Raising the consciousness of training thinking feedback for pedagogical student

31 HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE Educational Sciences, 2020, Volume 64, Issue 4B, pp. 31-36 This paper is available online at RAISING THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF TRAINING THINKING FEEDBACK FOR PEDAGOGICAL STUDENT Nguyen Thi Nga and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong Faculty of Politic Theory and Civic Education, Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. The capacity to thinking critically is one of the most important and necessary competencies for pedagogical students during their learning and researching process. Recently, many pedagogical universities have paid attention to renewing the content, curriculum, and teaching methods to distribute and develop students’ capacity of critical thinking. However, if students do not make efforts and try for self-learning, all the impacts of the learning process are not effective. The article will clarify the role of critical thinking with pedagogical student and suggest some basic solutions to help pedagogical students about self-training, and provide them effective critical thinking skills such as: ways to read books, practice the method of six thinking hats, using the mind map and question type of 5W 1H Keywords: critical thinking, pedagogical student, self-training. 1. Introduction Critical thinking and critical thinking capacity play an increasingly important role in human cognitive and practical activities. Critical thinking is one of the most important tools to help people to recognize, evaluate and improve a better and more civilized world. With creative thinking and problem solving, critical thinking is considered crucial in the knowledge economy. Therefore, schools around the world pay great attention to developing critical thinking for students to create students' ability of self-assessing thoughts, thinking, reasoning and handing situations, and forming autonomous citizens. In the comprehensive renovation of education in general, higher education particularly, Vietnam is also aiming at forming and developing leaners higher-order thinking ability, forming the core competencies and qualities of global citizens. However, it still faces many difficulties due to the influence of a culture that promotes community, individuality and transmission system of teaching and learning imposed. Critical thinking in Vietnamese education in general, higher education in particular is still very weak, not yet disseminated and considered [1]. One of the important causes is that teachers – core factor who play an important role in the teaching process, do not have necessary and solid knowledge foundation of critical thinking as well as a capacity of developing critical thinking in the educational environment. That placed a heavy burden on pedagogical universities – a place to train and educate teachers [2]. Due to the peculiarities of future careers, pedagogical students require cultivate and master in skills of the ability to reflect measures such as receiving information, processing information, discovering new problems as well as making decision fast and accurate decisions to solve problems in the best way. The development of critical thinking capacity helps pedagogical Received April 11, 2020. Revised April 24, 2020. Accepted May 15, 2020. Contact: Nguyen Thi Nga, e-mail address: ngalamha1213@gmail.com Nguyen Thi Nga and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong 32 students to have a multi-dimensional view to recognize and assess issues based on persuasive arguments, helping them to be confident, bravery and prepared ready the necessary skills to perform the career of “planting people” in the future. Participate in developing critical thinking capacity for pedagogical students has the coordination of many different subjects in the school. Therein, pedagogical students play the decisive role to effect on developing their own reflective capacity of thinking. So that, promoting the positive and proactive role of pedagogical students in self- training multiples maintenance of critical thinking capacity is essential. This article will show the role of critical thinking in the learning and training process of pedagogical students as well providing solutions to help them train themselves, improving their critical thinking capacity. 2. Content 2.1 Critical thinking and the role of critical thinking for pedagogical students 2.1.1. Critical thinking In the West, the basic idea that supports critical thinking has been written by Greek from about 2300 years ago. People called it the “triple rule argument” which is developed on the basis of the argument. Sokrates focused on finding and developing dialectical thinking and lay the groundwork for rhetoric based on system of dialogue questions. That method of Sokrates is the origin of dialectic is built on the basis of the argument. Aristoteles considered the capacity for rational thinking to be a defining characteristic of nature human, a characteristic that distinguishes people from other animals. Descartes described thinking as a universal tool that can be used in every situation. Thus, from ancient times, western philosophers have mentioned discernment spirit as a way of thinking to approach truth. Similar to in the East, Indian especially Buddhist scriptures also refers to criticism as on the way to enlightenment. In ancient China, the philosopher often criticized either directly or indirectly to persuade other theories, although the criticism is not mentioned as a means of thinking. Thus, you can see, critical thinking since ancient times has been noticed and played an important role in the broadcast process human knowledge development. However, John Dewey – an American philosopher and psychologist – was often called the father of critical thinking, claiming that critical thinking is the factor core to becoming an autonomous learner. Because this is the receiving process self – assessment of thoughts, thoughts or outcomes of another thought process based on arguments, scientific grounds, persuasion. Views on critical thinking have changed and supplemented through stages history. But in general, critical thinking includes the ability to look at problems in different angles, capture different aspects of the problem. It can be figured out false reasoning or unwarranted evidence from which to identify the accuracy of information, which can explain facts based on knowledge, can give some problem solving plans. Critical thinking is understood as the evaluation process, analyze, argue, solve problems or make judgments on a collection basis and evaluate information, various opinions based on standard to provide the best solution. Critical thinking, sometimes, be called directed thinking because it focuses on the issues that are raised [3], [4], [5]. From the above analysis as well as inheriting the idea and views of dialectical materialists, it is understandable that critical thinking is a type of thinking, analyzing, evaluating and finding information with the positive skepticism to give the convincing and logical conclusions. 