Baseball: One of the games people play ... Fisher (2001) ii
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| Critical Thinking 2nd Ed. Cover |
Returning to Fisher's excellent book I mentioned an analogy from basket ball in discussion about Richard Paul's definition of critical thinking and 'thinking about your thinking'.
'Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skilfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. (Paul, Fisher and Nosich,1993, p. 4).' pp.4-5.
Fisher's daughter aged eleven wanted to learn how to play basket ball and attended coaching sessions. At the first the raw recruits were divided into two teams and with simplified rules set to play. Initially, getting the ball and in a position to score: shoot.
After the chaos, the coach had them practice shooting after he demonstrated how they had been playing. He explained and pointed out the basics of technique and 'drew attention to how he held the ball, where he looked, how he stood and so on.' p.5. Acknowledging their efforts, they subsequently moved on to passing, then guarding, or marking - practising each skill.
This is a great analogy and can be applied to health, social care, medicine, nursing and other novices. Hodges' model is the basket ball, tennis, squash court, football, hockey pitch. You might move to a position to obtain an advantageous point of view. In reflective, critical thinking terms, additional data to support or negate a line of thought.
The axes of Hodges' model, serve as a scaffold to help structure our 'game player', and possibly better co-ordinate a group or team's efforts. The domains of Hodges' model cover the knowledge or subject bases that will relate to any context. Hodges' model is situated. If there is need to consider spiritual matters - experiences, then a conceptual journey ... at least, as befits an individual's or group's beliefs and purpose can be made. So forms if intelligence (emotional, cultural, spiritual ...) can also be factored in, as necessary.
Are there relational, logical, even mathematical standards that can be applied (formally, in theory) to our thinking? Does 'subject, content or problem' equate with 'situated'? Another book to pass on.
Fisher, A. (2001) Critical Thinking: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. PB.
Post: ... 'anyone for tennis'.
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