scholarly journals Teaching students how to think, not what to think: Pedagogy and political psychology

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 388-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Velez ◽  
Séamus A. Power
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Political Psychology ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Psychology Courses ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Do So

Academia is often critiqued as an “ivory tower” where research, thinking, and teaching are isolated from the complexity and everyday experience of so many people. As instructors of political and other psychology courses, we strive to break down these barriers and engage with the dynamic and nuanced nature of phenomena as situated in lived social and political contexts. In this report, we unpack and detail how we strive to achieve this goal by expanding on Plous’ articulation of action teaching (2012). We first define our pedagogical focus on active engagement, critical thinking, and staying on the move between multiple perspectives. We then provide specific examples of how we enact our philosophy in activities and assessment. We end by articulating how this approach to teaching in social and political psychology can be understood as furthering not only our students’ intellectual growth as psychologists, but also their development as democratic citizens. In doing so, we argue that action teaching not only involves course activities directly engaging with social issues, but also provides students with a scaffold to actually do so in a way that is attentive to the complexity, pluralism, and dynamism of social and political issues.

Teaching students how to think, not what to think: Pedagogy & political psychology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Velez ◽  
Seamus A. Power
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Political Psychology ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Psychology Courses ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Do So

Academia is often critiqued as an “ivory tower” where research, thinking, and teaching is isolated from the complexity and everyday experience of so many people. As instructors of political and other psychology courses, we strive to break down these barriers and engage with the dynamic and nuanced nature of phenomena as situated in lived social and political contexts. In this report, we unpack and detail how we strive to achieve this goal by expanding on Plous’ articulation of action teaching (2012). We first define our pedagogical focus on active engagement, critical thinking, and staying on the move between multiple perspectives. We then provide specific examples of how we enact our philosophy in activities and assessment. We end by articulating how this approach to teaching in social and political psychology can be understood as furthering not only our students’ intellectual growth as psychologists, but also their development as democratic citizens. In doing so, we argue that action teaching not only involves course activities directly engaging with social issues, but also provides students with a scaffold to actually do so in a way that is attentive to the complexity, pluralism, and dynamism of social and political issues.

Developing Meaning-Making to Promote Critical Thinking

2015 ◽  
pp. 195-217
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Schoper ◽  
Craig E. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Learning Partnerships ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
The Common ◽  
Do So

Promoting critical thinking is a demand today's teachers are asked to meet (Association of American Colleges and University [AAC&U], 2005; Hart Research Associates, 2013), yet doing so requires that teachers themselves are critical thinkers. In order to critically think, teachers must have the capacity to make meaning complexly. Making meaning complexly allows for individuals to consider experiences from multiple perspectives and make responsible, ethical decisions for the common good. In other words, complex meaning making allows for critical thinking. Thus, a method for promoting critical thinking is to develop complexity in how meaning is made, and one way to do so is to implement the learning partnerships model (Baxter Magolda, 2004). This chapter explores using the learning partnerships model in the classroom to engage in the development of how one makes meaning, so as to develop critical thinking.

scholarly journals Using Literature and Innovative Assessments to Ignite Interest and Cultivate Critical Thinking Skills in an Undergraduate Neuroscience Course

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Lynd-Balta
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Scientific Topic

Science education reform initiatives emphasize 1) the value of concepts over facts; 2) the benefits of open-ended, inquiry-based problem-solving rather than protocols leading to a single correct answer; and 3) the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to teaching that is not confined by departmental boundaries. Neuroscientists should be at the forefront of this movement by the very nature of the discipline we study. Neuroscience is a relatively new field that integrates diverse subjects (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, computer science, and psychology) and experimental advances are constantly changing and expanding our understanding of brain function. How can we convey this excitement in the classroom? The project described in this article uses nonscientific literature to introduce a scientific topic of study. In addition, the multitask assignment requires the acquisition of content knowledge and the development of critical thinking skills. As students explore the topic from multiple perspectives, they recognize the interconnectedness of science and society and confront ethical and moral issues related to science. A comparison of exam scores, essay responses, engagement level, as well as students' own reflections, demonstrates that inclusion of the project does not sacrifice content knowledge, rather it enhances the overall learning process.