2.1.2. The role of critical thinking for pedagogical students The development of critical thinking capacity for pedagogical students is extremely necessary and it plays an important role in training and educating young generations to become future teachers to have the capacity to think critically and to contribute to creation valuable education achievements. That role is reflected in the following points: Raising the consciousness of training thinking feedbackfor pedagogical student 33 Firstly, critical thinking helps pedagogical students have the ability to process, analyze, synthesize, evaluate all accumulated knowledge and know how to apply that knowledge to solve problems [1]. To become a teacher in the future, pedagogical students must receive an extremely rich system of knowledge which including general basic knowledge and specific knowledge such as: specialized version, basic knowledge along with the system of pedagogical skills and skills corresponding to the basic and specialized sciences. In the midst of such a vast sea of knowledge, in order to help pedagogical students’ learning and training effectively, it requires students to constantly promote initiative, discipline, and creativity and know how to think and identify a problem in different ways. From there, there is a basis and accurate reasoning for commenting and evaluating the information received. It also helps students master the knowledge and applies them creatively and flexibly in solving practical problems effectively. That also raises the effectiveness of students' self-study and creates a solid foundation of knowledge and skills for future work. Second, critical thinking helps pedagogical students overcome traditional thinking, stereotypes, forming and training thinking in the open direction. From there, students will be able to work independently and think willingly to receive new and advanced things. So, students will constantly learn, explore, discover new things and problems that arise during their learning and researching progress. The method of studying in university is mainly self-studying under the guidance of lecturers [1], [2]. Pedagogical students not only acquire knowledge but also transfer it to their own knowledge to be able to use that knowledge flexibly and creatively in study and work. It requires pedagogical students to formulate and sharpen their critical thinking skills in order to improve their learning, research and service performance after graduation. Third, critical thinking helps students practice the ability to detect, analyze and solve pedagogical situations, conflicts arising in the process of learning and research. Critical thinking often does not recognize absolute truth. It raises scientific doubts and forces students to rely on the rules of logical thinking to make sound judgments. In this way, graduating students, carrying out the work of education and assessing new people are not dominated by the subjective, single- sided view [6]. Fourth, critical thinking helps pedagogical students to think positively, to have a multi- dimensional view, to know how to listen and respect the opinions of others, to consciously respect differences; to know to detect limitations, to overcome prejudice and dogma in receiving, processing and rejecting information in an open and multi-dimensional direction. Learning environment in university is an open-oriented education, which requires students to constantly make efforts, self-study and train. If students have positive thinking, multi-dimensional vision will be ready and proactive in receiving and processing information, stimulating the ability to think and create incessantly. That plays an important role to prepare a stable baggage for pedagogical students who can practice their profession smoothly after graduation. Teaching is a special kind of intellectual labor and requires high creativity. These professional characteristics also require teachers to listen and respect other’s opinions, especially for differences. That helps pedagogical students gradually overcome superficial and extreme thinking that is inclined to one side of right or wrong, good or bad, but develops a diverse, multi-dimensional, positive and positive way of thinking. The agency does not prejudice in receiving, processing and evaluating information. Listening to the opinions of others, respecting differences, eliminating prejudices will create an educational environment of equality, fairness and comprehensiveness. Fifth, critical thinking helps pedagogical students to select necessary, reliable and valuable information as a basis for future careers. In the era of exploding information, with a lot of noise and multidimensional information, the selection of useful, appropriate information, ensuring scientific and practical significance has a great significance in preparing a stable baggage for the future career of pedagogical students. That requires pedagogical students to have skills to access, Nguyen Thi Nga and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong 34 search, and process information scientifically, form an independent working mindset, in an open direction. When receiving or refusing certain information, people must be based on sound judgments. This is extremely necessary and meaningful for pedagogical students, especially in modern education in the direction of innovation. If in the past, only a single textbook was developed uniformly across the country, teachers just taught the content of the textbook and considered it as absolute truth. But according to the 2018 textbook renovating program, education will be implemented in the direction of a program but there may be many textbooks. That requires the teacher to improve the skills to receive, process and refine the necessary, appropriate information, to know how to choose appropriate topics and content for the physiological characteristics of students as well as specific local culture. Therefore, pedagogical students really need critical thinking capacity to prepare a strong professional baggage for their future careers. Sixth, critical thinking helps pedagogical students to be ready to welcome new things, towards new things, progresses, to be aware of the wrongs, the limitations, to absorb the contributions of others if it has a valid basis. The critical thinker will work based on the analysis and fundamental evaluation, objectivity, not embracing the subjective of "I". Therefore, they can readily acknowledge their limitations, correct mistakes, listen and respect the opinions of others. It also makes them easy to get close to others, socialize and receive sympathy from around people [6]. This is also one of the important pedagogical skills to reach, understand and win over students' future students - "soul engineers". 