This educational technology is aimed to develop the way of a student´s thought through reading and writing. Its main features are criticality, flexibility, openness, reflectivity. The purpose of using this technology within educational process is to develop intellectual abilities of a student, thus allowing him to study independently. The technology is a multiplicity of methods, aimed to interest a student, stimulate him for activity, create conditions to generalize information, provide for development of his critical thinking, skills of self-analysis, reflection. In foundations of the development of critical thinking through writing (DCTTW) lays the model that consist of three stages: challenge, comprehension, reflection.
Challenge. Revelation of initial ideas of a student according the discussion, activation of cognitive activity among students, actualization of one´s own experience takes place within this stage. It stimulates them to recall what they already know on the topic, put this knowledge into a definite system, and also share their knowledge. Besides, students are tuned into the class topic, their interest is developed, it serves as a special motivational moment. In the end of a challenge a systematization of all information that arose during the discussion must take place.
The used methods are: brainstorm, cluster, cognition cards, mixed logic chains.
Within the realization of a challenge stage
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Students can express their points of view on the studied topic, and do it freely, regardless of possibility to make a mistake or be corrected by their tutor.
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It is important that all expressions are registered, as any of them will be important for the further work. Besides, there are no «correct» of «wrong» expressions within this stage.
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Individual and group work can be combined. Sharing points of view can provide for an emergence of new ideas that are often unexpected and productive. Sharing thoughts can help students find new interesting problems, solution of which will make them study new material. Besides, some students are often afraid to express their point of view to their tutor or in a big audience. Working in several groups allows such students to feel more freely.
The tutor´s part is to stimulate students to recall what they already know on the topic, provide for a conflict-free share of points of view in groups, fixing and systematization of information, obtained from students, not to criticize their answers, even if they are inaccurate or wrong.
Comprehension. Here new information is compared to one that students had received before. A quick temper of providing new material in regime of listening and writing almost makes such comprehension impossible. At the stage students work independently. A tutor´s goal here is to support students´ activity that was achieved during the challenge stage.
Used methods: studying text or its separate parts, watching video films, listening to a tutor´s lectures, listening to audio records. It can be a story, a lecture, individual, pair, or group reading or watching video material. Anyway, it will be an individual acceptation and tracking of information. Authors of pedagogic technology of development of critical thinking point out that during the realization of the sense stage the main purpose is to support students´ activity, their interest and motion that was created during the challenge stage.
During the comprehension stage students: experience a contact with new information, try to compare the information with their knowledge and experience, accent their attention on searching answers for their questions and problems, point out unclearness, thus putting new questions, try to track the very process of learning new information, outline what exactly draws their attention, what aspects are more interesting to them and why, prepare to analyze and discuss the new information.
During this stage a tutor: can be a direct source of new information. In this case his goal is to provide information clearly and attractively. If students work with a text, their tutor watches the work activeness, attentiveness. To organize work with a text a tutor suggests different methods serious reading and thinking. It is necessary to emit a sufficient time to realize sense stage. If students work with a text, it would be reasonable to emit time for a second reading.
Reflection. The purpose of reflection is to fix the obtained knowledge, master new information, form one´s own new knowledge, include new ideas into the system of knowledge, and also set new problems and search answers for them, that can serve as foundations of a challenge stage for a new lesson. Used methods: construction of scheme, table, discussion, short composition, cluster, cognition cards, development of mini-project, questioning and control, drawing, etc.
The work was submitted to international scientific conference «Present-day problems of science and education», Russia, (Moscow), February, 27-29 2012, came to the editorial office 04.05.2012.