“…Sociology as a discipline takes issue with commonsense thinking and confronts students with new ways of looking at the world (Goldsmid and Wilson 1980:143). Many of its ideas cannot be learned effectively through reading textbooks or listening passively….…”
Sociologists agree that teaching critical thinking is a key pedagogical goal, and we seem to think of ourselves as critical thinkers. But what does that mean? I see no clear disciplinary consensus defining critical thinking, nor what it means specifically for sociology. While I think it is an important part of our writing, speaking, and teaching, my own ideas on critical thinking simply do not seem to be included in the general definitional frame sociologists use. Here, I appeal for a more active and progressive use of critical thinking in sociology writing and teaching, and ask that we make a more formidable effort to have audiences master social truths and have ready means to discard false information. Instilling critical thinking in the audiences exposed to our research and teachings is some of our most important work, and I would argue that the current state of social, political, and cultural affairs worldwide shows me we must do more. Simply documenting the problems for our students and readers is insufficient. Sociologists study society and what shaped it in order to quite appropriately point to better ways of living. Fostering critical thought, then, may be the most important societal contribution sociologists can make, and I argue for us to make it the central aim of our work.
“…Sociology as a discipline takes issue with commonsense thinking and confronts students with new ways of looking at the world (Goldsmid and Wilson 1980:143). Many of its ideas cannot be learned effectively through reading textbooks or listening passively….…”
Sociologists agree that teaching critical thinking is a key pedagogical goal, and we seem to think of ourselves as critical thinkers. But what does that mean? I see no clear disciplinary consensus defining critical thinking, nor what it means specifically for sociology. While I think it is an important part of our writing, speaking, and teaching, my own ideas on critical thinking simply do not seem to be included in the general definitional frame sociologists use. Here, I appeal for a more active and progressive use of critical thinking in sociology writing and teaching, and ask that we make a more formidable effort to have audiences master social truths and have ready means to discard false information. Instilling critical thinking in the audiences exposed to our research and teachings is some of our most important work, and I would argue that the current state of social, political, and cultural affairs worldwide shows me we must do more. Simply documenting the problems for our students and readers is insufficient. Sociologists study society and what shaped it in order to quite appropriately point to better ways of living. Fostering critical thought, then, may be the most important societal contribution sociologists can make, and I argue for us to make it the central aim of our work.
“…In that sense, the debate stimulated a process of reflection and analytical and critical thinking. The ability and process of explaining and arguing their finding about a topic is crucial for critical thinking (Goldsmid & Wilson, 1980).…”
Communication skills are crucial for pharmacists’ role in counselling and providing information to patients, other healthcare practitioners, and the community. This study explores the implementation of debate as a pedagogical tool into pharmacy education to improve students’ communication skills.This study is part of the design-based research (DBR) project FREMFARM that aims to design, test, and evaluate the expansion of active learning modalities in pharmacy education at the University of Bergen. The project embeds an explicit focus upon the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The sample in the current study consisted of 4th year pharmacy students. Qualitative methods were used to explore students’ perception of implementing the debate activity in the Clinical Pharmacy course. Data were collected using a short pre and post questionnaire, observation using an adapted version of the Teaching Dimension Observation Protocol and post activity focus groups. Analysis was inspired by the systematic text condensation methodology. Our main finding was that students showed a high level of enthusiasm and interest in the new learning activity. Most students agreed that the debate helped them structure their thinking and simplify their language when communicating complex concepts. Students also expressed that preparing for the debate helped them organize thoughts, spurred them to gather information from prior taught courses, and draw connections to additional fields to prepare arguments. Some students reported transformation in their learning and change of their position and perspective after the debate. Still, some students found the effort used to prepare for the debate activity too large in relation to the gains. We conclude that the debate as a teaching tool increases students’ engagement and that the students experience that the activity had positive impact on their communication and argumentation skills. Despite students experiencing the debate as an unknown and demanding methodology, they considered it important for their academic and professional development. It generated opportunities for critical thinking, argumentative capacity, use of communication skills and teamworking skills. We consider the first trial successful and will continue to implement and upscale the use of debate as a pedagogical tool for future evaluation.
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