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Pre – Reading Prediction

After looking at the title of this article I predict that It will be about how critical thinking is used in a liberal arts education, and might also be about how both critical thinking and a liberal arts education are utilized in society today. I wouldn’t be surprised if the article is more focused on how to use your L.A.E today, reasons not to neglect it, and why so many people treat it as a “nothing degree”. To me the liberal arts are a way of thinking,  or a very important set of skills and tools that you can use when you leave college. I think a liberal arts education teaches how to ask questions, communicate efficiently, and analyse situations with a view different from a degree in – for example – business, or mathematics. 

Section 1

This section was about what a liberal arts education actually means, and how it relates to other degrees. Liberal arts are talked about as being a notion of free mindfulness, and critical thinking is a huge part of the key skills that are applied to a liberal arts education. It also talks about how the liberal arts somewhat exclude the sciences and focus more on the humanities, and how the many disciplines of philosophy create a way to understand human beings, societies, and nature. The main way to describe a liberal arts education is not a set of skills or data to absorb, but as a collection of ideas or questions – a way of thinking to promote flexibility and a free mindset. 

“However unloved or misunderstood by many Americans, philosophy is the mother of liberal learning”. 

I just really enjoyed reading this part and thought it was very interesting to learn about. I had never known that economics, psychology, sociology, political science, and linguistics – all different majors – were all connected and related to philosophy.

Section 2

This section focuses more on why the liberal arts are needed in today’s society and highlights our nation and how critical thinking and citizenship are key roles of democracy, and the three forms of citizenship. The traditional civic dimension embraces many activities within the public political sphere. Economic citizenship regards being a productive member of society and critical consumer. The third and most important humanities based form is cultural citizenship which focuses on cultural community engagement. This section finishes by discussing the importance of all occupations and how the liberal arts prepare students for civic, economic, and cultural sensitivity. 

“One could argue for other forms alongside or within them: environmental, informational, moral, or global citizenship…” 

I just wanted to relate this quote to the core handbook by saying that two of the forms listed (Environmental, Global) are two of the types of awareness included in section 3. This proves that many aspects of the liberal arts span and connect to different media within the subject. 

Section 3

This section covers what critical thinking actually is by definition, and also talks about philosophy and its relationship with critical thinking. Because critical thinking is such a broad subject and is a way of thinking instead of a definable single skill, it’s very hard to describe. Most people can agree that critical thinking is defined by the ability to identify assumptions, draw inferences, distinguish between facts from opinions, draw conclusions based on data, and judge or weigh out the authority of a source. However, even including these many general skills, critical thinking still has more that defines it. The use of facts, ideas, and conceptual frameworks with the development of critical minds are all parts of a liberal arts education, with critical thinking being less of a describable skill but more a set of them to help students navigate the world today. 

“Students who are college-ready have already absorbed at least the rudiments of this kind of critical thinking, even without formal training…” 

I just thought it was very interesting to read how a lot of students are able to pick up critical thinking naturally, almost like how we pick up grammar by listening, reading, and writing. It makes me wonder how much students use critical thinking skills without even realizing it. 

Section 4

This fourth and final section goes over the importance of critical inquiry, its relation to philosophy, and its use in today’s world. Like critical inquiry, there are many disciplines that define the liber arts curriculum including truth, nature, value, causality, complexity, morality, freedom, excellence, and language. Linguistic issues affect critical inquiry and philosophy in similar ways, and linguistic problems tend to be regarding meaning, reality, and our minds; and most people have to deal with these issues. The mentioned topics above aren’t shortcuts for understanding the liberal arts, but can help pave the way and show what students can learn and what useful skills they will acquire by gaining a liberal arts education. Finally, of course STEM courses are very important; however the spectrum of ideas, humanities, knowledge, and the ability to critically think are also very important. 

“The STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically”.

I read this and could help but challenge/ question this statement. If this is true, then why have liberal arts education and critical thinking skills gone down in popularity more recently?

Core Handbook Connection

While many correlations and connections are tied to the UNE Core Handbook from this article, there is one in particular that I wanted to mention. As I said above this article mentions in the “Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts” section: Environmental, informational, moral, or global citizenship as types of communal engagement. In the “Core Themes” section of the handbook, they mention Environmental and Global awareness as themes “Created to provide a foundation in the liberal arts”. These two issues mentioned in the article and handbook show that they are necessary not only to build a foundation in liberal thinking, but also as reasons to keep liberal educations relevant in today’s society. 

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1) A growth mindset is a state of mind in which a student can comprehend the future and what it holds in regards to their improvement. For example, progress based learning puts you into a growth mindset because if you aren’t doing well now, you have the future to improve; and your grade is based on that improvement. “They understood that their abilities could be developed. They had what I call a growth mindset.” 

A fixed mindset is a state of mind in which a student focuses on the present and not the future, getting stumped by difficult questions, failing, and then giving up because they don’t know how to cope with the stress of the moment. Fixed mindset students use “now” while growth mindset students use “yet”. “Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped by the tyranny of now.”

2) “First of all, we can praise wisely, not praising intelligence or talent.” 

This is a very efficient way to reward students in my opinion. “Praising wisely” basically means rewarding students for the progress they have made overall instead of instant gratification or failure based on fixed mindset learning. This just sounds healthier and more helpful for students, including myself. One thing that does bother me is that this type of mindset could make students worry too much about the future, and stress about what it holds. Coming from someone whose mantra is take it day by day, the future can definitely be as scary as it is bright. 

“We recently teamed up with game scientists from the University of Washington to create a new online math game that rewarded yet.” 

This idea is also very good in my opinion, because it utilizes something that kids really understand and use today: video games. Educational games are great as is, but ones that reward progress are much more satisfying to play and learn from, in my opinion. This is a great way to engage students and help them develop a growth mindset in the 21st century, and is very realistic. 

3) Dweck uses the example for almost this whole presentation of comparing intelligence to grades in school. She also uses the scientific description of “the neurons in their brain can form new, stronger connections, and over time, they can get smarter”. I personally believe that this is true in many ways, that intelligence can be measured based on how well we do in school (Math, Science, etc.). Dweck uses examples of fourth-grade students who live in the Bronx becoming the number one class on the state math test. While this is incredible and shows what a growth mindset can do, there are other forms of intelligence besides school smarts. I know a couple kids that did amazing in highschool with A’s and A+, but their social/ people skills sometimes lack. She also explains we shouldn’t praise intelligence because “That has failed”, but instead praise the process that kids engage in; which I agree with fully. 

4)  I feel that my fixed mindset moment would be with art classes that I’ve taken in the past. I used to be a huge procrastinator, and in Dweck’s words “in study after study, they have run from difficulty.” I would do assignments last minute and feel stressed up until that point, and I was exactly who Dweck was talking about having a fixed mindset. Once I realized that some teachers would gauge my academic progress based on how I’ve improved, I felt way less stressed and anxious than I did before. I had a commercial arts class that I took in Portland that was similar, where we’d do critiques and try to improve on our work next time if there was any criticism. This gave me room to breathe and felt way better than having huge projects with letter grades that, if I did bad; would make me feel like I did a ton of work for nothing. I’m very excited now because this semester I have a drawing and design class here at UNE, and the first day the teacher let us know that the class would be based on our individual improvement over the entire semester. This is a huge breath of fresh air for most students in my opinion, and the growth mindset learning should be implemented into more classes! Overall I think that this is an effective way to teach and learn as students.