PROMOTING CRITICAL THINKING AT SCHOOLS AND HOME THROUGH MOVIES/FILMS

Prepared By Eva Noviana Budiyanti G 0823450

CHAPTHER I INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background of the Study Teaching children to become effective thinkers is increasingly recognized as an

immediate goal of education over the world (Cotton, 1991). However, teaching children to think strategically is thus a matter of showing them how to search efficiently for solutions and to adjust their operating principles to fit the strategic situation at hand (Green and Gendelman, 2004). In addition, the main purpose of any meaningful educational system should be to enhance the thinking skills of students. Governments, educational planners, parents, employers, and educators should support this priority. Critical thinking is one of the important components of cognitive development. Futhermore, critical thinking aims to make judgments based on evidence (fact) rather than conjecture, it is based on principles of science and scientific method; requires strategies that maximize human potential and compensate for problems caused by human nature (Bryne and Johnstone 1987). Integrating ICT (information and communications technology) in classrooms is enabling teachers to shift their pedagogical approach towards a balance between teachercentered instruction and learner-centered, collaborative problem solving and in critical thinking (Buffington, 2004). However, movies/films are a media that might be useful for educators and parents as an educational tool, which has a potential to improve critical thinking skills among young children. This paper is a review of the existing literature on using technology (movies) as a tool to
build critical thinking skills among young children. Moreover, the technology that is used in this study focused on movies/films, which have a good quality to promote critical thinking skills.

1.2

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to discuss and examine the relevant existing studies that

showed technology as well as movies, which could enhance the critical thinking skills among young children. The following research questions guided this study:

1. How do movies/films influence children critical thinking skills? 2. How do parents and educators enhance critical thinking skills among children through movies/films? 3. What are kinds of movies/films that could build critical thinking on young children? 1.3 Assumptions It is assumed that movies can have a good effect especially for children to enhance their critical thinking skills. It is also assumed that movies could help parents and educators to promote critical thinking skills among young children. In addition, it is assumed that movies are a good tool to show critical thinking outcome among children. 1.4 The Significance of the Study Some studies Astington (1993), Pramling (1990), Siegler (1998), and Chandra (2008) show that young children have ability to think. However, the term of critical thinking is not used to characterize any aspect of the thinking variable studies to date. The field of critical thinking suffers from differences in theoretical developmental perspectives on thinking and critical thinking, resulting in different techniques for assessing critical thinking and varieties of critical thinking programs (Norris, 1985). However, according to Kuhn (1999), systematic and extensive empirical research on the nature of thinking and its development would aid in conceptualizing the critical thinking variable while

also providing a developmental perspective on how best to encourage its growth. This study represents an important contribution to the critical thinking literature in its attempts to integrate existing theoretical ideas regarding the conception of critical thinking on young children. In addition, the study determines whether it is possible to identify precursors of critical thinking in young children through application of appropriate procedures (movies).

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is a review of the existing literature relevant to the topic of using technology as a tool to enhance critical thinking skills. Specifically, this chapter is a review of topics that are including: historical perspective of critical thinking, definitions of critical thinking, history of educational technology, and motion picture/films in education. 2.1 Historical Perspective of Critical Thinking Socrates was probably the earliest proponent of thinking skills usage. He saw himself as a person who prodded people into thinking (Ozmon and Craver, 2003). Gary, in his work arguing for leisure as a valuable way of learning, describes Socrates philosophical tradition as, embodied in the modern research universitys quest for new knowledge. Fortunately, Socrates pupil Plato later illustrated Socrates question and answer, or dialectical approach. Socrates did lead his following to examine themselves and their cultural habits. These occurrences happened in the years of 469-399 B.C., almost 2500 years ago (Ozmon and Craver, 2003). Plato started as an intern of Socrates and always remained loyal to Socratic beliefs. Platos works, The Republic and Law, dealt with varied topics. In Platos writings, he engages in the dialectical approach to problems. Platos school, The Academy, was opened after Socrates death (Ozmon and Craver, 2003). In the school, students and teachers used the dialectical approach to problems, wherein both sides of issues were questioned and addressed. Professors in the Academy engaged in logical argumentation with students. Pupils were taught to examine both sides of the issue when using the dialectic approach. The dialectical approach to thinking was viewed and used for centuries in higher learning circles (Ozmon and Craver, 2003).

Different philosophical teachings in history emphasized consciously directed activities, but teaching styles were dialectical in nature until the 17th and 18th centuries when memorization, repetition, and rote learning were emphasized. During the middle centuries, only the well-to do or elite was educated. In most nations, classes were common and the upper class received instruction (Ozmon and Craver, 2003). In America, in the early 1800s, religious classes were held so that students could read the Bible (Ozmon and Craver, 2003)). Land grant colleges like LSU started opening in the 1860s 13 (Higgins, 2003). These land grant colleges prepared students for the agricultural areas and some professions, such as business merchants. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were stressed in the curriculum and students were not encouraged to think with higher-order thinking skills. Most learning basically was rote memorization. Critical thinking skills were not noted in this historic period. The nineteenth century brought about some change by educators Horace Mann and John Stuart Mill who encouraged and stressed intellectual activity. These educators urged critical thinking skills by reminiscing about children not understanding when they memorized (Ozmon and Craver, 2003).

