Posted Jul 04, 2008
Presentation: Learning Critical Thinking Online – some experiences with high school and college students
Austhink is pleased to announce a presentation by Associate Professor Francesco Paoli, University of Cagliari, Italy.
- Wednesday July 16, 2008, 12.30-2.00pm
- Austhink Seminar Room, Level 9, 255 Bourke St, Melbourne AUSTRALIA
To attend this free presentation, please contact us.
Synopsis
The methodological starting point of the experiences on which I will report can be summarised as follows: as we are taught by recent educational research, learning how to reason and how to think critically does not involve in a significant way only verbal reasoning, but also spatial/visual reasoning – especially when the learners are secondary school and college students who are unconsciously trained to this kind of reasoning by their practise of the web and of other new media.
I will present a course of logic, argumentation and critical thinking designed for students of an online programme in communication studies. Its main features are:- videorecorded lectures synchronised with power point charts where concepts are illustrated by means of diagrams, drawings, cartoons;
- learning units including fictions where reasoning patterns and fallacies are presented ‘in vivo’;
- learning tools including collaborative tools such as an online tutoring system, a dedicated forum, a dedicated chat, and individual self-assessment tools.
I will also illustrate a programme aimed at curbing secondary school drop-out by enhancing critical thinking abilities, carried out in some Sardinian technical and art schools. After presenting the theoretical basics of critical thinking, we engaged students in some workshops (analysing newspaper articles, analysing contents from TV and from the web, writing screenplays for fictions which have been subsequently performed and videorecorded by the students themselves). We also used a ‘Second Life’-like virtual interactive environment to develop a collaborative assessment tool and to upload the materials produced by the classes. We aim at expanding such a tool into a virtual ‘critical thinking simulator’ where students can rehearse and refine their reasoning patterns by interacting in appropriate ways with other avatars – or even chatbots.
Biography
Francesco Paoli is an Associate Professor of Logic in the Department of Education at the University of Cagliari, Italy. He is also scientific coordinator of the project ‘Enhancing logical and argumentative abilities in high school students’ (POR Sardegna 2000-2006, m.3.6). His research interests include mathematical and philosophical logic, universal algebra, and critical thinking. He authored the book Substructural Logics: A Primer (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2002) and several papers published in international journals (including Journal of Symbolic Logic, Journal of Philosophical Logic, Synthese, Australasian Journal of Philosophy). His main chance to practise critical thinking on a daily basis, however, is given by the terrifying ‘whys’ of his 6-year-old son.
