This survey was conducted at the end of the semester. It includes 7 questions. The first two are meant to find out whether the blended learning design of this class affected the students’ learning experience. Overall, the students noticed and valued the flipped classroom experience. They appreciated how the regular completion assignments, though demanding, prepared them for fruitful student-led discussions in class, where the professor largely played the role of a collaborator and facilitator. As for the multi-media component, some students expressed ambiguity about its utility (especially regarding Digital Project II, which required them to record and analyze conversations with friends on a chosen subject).
The following are the anonymously collected answers to the two questions. I thank Kenneth Reyes for gathering and combining the answers in a single document for me, as well as for the effort that the students put in the survey.
Q1: How would you describe your overall learning experience in this class? You may consider this question in terms of, but not limited to, (a) information and skills you’ve obtained or furthered, (b) your sense of agency as a learner, and (c) any self-knowledge you may have newly acquired, revised, or deepened. Is this experience different from what you originally expected of this class in any significant way?
Honestly, my overall learning experience in this class has been very positive. The student-led discussions definitely contributed the most to my fruitful learning experience.Often, teachers dominate the conversations making it boring to follow the concepts. When students lead the discussions, listening to different perspectives and interpretations allowed me to actively engage with the concepts. In addition, the content that was covered throughout the semester encompassed a large aspect of critical thinking. The reality far exceeded my expectations in terms of content. For example, I was especially surprised whenI found out we’d have discussions on algorithmic biases and AI.
In one word, I would describe my learning experience in this class as dynamic. I will briefly describe why I considered it dynamic based on i) class discussions, ii)assignments, and iii) skills learned. Class discussions served as an open floor to express one’s response and thoughts on the assignments, expanding our sense of agency. The professor was also open-minded about tweaking the syllabus to enhance a particular area she found more relevant. To have such a space provided me with the opportunity to improve my listening skills and learn from different points of view, and to engage in collaborative thinking. I have felt that this was very beneficial to the class as we may have sometimes had similar ideas, but lacked that extra spin on every one’s personal take on the subject of discussion. Moreover, the assignments were dynamic because they allowed us to apply the theory to a contemporary event. By doing so repeatedly, we were learning and doing at the same time, building on our skills as we went along.Finally, the skills were learned were also dynamic because I would feel confused sometimes. And that is a good thing. I would question whether what we had learned in previous classes still applied, or whether one skill learned trumped a previous one. I did not expect this experience from this class. I expected to learn more theory, something along the lines of logic.
I would consider my overall learning experience in this class as more holistic than it has been in most of my other classes. I signed up for this class because I needed to fulfill my second philosophy requirement and was honestly dreading it because all of the material in my intro to ethics class was pretty much taken from the traditional white male philosopher and I was expecting this class to be the same. I was pleasantly surprised that we didn’t focus on this kind of philosophy and rather read texts from a variety of diverse authors and sources. I do think that this gave me more agency as a learner because the texts were accessible to a student like myself.
Personally, I think that I was on a path towards critical thinking and through this course,I was able to strengthen my abilities and fix my flaws. Through the course, I learned about the ways in which I could be manipulated but in addition, I found formal definitions and labels for some concepts that I had noticed before as well.I became more aware in all the ways in which I could be flawed and this course helped expand the ways in which I think. This course and the concept of critical thinking should be something all college students should be exposed to as seen even with experts, we are all susceptible to our human flaws and manipulation.
I think my horizons have definitely been broadened in terms of thinking about howI and other people think, process information, absorb information, and dialogue with one another. I’ve also had to think more about what actors in society influence information access and processing and the national dialogue. I think one of my favorite — and one of the most useful — parts of the class was learning about reasoning in terms of constructing logical arguments and analyzing others’ arguments. I do not think my sense of agency as a learner has changed much, but perhaps a little in the sense that since lots of the material was essentially learned by reading, reflection and discussion — and since sometimes we even had to search for our own sources instead of being given specific reasons — it made me feel like I can continue to learn things outside of being a student in a classroom environment just by utilizing the internet and other resources around me. I think I gained self-knowledge by being more aware of (though not sufficiently aware of) my own biases and cognitive psychology. Overall, I thought my learning experience in this class was valuable/positive.
From my previous schooling, I have already known about a good number of the topics we covered like heuristics and biases. I expected this class to delve deeper in some topics with the guidance of the professor. As a learner, a lot of agency was given since we learned the most from the readings and the class was more of a discussion about what we read. In this regard, the student is rewarded from the work put into doing the readings. The most rewarding experience from this class was the discussions in which we shared personal stories that related to the topics we learned about and made connections to political and socioeconomic ties.
