Critical Thinking Skills
As an instructor in Allied Health I have found that many of my students do not have critical thinking skills especially when it comes to medical ethics. I have some scenarios that I use to provoke discussion as to 'what are the issues and what is the best course of action'. They do not do well at first only speaking from emotion but as the course continues they begin to think things through more before offering an opinion.
Connie,
and the more we can help them in walking through the problem solving & thinking through these scenarios, the better at critical thinking they will become.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
In our nursing program we have the same problem with critical thinking skills around professionalizm and ethics- another techniques that works is role playing- the instructor would provide the scenario, some with obvious almost comical breaches and other with more subtle breaches. After the scenarios the discussions are very animated and you can see on the studnets faces when they start to connect the dots.
Pamela,
the role plays or case in point type of teaching is a great way to bring the reality home to the students of the importance of these skills.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I believe that critical thinking comes from experience. The more they reproduce the same things over and over they seem to come up with a solution. Most of the time I will have to tell the class during production what the critical solution is and then they perform it. Hoping that next time it comes up they will know what to do.
Dianne,
and the more we have them work through the various problems & situations, the more they develop those critical thinking skills.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Using role playing is a great way to help students understand massage client scenarios that involve therapeutic techniques. When someone is in pain, using a "cookie cutter" approach of performing techniques does not provide satisfactory results. The students must learn to see the body as a puzzle with many pieces and then figure out how to arrange the pieces using the appropriate therapeutic techniques. The role playing seems to work the best so far.
Dianne,
yes, I'm a big believer in role playing & in case studies. I think both help them develop the ability to apply the concepts to real situations.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I try to use my experience help them see better.Critical thinking is very important skill to have in the technical field.
Howard,
definitely true & I think if we can help them see how we approached problems, thought through them & then reflected on this we will help them develop better critical thinking skills.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
This is certainly one of the weakest skills they possess. But as you say, keeping technology and relevance in mind, they also respond pretty well to developing these skills.
I agree especially when the area of study (i.e. healthcare) is so heavily dependent on good critical thinking skills.
I think the GEN Y folks have been harmed by the idea that they need to be spoon fed information for the sake of passing standardized tests. They leave the public school system and then come to out school and have little to no ability to think for themselves. When you challange they to think on thier own, they are most times very resistant to doing so, simply because they do not know how. Unfortunately, this gives the members of this generation the label of being lazy, when they simply do not know how to think on their own because they were not required to in their prior schooling.
Kenny,
I agree with you & one of the best gifts we can give these students is to help them learn to think.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
This is a great discussion! I find that students aren't able to "think outside the box" on their own. I teach a variety of business courses in the allied health area and find that when a student is given an open or broad topic they become stumped and need much direction. However, when given great details and strict requirements, the student is less "needy" of my attention and direction. Now when I give group work, I make sure there are specific details with room for student interpretation and creativity. This has proven to be effective, not only are the students learning the lesson, thinking for themselves, but now they're learning from each other too.
Maureen,
this is a great approach that can greatly help the students learn to think at that broader level.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
