Topic 2 Critical thinking

• The world is seen as a socially constructed text that can be read. Everything is considered as material to be read and interpreted. The term “text” goes beyond the traditional term and can be an image, a poster, a song, a video, a Facebook post, etc.
• The students are researchers of language, images, spaces, and objects, exploring what counts as language, whose language counts, and who decides. They explore ways texts can be revised, rewritten, or reconstructed to shift or reframe the message(s) conveyed.
• In critical literacy, there is an understanding that texts are never neutral and that all texts are created from a particular perspective to convey specific messages that position readers in certain ways and make them think about and believe certain things in specific ways. There is a need to examine the perspective of others, doubt, question, and understand what message they are trying to convey.
• The sooner the learners are introduced to such practices, the sooner they will be able to become critically literate and evaluate whether the information is true or there are hidden messages behind it.
• Apart from that, students have more possibilities for contributing to a more just and social world by being better able to make informed decisions regarding such issues as power and control, practice democratic citizenship, and develop an ability to think and act ethically.
• For instance, critically reading a bottle of water as a text to be read could result in examining the practice of drinking bottled water and changing that practise in support of creating a more sustainable world.

Due to the increasing technology use, texts have become multimodal, and literacy moves from meaning the ability to read and write to the ability to interpret all the texts that surround our society due to widespread use of media, social and others. “Media Literacy Education” (National Association for Media Literacy Education – NAMLE, 2010):

• Requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create.
• Expands the concept of literacy, which was mainly focused on reading and writing, to include all forms of media (audio, video, poster, images, etc.).
• Builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice.
• Develops informed, reflective, and engaged participants essential for a democratic society.
• Recognises that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialisation.
• Affirms that people use their skills, beliefs, and experiences to construct their meanings from media messages.

• Students from a very young age often know a lot about online media technologies, but they may not necessarily have developed media and critical literacy skills to help them navigate, assess, and understand the representation of the messages they encounter. 
• Some important points for teachers working on developing critical-thinking skills in their classes are: 

a)All media messages are ‘constructed’: Learners can examine how the media differ from reality, evaluate what is shown compared with real-life experiences, or assess the background of the producer/production of media messages.

b)Media messages are created using a creative language with its own rules: Learners can examine advertising/production techniques and see how language is used to convey a specific message.

b)Most media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power: Learners can examine the purpose of advertising or marketing strategies and teachers can encourage scepticism towards advertising.

• “a type of thinking pattern that requires people to be reflective, and pay attention to decision-making which guides their beliefs and actions. Critical thinking allows people to deduct with more logic, to process sophisticated information and look at various sides of an issue so they can produce more solid conclusions.“
• “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” (Glaser, 1941).