Critical Thinking & Global Language | 21st century Skills Training and Project Based Learning

     Hello everybody! How have you been? I have been busy with work during summer that's why I couldn't write anything here for a few months. Nowadays, I have an online course named '21st Century Skills Training and Project-Based Learning' carried out by Melda YILMAZ and Assist. Prof. Dilek INAL. It is a training program that aims to cultivate prospective teachers on 21st century skills. It is critical to have skills such as critical thinking, media literacy, information literacy in the globalizing world. Thanks to this program, we are going to focus on different skills each week on the first module, for the second module, we will work in groups and eventually, we will create a website. I am super excited about the process. I think I have a lot to learn. Don't worry I will be sharing all my experiences with you.

        Before we had our first session, we had CCTDI (California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory) to measure our critical thinking skills and disposition levels. To be honest, I had difficulty in replying to those questions since they required concentration and time and it was my first time answering those kinds of analytic questions. We also filled in some surveys and had our readings before the session, we answered the reflection questions which include pre-reading and post-reading questions. Having reflection questions eased my readings, helped me compare my answers with the authors' and broadened my view on the topics. In the first session, we deeply discussed critical thinking and English as a global language. We defined critical thinking and features of critical thinkers by working in groups of four. Exploring the features by discussing it in groups was really enjoyable. I was the spokesperson so I needed to be very careful listening to my friends. After listening to all the groups, we concluded that strong critical thinkers are problem solvers, they form an opinion and question what is said, they are assertive; on the other hand, weak ones are not willing to reconsider what is said and do judgments, they can't form an opinion. We also talked about why teachers need critical thinking skills: to transfer these skills such as questioning, interpreting, analyzing and showing evidence to their students. Previously, I wasn't able to even define what is critical thinking, I was just familiar with the term, so this part of the session was sort of enlightenment to me.

    We later discussed English as a global language, why we need a global language, and whether English will last as the global language forever. We explained what makes a global language is the power of its speakers. We focused on the power of the English language, how it had been driven as the global language. The English language was at the right time, at the right place as David Crystal cited. In addition to military and economic power, cultural power plays a big role in expanding a language, and English will be the global language unless a revolution happens in the world. Crystal also talks about accents and dialects. He says it's a part of identification: language is identity. His speech was delightful.  If you're interested, you can CLICK HERE to watch Crystal's speech on English as a global language.

    We went deeper and we raised questions such as 'Is there a Standard English? Should we teach it? Who is the owner of the English language?', which is the part I enjoyed the most. Then we agreed that we should teach Standard English with certain grammar rules and pronunciation, yet we should be tolerant of other Englishes. There is a misconception as inner-circle countries own the language, however, the owner of the language is whoever speaks it. I am the owner of this language, and you, who is reading this post, are the owner of this language.

    As can be concluded, it has been a great session for me. Sharing our opinions and having discussions are great joy to me. Having a group work to identify critical thinker features was a great experience. We shared the roles and worked collaboratively to present our ideas. I completely changed my mind about online lessons at the end of this session. Having interactive lessons is possible if the teacher gives space to their students to share their opinions and motivate them. 

    I'll be sharing more posts about the training program. Keep up with me for more. Stay safe! 

Zey.