ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES AIU House, 16, Comrade Indrajit Gupta Marg New Delhi 110 002 EPABX : 011-23230059, FAX : 011-23232131 E-mail IDs : [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] Website : http://www.aiu.ac.in The payment to Association of Indian Universities may be made using any of the following modes : A. IN CASH : The required amount could be remitted directly to our Saving Account in any branches of Canara Bank. B. DEMAND DRAFT ONLY : Such instrument is required to be prepared be in the name of “ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES” (payable at New Delhi), preferably from the Nationalised Banks ONLY. C. CHEQUES OF ANY KIND ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE. D. Also, the Demand Drafts of Banks falling under the categories of “Grameen’, ‘Sahakari’, Co-operative and alike are NOT ACCEPTABLE. Hence, Colleges/ Institutions/ Universities may send the requisite amount by NEFT/RTGS through these banks for crediting the amount directly to our Account. E. 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No. 07AAATA0407F1ZG 11 Contact No.& E-mail ID (011) 23230059 Extn. 208/213 Mob : 9818621761 E-Mail IDs : [email protected] (Advertisement), [email protected] (Subscription) & [email protected] NOTE : In case of Cash Deposit and Transfer via NEFT/RTGS, the proof of payment as Cash Deposit Slip and the UTR Number for NEFT/RTGS may be communicated IMMEDIATELY BY MAIL for its linking and settlement at our end including the Complete Name & Address of the University/ Institute/Organization, etc please. UNIVERSITY NEWS Vol. 59 March 22-28, Seven Strategies to Develop Students’ No. 12 2021 Price Rs. 30.00 Critical Thinking Skills A Weekly Journal of Higher Education A Joseph Dorairaj* Published by the Association of Indian Universities While a typical American/British/European classroom is largely In This Issue dialogical, most of our classrooms are reduced to monologues with Items Page very little student participation. While their examination system tests Articles students’ critical thinking skills, our system focuses on rote memory. Seven Strategies to Develop Students’ While their students are encouraged to articulate their individual points Critical Thinking Skills 3 of view on a given topic, our students are trained to echo their masters’ Spotlight on Central Universities in the voices faithfully. In short, Indian students, both at the secondary and Context of National Institutional tertiary levels, lack robust critical thinking skills. Ranking Framework 5.0# 5 As academicians, what steps should we take to develop our National Education Policy–2020: An Appraisal of Innovations, students’ critical thinking skills at the tertiary level? Before we Merits and Challenges 12 strategize, we should clarify that these are skills and, therefore, like any Navigating the Pandemic COVID-19 with other skill such as communication skills or IT skills, critical thinking Emotional Intelligence : A Theoretical skills too can be diligently cultivated over a period of time. It is true Consideration 19 that the home environment, especially the conversations surrounding Convocation the dining table, plays a decisive role in inculcating and developing an E-Convocation of ICFAI University, individual’s critical thinking skills. But we shall focus on the role of Sikkim 24 classrooms in developing these skills. Campus News 26 The first strategy is to consciously transition into a dialogical Theses of the Month 30 model where there will be meaningful conversations between teachers (Humanities) and students. Instead of a one-way system where classrooms are Advertisement 33 reduced to drab monologues, the two-way system provides the space for Q&A, debates and discussions and even disagreement without New Subscription Tariff getting acrimonious. The traditional system reduces students to (Effective April 01, 2020) passive consumers and the examination system too promotes only those pedagogies that promote rote learning. Inland Foreign Institutions Academics/ Airmail Surface The Socratic or Maieutic method of education, as opposed to the Students Mail (at residential address only) banking model of education critiqued by Freire in his celebrated The Rs. Rs. US$ US$ Pedagogy of the Oppressed, provides the key. While the banking model 1 year 1250.00 500.00 210.00 170.00 reduces students to objects into whose ‘empty’ minds are deposited 2 years 2200.00 900.00 400.00 300.00 scraps of information which are rarely processed and converted Subscription is payable in advance by Bank into knowledge, the Socratic model of education turns students into Draft/MO only in favour of Association of active learners whose minds bristle with questions. While the banking Indian Universities, New Delhi. model does not promote any active