The lack of critical thinking in our students and the Colombian government role on it

Diego Armando Meneses Sánchez

Universidad Surcolombiana

Nota

Critical and Creative Thinking, Professor: Jhon Jairo Losada Rivas, English Language Teacher Education Program. Universidad Surcolombiana

menesdiego.23@gmail.com

Enero 03 del 2018

The lack of critical thinking in our students and the Colombian government role on it

 After analysing the current educational standards, I have noticed that Colombian students who attend state schools lack critical thinking. In my personal point of view, this has been happening because the content our students receive is not the right one for their critical thinking development. On the other hand, it seems that the Colombian government does not want to change its education policies since there are some economic interests. All this seems to confirm that the political and economic interests of Colombia, in the hand with the educational contents affect the students’ learning, which is reflected in a low development of critical thinking in Colombian students.

It is well-known that students go to schools to become more intellectual people. Citizens who can transform their reality and solve problems. However, our recent history in the field of education has laid bare that our students are to some extent wasting their time going to schools. This is for the simple reason that they are getting shameful international results as the PISA results of 2015 reveals  (PISA, pág. 5) . According to this international result, Colombia is ranked in the 59 placement out of 60 nations which took the international test in 2015. This embarrassing result uncovers the real and tough situation that our students are facing today in the field of education. Furthermore, it shows that our educational system is almost a complete failure and that the government has to make some changes in our educational system to change this shameful reality. On the other hand, on the basis of this result, we can easily infer that Colombia students are unable to think critically because one of the goals of Pisa test is to “Measure students’ knowledge, skills and competencies that will equip them for success in education and the world of work.” (OECD).  This is due to the fact that by achieving good scores in an international test we could assert that our students have a high mental capacity with which could resolve social issues and transform our reality, which is not obviously happening in our students in Colombia.  However, what could be the source of this failure? Let’s analyse some facts in the next paragraph.

Firstly, we have to understand the term education and indoctrination to determine the consequences of our student’s low-performance in education and also ensure a good understanding of those meanings. According to Irina Iona& Constantin-Edmond define indoctrination and education as:

 Education involves learning and growth, it implies the difference between truth and lie, but above all, education means critical thinking with regards to the content of the received information. Indoctrination is intended to influence targets to believe in what they are told without questioning the veracity or authenticity of the conveyed information. ( IOANA, CRACSNER, pág. 561)

Hence, we strongly can infer that critical thinking is something that has to be presented in all our educational system for the complete human growing and future success.

Nonetheless, our educational institutions have been seen by the government for many decades as the arena of indoctrination where the most important has been to preserve the favouring of the capitalist development model. This task of indoctrination has been unconsciously in charge of teachers who are responsible for the delivering of the knowledge or we could say certain kind of knowledge which is suitable by the Colombian government to keep students just passive learners as McLaren states: (Mclaren, pág. 62)

My own research into parochial education for instance, that the schools function simultaneously as a means of empowering students around issues of social justice and as a mean of sustaining legitimizing, and reproducing dominant class interests directed a creating obedient docile and low-paid future workers.

It is clear for McLaren that education fulfils two important roles in our society. One of them is to empower our student to solve social justice as could be equality and respect for humanity but also as a mean of indoctrination. This last one with the purpose of meeting internal and external economic interests.  Secondly, our political system has allowed the market values become the template for shaping all aspects of society even our educational system. In happening this, our students are enslaved under this new form of slavery that keeps them out of critical thinking and lead them to a complete educational failure.  As Henry Giroux states in his Critical Pedagogy lecture at McMaster University. (Giroux)“The free possessive individual has not an obligation to anything beyond his self-interest. Market fundamentalism trumps democratic essays. Consumerism becomes the only obligation of citizenship”. So, it is clear that our economic system has a powerful interest in our education because by indoctrinating our young student under a passive learning the system can ensure its power and control over our thoughts and lives. As a consequence of this, our students do not receive the proper knowledge (educational content) and this makes them fail in getting remarkable national or international results. Besides, our students by receiving a good education might become a threat to the government for knowledge is power, a power to overcome oppression.

Another Important fact that is affecting our student’s critical thinking and also has been responsible for many failures on our students is the school content that our students are receiving in schools. Since the implementation of the first pedagogies teachers have been instructing students with huge amounts of content as McLaren States: (Mclaren H. , pág. 62)

The common use of behavioural objectives by teacher reflects a search for certainty and technical control of knowledge and behaviour. The teacher always emphasizes classroom management procedures, proficiency and “how to do” techniques that ultimately ignore an important question: why is this knowledge being taught in the first place?