I feel that my overall learning experience in this class has differed greatly from my learning experience in most of my other classes. In most of my classes,I feel that the main focus of the learning is on learning new information. This includes theories, facts, systems and how these new pieces of information explain the world we live in, or a subset of it. In contrast, I feel that this class focused heavily on learning new skills. While I did learn some new information such as new statistics behind climate change, the main focus of the class was on learning new skills such as critical thinking, debunking BS and analyzing arguments. In this way, I feel that the lessons I have learned in this class will be able to help me in the future regardless of what path I choose career-wise as these are skills that are applicable in all parts of life, not just information on theories of international relations that are only truly relevant for politicians, diplomats and scholars.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. This class is very different than the usual dynamic of the classes that I have to take for my major in the business school,and it was refreshing to be in this new environment. I had never taken a critical thinking class before, and while I was initially nervous about whetherI would understand the complexity of all the terminology involved in critical thinking, I came to really appreciate how discussion-based this class was, as it allowed me to apply the skills learned to real situations. As a senior graduating after next semester, this also served as a wonderful reflection tool, both in the way that I think about Georgetown and in the way that I prepare for the future.
I developed awareness regarding how I think. Studying biases helped me, because I saw how I use biases in daily life. Ironically, this has made me believe less in the possibility of critical thinking. This was very valuable. However, I wish we talked about critical thinking in positive sense more. Maybe we could spend more time on strategic thinking or one of the other strategies. I felt like I was usually picking out problems and spent less time learning solutions.
I think this class provided a valuable learning experience in the sense that I learned useful tools thatI can apply to future endeavors. By nature, the course is not one that focuses on memorization or acquiring vast amounts of factual information.Instead, I felt that I was cultivating skills that will be relevant in a broad range of subjects. Since the course focuses on examining the way people think,I found it both applicable to my daily life and to how I look at myself as a learner and a thinker. The experience was different than what I expected, since I had originally thought critical thinking would entail a lot of text-based analysis based on set rules. In the end, however, I think the things I ultimately learned in this class are far more valuable and long-lasting.
Overall,my learning experience in this class was phenomenal. The class was extremely well designed and I felt like I had learned a substantial amount by the end of it. I thought all the material we covered was interesting and the in-class discussions we had regarding those materials were even more interesting. To be honest, my only qualm with the class was that at times I felt we centered too much around the US/Trump. While I understand that this is clearly at the forefront of the news, sometimes I felt we were learning these fallacies/heuristics all in the context of Trump/modern Republicans.
This class has give me the valuable opportunity to reflect on how I make decisions and interact with the world; I came in with prior knowledge of some subjects we covered, but have broadened and deepened my resources for making choices and forming beliefs.
I think I have gained many useful skills to use in my overall thinking. Since the beginning of the class, I have started to analyze things differently, always being aware of certain biases that I might have or that people might use in their arguments. I was mostly intrigued by confirmation bias because I have noticed that I tend to look mainly at articles that further confirm my own point of view, so I have been trying to change that.
I think the class was a little different than I had expected – I thought it would be something more connected to philosophy in terms of critically analyze philosophical texts. I am glad it was such a surprise and we read more current articles and used new CT skills to debate current themes.
I would consider this class to be very informative, both about skills for critical thinking and current events, specifically those which are highly debated. Because of this class, I have learned to not accept every piece of information at face value,even if the information adheres to my prior beliefs, which allows me to stay informed in an objective manner. I also have learned to recognize my heuristics and biases because of this class, which helps me to consider a wider range of opinions. I feel more confident that I can come to a conclusion through my own critical thinking and research rather than being told what side is right or wrong, a skill that I can apply to my other classes and everyday ventures. Before this class, I was not a very political person, and I typically accepted most information presented to me as truth; however, now I care more deeply about the spreading of truth concerning issues I care about. When I first signed up for this class, I had no idea what to expect, but I have been pleasantly surprised about how much I have been able to take away.
OverallI am happy with this class and what I learned. I think I came into this class thinking pretty critically, but this class reinforced the idea that many biases are subconscious and without being actively aware, everyone is prone to them.This class has also made me more critical of news and media in general, which is a good thing. This class differed from what I expected in the sense that almost all class time was devoted to discussion, which I love. I think that is a very good way to frame the class as it keeps students interested and allows for sharing of ideas from different reference frames and backgrounds. If this class were more lecture based I think it would not have been very successful.
Q2: Does any part of your learning experience have specifically to do with how this class is designed and taught? Think of the classroom practices, homework, and projects for example.
As I mentioned above, the student-led discussions were a major factor on my learning experience.However, factors such as the digital media projects and the anecdotal-based assignments/exercises were also incredibly useful. It allowed me to reflect upon my past experiences. I was able to identify situations in which I could have acted more appropriately. It led me to adapt my past behavior to make better judgments.
As I mentioned in the previous question, it largely has to do with how this class is designed and taught. The size of the class was also key to obtain a sort of cohesiveness among the cohort fundamental to complement one another’s learning experience.
I think my learning experience was defined mainly by our class discussions because I was able to hear all of my classmates opinions on the material and on the issues which we were talking about which was invaluable to my own experience. ProfessorLu-Adler enabled these discussions by not talking AT us, but rather opening up the conversation so that we could learn from each other.