learning, the maieutic method of Opinions expressed in the articles are those education, where the teacher plays the role of a midwife just as Socrates of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the did with the Athenian youth, assists in the discovery of knowledge by Association. the students themselves. Therefore, the teacher should be periodically Editorial Committee Chairperson: raising appropriate questions which would lead and guide the students Dr (Ms) Pankaj Mittal towards knowledge. By asking the right questions, students could Editorial Committee: be helped to navigate and arrive at plausible answers and this would Dr Baljit Singh Sekhon Dr Amarendra Pani certainly promote their critical thinking skills. Dr Youd Vir Singh Editor: Secondly, the educational system should inspire students to Dr Sistla Rama Devi Pani * Dean, School of English & FL, Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed to be University) #Let’sBeatCoronaTogether Gandhigram 624 302, Tamil Nadu. E-mail: [email protected] UNIVERSITY NEWS, 59(12) MARCH 22-28, 2021 3 ask questions. It is a fact that many teachers do not Fifthly, dealing with primary, rather than encourage their students to ask questions for various secondary, data will help students of social sciences reasons and one of them is that they are always in a develop their critical thinking skills. Assignments in tearing hurry ‘to finish the syllabus’ and cannot tolerate formulating hypotheses, deciding on appropriate data any delay that distracts them from reaching this goal. collection tools, collecting, sifting, analysing and Students rarely ask questions and even those who interpreting data and arriving at logical conclusions risk asking questions earn the wrath of their teachers will certainly strengthen their critical thinking skills. who tease them with words like ‘So, you think you Rather than working with secondary data and bookish know more than me’. Such an ecosystem is hardly examples, going out into the field for an empirical conducive for any real learning which revolves around study helps students not only in terms of research but questions and discussions. In most classes even if the also in honing their critical thinking skills. Therefore, teacher invites questions, no student dares to ask any all students of social sciences should be encouraged question largely out of fear that it may be dismissed to take up field work culminating in scientifically- as a silly question. Therefore, a good strategy would written project reports which will go a long way in promoting their critical thinking abilities. be to gently prod four or five students on any given day to raise a few questions so that by the end of the Sixthly, as part of liberal education, an month every student would have raised at least one introductory course in Philosophy may be offered question on a given topic. to promote students’ critical thinking skills. The benefits of dialoguing with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thirdly, the examination system needs to be Descartes, Aquinas, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, revamped if critical thinking skills are to be promoted. Heidegger, Sartre and Habermas and Tagore, Sri Currently, both secondary and tertiary education Aurobindo and Gandhi are immense. Not only promote only rote learning where memory plays the will students get acquainted with the concepts and cardinal role. Against this backdrop, there should be theories of these philosophical giants, but will also a conscious shift to problem-solving and application- get trained in critical thinking when engaging with oriented exercises. Bloom’s taxonomy talks of lower these thinkers. and higher order thinking skills. The question papers should include ‘recall/remember’ questions testing Lastly, learning has to be personalized or students’ memory as well as analytical and evaluative individualized. Instead of asking students to questions which will test their critical thinking skills. reproduce what books and authors have said on a There should be space for open-ended questions particular phenomenon or topic, the teacher should facilitate a personalized approach to learning where too which will force them to think on their feet and the student’s stance on a particular topic/author would come up with logically convincing answers. Once the be valued. Questions like ‘What do you think on this assessment pattern changes, the pedagogy too will particular topic? What is your take on this concept/ change. A few institutions have already adopted the phenomenon?’ will motivate students to critique even outcome-based educational paradigm but this model established views and perspectives on a given topic/ needs to be implemented widely and imaginatively as phenomenon and come up with their own responses.