Learning outcomes and critical thinking – good intentions in conflict

Abstract

The notion of critical thinking and its theoretical complexity are used as a case for an epistemological critique of the model of intended learning outcomes. The conclusion is that three problems of learning outcomes, previously discussed in the literature, become even more challenging when seen in the light of critical thinking. The first problem concerns interpretations, as the use of learning outcomes is dependent on advanced but implicit interpretative frameworks. The second is the problem of educational goals that cannot be expressed through learning outcomes, and the third is the risk that learning outcomes may establish a ceiling for student ambitions. It is argued that the example of critical thinking shows the seriousness of the epistemological critique of learning outcomes and how the use of learning outcomes can divert teachers' and students' attention away from important goals.

E-Learning Process of Maharah Qira'ah in Higher Education during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…9,No. 6 the use of self-learning materials such as those stored on a computer so that they can be accessed by teachers and students whenever and wherever, and the use of lesson schedules, curricula, learning outcomes, and other matters related to educational administration that can be viewed on computers (Erikson & Erikson, 2019).…”

Recursos que podem apoiar o bibliotecário no combate às Fake News nas mídias sociais

“…Dois dos trabalhos (Cherner & Curry, 2019;Erikson & Erikson, 2018) recuperados neste estudo apontaram a importância de bibliotecários estimularem o pensamento crítico dos seus usuários. Criar uma rotina para problematizar as mensagens que são recebidas pode ser um caminho.…”

Individualised and instrumentalised? Critical thinking, students and the optics of possibility within neoliberal higher education

“…In relation to teaching, Burrows (2012) describes how, conscious of the organising values of the commodified academy, academics increasingly focus their pedagogical practice on 'the preferences, tastes and mores of an ever more consumerist audience' (p. 367) resulting in less space for risk, uncertainty and critique. Moreover, Erikson and Erikson (2018) describe how a neoliberal logic formulates itself in everyday teaching and learning vocabulary that can act to narrow possibility of theorising learning otherwise.…”