Educational Films against Critical Pedagogy

1987 ◽  
Vol 169 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ellsworth
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Curriculum Materials ◽  
Educational Film ◽  
Liberatory Education ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Educational Films ◽  
Do So

Teachers committed to practicing critical pedagogy often must do so in spite of the curriculum materials available to them. This paper analyzes the conventions of form and style that typify traditional educational film. The argument is made that while teachers and students are active producers and negotiators of meaning, the aesthetic conventions of most educational films negate this classroom reality. The paper analyzes a sample of films produced between 1940 and 1960 to determine the norms that were set in place during the time when the dominant style of educational films became fully established. It then compares these norms to the forms and styles of two contemporary educational films that deal with social issues. It suggests that while some conventions have changed across time, they continue to be employed in ways that actively work against critical thinking and liberatory education.

scholarly journals Bloody Women: How Female Authors Have Transformed the Scottish Contemporary Crime Fiction Genre

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-71
Author(s):  
Lorna Hill
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
Crime Novel ◽  
Practice Based Research ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Abstract This study will explore the role of female authors in contemporary Scottish crime fiction. Over the past thirty years, women writers have overhauled the traditionally male dominated genre of crime fiction by writing about strong female characters who drive the plot and solve the crimes. Authors including Val McDermid, Denise Mina and Lin Anderson are just a few of the women who have challenged the expectation of gender and genre. By setting their novels in contemporary society they reflect a range of social and political issues through the lens of a female protagonist. By closely examining the female characters, both journalists, in Val McDermid’s Lindsay Gordon series and Denise Mina’s Paddy Meehan series, I wish to explore the issue of gender through these writers’ perspectives. This essay documents the influence of these writers on my own practice-based research which involves writing a crime novel set in a post referendum Scotland. I examine a progressive and contemporary Scottish society, where women hold many senior positions in public life, and investigate whether this has an effect on the outcome of crimes. Through this narrative, my main character will focus on the current and largely hidden crimes of human trafficking and domestic abuse. By doing this I examine the ways in which the modern crime novel has evolved to cross genre boundaries. In addition to focusing on a crime, the victims and witnesses, today’s crime novels are tackling social issues to reflect society’s changing attitudes and values.

After the Ivory Tower: Gender, Commodification and the ‘Academic’

1997 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna de Groot
Keyword(s):  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Academic Identities ◽  
Loss Of Autonomy ◽  
External Power ◽  
Key Features ◽  
And Control ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
Do So

This piece uses a feminist approach to explore various aspects of ‘commodification’ in the lives and work of those teaching and researching in UK universities, and in particular its gender dimensions. After setting a historical context for the radical transformation of UK universities during the 1980s, it considers how this transformation was experienced by academics in terms of alienation, anxiety and accountability. Key features of that experience are loss of autonomy and control to the external power of competition and managerialism, insecurity and casualization in employment, and exposure to increasing judgemental scrutiny. For women academics job insecurity and discrimination continue to be disproportionately important, although some of the challenges to old established academic convention and practice have opened up real possibilities to progress more pro-women agendas. In the future they will confront quite depressing developments in the reconstruction of academic identities and labour, but have the legacy of the gains/insights of feminist analysis and politics over the last twenty years with which to do so.

Nationalistic education in the Hong Kong and the Macao SARs of China

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric King-man Chong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Education ◽  
National Identification ◽  
Education In Hong Kong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare and analyse the role and implementation of nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions (SARs) since their respective handover of sovereignty to China in the late 1990s. Both SARs face the educational need to cultivate a Chinese national identification among the students after the sovereignty changes. While Macau SAR has enjoyed a relatively smooth implementation of nationalistic education towards which Macau’s schools and students are largely receptive to nationalistic programmes since its handover in 1999, Hong Kong SAR Government’s nationalistic education was met by reservation from some parents, students and civil society’s groups under allegations of “political indoctrination” and “brain-washing”. The Hong Kong civil society’s resistance to National Education culminated in the anti-Moral and National Education protest in Summer 2012 and then Hong Kong schools and society. This paper attempts to provide an overview and analysis on the development of nationalistic education in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs, and to give some possible explanations on the factors that lead to differences of perceiving and responding to the nationalistic education between both places. Design/methodology/approach After conducting a literature review, this study utilises different sources of data such as curriculum guidelines, previous studies and other scholarly findings in examining the development of civic education and national education policy in both SAR societies, as well as in discussing the possible developments of nationalistic education in both SARs by making references to previous studies of citizenship and nationalistic education. Findings This study found out that different relationships between the two SAR Governments and their respective civil society, the extent of established socio-political linkages with China, as well as the introduction of a core subject of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong secondary schools, which emphasises on multiple perspectives and critical thinking skills, are some plausible factors that explain different stories and developments of implementing nationalistic education in Hong Kong and Macao SARs. Research limitations/implications For giving suggestions for a nationalistic education in both Chinese SARs, first, there should be an exploration of multiple citizenship identities. This will allow people to choose their identities and thus facilitate their belongingness in terms of local, national and global dimensions. In addition, there should be an exploration of a Chinese national identification with different emphases such as knowledge orientation and critical thinking so as to cater for youth values. Promoting the idea of an informed and reasonable-in-thinking patriot could also be a way to ease the concern that building a national identity negates a person’s freedom of thinking. Originality/value This paper attempts to compare and analyse the different responses to the same policy of enhancing nationalistic education development in both Hong Kong and Macao SARs of China. Some plausible explanations were given based on political, social and educational factors, as well as youth value oritentations. This paper would be an attempt to show that a top-down single-minded orientated nationalistic education may not work well a society such as Hong Kong, where civil society and youth values are quite different than that can be found in China.

