Critical thinking is an integral part of media literacy skills in today’s informational society. It is one among other three: 1) fundamental skills (ability to read, write, speak, listen and compute); 2) visual competence (identification, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and use of visual information); 3) digital competence (use of digital means for personal and professional purpose). Critical thinking includes the ability to question, challenge the meaning and purpose of any material, evaluate and use it accordingly. Media tools and content can be used effectively to develop and promote critical thinking in each day’s classroom activities.
Critical thinking starts from gathering and sorting out of information needed to come up with reasoned conclusions and justified actions. In our days it is not an easy task, as we are overwhelmed with huge amounts of information coming from diverse sources. It is a quite difficult task not to get lost and find what one needs. But even more difficult task is to sort out and decide what information is right, evidence-based, not biased, and which is false. Modern society is highly dependent on the media, which is complex, multifunctional, commercial, and globalized. One needs to be quite knowledgeable and skillful to scope misinformation, fallacies, and propaganda.
Critical thinking by nature is directed towards detecting fallacies. The word “fallacy” derives from Latin words – fallax (deceptive) and fallere (to deceive). Fallacies have to be not equal to unintentional mistakes. They are experienced by everyone. Critical thinkers are able to detect, to recognize mistakes and are ready to correct them. Fallacies have to do with intentional thinking and acting, with wishful thinking: “it is true, because I believe in it”; “it’s true because I want to believe it”, “it’s true because it satisfies my interests”. Fallacies are part of conformist behavior and very close to manipulations. People who practice fallacies usually are in favor of not evidence-based generalizations – “It has been announced hot summer, it means that the city will be empty, everybody will be out into countryside”; “I got 5 from the exam – the teacher hated me”; “we’ll be better seen in the world, if we’ll elect woman president”; “you have refused to help me – it means you are not my friend”. Those examples are just illustration how our mind is quick to make conclusions without any evidence and reasoning.
Critically minded persons, that nurture critical virtues (intellectual humility, autonomy, integrity, courage, perseverance, empathy, confidence in reason and fairmindedness) are able to resist to fallacies and not reasoned mainstream thinking. But it is not enough. They have to learn to evaluate credibility, reliability and reasonableness of information by asking critical questions: who is an author, sender of information? who is behind a site? when it was written or updated? do all links work? why has someone decided to put this information? what is not said, what is not clear? and etc. Critically minded person has to identify the point of view of an author, the target audience, recognize ignored, not taken point of views and to distinguish real facts from their interpretation.
Noncritical acceptance and consumption of information can lead to wrong, harmful decisions that affect not only one person. It can lead to overall violence, radicalization, extremism and even wars. Informational channels can spread any harmful idea, false information to a big audience very quickly. No one can foresee a reaction, a back response. EU Commission’s group “Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education’ held Peer Learning Activity (further – PLA) in 2016. PLA focused on “Strengthening media literacy and critical thinking among young people as a tool to combat and prevent violent radicalization”. PLA members produced 8 key messages to be incorporated into the policy framework:
- First message about learning content and learning approaches. Media literacy and critical thinking should be developed in a proactive manner through curriculum development and innovative teaching approaches relevant to all learners;
- Second message about assessment and evaluation. Effective methods of assessment and evaluation are essential to measure progress in terms of learning outcomes in the development of media literacy and critical thinking;
- Third message about democratic education culture. Media literacy can be fostered by a democratic culture that actively engages all members of the education community within a socially safe learning environment, where diversity is encouraged, recognized, and respected;
- Fourth message about teachers, educators, and education leaders. Defining and fostering competencies for teaching media literacy and critical thinking is crucial in both initial education and continuous professional development;
- Fifth message about cooperation, partnerships, and synergies. As media literacy skills are often developed outside education institutions, synergies between formal, non-formal and informal learning provide powerful leverage for the effective development of media literacy and critical thinking;
- Sixth message about evidence and knowledge. Developing the competence to be critical towards propaganda should be promoted as part of building resilience to extremist communication;
- Seventh message about media organizations. Concerted initiatives with media professionals and media organizations can provide opportunities to develop media literacy skills;
- Eighth message about governance. A sustainable approach to developing media literacy and critical thinking requires comprehensive national/regional strategies and effective implementation tools underpinned by the necessary resources.
The workshop is going to focus on modeling critical thinking development in a class/auditorium by practicing few teaching-learning strategies and using media tools and materials. There are many learning and teaching strategies as well as methods used for development of critical thinking. Different strategies can be used for different purposes. Selection of strategies depends on many factors – lecturers’ practice, students’ experience, nature of a subject, academic context, and aim of a course/lecture. We will practice and discuss some of them.
The methodological background of the workshop – critical thinking development (CTD) framework, developed by K. Meredith and J. Steele (2011). This framework includes 3 stages – evocation, realization of meaning or comprehension and reflection. The workshop participants will get understanding how to apply this framework for structuring their own lectures and seminars.
The workshop will lead to the broader and deeper understanding how to use media in promotion of critical thinking and for deepening students’ content knowledge.
The content materials will cover topics of social justice, racism, democracy, consumer society.
The workshop participants will improve didactical competencies and will be able to apply CTD framework purposefully and effectively in their own practice.
NB! To take part in the Workshop, please register via the link.
Workshop Preliminary Agenda:
| Monday, 27th of September | |
| 10.00 – 11.30 | Session 1 |
| 11. 30 – 11.45 | Coffee break |
| 11.45 – 13.15 | Session 2 |
| 13.15 – 14.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00 – 15.00 | Session 3 |
| 15.00 – 15.30 | Summing up. Final conclusions and reflections |