2.2. Methods of self-critical thinking training for pedagogical students 2.2.1. Reading book Books are always a huge treasure of knowledge of humanity. The regular reading will equip and supplement the necessary knowledge not only related to professional knowledge and skills for students but also a lot of other useful and interesting scientific knowledge. This will provide pedagogical students with a broad, diverse and essential background of knowledge with the development of critical thinking capacity as well as for their future career activities. In addition, regular reading also trains pedagogical students the ability to focus high attention, identification skills, appreciation of the style of writing, author's style, scientific thinking method. Through reading, students also practice how to read a document, how to take notes and summarize after reading. These are the essential skills to form critical thinking capacity. In addition to books on science and thinking, students can read books on literature, art, theory and criticism, especially Vietnamese folklore such as jokes, fables deeply philosophical as well as expressing the spirit of criticism through situations contrary to conventional thinking, creating surprises. To read books effectively, students need to pay attention to: First, before reading the content of a book, students need to determine the purpose of reading. Different reading purposes will lead to different ways of exploiting the problem in the same book. That will help students avoid rampant reading but mainly focus on the content they want to learn. Therefore, students will save time and improve the efficiency of reading. Second, read the Table of Contents and the Preamble to basically visualize the content of the book, the author's intention and the logic of the problem presented. It also provokes curiosity, inspires and stimulates students' thinking. Third, students always need to actively think when reading to avoid passivity and easily follow the lead of the author. The positive thinking helps students always visualize the ideas in books associated with real things and phenomena, with comparisons and associations with practical knowledge to detect the nature of problems, expanding your own knowledge. Doing so not only helps students read effectively, but also transforms the knowledge of books into their own. This is a way to strengthen and practice critical thinking, increase the ability to memorize and supplement basic knowledge as the basis for the later review process. Raising the consciousness of training thinking feedbackfor pedagogical student 35 Fourthly, practice reading techniques. This is a very important stage that requires concentration as well as maturation of students. Students should read with their eyes and think, not read by mouth. At the same time, you need to read slowly, while reading and thinking in important places and paragraphs, trying to understand the content of the whole paragraph, the whole sentence. Fifth, note the content read. This is a very important job in the reading process. Taking notes while reading will help students improve their ability to focus, memorize and generalize the basic content of the book. Students should record the book's headings, main points, good quotes, in- depth author analysis, or pages and lines that they feel most desirable. Students should also record their thoughts, assessments and analysis before the author's views and analysis. And the most important thing, students should record the knowledge that they gained when reading books as well as questions and understandings to continue to explore and research. 2.2.2. Practice the method of the six thinking hats The farther of this method is Edward de Bono – the leading expert on creative thinking. Practicing the method six thinking hats (parallel thinking) will help students have multi- dimensional, logical, quickly detect and correctly handle problems arising in study and practice [6]. Six hats with six different colors symbolize different stages in thinking process. White hat focuses on numbers and objective reality. The white hat is about information. When using it, people will concentrate directly into the types of information available, and identify those missing information and additional need. It also addresses an issue that needs to solve and present means (like surveys or questionnaires) to get the necessary information. To search information, students must use questions concentrating on the problem to find an answer or gap in the existing information. When thinking in the direction of the white hat, students need to identify information objectively and transparently before introducing or treating them under an item specific destination. Thus, the white hat is a logical, principled way of thinking and the direction for thinking. Red hat focuses on the emotional side. This mind-set makes condition for students to express their feeling and hunches do not necessarily need to attach any explanation or justification. Currently, it also helps students understand others’ opinions by posing questions under its guidance. Red hat thinking is the kind of thinking by emotions, by hunches. Black hat is an attitude of being cautious, alert and looking at things with a critical eye. Before processing with an idea, students should consider the risk factors, hazards, and obstacles the negative side of grace or its unfulfilled sides. Black hat is also very sensitive in pointing out deficiencies in thought process but not so overdo it in multi-dimensional thinking. The black hat is built on cornerstone of critical thinking. Yellow hat is positive and constructive. It explores ideas that bring value and benefits, and searches arguments to wing