I am lucky to have my mentor (who still mentors me, despite our shared retirement status) reading this blog. His name is Gene Melander, and he addresses higher education with keen insights and heartfelt passion. Here’s what he wrote in response to the July 2 blog on critical thinking.

While wandering through a new book sent for review I found this great way of characterizing how people (the specific reference is students) respond to ideas expressed in seminar discussions.

Getting students to read their textbooks is like pulling hen’s teeth! Even syllabus language just short of death threats, firmly stated admonitions regularly delivered in class, and the unannounced quiz slapped on desks when nobody answers questions about the reading don’t necessarily change behaviors or attitudes. Rather, students remain committed to seeing to get by without doing the reading, or only doing it very superficially, or only doing it just prior to exam dates.

A recent meeting on facilitating change in the science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines reminded me just how much our disciplinary homes frame our views of the pedagogical world. About 45 faculty, some educational researchers and a few administrators were convened to consider instructional change, why so little of has occurred in these disciplines
(in all disciplines, as far as I’m concerned), and whether there might be better change models.

In 1989 the administration at Central Arizona College made a decision to move toward a competency-based curriculum for all of its courses and certificate and degree programs—a wise decision given all the changes taking place within the community college’s district and within higher education in general, says Linda Heiland, CAC’s associate vice president for institutional effectiveness and chief academic officer.

At a recent conference of faculty who teach public administration, Janet Mills shared a great way of getting positive (as in constructive) feedback from students. She calls her system “Plusses and Wishes” and it works like this. Each class has a Feedback Coordinator (one of several different roles assumed by students) who distributes blank Plusses and Wishes forms to students. They are filled out at the end of every class.

Recently I learned that my colleague and friend Don Wulff has passed away. It wasn’t a big surprise. Don’s heart had been failing for years. The last time I walked across campus with him he couldn’t walk and talk simultaneously. Still my heart sank and tears came.

As interest in scholarly work on teaching and learning continues to grow and more faculty are trying their hands at work in this arena, materials are needed that summarize the available methods and approaches used in systematic analyses of classroom practices and learning outcomes. Just such a resource appeared last year in the Journal of Engineering Education.

I don’t know any college teacher who doesn’t aspire to teach students to think critically. I don’t know any college teacher who doesn’t think that most students have significant skill deficiencies when it comes to critical thinking. And I don’t know many college teachers who aren’t regularly frustrated and disappointed by the results of their efforts to teach this important skill. Partly, this is because better thinking processes aren’t always easy to see, but often our efforts don’t appear to have much effect because learning to think critically is hard.