Author: Madi (Page 3 of 3)

1. Academic 

My short term academic goal is about how I’ve been thinking about possibly adding a minor into my study. I’ve been talking a lot about this with upperclassmen and hearing from professors that most people highly recommend it. This got me thinking. In my professional career I want to focus on marketing, and I think adding a business administration minor to my communications major will be really helpful in this field. I’m finding it hard to link this goal to any text we have read in the past. Business is not part of the liberal arts, so that is where it’s becoming difficult for me. It doesn’t directly talk about it in the handbook but it floats around the idea of being well-rounded. I want to be able to have multiple opportunities for jobs when I’m in that position and I feel like studying communications and pairing that with a minor in business will do that for me. I could even link this to Dweck’s Growth vs Fixed mindset. “… because once we know that abilities are capable of such growth, it becomes a basic human right for children, all children, to live in places that create growth, to live in places filled with yet.” Recently I’ve had a fixed mindset about adding a minor into my studies because I’ve been saying “I can’t, I will fail accounting.” This is now how I should be looking at it. From now on I want to take Dweck’s mindset into account and tell myself that I’m not good at it YET, but I will be.

2. Personal 

A short term personal goal is to learn how to accept change and roll with it, and not let it affect me as much as it does now.  It’s hard to link this to any of our readings but I drew a relationship between this and a section of the text in the “Critical Thinking: Human Response to Problems and Challenges” on page 3. I know this has to do more with classes and thinking critically in that atmosphere, but I think it can still relate on a personal level “Centering on the thinking process, as well as the on the issues, students research and identify causes of problems, generate and evaluate possible solutions, and decide upon a plan of action.” This can be used in a sense of working out a problem, in my case it’s about learning to grow with change and not resent it. I can use critical thinking here to identify the cause of my problem, coming up with solutions, and deciding on a plan of action on how I will start to fix this problem. 

I finished what I didn’t get done from last time I worked on this. I didn’t get to draw the relationships to the texts because I ran over the time limit with this, and I end up drawing the relationships in the two paragraph assignment anyway.

This is only how far I got on this assignment. The ones that I wrote down are the ones that came to mind the quickest. The long-term goals were harder because I’m still just trying to figure out right now. The field hockey (extracurricular) ones were easy enough because those are goals that I’ve had for a long time, since I knew I was playing in college. Personally, the personal goals are the hardest to think of. I didn’t get anywhere.

I didn’t get to the making connections part of this, but that is something I will add in. I at least wanted to get some goals written down to build off of.

I uploaded four examples of my annotations from last nights homework. The first one relates text to text, the second relates text to self, the third is asking a question, and the last one of more of a challenge.

Madi Robito

LIL 120 – Scheuer : Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts 

Pre reading:

After reading the title “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts,” I have come to a few ideas on what I believe that liberal arts is. Liberal arts prepares people for not just their career, but also applying these skills to life outside of it. Liberal arts is so diverse and the core classes are so important and can be beneficial in any field with communicating, creativity, and critical thinking. The title “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts,” tells me this article is going to focus on how the two connect and how important critical thinking is in the liberal arts. 

Section 1 “What are the Liberal Arts?”

This paragraph breaks down the two words Liberal Arts and goes deeper into the meaning of the two words individually. Scheuer goes into depth about how the liberal arts don’t focus on a set vocational education, scientific education, or a specialist education – quoting “It is rather an education based fairly and squarely on the nature of knowledge itself.” I particularly like the way this quote is worded using the words fairly and squarely and how in liberal arts we don’t give knowledge “a box to be contained in,” in how I see it.  Philosophy is huge in the liberal arts dealing with human beings, society, and nature. Wrapping up the summary with the statement that is it so hard to pinpoint a clear definition of the liberal arts no matter which way you define it – it’s flexible and diverse and meant to open students’ minds to this flexibility and openness rather than just implementing facts and information into the brain. 

Section 2 “Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts?”

