News > Visiting Scholar Shares Model for Fostering Critical Thinking
Visiting Scholar Shares Model for Fostering Critical Thinking Fostering critical thinking is a primary component and priority of education. Recently, a group of history teachers from public and private schools traded their classrooms for a boardroom at The College of The Bahamas and an opportunity to learn new techniques in encouraging critical thinking among students. Visiting scholar, Dr. Joyce Hope-Scott, Associate Professor, American Studies, Wheelock College in Boston was the facilitator for the workshop that resulted from collaboration between Wheelock and The College. Dr. Hope-Scott shared with teachers a model where literature and artifacts are used to promote deeper analysis of historical subjects and issues. "Although we were using history as a primary subject, I hope that it becomes a paradigm for fostering critical thinking in a number of other areas," said Dr. Hope-Scott. "We were focusing on areas of concern for both the United States and The Bahamas and looking at strategies to see how they would be useful in boosting critical thinking." There are approximately 161 public and private schools in The Bahamas with some 70,000 students in total. Successive governments have made education a priority and the current government has dedicated as much as 20 percent of its recurrent budget to this portfolio. But with expressed challenges in the classroom and deficiencies in critical thinking skills, education officials welcomed the collaboration between Wheelock College and The College of The Bahamas aimed at enhancing teaching techniques. International Relations Liaison at The College Valdez K. Russell said The College is guided in its outreach and engagements by the desire to support development. "The engagement of our College of The Bahamas students and educators from the island of New Providence really demonstrates the College's commitment to provide professional development opportunities of importance," he noted. "We continue to present opportunities for national development. Participants were challenged to take full advantage of sharing their knowledge, while also going one step further to promote the aim of the institution, which is to drive national development through research, service and innovation."  Ms. Garraway noted during the courtesy call, "Subjects like social studies, history and civics are important in building the identity that students need in order to give them life skills." The group also discussed the significance of history being analysed as "a series of competing narratives", a characterization of sociologist, historian and author, W.E.B. Dubois. "Over the last 30 years, greater attempts have been made to incorporate our story into the greater narrative," Ms. Garraway added. Dr. Hope-Scott's visit materialised following the recent visit of College of The Bahamas Vice President, Research, Graduate Programmes and International Relations Dr. Linda Davis. Dr. Davis, who is on sabbatical, was a visiting scholar at Wheelock where she held discussions about further collaboration between the two institutions, among other things. A lecturer of Literature and History of The Caribbean, Dr. Hope-Scott is also eager to see a strengthened partnership. "I view this as an initial step for more collaboration, for more joint research, faculty and student exchanges, student progammes and maybe visiting lectureships between the two institutions," she said. "I am very optimistic about the potential for this to turn into a real occasion for serious dialogue." Last May, a group of 18 graduates received Master of Science in Early Childhood Education degrees from Wheelock, a programme facilitated by The College. Students enrolled in the two-year programme attended weekend classes in New Providence, and were required to spend a semester at Wheelock College in Boston.
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