Kate Tempest, subjectivity and truth and the need for more rap on this blog

As part of my critical thinking lecture I like to have a debate with you on what counts as truth or fact.
One of the reasons this is fun is because it's never the same twice. I can never tell which bit is going to rile people and which bit is going to go unchallenged. This week it was about whether countries (specifically Spain!) exist in any 'factual' sense. The idea that countries change borders, languages and populations to me suggests that countries are as transient as individual lives. Borders are often arbitrarily drawn up by third parties, as in the case of India and Pakistan. 

Anyway. In other news, I've been listening to the Kate Tempest LP a lot these past weeks (she should have won the Mercury prize this year...) and it's currently my 5th favourite LP of the year. These things matter. 



There's a track on it called The Truth which features these lines: 

"Whose truth even counts?


Is it the person who doubts


What a person proclaims they're about?

Whose version is perfect?


Is there a truth that exists


Outside of perception?


This is the question".

I love that. Clearly, I need to include more lyrics to illustrate my points. 

Expect a Coldplay song at some point in the future to illustrate how we're all doomed...

One final thing; it's also a bit sweary at one point so don't play if you're likely to be offended.

Alan

Critical Thinking

Tomorrow I'll be seeing some of you for a lecture on critical thinking.
So in addition to the oh-so-lucky ones who are attending, I thought I'd give a general explanation as to what critical thinking is.

Put simply, it's about questioning everything and not assuming facts are unchanging. Because they're not.
Facts are transient, like opinions, countries, people and theories. So that's what tomorrow will partly be about. It'll also touch on how you can pick apart theories and research too. This is a tremendous skill to have in readiness for your dissertation, because the option to be more refined in your selection of materials is key in final year.

We have loads of books (both electronic and paper) which cover the skills required to be a critical thinker. The e-book I'd recommend as a starting point is this one by Aveyard but there's plenty of others on the shelves.

One more thing.
Any of you who've had sessions with me previously will know that I'm interested in engaging with you. Not just talking at you but having a proper two-way conversation. Tomorrow will be no different. However, there are times to speak and times to stay quiet and listen and I've recently been involved in conversations between students and lecturers on the thorny issue of classroom disruption.

In my lectures and training sessions you get one chance. If you continue to talk over me, use your phone or disrupt others I will ask you to leave. My time with students is too precious to be wasted.

That aside, I'm hoping that the lecture will confuse, bemuse and eventually inform you.

See you tomorrow, second years.

Critical thinking

Hello.
You may have been 'lucky' enough to see me presenting my talk on critical thinking in the last few days.

I think I've finally got the link to work so you can go through the presentation yourself.
Here it is:

Prezi on critical thinking

There's also a fair few books in the library on the subject.
Try the link below for one of the better ones:

A beginner's guide to critical thinking by Aveyard

I'd be happy to discuss any of the issues associated with thinking critically (even the Latin...), so do contact me if you'd like to know more.