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Academic Disciplines As Sub-Cultures:The Need To Adapt
3 Interview one or your fellow students about his or her experience .is a secondary school student. Ask and make notes about:
- The syllabus (who sets it? what forms of assessment are used? etc.)
- The resources of the school (is there a library? what laboratory facilities? etc.)
- The teachers (what qualifications are they required to have? what is their standing in society? etc.)
- The teaching style (how formal/informal? is the teacher seen as the only learning resource? is independent work encouraged? is questioning encouraged? etc.)
Compare your notes with those made by other members of your class and discuss the extent to which your secondary education has prepared you to meet the kinds of academic expectations we have described in this chapter.
Critical Thinking
We have talked a lot so far about the importance of critical thinking in tertiary study. We have said that you need to use this style of thinking in listening to lectures, in reading for essays and tutorials, in participating in tutorial discussions and, most obviously, in developing a ‘reasoned argument' in your essays and reports.
It is time now to examine more closely what we mean by this term. We shall do this mostly in a practical way - by looking at some actual examples of tasks that students face in their first year of study at an Australian university. But first, what can be said in a more general about critical thinking and the related act of analysis?
In broad terms, being critical means making careful or exact judgements . The critical thinker, therefore, is someone who approaches his material with the ultimate intention of judging its worth or value. He arrives at this point of judgement through a process of systematic analysis and questioning.
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