Critical Thinking as a Citizenship Competence: Teaching Strategies.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss various instructional formats for critical thinking from a social constructivist point of view, and propose a framework for the acquisition of the competence to participate critically in the communities and social practices.

About: This article is published in Learning and Instruction.The article was published on 2004-08-01 and is currently open access. It has received 470 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Critical systems thinking & Critical thinking.

Summary

Introduction

• Multiple relaxation times in single-molecule magnets Le Tuan Anh Ho* and Liviu F. Chibotaru† Theory of Nanomaterials Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium (Received 25 July 2016; revised manuscript received 21 August 2016; published 20 September 2016).
• Multiple relaxation times detected in the ac magnetic susceptibility of several single-molecule magnets have been always assigned to extrinsic factors, such as nonequivalent magnetic centers or effects of intermolecular interactions in the crystal.
• This proves the relevance of the intramolecular mechanism of multiple relaxation times in such systems, which is even easier justified in polynuclear magnetic complexes.
• The derived analytical expressions display the conditions for the observability of the second relaxation time in the ac magnetic susceptibility.
• Is generic and may be relevant for strongly exchange-coupled polynuclear SMMs as well.

II. MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION OF MULTIPLE RELAXATION TIMES IN AC SUSCEPTIBILITY

• A system with n electronic states in a thermal bath could relax via several relaxation modes with the rates λi , i = 1, . . . n, corresponding to the eigenvalues of the relaxation rate matrix [35–37].
• It is assumed, in line with experiments where a secondary relaxation process was observed, that the applied field (several tenths of Tesla) is sufficient for suppression of tunneling in both these doublets.
• Moreover, in a nonzero magnetic field the off-diagonal matrix elements of the easy-axis magnetic moment matrix of a SMM (mαβ) are often much smaller than the diagonal ones (mαα).
• Note that although the observation of the secondary relaxation process requires both relaxation rates λ2 and λ3 not exceeding the limiting frequency of ac susceptibility measurements, the existence of two maxima in χ ′′(ω) and the Cole-Cole plot does not depend explicitly on their relative values.
• Trying to find favorable conditions for the observation of two peaks in χ ′′(ω), one could first think of increasing the temperature in order to reduce κ to the order of unity.

III. CONDITIONS FOR OBSERVATION OF TWO RELAXATION TIMES: A COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTS

• To facilitate further analysis, the authors consider a temperature domain where the direct relaxation rate direct ≈ aT [38] dominates the Raman relaxation rate.
• For intermediate values of n, a shoulder is seen, indicating a transition from a single-maximum to two-maxima regime.
• The authors see that such interpretations can be misleading due to the closeness of a secondary relaxation process.
• In contrast to the previous case, with decrease of T the transition point in the Cole-Cole plot shifts from left to right.
• It is interesting to note that in both cases, the relaxation rate extracted from ac susceptibility measurement is always reproduced by the conventional expression for the relaxation rate, i.e., a sum of direct, Raman, and Orbach relaxation rates.

IV. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

• The results obtained here for a three-level model allow us to rationalize some general features of ac susceptibility in multilevel systems.
• Even if the factor κi corresponding to each theoretical maximum i th|i>2 could be of the order of unity, the frequency ω(i)max at which it should be placed in χ ′′(ω) is likely to be outside the available range for ac susceptibility measurements.
• As the authors already mentioned, it is widely accepted and confirmed in the present work that one of the eigenvalues of the relaxation rate matrix equals the sum of the relaxation rates of all these individual processes, λ2 = Orbach + direct +.
• This shows that λ2 has absorbed the direct, tunneling, and Raman relaxation processes between the two ground states.
• The intramolecular mechanism discussed here could also be responsible for the observation of a secondary relaxation process in strongly coupled polynuclear SMMs as well.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What have the authors contributed in "Critical thinking as a citizenship competence: teaching strategies" ?

This article is about enhancing critical thinking as a crucial aspect of the competence citizens need to participate in society. In the second part of this article, the various proposals for instructional formats for critical thinking are discussed from a social constructivist point of view. If education is to further the critical competence of students, it must provide them with the opportunity at the level of the classroom and the school to observe, imitate and practice critical agency and to reflect upon it. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Critical thinking as a citizenship competence: teaching strategies" ?

In this article, the authors have discussed the possibilities for promoting critical thinking in schools. The authors conclude this article by formulating questions for further research aimed at promoting the critical competence of students from the perspective of developing citizenship. As the development of citizenship by definition involves all students, it is important to obtain more insight into the possibilities or lack thereof for stimulating reflection in this group of students. Further research is required on the characteristics of the school culture and school organization that in conjunction with or in addition to characteristics at the level of the classroom promote critical thinking in students. 

Q3. What are the main types of tests used in the study?

Tests ususally focus on critical-thinking skills, such as inference, recognition of assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation of arguments. 

Q4. What are the characteristics of instruction that are assumed to enhance critical thinking?

Characteristics of instruction that are assumed to enhance critical thinking are: paying attention to the development of the epistemological beliefs of students; promoting active learning; a problem-based curriculum; and stimulating interaction between students. 

Q5. What is the important part of critical thinking?

For Kuhn (1999) both metacognitive skills, metacognitive knowledge and epistemological beliefs are crucial for critical thinking. 

Q6. What are the main characteristics of self-reports?

Self-reports measuring critical thinking typically mention skills as ‘being able to recognize presuppositions’ and ‘being able to think about alternatives’. 

Q7. What is the fundamental and questionable assumption of the approach?

The most fundamental and questionable assumptions of these approaches (whether formal or informal) is that critical thinking can be successfully taught as a battery of technical skills which can be mastered more or less one by one without giving serious attention to self-deception, background logic, and multi-categorical ethical issues’. 

Q8. What are the main findings of Tsui and Terenzini?

Both Tsui and Terenzini et al.discuss Smith’s (1977) findings that courses eliciting a high level (amount and cog-nitive level) of student participation, instructor encouragement, praise and use ofstudents’ ideas, and the amount of peer-to-peer interaction are positively related togains in critical thinking. 

Q9. What is the effect of group discussion on students’ cognitive skills?

An experimental study with a pretest–posttest design (N ¼ 118) was conducted to answer the question whether group discussion facilitates the development of critical-thinking skills more than traditional methods of instruction such as lectures (measured by means of undergraduate students’ demonstrations). 

Q10. What is the effect of taking multiple choice exams on students’ critical thinking?

self-reported growth in critical thinking is positively related to having a paper critiqued by an instructor, conducting an independent research project, working on a group project, giving a class presentation, and taking essay exams, but negatively related to taking multiple choice exams. 

Q11. What is the main concern of Burbules and Berk?

In their overview of the main differences between critical thinking and critical pedagogy, Burbules and Berk (1999) point out that the strict distinction between facts and values in the criticalthinking tradition makes the consequences of certain knowledge on institutional and societal levels invisible.