2.2

Definitions Critical Thinking Critical thinking is defined in many ways. The renowned educationist John Dewey

(1859-1952) refers to critical thinking as .reflective thinking and proposes that it be one of the aims of education. One of the most frequently referred to definitions of critical thinking is one used by Ennis, who has similar views to Dewey. Ennis defines critical thinking as .reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. (1987, p. 10). In addition, Norris, (1985) critical thinking is about being careful and reflective when making decisions to believe something or do something. A more recent perspective on critical thinking involves the use of intellectual standards. Paul and Elder (2002), for example, define

critical thinking as being the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. The general goal of thinking is to figure out the lay of the land.. We all have choices to make. We need the best information to make the best choices. (p.7). Paul and Elder believe that critical thinkers have a basic ability to take charge, to develop intellectual standards, and to apply them to their own thinking. They suggest there are nine criteria generally used: Clarity, Relevance, Logicalness, Accuracy, Depth, Significance, Precision, Breadth, and Fairness. 2.3 History of Educational Technology The current emphasis on teachers using the movies/films during class time is the most recent manifestation of the promise of technology to benefit the field of education. Common claims include improved student learning, personalized learning, and experiences that were not possible before the introduction of the technology (Cuban, 1986; Kent & McNergney,1999). Larry Cuban (1986) traced the history of technological advancements in schools from 1920-1986, focusing on film, radio, television, and personal computers. In addition, some studies belief that computers and the Internet are the two most recent additions to the list of technologies, which have entered school classrooms with broad claims about their potential. In order to help understand the degree to which certain technologies affected classroom practice, David Dockterman (1988) conducted an historical study of technologies used in schools. He writes, while some technical innovations have become standards of formal education, many are rarely used by teachers. Their value remains questionable. What factors determine which technologies will be welcomed into the classroom and which rejected?.

2.3

Motion Picture/Films in Education Shortly after the introduction of motion pictures in 1895, claims about their

educational uses emerged (Kent & McNergney, 1999). In 1922, Thomas Edison made the following statement: I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks. I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today. The education of the future, as I see it, will be conducted through the medium of the motion picturewhere it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency. (as cited in Cuban, 1986, p. 9)

Research published in the 1920s and 1930s showed results that seemed to prove the usefulness of educational films. Although teachers did use them, their acceptance into daily classroom practice was not widespread. Cuban (1986) explains that teachers were willing to change their daily practices, but that the expectations of school reformers promoting the use of educational films did not match the technology to the ways teachers perceived their own needs in the classroom. In addition to this disconnect about teachers classroom needs, there were numerous technological and temporal issues that limited teachers use of educational films. According to David Dockterman (1988), these limitations included: the difficulty of securing both a projector and a film at the same time, the inability of many teachers to preview films before using them, the time constraints of their class periods being approximately 50 minutes, the difficulty of replaying certain relevant segments, and the possibility of inappropriate student behavior in dark classrooms.

CHAPTER III DISCUSSION The study is begun due to the experience of the writer when has watched a cartoon movie with a nephew and a niece that they are four and five years old. The movie illustrates about a good and a bad child. When the movie finished, surprisingly the niece said suddenly, I want not to be a bad child like him and the brother said like her sister said. During they mentioned their decision to do not to be a bad child, the writer given a few questions to them in order to know, what kind of they were thinking. Unpredictably, they given the answers with the reason, which they believed it, could be approval why they did not like to be a bad child. Thus, from this situation, the writer argues that a good movie with the interesting story could build the critical thinking into the watchers as well as to young children.

3.1

How do movies/films influence children critical thinking skills? A child has a set of mental operation that underlies a wide variety of thinking in later

years. The nature of mental structures changes as they develop becoming abstract, logical, consistent and adaptive (Chandra, 2008). However, the thinking of older children and those younger have similar elements in different ways for more organized thought. The child starts with learning something concrete, real, and practical. According to Piaget, the human development that provides a possible explanation of when and how a child is ready to learn or to develop specific forms of knowledge and understanding. Development is not simply the continuous accumulation of things learned systematically, but involves intellectual revolutions in the structure of intelligence. Below are Piagets stages of cognitive development, which could be referencing for parents and educators to know the needs that children need in their stages.

