International Students And Critical Thinking: A Global Perspective
Presentation Type
Presentation
Location
Davis Hall 130
Start Date
10-3-2019 1:00 PM
End Date
10-3-2019 1:25 PM
Abstract
Literature shows students from other cultural backgrounds can and do think critically. Let’s explore how and consider using this knowledge to promote global critical thinking.
Description
The USF system is seeking to prepare global citizens through global learning and advocates the “nurturing of a different kind of student” (USF QEP, p. 22). At the same time, it is striving to increase the number of international students who, though not necessarily an integrated part of that global citizenship effort, certainly bring a diversity of stances and perspectives to our campuses. One area where those differences are experienced is in the realm of critical thinking. This presentation aims at addressing two topics related to international students and critical thinking. One is the (mis)conception that the educational backgrounds of students from some cultures does not include training in critical thinking. A review of research into critical thinking in non-Western cultures and how students from non-Western backgrounds enact that critical thinking in Western higher education contexts reveals the need to reconsider how critical thinking is defined and recognized in those Western contexts. The view that students from Asian and Middle Eastern cultures cannot think critically becomes untenable when preconceived Western notions of what constitutes critical thinking are set aside and a more globally aware perspective is adopted. The other topic is how far these “other” ways of thinking critically could be used creatively in classes within the USF system to enhance the global citizenship of students from Western educational backgrounds. Understanding how someone else thinks and seeing the world through different eyes is surely the epitome of creative critical thinking and enhances the nurturing of “a different kind of student”.
International Students And Critical Thinking: A Global Perspective
Davis Hall 130
Literature shows students from other cultural backgrounds can and do think critically. Let’s explore how and consider using this knowledge to promote global critical thinking.
