Using the idea of cooking for critical pedagogy is brilliant. Everybody needs to eat, and we can practice our cooking skills every now and then. This helps us master the skills quickly, and we can practice lots of innovative cooking ways/ingredients. In higher education, we also need to put things we learn into practice and try to deal with real issues. Depositing knowledge into students’ brain without linking them to their life experience will not equip them what they need to excel in their later career and best tap their potential. Just like the example in the post, we need to teach engineering student how to use these daily-life tools/equipment, like a screw driver, and their connection with the existing knowledge in the textbooks.

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Critical pedagogy and innovative thinking can help students learn more beyond the class and textbooks. This semester I’m taking one class consisted of lots of reading, discussion on open-ended questions, interviews, and weekly blog reflections. I have learned quite a lot from the class but spend quite a lot of time every week. As a graduate student with heavy research workload, I can only sacrifice my sleep time. So from my personal experience, as more time and energy are invested into critical thinking from both students and teachers, critical pedagogy can be promoted not only from teacher and student perspective in a classroom, but also from the credit/research requirements for graduation and program/degree expectations. This can help students balance their time and energy, and have more flexibility to practice critical thinking.

Practicing critical pedagogy in higher education is definitely quite important, and just like the post mentioned, we should not be afraid to ask questions to promote “critical thinking” in the classroom. As a kid, we are so curious about the world around us and try so hard to get deep down to unveil the principles. When we gradually grow up, we have more experience and tend to learn new things based on what we previously know to enhance learning efficiency. But these empirical knowledge/experience may become the largest obstacle for critical thinking. I know it is quite difficult to practice this in our daily life, but we can definitely try this in a 50-min class. Student can be an open and clean book entering the classroom and enter a “kid” mode. Once the class is over, each of us can even compare what you learn from the class with your past experience once stepping out of the classroom.

Brandon – I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think it is the instructor’s responsibility to assist students in seeing their own potential and unique skill sets. My part of the jigsaw puzzle was about Paulo Freire’s teachings, which is very much related to the description you picked out from my group’s blog post. Freire preached education as a pathway for social change, which obviously cannot take place if mind “banking” is occurring. The instructor would need to empower the students themselves in order for them to go on to make societal changes on their own. His teachings also incorporated the idea of “critical consciousness” which relates to your statement as well. Critical consciousness is what I would call a personal “recognition” in itself.

Liked the idea of sharing your guys’ experience of adopting it in your field!! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks Debjitg for posting this!!

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It’s great to see how critical pedagogy utilized in different fields, I like how each one of you guys explained and shared how they adapt it!!

I thought the two videos included in this post were great illustrations. The one with Ellen was funny, yet so very sad. The context in which problems are posed and solutions are derived need more dissecting. I admit that I have thought about where solutions come from, but not as much for the problem itself. It’s something that may have been mentioned in my engineering education, but unfortunately not emphasized enough. So I definitely learned something from this post.

I left a comment earlier but for some reason it didn’t show up. So hopefully this one isn’t a repeat, and I apologize if it is. I responded to the section on transportation engineering: the U.S. interstate system was built on the premise of transportation efficiency that often blatantly marginalized the poor. Unfortunately, engineers can’t/don’t always make decisions in favor of social justice simply because infrastructure projects are mired in politics and lobbying. These same engineers also have to uphold professional ethics that require them to safeguard client interest as well as public well being. Navigating through the many potential conflicts of interest is extremely complex. The question is, are students ready for real-world complexities? Can higher education serve them in tandem with the valuable experiences gained on the job? I think it’s important for students to develop a mindset that can accommodate the many uncertainties and factors/people to contend with in real-world problem solving. It’s also important to get used to not having an answer handed to them, or to the fact that sometimes there isn’t a single, right answer or an answer at all.

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Armani’s story was indeed very interesting. I also love the gif used at the end of the post. I think we need to place more emphasis on open ended problem solving in engineering education, where students spend more time finding a “good” solution rather than “the” solution. The problem solving process captures critical pedagogy because it involves obtaining and evaluating different alternatives/perspectives, cooperating among various parties, and considering broader impacts on society. I think a lot of students feel uncomfortable dealing with the uncertainties in open ended problem solving, but it is a reality that engineers must deal with by exercising their judgment and finding ways to better understand the problem.