How MONSOONS can make you an expert in critical reasoning?
Any student, when comes up with his own thoughts is when he becomes comfortable in the classroom and starts enjoying the learning process. I use a very simple and apparently effective case study to bring about better classroom participation.
I simply ask them what else will happen if it starts raining outside.
The initial response is always of slight hesitation with confusion as to why and how is this relevant to the class. With some initial feeding, like telling them that buildings, people will get wet, students start responding.
“Sir, the roads will be water-logged.”
“The traffic will stall because of water logging.”
And so on until I get such a response: “The sale of chai and samosas/pakoras will increase!”
That is the moment the students stop repeating mere observations and start applying their experiences and the knowledge they gain from them. This is called inferential thinking and is one of the pillars of critical thinking. Critical thinking forms the platform for every competitive exam where verbal ability is tested. Verbal ability is primarily reasoning ability.
So I further give them scenarios such as:
“So how will rains impact the business of an Archie’s or Hallmark’s Gallery?”
“How will you guarantee that your chai-wallah business increases?”
And I get innovative answers as well:
“Home-delivery of tea!”
“Archie’s offering free tea during monsoons to increase sales.”
“Buy a coffee mug and get hot steaming tea in it!”
The secret to a great classroom experience is not what the teacher teaches or how he teaches but a group effort: the involvement of each student to enrich entire discussions. This is what constructivism teaches me and this is what makes my teaching experience a great one.
Originally published at https://saurabhnandatalks.wordpress.com on February 15, 2014.