Here we can see clearly that the main issue of many pedagogues by decades has been the development of contents, approaches and techniques for our students to make them fit in our Society.  As a consequence, these teachers have lost the capacity to see our students as human beings. They only see them as machines which one could fill out with content. So, the only losers in this mechanical process of indoctrination and repetition of knowledge have been our students who have seen our schools as places where the knowledge is learned by repeating and then discarded as garbage. In addition to this, much of the knowledge and time that the teacher provides is being wasted. Consequently, students lose their first ages learning useless content and start becoming lazy learners. By seeing this problematic above many educators have made an effort to come up with some solutions. We will analyse some progress that educators have made to overcome these problems.

     Just to highly a little bit what I have already said, it is undeniable as I stated earlier on that many of our education content that our students are getting in schools is being wasted for our students are considered to be machines or passive learners. This useless content has fossilised our students' capacity of thinking. However, all these issues have been consequences of our government for it has been ignoring the changes that the world is making. Big positive changes like the globalization, international markets, international education cooperation but also negatives ones like the global warming, environmental pollution, the overpopulation, the lack of food and the new phenomenon of international terrorism which threaten our existence in this planet. All those new problems need a different educational approach. For the issues above, and these new phenomena which have recently emerged, the world need new students with different skills to make them think critically to survive in this changing world. No just students with mathematical and linguistic knowledge just capable of resolving algebraic issues but new students with new skills able at least to solve their own problems as it is the social injustice and political corruption. As Miguel de Subiria affirms:

To respond to the needs of a changing society that is moving very quickly around knowledge, creativity, and information also, to solve the consequences of the progressive and accelerated restructuring of traditional and nuclear families. And to assume the significant changes that have been generated first, as a result of industrialization and now, additionally, due to the effect of globalization, it is imperative to assume a formative, non-educational perspective. (Subiria, pág. 19).

In this point, Miguel the Subiria makes a revolutionary change where the most important is not the educative model but the formative model. With this new model proposed by Subiria, our students can develop not only their cognitive skills but also the personal and intra-personal human competences. The latter essential for a transformative global change in a world that value markets have become the center of human beings. Because is not just enough to send our students to schools to get knowledge from books and then waiting for them to become transformative people. As Subiria  states.

To deploy and channel the apprehension potential of each child, instead of cramming their mind with a uniform knowledge of math, science, language, etc. The demands of today's society show that today it is not enough to be educated. Human beings whose talent and creativity have been trained are required. "Creative talents are enriched, while old workers and professionals are impoverished. (Subiria, pág. 55)

In this transformative process students and teachers are not the only ones involved in the educational process. Because It is also the duty of all society to contribute to this change included fathers and brothers. In this point, it is clear that students are not just passive learners because they are human beings with cognitive, and emotional feelings. They just cannot be packed with some knowledge they also need their human competence to be stimulated to become full human beings capable of addressing new international issues. Also, every one of them is a different world who learn, act and think differently as we will see next.

Chomsky makes us to understand the following:

Theory that attributes possession of certain linguistic universals to a language-acquisition system, as a property to be realized under appropriate external conditions, implies that only certain kinds of symbolic systems can be acquired and used as languages by this device. (Chomsky, ASPECTS of the syntax, 1965, pág. 55)

According to this, Chomsky tells us that all humans’ beings are born with the capacity of learning a language. It means that all human can acquire a language and by contrast, they are capable of using a language and highly probably thinking critically. But, the government with its educational institution have been in charge of cutting that capacity from students. This is due to the fact that School education materials (content) are designed thinking in the generalisation of the students’ learning styles. Also, the Colombian school's exams are designed to grade those students with a good memorisation capacity ignoring those students with a different type of learning. Those who have a good memorisation and also are good at maths,  teachers call them intelligence students, while those students who get a poor result on tests, teachers usually isolate them and call them bad students. This usually happens because teachers do not keep in mind what Garden states about intelligence. According to Gardens (1989): “intelligence the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting” (. (Howard, pág. 5) In this setting schools and teachers are losing ground in the educational field because the government is ignoring that exist multiple intelligences as garden claims( 1999): “The eight identified intelligences include linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.  By ignoring this, the government is sentencing our future student to a total failure for it not approaching our students in the right way. In this view Ana Patricia Elvir, Celso Luis Asensio states:

Properly developed intelligence, personality, and social behaviour make children more likely to learn and do well at school. Education in the early years, whether in the home or elsewhere, is needed to accompany this development process. This education needs to stimulate children’s all-round development, i.e., their mental, physical, emotional and social development. (Elvir celso-Ascensio, pág. 12)

This helps us to understand the importance of receiving a good education in elementary schools and in general. On other hand, teachers are not to blame because it is the government that does not provide enough facilities for teachers to explore every style of learning. By contrast, the government complains that it lacks the budget for public education.

