Summary of One of the Topics in
British Council Online Conference
Critical Thinking (CT) and Technology as part of 21st
Century Skills
By Edouard Creemers, Renate Thummler
Blum
Critical
thinking (CT) with the aid of technology is one of the aspects of 21st
century skill. Its function is to prepare students to communicate across
cultures, negotiate meaning, handle ambiguity and discover different perspectives. This section
of British online conference explains
about what exactly a cultivated critical thinker is, followed by how we can
become critical thinkers and how to
incorporate CT in the teaching/learning process, and what means by digital citizenship/literacy.
Critical thinking is an aspect that
must be done by teachers and students in the classroom to solve the problem or
improve the idea. It is the art of
analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it (Paul and Elder
1998). CT is more than constitute thinking power but it processes a need of something to think about to proceed. Therefore,
in
CT the thinking should be clear, precise, specific, accurate, relevant, and
plausible. While a
critical thinker should know the reason
effectively whether it is inductive or deductive, uses system thinking, makes judgment
and decision through analysis, synthesizes and interprets, and solves problem
that are called challenges. Furthermore, strategies to develop
CT are affective strategies and cognitive strategies; macro ability and micro
skill.
Another
aspect in 21st century is technology that is included in digital
citizenship/literacy. It means the ability to develop social and professional
connections within online networks, communicate effectively and handle
turn-taking synchronous online communication environments, successfully search
for relevant information over the internet, and gauge and validate the quality,
authenticity and reliability of virtual information. It also encourages us
to manage our own online footprints and
control the way we are viewed and portrayed online, protects ourselves from
intrusion or harassment and protects our privacies, identities and personal
information, cites online information source correctly and uses online
resources appropriate with international copyright law and knows when
to turn devices and disconnect from the internet as a way to keep
balance and healthy.
As
a teacher we need to do critical thinking to improve our qualities in teaching
and need to encourage the students to think critically also in the classroom. Hence,
the learning process is student centered
not teacher centered approach. We also need to use technology such as implementing on-line learning, blended learning and flipping
the classroom and so forth. Although the consequence is internet addiction, but it can be reduced
if we really understand about the digital literacy. At last, it is imperative
considering for the teacher to conduct critical thinking and to apply digital literacy because we are the
teacher of the language of global communication in the digital era of 21st century.
Written by Ummy Khoirunisya' Masyhudianti
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