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Teaching Critical Thinking: Abstracting. Dr. Eddie Baumann “The truth is more important than facts”. Abstracting skills. Moby Dick Man striving against God Go to movie Discuss the rotten themes Abstracting from a whale story. Steps in Skill Building. Construct a model of the skill
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Teaching Critical Thinking: Abstracting Dr. Eddie Baumann “The truth is more important than facts”
Abstracting skills • Moby Dick • Man striving against God • Go to movie • Discuss the rotten themes • Abstracting from a whale story
Steps in Skill Building • Construct a model of the skill • How do experts do the skill • E.g. look at good basketball shooters • Shaping of the skill (guided practice) • Critic while they are doing it • Internalize the skill (independent practice) • practice on their own – do lots of reps Thinking is progressive. Work through the process
Abstracting– id & articulate the underlying theme or general pattern of info • What is important here? • Main ideas • How can I say the same thing in a more general way? • Replace words referring to specific things with words referring to more general things. • Summarize information whenever possible • Use it outside of the context given • What else has the same pattern
The Process Literal Abstract Literal E.g. Biblical hermeneutic – Interpretation learning from the OT
e.g. Love is a rose • Characteristics of roses • Beautiful, smelly, must be tended, thorny, delicate • As it unfolds you see more. • Fragrance lasts even after it dies. • Proverbs – “Guard your heart, it is wellspring of life” • This is a metaphor of love
Teacher vs. student directed activities • Model the process. Teacher-directed activities allow students to imitate the process of the teacher using accepted categories • Student directed allow for students to make the process their own.