The steps have to be examined, questioned, and so on. What I do in my own classes is to, essentially, find a way to overcomplicate everything that I can. If I can frustrate… >>>