Development Of Critical Thinking And Effective Presentation Of Ideas

So far we have discussed the changes needed in the way you organize your study and we have described the different resources that become available to you as you move from school to university. The most important change, however, is not a matter of study strategies or resources but a matter of styles of thinking . In fact we regard the the development of an analytical and critical style of thinking as so vital, so close to the heart of university studies, that we will take the whole de of Chapter 5 to explain this process in detail. The brief comments we make here, therefore, are simply intended to introduce

Imagine a Year 12 student at a secondary school who has been asked to write a 600-word History essay on the topic:

What were the causes of the Second World War, 1939 – 1945?

 In order to answer this question satisfactorily, the student would be expected to read the one or two chapters from her textbook in modern history that deal with this subject. She would make notes, listing the causes set out in these chapters, and then write the essay by combining her notes in a clear sequence. The only judgement she might need to make would be to decide whether to start with the most important cause and work through to the least important, or whether to start at the other end and work up to the major cause.

Now imagine a first-year university student who has also been set an essay on the causes of the Second World War. How would his task differ from that of the secondary school student?

Fro a start, the topic would probably be worded differently, making it both more precise and more complex.

The what extent was the outbreak of war in 1939 caused by the rise of German nationalism?

The essay would be much longer, perhaps 1500 or 2000 words, and therefore the extent of research and depth of detail required would be greater. But, most importantly, the student would not be able to base his answer on information gathered from just one or two textbooks; he would be expected to read much more widely and critically. Reading `widely' might mean reading and taking notes from eight or nine texts or articles. While doing this, the student becomes aware that there is not one `correct' answer to the question, but at least eight or nine possible answers. Every historian he consults has a different view or interpretation of the importance.

most important change

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