scholarly journals Validation of a German Version of Kelley’s (1992) Followership Questionnaire

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Mirko Ribbat ◽  
Stefan Krumm ◽  
Joachim Hüffmeier
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
German Version ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Factorial Structure ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Leadership Research

Abstract. While most leadership research takes the perspective of leaders influencing their followers, more recent research focused on the question how followers may influence their leaders. Kelley’s (1992) followership questionnaire was the first to assess followership behavior. To provide a basis for further research on followership in German-speaking countries, we conducted two studies to establish the psychometric properties of a German version of Kelley’s questionnaire. In Study 1, we explored the factorial structure of our translation in a heterogeneous employee sample ( N = 451). In Study 2, we tested for convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity in another heterogeneous employee sample ( N = 413). The results indicate satisfactory psychometric properties for two followership dimensions (i.e., active engagement and independent, critical thinking). Correlations of these two followership dimensions with other constructs were mostly in line with our expectations. We discuss the usefulness of the German followership questionnaire for research and practice.

scholarly journals Representasi LGBT dalam Perspektif Ideologi Khilafah: Kajian Transitivitas dalam Buletin Kaffah

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-358
Author(s):  
Dede Fatinova ◽  
Yasir Mubarok ◽  
Ratna Juwitasari Emha
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Controversial Issue ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Radical Ideology ◽  
New Form

Ideologi khilafah merupakan sebuah ideologi yang kerap kali diinterpretasikan sebagai ideologi yang cukup radikal. Umumnya ideologi khilafah menyoroti isu-isu politik yang bertentangan dengan syariat Islam. Namun, kali ini ideologi khilafah juga menyoroti isu sosial, yaitu LGBT. LGBT merupakan isu yang kontroversial secara global. Sementara ideologi khilafah merupakan sebuah paham yang konsepnya bertentangan dengan negara Indonesia.  Penyebaran ideologi khilafah sudah dilarang oleh pemerintah Indonesia. Namun eksistensinya masih hadir dalam rupa yang baru, yaitu pada sebuah buletin bernama KAFFAH. Kajian ini akan mengungkapkan bagaimana LGBT direpresentasikan dalam perspektif ideologi khilafah. Data dalam penelitian ini berasal dari artikel tentang LGBT pada media Kaffah, edisi 025 yang dirilis pada 26 Januari 2018. Selanjutnya data dikaji secara kualitatif dengan metode analisis deskriptif. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan teori Transitivitas sebagai teori yang menyatakan bahwa bahasa merupakan representasi dari pengalaman manusia. Transitivitas ini berfokus pada tiga komponen, yaitu proses, partisipan, dan sirkumtan. Berdasarkan uraian Transitivitas, diketahui bahwa dalam perspektif ideologi khilafah, LGBT bukan hanya direpresentasikan sebagai masalah sosial, tapi juga sebagai implikasi dari tidak adanya Undang-undang yang bersumber dari hukum Islam yang secara eksplisit dapat menjerat LGBT. The khilafah ideology is an ideology that is often interpreted as a fairly radical ideology. Generally, the ideology of the khilafah highlights political issues that are contrary to Islamic law. However, the Khilafah ideology also highlights social issues, namely LGBT. LGBT is a controversial issue globally. While the khilafah ideology is a concept that is contrary to the Indonesian state. The Indonesian government has banned the spread of the khilafah ideology. But its existence is still present in a new form such as a bulletin called KAFFAH. This study aims to describe how LGBT is represented in the perspective of khilafah. The data of this study is a KAFFAH bulletin article, 025 editions, which released on January 26, 2018. Furthermore, the data were analyzed qualitatively by descriptive analysis methods. This study uses the Transitivity theory approach as a theory which states that language is a representation of human experience. The Transitivity focuses on three components; process, participants, and circumstance. Based on the description of Transitivity, LGBT is not only represented as a social problem but also as an implication of the absence of laws that originate from Islamic law which can explicitly ensnare LGBT.

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