THE NECESSITY OF BEING CRITICAL

       One day, I and my wife had some financial problems.  We were trying hard to figure out how we can make both ends meet due to some financial difficulties those times.  Suddenly, I was surprised with the remark of my son: “why don’t we just sell the car for us to have money to buy the things that we want?”  I was really surprised because my son was just 4 years old then.

       This just proves the ability of every human being to respond to complicated and difficult situation.  He is gifted with reason that makes him capable to know, apply, understand, evaluate, analyze, and to generate ideas that will enable him to adapt to a situation.

       With this inherent potentiality of the human person, the Complex Thinking Theory asserts the enhancement of this ability.  The primary task of schools is the enhancement of this ability to generate effective measures to respond to various situations.  Though everyone has this ability to know, apply, understand, evaluate, analyze, and generate new ideas, the issue is whether the individual does them properly.  This, then, becomes the central role of the school.  It is to provide the correct manner of accomplishing these tasks.

       Critical thinking is very important for a person to learn.  At the age of adolescence, he is supposed to be making his own decisions in life.  No one else lives his life for him.  Only he experiences his own life-world.  His situation is different from the other.  Hence, he must be able to respond effectively to that specific situation.  A person whose ability to think critically is not enhanced is prone to making erroneous decisions.

       Going back to that remark made by my son which surprised me, that shows that he has the innate ability to be critical about situations.  That ability, if properly guided, will enable him to be a good decision maker not only for himself but for other matters like issues regarding the workplace and issues regarding others later on.  Of course, we did not sell the car.  I was just fascinated because as early as his age, he already displayed critical thinking in that particular phenomenon.

       For the critical thinking theory to be effective, there must be minimal restrictions addressed to the learner.  There must be an opportunity for the learner to explore and widen his horizons for him to have sufficient basis in creating new ideas that are effective.  Instruction is not meant to impose but to guide the learner – to show what is appropriate and what is not.

 

I AM MY WORLD

       In the Constructivist theory, the learner learns by himself.  Teachers only feed the information and the learner organizes these into meaningful details.  Like a jigsaw puzzle which may possibly form various images or pictures when put together, the learner arranges the pieces by himself until he figures out the actual picture. It does not matter where he starts arranging the pieces with different sizes and shapes.  Whether he starts from the bottom, or the top, or right or left side does not matter.

       Another feature of the Constructivist theory is that learning is a subjective endeavour. From the similar pieces of information provided to various learners, each one arrives at a picture that may be different from other learners.  This is due to the fact that the meaning they associate with these pieces of information are determined by their own personal experiences in the world – their life-world.  The Constructivist perspective, hence, affirms the uniqueness of the individual in relation to the learning activity.

       In Philosophy, we always say, man is a rational animal. This proposition affirms man’s capability to make use of his intellect, to arrive at a decision that responds to his personal situation, that he is free, and that he is responsible for any action he undertakes.  In my humble opinion, this learning theory, so far, is the best one in as much as this responds to the most basic nature of the human person – to be rational.  Unlike the other theories wherein an element of force is present; likewise, the individual is somewhat deprived of the meaning he desires to create because the meaning that should be realized depends on that which the teacher wants to inculcate in the students.

       Students must be given the opportunity to think for themselves.  I suggest that this activity – letting students think for themselves – should occupy a greater time in the school life of every learner.  Time will come that they leave the portals of the school and they are in a situation whereby they will be making decisions alone.  If the students were not trained to be self-generators of meaning, it will be very difficult for them to respond to the complexities of life.

       Moreover, the Constructivist theory does not tolerate spoon-feeding as the ultimate manner for students to learn.  Its ultimate end is the ability of the learner to stand on his own feet.

       Again, Confucius once said: “Give a man fish, and he will live for a day; Teach a man how to fish, and he will live for a lifetime”.  The Constructivist theory trains man to be a thinker.  As a thinker, he is in a better position to respond to difficult situations as compared to a person who has received instructions as to which direction he should follow all throughout his life.

       Let us teach our students to be a man.  A man is a rational being.  Let us allow them to solve the jigsaw puzzle which is capable of various outcomes.

 

DIGGING DEEPER

       As a young child, I had the passion for basketball.  I was frequently scolded by my parents because I used to escape home to play basketball with my friends at noon.   My parents forced me to sleep after lunch.

       One day, I decided to make my own mini-basketball court in our backyard.  As I was digging to place the post, an old man noticed what I was doing and said to me: for the post to be firmer, I have to make the hole deeper.

       This is an experience in my childhood which I remembered when I was reading module 8.  Precisely, lessons that are impressed upon the minds of students are very important for them to be successful individuals in any of their chosen fields.  If what they learn today will be forgotten after a while, the students will have a hard time coping with more complex experiences in the future.  Likewise, learning will be for naught;  it will fail to impress in the minds of students the necessary knowledge which they should have to enable  them to face the challenges of life.

       It is in this context that I am saying that educators have an important task to undertake.  Teaching is not only the presentation of lessons inside the classroom.  The more important consideration is how the teacher should be able to make that which has been learned last for a lifetime.

       Failure to take this more important task to make that which has been learned last for a lifetime is like digging into the minds a shallow hole where the ideas transferred will not be able to withstand the blows of the wind.  In this situation, all efforts exerted upon the students will be carried away by many challenges that will come along their way as the student traverses the path to adulthood.