To sum up, it is colossal to recognise that there is a problem which is affecting our Colombian students in the educational field. Also and to some extent, they are not to blame owing to the fact that they are in part not being educated but indoctrinated. Furthermore, and because of this, many possible prominent students who might contribute with some important developments to our society are being taught in the wrong way and by contrast their future might be unsuccessful. All of this for they are being taught with some old and failed educational approaches which just look for the economic interest of our government in keep us passive learners. Also, it is undeniable that the education content that our students are receiving to some extent is inadequate for it looks for the repetition and memorisation of knowledge. In addition to this, educators and the government should not just look for the skills development bust also the human competencies. These last, essential for a better and equal world.

References

 PISA, (2015). Pisa 2015 Results on Focus.

 Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf

OECD. (s.f.). OECD better policies for better lives. Obtenido de http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/pisa-based-test-for-schools-faq.htm

Irina IOANA, Constantin-Edmond CRACSNER. (2016). EDUCATION vs. INDOCTRINATION. Retrieved from: http://www.afahc.ro/ro/afases/2016/SOCIO/IOANA_CRACSNER.pdf

McLaren, P. (2002). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In Antonia Darder et al. (Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (pp. 62). New York and London: Routlege/Falmer.

Henry,G.(2015,10,22) Henry Giroux: Where is the Outrage? Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAxj87RRtsc

McLaren, P. (2002). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In Antonia Darder et al. (Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (pp. 62). New York and London: Routlege/Falmer.

Miguel de Zubiría Samper, (2008), p. 19. In PATRICIA VEGA GARCÍA – DIANA GUERRA TIBOCHA. PEDAGOGÍA CONCEPTUAL Un modelo pedagógico para formar seres humanos afectivamente competentes y creativamente talentosos ( pp. 2)  Retrieved from : http://www.albertomerani.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PEDAGOGIA-CONCEPTUAL.pdf

Miguel de Zubiría Samper, (2008), p. 19. In PATRICIA VEGA GARCÍA – DIANA GUERRA TIBOCHA. PEDAGOGÍA CONCEPTUAL Un modelo pedagógico para formar seres humanos afectivamente competentes y creativamente talentosos ( pp. 5) Retrieved from : http://www.albertomerani.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PEDAGOGIA-CONCEPTUAL.pdf

Noan Chosky (1965) Aspects of the theory of syntaxe. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Gardner, H. (1989) Multiple Intelligences: Gardner's Theory. In Amy C. Brualdi ERIC/AE. Retrieved from : http://www.springhurst.org/articles/MItheory.htm

Gardner, H.(1999) The theory of multiple intelligences.  Available from https://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/443-davis-christodoulou-seider-mi-article.pdf

Ana Pastricia. E. & Celso l. A(n.d). Early childhood care and education in Central America: challenges and prospects. Retrieved from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000147488

The Lack Of Critical Thinking In Our Colombian Students

Today, Colombian students lack critical thinking. This has been happening for many decades and many claim that the Colombian government is incapable of training students towards a critical thinking that allows them to transform their reality. On the other hand, there are some who affirm that the education our students are receiving is the correct one for our development. However, It is my dissent that our students cannot think critically because teachers are not imbued with a critical thinking that could give students the skills and attitudes necessary to become critical thinkers.

 It has been argued that students go to schools to become more intellectual people. People who can transform their reality and solve problems. However, our recent history in the field of education has shown that our students are incapable of coming up with solutions. This is in part because our teachers have been indoctrinating our students into becoming greedy young capitalists. This is happening owing to the fact that our students are influenced by a democracy which has allowed the market values become the template for shaping all aspects of society even our educational system. In happening this, our students are enslaved under this new form of slavery that keeps them out of critical thinking as Henry Giroux states in his Critical Pedagogy lecture at McMaster University. " the free possessive individual has not obligation to anything beyond his self-interest. Market fundamentalism trumps democratic essays. Consumerism becomes the only obligation of citizenship.