Traditionally the liberal arts have been dictated to deal with two key elements: critical thinking and citizenship. Just like the topic of the liberal arts being diverse and ever changing – the same goes for citizenship and the ecology of it. How do you connect and get involved with your community? Ie: voting, public/jury service, volunteering etc. Then there is economic citizenship dealing “doing something useful for oneself and for others. Being an active member of your community ie: on the farm, office, home etc. The last type of citizenship focuses on the cultural aspect which includes going to sporting events, church etc. “A liberal education is not about developing professional or entrepreneurial skills, although it may well promote them. Nor is it for everyone; we need pilots, farmers, and hairdressers as well as managers, artists, doctors, and engineers. But we all need to be well-informed, critical citizens. And the liberal arts prepare students for citizenship in all three senses—civic, economic, and cultural.” I like this quote because I feel it summarizes the overall point of this paragraph and helped me better understand the topic. It circles back to the relationship between the liberal arts and citizenship. 

Section 3 “What is Critical Thinking?”

Yet again, as previously stated about critical thinking and liberal arts – it isn’t easy to describe or define. It’s a complex skill that doesn’t have a set list of rules to it, think of it more as a “set of navigation skills” as Scheuer describes it in the text. Especially in the liberal arts, critical thinking allows the individual to become a lifelong learner and engaged citizen. With this skill of critical thinking any career path is possible because of the adaptability and compatibility. Some examples of critical thinking would be making a good and strong argument, thinking outside the box, drawing analogies, engaging with complexity and so many more to name. I feel it’s hard to be able to summarize a paragraph like this in such a short manner because there is so much to unpack and understand. I like this quote from the text “These are precisely the skills that a liberal education cultivates. It heightens our abilities to speak, listen, write, and think, making us better learners, communicators, team members, and citizens.” This describes what the skill of critical thinking will do for you in your career and overall in your life. I believe that this skill is one of the most important ones you will learn in college because it’s something you will carry with you through everything in life. 

Section 4 “The Importance of Critical Inquiry”

This section generally just sums up why critical inquiry is important – in more ways and in more areas of study than one. It talks about the philosophy behind it all and why this skill cannot be given a set of rules because of its open endedness. I like where Schueler says “They are not substitutes for, or shortcuts to, knowledge or understanding. But they form a general roadmap indicating what students can expect to find, and the useful navigational skills they may acquire, if they venture onto the rich intellectual terrain of the liberal arts.” I’ve talked about the general roadmap phrase before and I think it’s a great way to generally speak on critical thinking. I made a note (annotation)  of one sentence that confused me  in the start of this section- “Critical inquiry, like philosophy, begins but doesn’t end with careful attention to language.” What exactly is meant by this? 

Connections: Core Handbook and Scheuer 

There are a lot more connections than I thought there would be after reading this and comparing it to the core handbook. The one I want to focus on is the connection regarding critical thinking and citizenship. This is such a big focus in Scheuer’s article and it also happens to be the last two themes outlined in the core handbook. In junior year you focus on critical thinking and you have to take a class in it. Although, I think we do critical thinking in every class, and there shouldn’t be just one class focusing on it. Senior year is geared towards citizenship – which is talked about a ton in Scheuer’s article. Here are two related quotes: “This theme directs the student’s attention both outward with a civic contribution and inward with reflection on their connection and commitment to the larger community.” – Core Handbook. And now from Scheuer’s article: “The overall goal is to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations marked by fairness, inclusion, and (where critical thinking comes in) intellectual rigor” – Scheuer. 

Madi Robito

LIL 120

Core Handbook Questions

Write 4-5 sentences drawing a connection/relationship between something specific in the Core Handbook and your Fall classes, between the goals/values expressed and your own goals. 

The core handbook had touched upon each of the four themes for the core curriculum. The first one being environmental awareness – I’m currently in Env 104 which would fall under this category. This category examines the relationship between humans and their environment- which reminded me of an activity I did in Env 104 this morning. We had to make a decision whether to redraw boundaries and build on conservation land that holds endangered flowers, or to make the effort to save the flowers and not develop. This really made me think about how I’m living in an ecosystem with other creatures and wildlife that I need to think of. Today was only the second time I had this class and I already have a very changed opinion and perspective on it. After the first class I was feeling that I would be bored and uninterested in this class but after today I realized that this is a very important class to take. I have a changed view and a new mindset going into the rest of the semester with this class. It’s important to learn about your surroundings and that we all live in an environment/world that is sacred and deserving of our respect. 

Identify at least 2 questions about the Core

• I’m currently in Lifespan this semester and I took it as an exploration course. In section VII it talks about the Social Science Exploration Classes, and PSY is a prefix for one of them, which is what my Lifespan class is. So my question is this would count as my social science exploration course correct?  
• This may be a dumb question, and I think it was answered in the handbook, but, does each college have a different handbook? For example, my roommate who is in nursing, would she have to take an Environmental Issues class? 

