根据图片内容，生成授课视频 14-17---12 The Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn How to Figure Out the Form of Thinking Essential to Courses or Subjects Consider the following thinking on the part of a student taking a course in history: "To do well in this course, I must begin to think historically. I must not read the textbook as a bunch of disconnected stuff to remember but as the thinking of the historian. I must myself begin to think like a historian. I must begin to be clear about historical purposes (What are historians trying to accomplish?). I must begin to ask historical questions (and recognize the historical questions being asked in the lectures and textbook). I must begin to sift through historical information, drawing some historical conclusions. I must begin to question where historical information comes from. I must notice the historical interpretations that the historian forms to give meaning to historical information. I must question those interpretations (at least sufficiently to understand them). I must begin to question the implications of various historical interpretations and begin to see how historians reason to their conclusions. I must begin to look at the world as historians do, to develop a historical viewpoint. I will read each chapter in the textbook looking explicitly for the elements of thought in that chapter. I will actively ask (historical) questions in class from the critical thinking perspective. I will begin to pay attention to my own historical thinking in my everyday life. I will try, in short, to make historical thinking a more explicit and prominent part of my thinking." Students who approach history classes as historical thinking begin to understand the historical dimension of other subjects as well. For example, they begin to recognize that every subject itself has a history and that the present state of the subject is a product of its historical evolution. What is more, such historically-thinking students also notice the overlap between history as a study of the relatively recent past of humans (the last 30,000 years) and the much longer history of humans (canvassed in anthropology). They are able to place these last 30,000 years (which seem a long time when we first think of it) into the larger historical perspective of anthropology which begins its study of the human past some 2,000,000 years ago when ©2011 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn 13 our ancestors were small, hairy, apelike creatures who used tools such as digging sticks and clubs, walked upright, carried their tools, and lived on plant food. What is more, they see this longer history breaking down into stages: from hunting and gathering civilizations to agricultural civilizations to industrial civilizations to post-industrial civilizations. And that is not all. They are then able to take this historical perspective and put it into a yet larger historical view by shifting from anthropological thinking to geographical thinking. They grasp that human history is itself a small part of a much older history, that of mammals, and that the age of mammals was preceded by an age of reptiles, and that by the age of coal-plants, and that by the age of fish, and that by the age of mollusks. They then can take the next step and grasp that geological history, even though reaching back thousands of millions of years is comparatively short when compared to that of the solar system, while that of the solar system is comparatively short when compared to the galaxy, while that of the galaxy is comparatively short when compared to the universe itself. Students' capacity to think historically in larger and larger time spans continues to develop as their study of all subjects is transformed by a developing sense of the drama of time itself. They are then able to shift from history to pre-history, from pre-history to anthropological history, from anthropological history to geological history, and from geological history to astronomical history. In this ever-expanding perspective, the history of human knowledge is pitifully short: a milli- second geologically, a milli-milli second astronomically. It is only a second ago—astronomically speaking—that a species has emerged, Homo sapiens, which drives itself, and creates the conditions to which it itself must then adapt in new and unpredictable ways. It is only a milli-second ago that we have developed the capacity, though not the propensity, to think critically. Essential Idea: It is possible to think deeply within a subject and see applications of that thinking in related subjects. Doing so increases the power of thinking and learning. ©2011 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 14 The Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn How to Think Within the Ideas of a Subject Learning to think within the ideas of a subject is like learning to perform well in basketball, ballet, or on the piano. Thinking within the ideas of a subject at an advanced level without disciplined practice is as unnatural to the human mind as sitting down at a piano and spontaneously playing Chopin's Polonaise. Unfortunately, many classes do not highlight how to think within the ideas of the subject. Merely receiving lectures on the content of a subject will not teach you how to think within its ideas. You must therefore set out to discover how to think within biology, how to think within chemistry, how to think within economics, etc. You will not discover this thinking by cramming large masses of partially digested contents of a textbook or sets of lectures into your head. Here is what we recommend. Recognize that you are seeking a new way to look at learning. Recognize that it will take time to become comfortable in this new perspective. Consider your task as a student to be to learn new ways to think. Stretching the mind to accommodate new ideas is crucial. For example, if you are in a history course, your job is to learn how to think historically. If you are in a writing class, your job is to learn to think like a skilled writer. If you are in a sociology, psychology, geography, biology, philosophy, or chemistry class, you should be striving to think sociologically, psychologically, geographically, biologically, philosophically, or chemically. ©2011 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn 15 If you are in a nursing, engineering, or architecture class, you should be attempting to think like a professional nurse, like an engineer, or like an architect. Recognize that there are key ideas behind the subject that give a unified meaning to it. Look up a variety of formulations of the essence of the subject (use dictionaries, textbooks, encyclopedias). Remember that you are looking for the ideas that give a unified meaning to the subject and thus enable you to experience the subject as a system. What makes art art? What makes science science? What makes biology biology? Try to find the common denominator of the subjects you study. Ask your instructor for help. Now relate every new idea (in the textbook or lectures) to the fundamental idea with which you began. The big idea with which you began should be in the background of all new ideas. Seek intuitive connections, connections that make complete sense to you. [Highlighted Section] Essential Idea: There are basic ideas that act as guide-posts to all thinking within a subject. Look for these basic ideas and stretch your mind to learn them. Weave everything else into them. [/Highlighted Section] ©2011 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org