Purpose (objectives, goals, desired outcome, intention, function)
My purpose is to help Smart Young Professionals (SYP) identify and recognize all the factors impacting their learning capacity. Once identified, SYPs will be able to use different strategies to support them while optimizing their critical thinking practice. In coaching, the SYP determines what they want to learn. It’s the SYP’s practice- not someone else’s. By defining life purposes, goals, and values and aligning them- the SYP will maximize their learning in their critical thinking practice. For example, in my practice, understanding how my memory worked and using my memory effectively helped me ask good questions, take effective notes, and build my memory capacity. Choosing the best strategy for a task is like choosing the best playlist to optimize your joy in a car trip — yes, I can be music smart too.
Question at Issue (problem, topic, “the point”, “Q at I”)
What are my goals?
To get the most out of a critical thinking practice, it’s important to get the right perspective to visualize goals. In other words, what do I want to get out of reading this book, meeting, class, or project? What is the main idea this book will cover? How will today’s session help me do better in my critical thinking practice? For example, before a coaching session, I will think about my client’s challenges and tie them to what I have learned about learning. I intend to be of little help to my client by being prepared, rested, punctual, and not distracted. Defining your goals before a “learning” event is like practicing for a big sports event.
Am I a good listener?
To get the most out of a critical thinking practice, it’s important to purposefully focus on what a speaker is saying with the objective of understanding. In other words, as an active listener, I’m not distracted, thinking about other things, or formulating what I’m going to say in reaction to what I’m hearing before the speaker is even finished. For example, in a coaching session, active listening is the most important skill I need to apply. I need to actively process what my client is saying, not just let the sounds of their voice register in my senses. By understanding, I learn enough about what the client is saying to be able to form my thoughts about the client’s message. Listening is active, and hearing is passive. So, I focus on what is being said, confirm I heard the right message, ask for any clarification needed, watch for nonverbal messages, and listen for requests. Active listening is like a friend saying “I don’t know how to manage this anxiety before I present!” This may mean, “Can you help me figure out a solution to this problem?”
Do I take good notes?
After learning to listen, note-taking is the most important skill to ensure success in critical thinking practice. In other words, taking notes supports my listening efforts, allows me to test my understanding of the material, helps me remember the material better when I write key ideas down and creates my “ultimate study guide”. To be effective, it is best to practice with a variety of note-taking methods, such as lists, outlines, concept maps, or the Cornell method. For example, lists require a lot of writing and have never served me well when trying to understand a subject because I couldn’t easily prioritize my ideas. Outlines help me when the material I’m reading or listening to is well organized already. I thrived using concept maps because they helped me learn to explain ideas while hopping from one idea to another. This current method uses a combination method of lists, outlines, and concepts because it helps me call out key concepts, prioritize ideas, and organize work for review. Taking good notes is like creating a trail map during a hike. Notes serve as a guide through information, just as a map helps you navigate and remember important landmarks.
Am I an active reader?
To read for a purpose, it’s important to understand the context of what you are about to read. In other words, think of your reading assignment about the larger themes or goals you have defined for your project or course. What part of the reading should you pay attention to and what parts can you browse through? And get psyched! For example, if you are critically reading a reputable source for research ask yourself: What is the question the title of the chapter is asking? Think of the relationships among section titles, boldface words, and graphics. What are the answers to the questions you wrote? For a more specific example, if the chapter title is “The End of the Industrial Revolution”, you might write, “What caused the Industrial Revolution to end?” OR “The Chemistry of Photosynthesis”, you might write, “What chemical reactions take place to cause photosynthesis, and what are the outcomes?” Active reading is like an investigator understanding what they are looking for before they find it.
Assumptions (background theory, what is given or what is taken for granted, axioms)
As active learners in our fast society, we take for granted how memory works. Memory is the process of storing and retrieving information. In other words, understanding ideas, using them, building links with information already known, organizing facts in groups of information, eliminating distraction, and repeating information by hearing, reading, and saying it out loud are key ways to remember information. For example, the elements of reasoning are not just a list of concepts but an analysis process made up of the elements that make up our thinking! By organizing information in terms of these elements, I make remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, and evaluating much easier for me to start creating. Memory is like RAM and a computer’s hard drive. RAM is the short-term, active memory and a hard drive is the long-term, passive memory. To keep information from the short term, a critical thinking practice will optimize the information stored in the hard drive.