Madi Robito

Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset – Carol Dweck’s Ted Talk

1. There are very key differences between the two terms, growth mindset and fixed mindset. A growth mindset is having the ability to push through challenges and take them as they come with no fear of failure. Taking criticism and overcoming obstacles that may be in one’s way with a positive mindset. People with a growth mindset have the desire to learn new things and with this mindset they build on their skills and knowledge. Carol Dweck on describing the children with a growth mindset : “…the ability that ideas can be developed. They engage deeply. Their brain is on fire with yet. They engage deeply. They process the error. They learn from it and they correct it.” People that have more of a fixed mindset see things and process things a little differently. They take failure and don’t overcome it, they subject themselves to it. Giving up is a part of their nature and they don’t understand that failure is a part of growth. They never grow their abilities because they aren’t allowing themselves the room or opportunity to grow. People with a fixed mindset want to make themselves look smarter or better and may even feel threatened by the people around them with growth mindsets. Carol Dweck speaks on this about fixed mindset children: “From their more fixed mindset perspective, their intelligence had been up for judgement, and they failed. Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped in the tyranny of now.” 
2. Carol Dweck offers ways on how to stimulate a growth mindset, they are as follows:
   1. “First of all, we can praise wisely, not praising intelligence or talent. That has failed. Don’t do that anymore. But praising the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, their improvement. This process of praise creates kids who are hardy and resilient.” 
      1. Responding to this I can agree with this statement and I love this point of view. I relate to this in the area of school and even in sports. Being praised for talent is not good, I would rather be praised for how I am improving or how hard I’m focusing on getting better. That is how to create a better player on and off the field. 
   2. The second way Dweck mentions: “We recently teamed up with game scientists from the University of Washington to create a new online math game that rewarded yet. In this game, students were rewarded for effort, strategy, and progress. The usual math game rewards you for getting answers right, right now, but this game rewarded the process. And we got more effort, more strategies, more engagement over longer periods of time, and more perseverance when they hit really, really hard problems. 
      1. Responding to this, I love this idea. I have always been a person who struggles with math and I would get assignments where I needed to get questions right to move forward. The amount of times I would get so frustrated and want to give up was countless. I love this idea of rewarding the effort. I would have given more effort and more of my time into something like this because I wouldn’t have gotten as discouraged, and the positiveness would have allowed me to keep pushing forward. 
   3. I like both of these ways of bridging the gap and I believe that this is a great way to shift children or anyone from having a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. 
3.  Dweck’s mindset on intelligence is different from how I see it, or at least, how I used to see it. She see’s intelligence as something that you can adopt, like a skill or a mindset. Dweck offers the thought at the time 8:16 that “Before, effort and difficulty made them feel dumb, made them feel like giving up, but now, effort and difficulty, that’s when their nuerons are making new connections, stronger connections. That’s when they’re getting smarter.”  So she sees intelligence as something that you can completely change and learn – something that you can adopt. I used to see intelligence as something that you were more born with. You had different skills and maybe you were smarter than the kids in  your class – a different level. Though, that doesn’t mean I didn’t believe these skills can be enhanced with effort. This is how Dweck see’s it. The growth mindset, that skills and intelligence can be improved with effort and the level of difficulty. 
4. I have definitely had many times in my life where I have had a fixed mindset about something. I recently took biochem in my senior year of high school. This kind of science is not my strong suit and I set myself up for failure by telling myself “I can’t do this.” I worked myself up so much over the first test that I didn’t allow my brain to retain the information and learn it. I blocked my brain off from growth and learning new information, I didn’t do well on the test and this really discouraged me. Looking back I wish I could have allowed myself to push through this static mindset and opened myself up to the challenge, facing it head on so I would’ve done better. My scenario relates to a study mentioned by Dweck in 1:51, “…In one study they told us that they would probably cheat the next time instead of studying more if they failed a test. In another study, after a failure, they looked for someone who did worse than they did so they could feel really good about themselves.” This is how I felt after failing my test, and I did indeed feel better when my best friend did worse. This isn’t right and I fixed this mindset through the school year and I studied hard. I ended up passing the class with a 92 average and I’m proud of myself for switching my mindset.