By Yi Yuan
I chose the group Pod 10: critical thinking. From the learner’s point of view. I read the PPT of this group. The structure of their content relates to the syllabus. The first one is the resource overview. In the beginning, it contains the definition of critical thinking, which is a kind of ability to think about problems and it’ s a kind of study skill. This part shows me an idea of what I was going to learn at first. The second is the description and rationale of the learning theory on which the resources are based. Constructivism is used in this group. They think constructivism is about learning new things through experience. This has to do with critical thinking. They want students to understand and use critical thinking through experience. From the perspective of the reviewer, I think if some specific examples could be provided, it would be more convenient for learners to understand. For example, when I drew acrylic paintings, my classmates told me that the paint did not need to add water, but my finished works looked stiff. After I learned critical thinking, I felt that what my classmate said might not be correct. After I do some research, I found that adding a little water for a large area painting can better achieve the excessive colour. My classmate’s painting skills are not perfect. And then, the description and reason of the learning design chosen by the group is cooperative learning, because cooperative learning can exchange ideas, which is consistent with the application of critical thinking. The learning environment for this group was college students. This is very clear. For the outcome part: Students can think from multiple perspectives; Students can acquire the ability to think clearly; Students can think efficiently and help others. I think there are three essential questions in front of the three outcomes. This part is in blueprint, maybe you missed it. About the activities, the first activity is face-to-face communication on common topics of interest, the second activity is debate, and the third activity is to teach students skills and take notes. I find that in terms of interactivity, activity two is an interactive activity, it’s a debate. From the perspective of the reviewer, I find that the three activities of this group are not specific enough. My suggestion is to add detailed themes for all three activities. And all three activities should contain specific processes. Refer to this requirement from the outline: “One interactive activity for each learning outcome/topic based on a resource aligned with that topic (blog) Post, video, article, etc.). Please maximize interactive activities. Add related resources. After the first activity, a video resource describing empathy was added into the PPT. But the connection to the content here is not explained. I think we can add some words to explain the relationship between them. Or you can set it up as part of an activity that requires feedback from the learner. Regarding targeting the population, this group presented them targeting English learners and colour blind. I found their PPT fonts easy for colour blind people to see, and it was nice that the English language didn’t use rare words. Only on page 18 of PPT, the colour is a little dark and can be adjusted appropriately. Since the activities of the subject are not very detailed, learners’ self-assessment based on their performance in the activities is not very convincing. If the topic of the activity is more detailed, you can assign tests or tasks according to the activity.
My comments and suggestions：
1. I am very interested in critical thinking learning, which is a very interesting topic.
2. The connection between constructivism and critical thinking can be illustrated by examples, that will help to understand.
3. The three outcomes should be preceded by three essential questions (mentioned in Blueprint), maybe you just missed them.
4. For the three activities, please check this one in the outline: “One interactive activity for each learning outcome/topic based on a resource aligned with that topic (blog post, “Video, article, etc)”. Please try to use interactive activities and add related resources. Please describe them in detail. (Like debate process)
5. For the video link on page 11, it is recommended to add text explanations related to the content of past or after pages. Or you can set it up as a part of an activity that requires feedback from the learner.
6. The text on the right of page 18 have a little bit dark. Maybe you can try a lighter background colour.
7. Due to the topic of activities are not clear, Self-assessment is not convincing. Maybe you can set up quiz or tasks.