There are others factors which influence on the student's ability to think critically. Another of them according to Peter Macclaren, is that teachers have seen schools as arenas of indoctrination where the aim is to reproduce dominant class interest directed at creating obedient, docile and low-paid future workers… (Mclaren, pg. 62) so, to that extent, students are incapable of thinking critically. Another important reason, it is that teachers are instructing students with huge amounts of content without having in mind the question " what this knowledge will be useful for? By not doing this, much of the knowledge and time that teacher provide is being wasted. So, students lose their first ages learning useless content and start becoming lazy learners.

As a consequence of this, students do not develop the skill to resolve social issues. For the only purpose of them under educational instruction is the competitiveness and the repetition of knowledge. This even knowing that the purpose of a critical student is to struggle for a better life for all throughout the construction of a society based on equal relations and social justice. In many cases, students are not to blame for their lack of critical thinking because their mind has been fossilised through the years with useless schools subjects which stayed in forgiveness because they were never brought to practice.

In conclusion, I must say that, on one hand, teachers are to blame because they lack critical thinking to teach children to become critical thinkers. On the other hand, they are not to blame because they are under a capitalist system that only cares about buying and selling. In addition to this, it also makes them act and teach according to this law system. Besides and more importantly is the fact that, students are the ones who are paying the high cost for the quality of education they receive. This is due to the fact that they are not being training by teachers to acquire skills and attitudes which can help them to become critical thinkers. Skills and attitudes that can help them to transform their reality.

Critical literacy a way of coming of age

To commence with, I would say that there is in Colombia some ignorance among our people. Even our more illustrious political representatives would seem as if ignorance reign over them because of the wrong decisions they take daily. This ignorance has taken control of every sphere of our society. Even our educational system is incapable of producing critical men who are soon rapidly corrupted by money and our society. Students and education have been the basis for a better society in every nation. Critical though also has been the engine of the revolution to detect failures in societies. So, how could we do to empower students with critical thoughts to spot fake information?



On one hand, it is undeniable that our government does not want to let our students think critically. For there are lots of economic reasons for keeping our students under ignorance. For this reason, our elementary schools and schools do not have any pedagogical subject that empowers our students towards critical thinking skills. This educational model works for those who are in power to dominate people. On the other hand, There is the effort of new educators who are trying to empower students with a critical pedagogy to emancipate them. Teachers in Colombia should implement some techniques which could help them to spot fake information. Just to mention some of them are:



Reading a wide range of texts is a good way of analysing different kinds of sources. By doing this, students can make a comparison between the different content that news present. After doing this, students can look for statements which are supported by evidence and those which are not or were said hastily. .Lastly, students can analyse different newspapers and try to do an analysis of facts that were true or false in the past.



To sum up, There are different ways of emancipate students towards a critical pedagogy. This, with the purpose of identifying fake news which could be a great danger for students. Also, by doing this, students can start constructing a better society where equality replaces inequality.

  

    Henry Giroux: Where is the Outrage?                 Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times

Human beings have passed through different stages to get where they are now. Many centuries ago there were no such as human values. People were seen as objects to whom any could take any advantage. But everything looked as if it were going to change with that appearance of the democratic values in the 20th century. The U.S.A emerged with a new ideology and pedagogy supposedly to live like a brotherhood. This was founded and motivated under the inspiration the  French´s Human Rights

Nonetheless, what started with a noble cause, finished by turning out in a Market of values where everything can become an object of value included people. This new ideology of capitalism permeated all of the spheres of our society. Elementary schools, schools, and universities became centers of teaching for consumerism. What matter now is who has the power and the ideology to dominate others. This is achieved through any means either by ideology or by using the war machinery which does not recognise justice much less compassion.

By analysing all this change which have been occurring in our time, it is the duty of all educators to start changing our reality. It is a proper time to start a revolution and insurrection against this new model of oppression. But as this society is mentally ill, the responsabiñity of the new change is in charge of new students. Their first tool for changing is the education, but not only school education but also education as is understood in social media and others. This with the goal of working for a better society from all the spheres.

Students all around the world have to become aware that governments have excluded them from participation and that their ideas have become useless and disposable. Also, that the power of those who have the money wants to keep on oppressing them. So, just to recap the solution for many of our problems lies with the empowerment of our knowledge looking for a new pedagogy that emancipates us.  A new educational pedagogy that teaches us to look for the well-fare of all humanity.