Table 1: Age approximation and characteristics of Piagets stages of cognitive development Stage Sensori-motor period Age approximation Birth to 2 years Characteristics 1. Motor behaviors are directed toward objects through reaching and sucking 2. A gradual movement from simple reflexes to an organized set the schemes, which also include circular reactions. 3. Learn about relations among objects 4. Behavior becomes more intentional 5. A gradual differentiation of self from the environment. 1. A move from overt physical actions to mental (symbolic) representations that enables the child to represent objects/events those are not at the moment perceptible by evoking them through the agency of symbols or differentiated signs. 2. Includes reconstructing notions about objects, relations, causality, space, and time as these are needed to understand notions of causality and physical reality. 3. An ability to use one object/event for another (that is, semiotic function). 4. Developed through the use of language as a mode for expressing thought. 5. Egocentrism or an incomplete differentiation of the self and the world, results in difficulties to take the role of other persons (or limited social cognition). 6. Rigidity of thought or inability to deal with several aspects an object/event at the same time. 7. Semi-logical reasoning; able to provide explanation of natural events but still in a loose way rather than a logical relationship. 1. Growing interiorization, coordinating, and decentering processes resulting in ageneral form of equilibrium constituted by operational reversibility. 2. Representations are no longer isolated or rigid. 3. Able to conserve and provide logical explanation but still very close to experiences or actions not to hypotheses set out verbally in the form of propositions. 4. The operations are for solving problems, such as in mathematics, class inclusion, temporal-spatial. 1. Able to use a new mode of reasoning; no longer limited to dealing with objects/events directly in realities, but in hypotheses. 2. Able to test hypothesis against reality and

Preoperational 1 2 to 7 years Period

Concrete operational period

7 to 11 years

Formal Operational period

11 to 15 years

generate all possible outcomes or combinations. 3. Able to reflect on ones own thinking. 4. Able to consider abstract ideas, consider different perspectives, and engage in logical and scientific thinking. 5. Operates on a combinative process while corresponds to an inverse and to a reciprocal to form a total new system.

If we look to Piaget structure, in each stage yeild a different way of thinking about, and understanding world. But at each stage there is always a coherent view consisting of coordinated systems about interrelationships among cognitive activities which become more coherent and interrelated as the child develops. Young children normally like something that could interupt their interesting such as images, music, colours and something funny. Also, they would be not like something that lead them difficult to think and understanding. However, movies/films are one of interpreting the real life or the real condition that is happening around the world. By using good characters, image and sound the movies/films might influence the watchers to see it until the end of the movie. With the background of young children interesting, the movies/films could be the one of ways that can be used as a tool for educators and parents to teach them inderectly the condition and rules of life, as well as it could enhance their critical thinking skills. In order to know the result ot their thinking after showed the movies/films, the educators and parents should give the questions regarding to the movies. If they answer show compatible with Piagets stages, it means the movie is a good that it leads them to think with suitable their ages. In addition, when the situation from the movie happened to their real life, they are critical thinking skills might be showed after that.

3.2

How do parents and educators enhance critical thinking skills among children through movies/films? Within developmmental psychologhy, mother-child interections are usually studied to

identify what mothers variables contribute to development of childrens desired outcomes (Clarke-Stewart, 1973; Martin, 1981; wood, 1986, Chandra, 2008). Generally, the findings are in aggrement that maternal behaviours best predicting intellectual, academic, and social competences of children are responsiveness to childrens verbalizations, warmth and stimulation of creative thinking. An interesting finding, regarding the effects of maternal teaching behaviors on childrens intelligence was forwarded by Robets and Barnes (1992). They found that the best predictor of 4-5 year olds scores on standardized measures of intelligence was parenting distancing strategies and scaffolding. Specifically, directive and commanding maternal

utterances were negatively related to childrens performance, whereas mothers use of questions and verbalizations that gave children opportunities to think and speak about the task was positively associated with test scores. Based on the studies, we can identify that parents as well as mothers have a big deal to children development. The first step that could be a way to create creative and critical of the children is the strategy that is used by parents. If the parents use a good strategy that creates the creativity and intelligence, they children will become better thinkers. According to usage the movies/films as a tool to build critical thinking skills among young children, the parents and educator should have a strategy that can help them easily to get what they want from their children. The first step that can be used to enhance the critical thinking skills through the movies/films is selecting movies/films; the movies/films must be suitable for the children. However, most of parents nowadays do not use this strategy. They do not concern to the

movies/films that their children watched. As a consequently, many children become a radical due to they watched something that is not suitable for their ages. The second step is guiding them during watching movies/films. If they do not understand the part from the movies/films, the parents could give explanation to them, and the last strategy is asking questions. The questions believe could attract the critical thinking skills. 3.3 What are kinds of movies/films that could build critical thinking on young

children? Today, many movie industries created the good movies based on the needs of their customers. Although the movies have a good warranty for the children, it does mean that the movies are suitable for own children. The parents and educator should concern with the movies that will use for their children. Unfortunately, many movies were created by western such as Spongebob, Tom and Jerry and Ben 10. However, it should take cautiously for educators and parents from westerns movies due to the differences of the cultures as well as religious. Some of the good movies that suitable for young children are IPIN and UPIN, Unyil, and Nadia and her brother. The writer believes these kinds of the movies could enhance the critical thinking skills for young children. Conclusion The movies/ films are a good tool that can be used for the parents to promote the critical thinking skills among young children. However, the parents and educators could not just give them the movies that they are like. They should select the movies, which are suitable for their children ages. Furthermore, it needs the strategies that can encourage the critical thinking skills among young children. The strategies become successfully depend on the parents and educators.

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