I was a professor for four days.
First and foremost, I want to say that this title is misleading in some way. I was not a professor, but I was an educator for four days.
This is a story of my experience as a peer educator.
I was asked by the Red Cross National Society to be an educator. I would educate a group of 15 people over a period of four days on two different topics.
The topics I was given were active listening and critical thinking.
Even if these topics are used 1,000 times by different speakers and educators, I still find it interesting to talk about them.
And especially critical thinking. During the camp, I hosted a session that lasted almost three hours about critical thinking.
I presented what critical thinking is and what the elements of critical thinking are. And in this story, I want to focus on critical thinking and how we can use it.
So, probably by now, you are wondering why there are sheep on the profile picture.
It’s all part of critical thinking.
I started my lecture with a question.
What is a sheep?
The audience looked at me like I was completely insane, so I asked again.
They gave me some answers, So I asked what is the similarity between a sheep and a man.
Again, they looked at me funny, but they agreed to tell me.
The sheep get hungry, get thirsty, are hot in the summer, and want to repopulate. They also tell me that the sheep need water, food, and a place to sleep.
It is the same with a human beaning.
So I simply explained the biggest difference between sheep and men. Is that a people thing, and in what they think.
For me, there are three ways of thinking: reacting, first-line thinking, and critical thinking.
Reacting is self-explanatory, you simply react to external factors. For example, in boxing, you are simply doding the punches so you can paunch late.
First-line thinking refers only to our own opinion about a fact or something we represent without realizing that there are others who have influence and have their own opinion about something.
Critical thinking is realizing that different factors combine together to form a view.
Critical thinking is a habit, like any other, that you focus on and commit to in order to achieve greater success in that field.
“Critical thinking requires us to use our imagination, seeing things from perspectives other than our own and envisioning the likely consequences of our position.”
Bell Hooks