Stereotypes.

To commence with, It is quite assuredly to say that stereotypes are a way of discrimination towards people. I say this because stereotypes look for generalising people's customs and their way of behaving. Nonetheless, by using a general concept of people we try to create a global idea of what people are and as a result of this, we can treat these people unfairly. This is absolutely negative for this is the way towards hatred and violence. We cannot never forget that stereotypes were one of the trigger elements with which the Nazis started a holocaust against the Jews.


In our nation, we are infested with any kind of stereotypes. But what is really bad, it is that this is impregnated in our culture. This society is partly contaminated with bad and rude habits which makes it difficult to cope with. Changing the adult's mind is something really hard about doing. SO the only possible solution is to start working with the children. Because they are the future of this rotten world. If they are educated under a rigid discipline of critical thinking towards a mutual respect for human beings then society shall change.

Task 4

Should Champanzees Be Considered Persons?

 Position:
 I think that defining an animal as a nonhuman person can and should encompass a recognition of differences in moral/ethical understanding, especially as it is compared to humans. Unfortunately, we know no other standard by which to judge the behavior and intentions of other species.

Disagreement:

 Personally, I would confer greater protections to all of the above, and more. But I am not sure I would give any of them equal right

Argument:
The idea of nonhuman personhood might seem confusing at first, since we tend to use the terms “human” and “person” interchangeably. But they are not equivalent. “Human” is best understood as a biological concept that refers, at present, to a member of a particular species, Homo sapiens. In contrast, “person” is best understood as a moral and legal concept that refers to an individual who can hold moral and legal rights.

Discription:
I once held in my arms
Nim Chimsky, tiny Chimp,
With warm and furry charms
Tightly embraced not limp.

One of God's creatures, he
Learning sign language then,
A real signer to be
Wish I held him again.


Agreement
 It is arguing that if every being must be either a person or a thing, then Kiko and Tommy are persons, not things. I agree, and many other philosophers do, too.

Critical and creative thinking.

CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

Task 2


tasks proposed by Stella Cottrell (2005) in her paper "What is critical thinking.



For me, the emotions that are most difficult to manage when others disagree with me are:

• Anger
• arrogant
• egocentric
• envious
• moody
• jealous
• unhappy
• sad       

I deal with these by: 

being calm and paying attention respectfully to the arguments of others. I also try to be prepared to accept my mistakes in case I am wrong. Also, I deal with sadness by studying harder next time and become aware of nothing is perfect and thing are changing continuously.


For me, the influences on my own thinking that I need to be most aware of  so they don't prejudice my thinking are:

• bias
• dislikes
• conformism
• beliefs

I deal with this by being impartial with myself and by accepting that I have got some mistakes in my way of thing. Also, by not being content myself with my knowledge because I am aware of  that what I know today cannot be useful tomorrow. so I have to be in constant change.

For me, the things I find most difficult about challenging the opinions of other people are:

• Science opinions
• religious opinions
• political issues

I deal with this by having a calm conversation, listening to people respectfully and by giving science evidence to my contenders. Also, by having a good knowledge before challenging an expert.


Do you recognise anything of yourself in Bodner's description of students?
Yes, I do. I recognise that I am a lazy student who believed everything other people have said. I have never had the capability of refuting with evidence what researchers in the field of education have made.

What effect would the approach he suggests have on your learning and understanding?

It has a positive effect because he invites us to think and reflect critically on the work of others. Also, in not giving everything people say for granted


Task 3.



                                

Stephen Brookfield 's summary on creative and critical thinking. 


Critical thinking is a process by which people became of aware of the assumptions which frame the way people think either in life decisions or normal things. It is at this point that people use critical thinking to figure out if all these assumptions are accurate or not. The person who thinks creatively is capable of view ideas from multiple points of view. This means that the person is able to go beyond normal things and get out of his comfort mental zone so as not to take everything for granted.
A creatively and critically informed action meets some conditions. They are based on evidence and experiences. Also, it is viewed from multiple perspectives.


When using the idea of critical thinking the word assumptions comes to our mind
So, students need to know the classification of assumptions which they can encounter which are: Causal assumptions, prescriptive assumptions, paradigm attak. One of the biggest problems with critical thinking is that when we use this word we are working with a very different understanding of what it is. There are four intellectual traditions which are analytical philosophy, natural science, critical theory, pragmatism.