Information (data, evidence, observations)
Learning preferences are the mode or combination of modes that individuals tend to prefer or respond well to, including aural, visual, verbal, and kinesthetic. In other words, memory is most enhanced when a combination of modes is used and each learner has different strengths and abilities. For example, some individuals learn by reading, listening, speaking, watching, or practicing. To develop a practice in critical thinking, it is more efficient to read write, and then present what was learned as a form of practicing. Learning preferences are like food preferences. Some learners may like sweet or spicy or both in some dishes and not others.
Learning challenges can come in the form of challenging circumstances. In other words, learning challenges are learning struggles that have impeded the ability to learn in the past. For example, transitions from home to a college campus can affect learning. Loss of a loved one, medical conditions, or dysfunctional living conditions can be temporary or long-term circumstances that hurt learners’ abilities to be successful at decision-making at work or school. Learning challenges are like climbing a mountain. Each challenge is like a peak that requires effort, perseverance, and strategy to conquer.
Learning styles refer to an individual’s specific learning preferences and actions. In other words, a SYP uses different learning styles in different situations and none is “right” or “wrong”. For example, coaches have different coaching styles, which may or may not match up to a SYP client. For this reason, it is important to find a style that fits your learning style or know how to adapt different strategies more effectively. When I recognize a learning strength in my critical thinking practice, I use that strength by adding more of it to my learning strategies. Learning styles are like different musical instruments. Each instrument has its unique characteristics, just like each learning style has its distinct way of processing and learning information.
Implications and Consequences (what follows, costs and benefits)
The implication of sustaining a critical thinking practice is stress, such as symptoms of anxiety. It is a benefit to feel stress before a presentation or before making a decision. Stress motivates you to practice and review generates adrenaline to help sharpen your reflexes and focus, and may even help you remember the material you need to remember. On the other hand, suffering too many symptoms of stress or suffering any of them severely will impede your ability to show what you have learned. For example, I suffered from text anxiety in college. Text anxiety is a psychological condition in which I felt distressed before, during, or after a test to the point it caused poor performance. Anxiety during a test or performance interferes with my ability to recall knowledge from memory as well as my ability to use higher-level (critical thinking) skills effectively. What could have been improved is the following: Acknowledging that some stress is common and beneficial; anxiety is stress that gets in the way of performing effectively; lack of preparation and negative attitudes contribute to anxiety; and that the key to combatting anxiety is to reduce stressors to a manageable level rather than trying to eliminate them. Stress is like carrying a heavy backpack on a long hike. Initially, the weight might not be overwhelming, but as you continue walking, the weight might burden you if not managed.
Concepts (organizing ideas, categories)
Multiple Intelligences Framework
Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist, developed the Multiple Intelligences Framework to help individuals learn content in any course by using each intelligence effectively. This framework is made up of eight different ways to learn, create things, and solve problems: Verbal (prefers words); Logical (prefers math and logical problem solving); Visual (prefers images and spatial relationships); Kinesthetic (prefers body movement and doing); Rhythmic (prefers music, rhymes); Interpersonal (prefers group work); Intrapersonal (prefers introspection and independence); and Naturalist (prefers nature, natural categories). Our brains continue to grow and develop over time, even into adulthood. For example, I. have some intelligence modes that are areas of strength, while others are weaker, leading to different preferences in learning.
“Word Smart” — Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to use language, express what’s on their mind, and understand other people. They use their “Word Smart” — Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence.
“Logic Smart” — Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to understand the underlying principles of a casual system know how to manipulate numbers, quantities, and operations. They can think abstractly, count, and organize within logical structures, and critical thinking activities. They can break things down into smaller parts and reassemble them using their “Logic Smart” — Logical-Mathematical Intelligence.
“Picture Smart” — Visual-Spatial Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to represent the spatial world internally in their minds, tend to be keen observers, able to think in three dimensions. They like to use metaphors and prefer to use graphs, charts, color codes, guided imagery, pictures, pictures, posters, and mind maps. They use their “Picture Smart” — Visual-Spatial Intelligence.
“Music Smart” — Musical Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to use their whole body, or parts of their body to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of production, have good body control and fine motor skills. They are active and animated and need “hands-on” learning opportunities. They use their “Music Smart” — Musical Intelligence.
