engleski

Reintroducing Disputations as a possible way to practice critical thinking

It is claimed that study of logic, philosophy, debating and similar subjects help students to be better critical thinkers. However, in our opinion know-how of critical thinking should be differed from the civic and basically human courage to use it in appropriate circumstances. In the paper, authors discuss challenges related to reaching the learning goal of enabling students to think critically. According to authors' experience main challenges in regards of practicing critical thinking are: (1) students have a hard time when they have to defend their position using clear arguments ; (2) students are not accustomed to actively listen to other people arguing for their views, especially if those views are different ; (3) impressing the importance of critical thinking on students is not easy. In order to overcome these challenges, the authors propose the use of traditional scholastic way of argumentative and syllogistic discussion usually referred to as disputations. Paper is comprised out of three parts. First, authors describe their experiences regarding teaching critical thinking. Second, disputation method is described. In the final part, authors suggest a method of using disputations in the classroom as means to overcome mentioned challenges and to serve as a framework for teaching and practicing critical thinking skills.

critical thinking, disputation, teaching method

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