Developing higher order thinking skills in students is an important task for higher education. Students who are competent analyzers, synthesizers, and evaluators become workers who are better prepared for the work challenges they will face. Class discussion, a long-standing and well-regarded instructional method, in online classes is either synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous discussion is in real-time, often using chat or messaging applications. Asynchronous discussion typically uses online discussion boards where students respond to comments and questions from class-members. The intention of this study was to explore what higher order thinking skills develop naturally via student social constructivism.
College students in America are experiencing what might be called a widespread "depoliticization" of our society. With high debt loads and an uncertain economy, students are increasingly pressured to see their education in terms of its benefits to their working lives rather than their public lives. Moreover, every day, they see polarized news media, policy-making institutions in gridlock, elections hijacked by special interests, and negative advertising. Lacking anything comparable to the student movement of the 1960s, they are understandably frustrated and alienated from what is called "politics" (Kiesa et al. 2008) and receive little guidance from colleges on how to connect politics to their working lives. Drawing on Arendt's framework, we argue that meaningful work is what links individuals to the world of politics, and should be the central aim of liberal education.
A colleague once described her frustration with students' lack of initiative and curiosity as what we came to call "baby bird syndrome the desire of students, after years of teaching-to-the-test mentality, to wait to be fed answers rather than risk engaging in individual thinking....
Mindfulness originated in the Buddhist tradition as a way of cultivating clarity of thought. Despite the fact that this behaviour is best captured using critical thinking assessments, no studies have examined the effects of mindfulness on critical thinking or the mechanisms underlying any such possible relationship. Even so, mindfulness has been suggested as being beneficial for critical thinking in higher education. Critical thinking is recognised as an important higher-order cognitive process which involves the ability to analyse and evaluate evidence and arguments.
Engaging in argumentation on SSIs requires students to discuss science content with their peers and teachers without setting out to defeat an opponent. Collaboration becomes important as students establish criteria to distinguish among multiple distinct ideas (Linn, Clark, and Slotta 2003) and work together to build a sound argument. We recommend using critical friend pairs, in which two students discuss and critique each other's arguments, to promote collaboration and critical-thinking skills. This article presents a lesson plan using critical friend pairs that promotes argumentation and evaluating evidence.
The purpose of this study was to use Q methodology to understand the subjective views of faculty, students and administrators about the perspectives of writing related to critical thinking and knowledge creation in the social sciences of agriculture. Writing as content development guided by feedback and the knowledge of society, writing as an application and a development of thought and writing as an advanced skill guided by complex reasoning emerged as perspectives of writing and the writing factors that augment critical thinking and create knowledge in the social sciences of agriculture.
The purpose of this study is to explicate how the service-learning experience impacted the university students' awareness of, commitment to, and understanding of culturally responsive practice as a challenging aspiration with real-life implications for serving diverse children and youth.
This study investigates the relationship between reflective practices in college service-learning programs and alumni's current reflective practices. Additionally, this study explores how graduates 'present reflective practices help to shape their civic and professional identities.The results of this study strongly suggest that multi-term, community engagement programs, where critical reflection is continuous and occurs in a variety of ways, support a reflective practice that persists in the lives of program graduates, helping them develop their civic and professional identities.
This article addresses this gap in current thinking by developing a conceptual framework by which the poor can appreciate the possibilities and constraints of the context in which they are grounded. By moving from standardized conceptions of and responses to poverty, this article will advance an understanding that spatiotemporal pathways to well-being from the point of view of poor individuals and families need to be charted prior to interventions by the state.
For centuries, people of color in the United States have endured disproportionate poverty and been excluded from economic opportunities. They have been labeled "minorities," as though their fewer numbers somehow made their suffering acceptable. Yet people of color will become the majority in America by 2050 (Center for American Progress & Policy Link, 2013). One of the major challenges of our time is how America will reconcile the fact that the emerging majority still endures oppressive poverty. How will we handle this crucial shift in demographics? What investments will we make in people, systems, and communities? Answers to these questions will determine if America will continue to maintain its quality of life and its competitive position in the world.
This paper examines the complex relationships of unemployment, poverty' and insecurity with a particular focus on the Nigeria's Fourth Republic. It suggests that poverty reduction should be vigorously and truly pursued for the benefit of the poor masses, agricultural sector should be used as a veritable platform to reduce unemployment and entrepreneurship development brought to the center stage of government efforts at reducing poverty'.
This article addresses the various ways in which people acquire—or do not acquire—and use—or fail to use—correct information of the type to which Jefferson and subsequent scholars of democracy refer. Our starting point is Jefferson's ideal: that is, knowing and using correct information to make policy or political choices.
Stories give life and substance to scientific methods and provide an inside look at scientists in action. Case studies deepen scientific understanding, sharpen critical-thinking skills, and help students see how science relates to their lives. In Science Stories, Clyde Freeman Herreid, Nancy Schiller, and Ky Herreid have organized case studies into categories such as historical cases, science and the media, and ethics and the scientific process. Each case study comprises a story, classroom discussion questions, teaching notes and background information, objectives, and common misconceptions about the topic, as well as helpful references. College-level educators and high school teachers will find that this compilation of case studies will allow students to make connections between the classroom and everyday life. Science Stories is sure to make science engaging and enlightening for both students and teachers.
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Science Stories: Using Case Studies to Teach Critical Thinking by 
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