“People Smart” — Interpersonal Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to understand other people have social intelligence. Those high in this area are outgoing/interactive and sensitive to others’ moods, feelings, and motivations. They use their “People Smart” — Interpersonal Intelligence.
“Self Smart” — Intrapersonal Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to have an understanding of themselves, of knowing who they are, what they can do, what they want to do, how they react to things, which things to avoid, and which things to gravitate toward, tend to know where to go if they need help use their “Self Smart” — Intrapersonal intelligence.
“Nature Smart” — Naturalistic Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to discriminate among living things (plants, animals), have sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rocks) as well as a good sense of their surroundings and environment, changes around them, both outdoors and indoors use their naturalistic intelligence.
“Life Smart” — Existential Intelligence
Individuals with the capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as defining multiple life purposes and meanings, tend to be reflective, deep-thinking, and able to design abstract theories. They appreciate multiple perspectives, see connections, challenge assumptions, and push boundaries. They use their existential intelligence.
VARK Approach
The VARK approach focuses on learning through different senses: Visual, Aural, Reading, Writing, and Kinesthetic. Visual learners prefer images, charges, and the like. Aural learners learn better by listening. Reading/Writing learners learn better through the written language. Kinesthetic learners learn through doing, practicing, and acting. For example, you may come to find out that you are a reading/writer learner, but you shouldn’t focus on one modality. By incorporating different modalities, you are more likely to break the study habits formed. It is like having a toolbox of ways to think and learn, and for each task, asking which tool is best for the job.
Conclusions, Interpretations (inferences, solutions, decisions arrived at)
To optimize a critical thinking practice, it is important to use as many senses as possible when learning. In other words, outlining notes with the elements of reasoning as it is done here completes each section and answers each out loud. Think about how your thinking relates to the material you are reading and how this new knowledge may be applied to your project, course, or discipline. For example, in my critical thinking practice, I’m reading social science texts for a project where I ask myself: Why is the author using this argument? Is it consistent with what I learned? Do I agree with this argument? Would someone with a different point of view dispute this argument? What key ideas would be used to support a counterargument? On the other hand, when I’m reading scientific texts, I would ask myself: Can the experiment or observation be repeated? Would it reach the same results? Why did these results occur? What kinds of changes would affect the results? How could you change the experiment design or method of observation? How would you measure your results? What are the conclusions reached about the results? Could the same results be interpreted differently? After reading and writing my notes and answers, I would find a way to apply it and present it like in a workshop or coaching session. Learning different ways to learn is like a game of chess where you can’t memorize moves because every move requires you to understand your context and find the effective move to optimize your goal.
Point of View (frame of reference, perspective)
As a creativity coach, the key foundational concepts I run with are PROCESS, PROGRESS, and BALANCE. To help my clients focus on process and not so much on progress, the client needs to identify what matters most to them as individuals in different aspects of their life, and their goals. It’s only in hindsight that we can acknowledge progress, but I don’t focus on progress as a metric. For example, helping a client build a critical thinking practice will require the client and I to stop, think, and reflect when a question or doubt arises; when we apply a new skill; when meaning changes; and when we have to decide without knowing how it will unfold. Sometimes these incidents may seem like one step forward and four steps back, and it may not look like progress. By focusing on the process, the coaching relationship allows the client and I to communicate on life purposes and what the next right action is. Coaching the process is like planting seeds of goals, aspirations, and desired outcomes.
Context (setting, background)
In an age where ChatGPT and the internet have become the go-to way to access information, critical thinking practice is paramount for every individual who is a citizen of this changing world. In other words, a critical thinking practice helps individuals think about the thinking they trigger when they see information online, on social media, ChatGPT, or in the news. For example, ChatGPT is a web-based AI program where you can ask it questions and it will reply with information it gathers. The problem is you might not have the point of view of that information, the assumptions it uses, or the implications of those answers. If you ask AI for that information, will it be accurate? How do you know? Developing a critical thinking practice is like reading texts in a foreign language through web-based translators. If you type in a typical phrase you use in English, translate it to another language, copy the translation, and then translate it back from that language to English, does it match your original phrase? What does this tell you about automated programs?
Reference: College Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2015.
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If you’re interested in coaching with me, contact me at [email protected]. For further information, check out my site at www.stephaniebutron.com
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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