In having a fairly unstructured class, I feel that students, including myself, were able to come to conclusions on our own. In addition, in having a topic such as critical thinking where there is no clear right or wrong answers, the class naturally induced more thought rather than memorization.
Although I occasionally resented the fact that we had an assignment due every class, I think it definitely aided my learning process both because it forced me to actually do all the readings, and because it forced my classmates to do the readings which meant that we could have good,fruitful discussions in class. I think asking us in some homework assignments to reflect on times when we’d noticed biases, etc. in our own lives was also helpful. Finally, I think assignments in which we were instructed to expand our critical thinking ecosystem by talking to our peers, etc. or where we had to do our own research on topics was helpful to building a life-long learning skill/attitude. One of my favorite parts of the class was debating the validity, probability, etc. of arguments with my classmates during discussions; these things seem like cold facts, but then you realize that even“logic” can have different approaches and reasoning processes applied to it.
The class has a lot of discussion opportunities, and a lot of my learning flourished from these sessions; they gave me the opportunity to voice my opinion on these topics and also learn from how my classmates perceived things differently. Some of the readings were inexplicably long and I don’t think it was necessary to assign some of them, especially since there were already too many topics we took on.
The structure of the class played a large role in my learning experience. In most of my classes, the main focus of the learning experience is on lectures during the class period. These are often supplemented with readings and assignments done outside of class. In contrast, the initial learning in this class took place outside of class while completing readings and assignments that introduced me to new concepts related to the skills I was learning. The class periods then allowed reflection upon what was learned and the opportunity to better understand it by hearing from classmates about how they interpreted the readings and applied their skills to complete the assignment. In this way, the class structure greatly helped my learning experience, though I feel that this structure is not universally applicable as some classes require longer in-class lectures to ensure students understand all concepts.
I found that the class discussions really solidified the learnings. Also, when I think back at my time atGeorgetown, I often don’t remember all the details that I learned in class but do remember how I felt and how I was able to grow during that time. This class is a prime example of one in which I will certainly remember several specific discussions that came up in class. I’m also happy that the learning will be institutionalized forever on the website and that I can share these insights with friends and family.
I like having many small assignments. This allowed me to engage with material right away and made class discussion more meaningful.
I liked the digital project recording and analysis the most, because it let me observe how our discussed biases and strategies can be used in real life. I found the two digital projects the most helpful.
At times I thought the multimedia element in the course was helpful. It helped with the recording. It helped to see how we engage with graphs. But sometimes I thought it was a distraction.
One aspect of the course design that affected my learning experience was the way in which homework related to class discussion. This course “flipped” the typical structure in the sense that homework would be done before class and then discussed during class,rather than learning concepts in class and doing the homework after. I felt that this design decision greatly benefited the learning experience, since I was able to do the busy work of learning the concepts and home, and then devote class time to more stimulating discussion. I think that this structure was crucial for fostering the class discussion and exchange of ideas that occurred.
Certainly. While the in-class discussions were always the center of the class, the readings/assignments were what drove our discussions. The class was very well designed in that it truly did provide interesting material so that in class discussions were very fruitful.
I found it particularly valuable for readings to be mostly individual work and the bulk of the class to be discussion; open-ended projects were also especially engaging.
I liked the way the class was inverted so that we would use the in-class time to discuss what we had read. I believe this system gave me a deeper understanding of the concepts because I have a really hard time concentrating in classes, so when the professor just explains terms and writes a lot in the chalkboard, I get distracted and don’t learn as much. However, I would suggest that the homework was either shorter or only once a week because I feel like it became a burden to have to get one done by each class. I don’t say that because I don’t think they were important but because I think some of the assignments could have been combined into one. For instance,we discussed a lot about fake news and misinformation, so perhaps we could do one larger and more substantial project about it, rather than many smaller and simpler assignments.
The readings assigned have a plethora of vital information that I have learned a lot from, but I think the most fulfilling aspect of this course was the discussions in class. Hearing what other students and the professor take away from the reading, as well as how the reading’s concepts apply to current events and everyday life, have provided me with new perspectives that I may not have thought of myself. I think having low-risk responses for the readings has been beneficial, since they urge us to process the information; however, I think the responses could sometimes be shorter so that the workload is not as overwhelming.
Like I said above I think the classroom practices are very good for this class. Having full class discussion leads to a well rounded and multi-faceted approach to criticality. I think the homework was also very useful and the projects were manageable and interesting. In many classes the homework is spaced far apart or it is not necessary for the class, so I end up not keeping up with the readings, which is not a good practice. In this class however, the homework was due every class and the readings were very manageable so I did all of them and learned a lot. I think this is a good style of assignments. I actually want to be a professor one day and I think I will implement a similar style of homework in my class: just 1 or 2 questions due everyday that take 30 minutes – 1 hour in total to complete. This seems like a good method.