       Hence, teachers must be equipped with numerous principles and methods to enable them to impress deeply the ideas and values that they want to inculcate in their students.  Education is not solely based on the quantity of lessons that are delivered in the classrooms, but for me, the quality is what matters more.  By quality, I mean, how successful is the educator in the transfer of ideas to his students.  Successful transfer, in my opinion, is when there is the element of permanency.

THE OTHER FACE OF BEHAVIORISM

       An individual’s response is influenced by a specific stimulus. This means that one can predict a behavior based on the characteristics of the stimulus that is impressed on him.  This is the theory of the Behaviorist school of thought and such theory is utilized in the school setting to bring about a desirable behavior from students.

       The Behaviorist perspective is a method of teaching that makes use of reinforcements, rewards, and punishments.  The reason for this is to enable the subject to find meaning as to how and why he should be accomplishing the task that is given him.  The reinforcements, punishments and rewards are conditions imposed on him so that the desire to do or the desire not to do will develop in the person.

       While Behaviorism may be a very effective method to transform a person to have a desirable behavior, such resulting behavior may be considered as a conditioned behavior.  This posits the problem of freedom.  The behavior that a person is made to display or exhibit is not that which he decided to have.  What if the conditioned behavior will create unpleasant results?  Can we put the responsibility or accountability to the person who committed the act?  Certainly not, for the said behavior  is not a product of his own making but has been created by others for him.  One of the dangers of Behaviorism, therefore, is that making use of it as the sole strategy in teaching will make us create mere robots in the society.  That without the conditioned stimuli asserted to them, there will be difficulty for them to act in order to contribute for the improvement of the society.

       Furthermore, the Behaviorist theory develops people with pragmatic mentality.  Pragmatism is a school of thought in philosophy which maintains that something is good only because an individual finds some practical benefits in doing such.  As mentioned above, a conditioned behavior finds difficulties acting or doing if the conditioned stimulus is not present.  Therefore, another danger of Behaviorism is encouragement of the propagation of “docile bodies” (the term docile bodies was used by MichelFoucault).

       The behaviorist perspective forms students who will only engage in learning because of some external rewards.  Without these rewards, the student will have a difficult time convincing himself to learn.  In the behaviorist perspective, it seems that learning has become only secondary because the more important thing in the equation is the presence of the conditioned stimulus for the student to find enthusiasm to learn.

       For me, the most effective method of teaching is that method that will develop within the students the value of learning for learning’s sake.  If this method is already available or is still in the process of development, I believe this will be a very difficult method to follow.  However, I am also convinced that it will be worth the difficulty for with it we will be developing students who are responsible for the acts they commit and who are not simply influenced by many factors surrounding them.  With or without these factors, he is sure to be acting on crucial issues regarding himself, family, and society.  He is not just a mere robot who acts out of stimulus.

       Indeed, students should engage in learning primarily for them to learn.  If learning as a product is only viewed as secondary, the whole essence of learning is lost.

 

Know Thyself

       The ancient philosopher ­­Socrates said: “Know thyself”.  He means that knowledge begins in self-discovery.  For him every man must strive for knowledge as this is the prerequisite to virtue.

       Metacognition is knowing how we know.  Some sources state that metacognition refers to an individual’s self-awareness; that is, an understanding of who and what he is which includes but not limited to: 1.) realizing strengths and weaknesses; 2.) determining likes and dislikes; 3.) knowing goals; 4.) understanding priorities and values.  Knowing these factors enables one person to improve his learning capabilities because they offer the person hints and directions toward the learning endeavour.  Failure to engage in self-discovery before the activity of learning is like going to war with no gun and no strategic plan to overcome the enemy.

       As educators, one of the important activities that must be required from students to perform is to understand who and what they are.  This will enable them to design learning strategies that are really appropriate to their own situation.  Learning depends on the various situations the students are placed.  There is no single learning style that will be effective to all.  Effective learning styles vary too from one situation to the other.

       As the teacher creates the avenue of transfer of knowledge to students, a possibility is that the ideas and concepts expressed in class are vague, or worst, is that it can be misinterpreted by the students.  In this situation, the transfer is unsuccessful.  The student fails to realize the significant matter that the teacher wants to emphasize and the objective of providing knowledge to students to help them improve their lives has not been fulfilled.

       Successful transfer of knowledge is very important.  In fact, this can be considered as the essence of ‘teaching’.  Unsuccessful transfer means there was no transfer at all and teaching has not fulfilled its purpose.

       To cite another statement of Socrates: “Ignorance is the cause of evil”.  Learning is intended to help the students escape from their imprisonment to ignorance.  Ignorance includes the failure to learn anything.  Another form of ignorance is when a person thinks that he learned something but in fact what has been contained in his mind is not the correct knowledge.  This can be correlated to the student’s failure to understand himself; and sometimes, the teacher’s fault as he also does not fully understand what he teaches to his students.

       It is a fact that learning is a very important activity because it will spell out a difference in the life of a student.  Teachers, therefore, should not take their profession for granted.  Students’ lives are at stake.  Teachers must be concerned with the correct methodologies and strategies that will facilitate the successful transfer of knowledge to students.