Critical Thinking Reflections

Reflection: emotional self-management

For me, the emotions that are most difficult to manage when others disagree with me are: 

Frustration, because I feel as though I am not able to show other people my point of view and make them understand what I am trying to say and defend. It is easy to get frustrated when a person does not agree with you since you start feeling it is pointless trying to make other people see a circumstance or a situation the same way you do, or make them take into account the reasons you have gotten in mind for taking a certain side in an issue.

Impatient. This happens usually when you are trying to convince the other person that they might be wrong and even though you have good arguments to demonstrate it, that person does not understand what you are trying to show them. Additionally, most of the time they think that they are right and you are the one who is wrong and try to convince you about it without taking into account all the evidence that says the opposite. 

Irritated and stressed because it feels as though my arguments are not strong enough to reach the others to see what I mean. This also happens when others start attacking my arguments with weak reasons and keep on doing it until they get away with it.

I deal with this by:

For dealing with frustration, impatience, irritation, and stress; I try to make my point clear at the moment I expose it in order for the others to have a clearer idea of it. I also try to analyze and understand others' perspectives, evaluate how meaningful or strong they are and how they can contribute to the way I see the situation or issue. Additionally, I try to take a deep breath and show others in the calmest possible way why they might be wrong. But if I am not able to do so, I just end the discussion.

Reflection: influences on my thinking

For me, the influences on my own thinking that I need to be most aware of so they do not prejudice my thinking are:

The most powerful influence that affects my thinking is the one that comes from other people. I think that most of the time, I take opinions and comments seriously and I tend to focus on what other people think since I am an indecisive person. For instance, when someone tells you what would be good for you to do and gives you reasons to convince you, in the end, you just do what that person told you or at least you think that is what you have to do. 

I will deal with this by:

I think I have to develop my quality of independence, try to analyze and decide for myself, stick to my beliefs and try to be more critical. All this is necessary for exercising my free will and my rights, for gaining control over my thinking and my decisions.

Reflection: challenging opinions

For me, the things I find most difficult about challenging the opinions of other people are:

I think that one of the most difficult aspects of challenging the opinion of others has to do with their reactions. It is not a secret that the majority of the people do not like others throwing contrastive opinions about what they stand for. Then, what was started as a discussion ends up being an argument. Another aspect has to do with being prepared enough for starting a debate which sooner or later becomes a competition where the one with the best arguments wins.

I deal with this by: 

Trying to expose my perspective in a respectful way so that the other person does not feel as though I am attacking them. Besides, I try to use strong arguments that be able to support my point and make the others reconsider it. Finally, I also try to express my point of view when I do have good arguments and enough knowledge about the topic.

Reflection

Do you recognize anything of yourself in Bodner's description of students? 

Yes, because I think that it is important to go beyond you are expected to do. Then, when I do not understand a topic or certain aspects of a subject I try to ask others or look into it and complement my understanding. Furthermore, as I am a second language learner I think that most of the work must be done by the learner, then, I try to practice the development of my skills every day by doing some activities related to the four main skills.

What effect would the approach he suggests have on your learning and understanding?

I think that it would be great to apply Bodner's approach because it would helps us to develop our learning process in a critical way, as it stands for focusing primarily on being critical and looking for answers to questions that allow us, students, to be rigorous analytics and to be led by the knowledge from our experiences rather than for what is already established on books, which most of the time is ambiguous and hard to understand.

Reflection

Consider what you could do to manage these barriers in the next few months.

I think it is way hard to overcome those barriers since nowadays we, students, are kind of lazy and especially we, Colombian students, tend to carry out our duties in the last minutes. But, I think we could encourage ourselves to be more critical, to ask for reasons as children do mostly, and to participate in the development and experimentation of our own skills rather than just sit and learn theories that we are going to forget some months later. Additionally, it is way important to identify and be aware of the real relevant aspects and pay attention to them.