Plagiarism and "Critical Thinking"

Notice that I quoted the words "critical thinking". There is a reason for this. Well, as I can understand this, "critical thinking" is not something new. Socrates and Aristoteles taught it. In fact, philosophy is based on this. It seems to be a recent (perhaps the last 12 years or so) bandwagon thing. And everybody gets on it!, especially colleges and educators. For me critical thinking is based on critical reading and writing. All three feed into a dynamic process of teaching-learning. Oh well, as for plagiarism, it is a way by which a piece of information is received and "copied" without any necessary comprehension and application. It just is! It is taken from somewhere and "pasted" somewhere else. The context disappears, the comprehension is null, the explanation is non-existant, and thus it limits the critical thinking aparatus. Well, that is one way of looking at it. :)

Serafin

Critical Thinking Issues

Lib Staff,

This morning while evaluating GAP projects, I made a series of comments to the faculty relating to "critical thinking issues." It seems this is a major area of concern; the letter, the communication piece and the information literacy document can be easily managed. But the "critical thinking" area needs to be addressed. Faculty may be unclear as to what "critical thinking" really means, so we need to discuss definitions, Bloom categories (some of these overlap with each other, etc), methods, and just what "critical thinking" is or purports to be. Once this is done, then we (faculty) need to teach these skills and "coach" students to write pieces that focus or emphasize on these "ways" of thinking, etc. Faculty could give essay assignments or papers in which words such as the following are included: Explain, evaluate, analyze, compare and contrast, [see handout on Bloom categories]

Serafin

PS This is my first posting, sorry about this!

Plagiarism and Critical Thinking

Librarians:

Please review the articles that I sent to you via e-mail about Plagiarism - specifically, the article by Hamalainen about Useful Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism.

Relate the content of this article to the article that we reviewed in the previous weeks on the blog about Critical Thinking Disposition and consider the following questions:

- Do we currently develop assignments that approach research with critical thinking disposition?

- How does critical thinking disposition relate to plagiarism (if it all)?

- What teachable moments can librarians use to PREVENT (rather than combat) plagiarism?

- Provide examples of collaborative efforts you have made with faculty at the beginning of the quarter to prevent plagiarism. Note any effective (or even ineffective) techniques/approaches.

As always, your comments and responses on the blog are appreciated and will go a long way in developing our TEAM approach to collaborating with faculty to improve the skills of our students. I encourage you to respond before our team meeting next Wednesday. Thanks!

Critical Thinking Disposition and Library Anxiety

Librarians:

I have attached an article that came out in this month’s College & Research Libraries entitled “Critical Thinking Disposition and Library Anxiety: Affective Domains on the Space of Information Seeking and Use in Academic Libraries” via your -email.

The article touches on two very common themes in our world: Library Anxiety (fear of failure, shame, confusion, etc. using the library); and the processes of and disposition toward the processes or types of Critical Thinking (reviewed in the article).

I am sending this to you because I believe it is highly applicable to how we serve and TEACH our students. While we may be purveyors of reference services, and workshops, students who do not have (or have weak) disposition to critical thinking may have relatively high library anxiety and avoid research or requesting your assistance altogether.

It is our responsibility to:

- Offer an open, welcoming, easy-to-use space that encourages research and learning (both physically and electronically)

- Provide customer service, programs and services that invite students to dive into our resources

- Teach and encourage the dimensions of critical thinking dispositions (see pg. 273) so that students are better prepared to use the library, either through collaboration with faculty and staff or in the “teachable moments” during workshops and in reference interviews and programs.

To an extent, we take advantage of teachable moments already – by encouraging students in the second workshop to prepare the lists of the elements of each citation as they complete their research, instead of after the fact. Consider other teachable moments that you see during workshops or in the library, directly related to dimensions of critical thinking dispositions and library anxiety and how we can positively affect both.

Please read the article and response to the above question by next Monday, June 11. I look forward to using this discussion during our call on Wednesday, June 13.