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Facilitating Teachers Understanding and Teaching of Critical-Thinking As a Way to Develop Students Political Literacy

Thesis Info

Author

Ovais, Rakshanda

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Program

MEd

Institute

Aga Khan University

Institute Type

Private

City

Karachi

Province

Sindh

Country

Pakistan

Thesis Completing Year

2007

Thesis Completion Status

Completed

Subject

Education

Language

English

Added

2021-02-17 19:49:13

Modified

2024-03-24 20:25:49

ARI ID

1676727934911

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The 21st century is regarded as the age of technology, as it has taken over every field of life including education. One of the challenges of technology is the overflow of information, which requires students to use their critical-thinking skill to select and use relevant information for meaningful purpose. Critical-thinking is one of the important aspects of teaching Social Studies, as it helps in building students' confidence and enables them to apply their critical thinking skill in the real world as politically literate citizens. It not only gives sense of ownership to the learner but also develops in him/her a sense of being a contributing member of the society. Teaching critical-thinking to children is crucial, as it prepares them for taking up an effective role in society as critical and thoughtful citizens. However, while educationists consider critical thinking as the main goal of Social Studies, the teachers remain focused on providing knowledge and information to the students. This practice is the result of teachers' belief system of their role as being transmittors of knowledge and also due to their lack of understanding about the importance of critical thinking and how it is developed. Therefore, this small-scale study investigated whether and how a teacher educator could facilitate a social studies teacher in his/her understanding and teaching of critical thinking as a way to develop political literacy. This Action Research report provides evidences of the current practices through classroom observations and semi- structured interviews. In addition, the researcher and participants both maintained reflective journals, which provided evidences of their thought processes over the period of study. A critical account of the findings revealed that it is possible for a teacher educator to facilitate the teaching of critical thinking. This Action Research study reports some possible strategies for facilitating teachers in gaining an understanding about the notion of critical thinking. The findings of the research depict that the belief system of the teachers takes time to change. Furthermore, the report shows that it is possible to question and challenge the teachers' traditional teaching practices by implementing the relevant strategies that encourage critical thinking in students.
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ہک بیت وچ چار ماہ

(ہک بیت وچ چار ماہ دا ذکر)

چڑھے چیتر اداسیاں آگیاں
وسوں گئی، وساکھ مرجھا گئیاں
جیٹھ جند مصیبتاں کھا گئیاں
ہاڑ، ہاڑے گھت کرلا گئیاں

ساون ساہ دا یار وساہ کی اے
بھادوں بھاہ لگی، کیہڑی، واہ کی اے

اسو آس دا پھل تباہ کی اے
کتیں کئی لٹے، عشق پھاہ کی اے

مگھر مار کے مینوں لتاڑیا ای
پوہ پاس کلیجہ ساڑیا ای
ماگھ ماہی دا ورقہ پاڑیا ای
پھگن پھاہی حنیف نوں چاہڑیا ای

مصحف ابن مسعود کی تاریخی حیثیت کے بارے میں ابن وراق کی آراء کا تنقیدی جائزہ

This article deals with the polemics of Ibn Warraq about the history of the text of Qur’an with reference the codex of Abdullah bin Mas’ud. Ibn Warraq considers the codex of Ibn Mas’ud as milestone in the history of Qur’anic text. Ibn Warraq is of the view that its order of Sura is different from Mushaf Uthmani and a lot of variant reading have been attributed to him so the history of Qur’anic text and the text itself should be rearranged in the light of codex of Ibn Masud. In this paper these views being examined in the light of authentic sources.

Growth and Physiological Responses of Rice to Pb and Amendments in Normal and Salt-Affected Soils

Contamination of soils by heavy metals is of widespread occurrence as a result of human activities. Among heavy metals, lead (Pb) is a potential pollutant that accumulates in soils, water, crops and atmosphere. Lead is not required for any known biological function but it is absorbed by crop plants and gets way into human food chain. There are few examples of genetic differences being exploited to produce low Pb containing rice through decreased metal uptake in Pb-contaminated areas. In normal and salt-affected soils, a very few efforts had been previously done to explore the growth and physiological responses of rice to Pb and inorganic amendments including calcium (Ca), sulphur (S) or phosphorous (P) based compounds. For these reasons, a research project with a series of experiments was carried out at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan and at Ghent University, Belgium. The first study was carried out to evaluate the variations among fourteen rice genotypes for Pb tolerance, accumulation and translocation in hydroponics, at different applied Pb salts i.e., PbCl2, PbSO4 and Pb(NO3)2 with their increasing application rates (0, 100 and 200 μM). The results showed that the Pb bioavailability/phyto-toxicity to rice was greater when Pb was applied as Pb(NO3)2 followed by PbCl2 and PbSO4. It was evident that Shaheen basmati and KS-282 rice varieties can be a wise choice in low to moderately Pbcontaminated areas for safe rice production. The second study was undertaken to investigate the effect of foliar applied Pb at 25 mg L-1 as PbCl2 and Pb(NO3)2 along with an uncontaminated control, for Pb tolerance, accumulation and translocation of rice genotypes. The results showed that the rice varieties had significant variations for Pb tolerance, absorption and translocation. Shaheen basmati and KS-282 rice varieties were proved to be Pb-tolerant. The foliar application of Pb(NO3)2 had more devastating effect than PbCl2. Salinity and heavy metals (e.g., Pb) can occur simultaneously in soil and water. Therefore, the differential growth and physiological responses of two rice varieties (Shaheen basmati and KS-282) were evaluated in normal and salt-affected Pb-contaminated soils in a pot study. The results showed that growth, yield and physiological indices of rice decreased with increasing rates of Pb (0, 50, 100 and 150 mg kg-1 soil) in both rice varieties in normal and salt-affected soils. The Pb concentration, uptake and translocation in rice increased with a gradual increase in soil applied Pb. At a certain defined rate of Pb (0, 50, 100 or 150 mg kgxxiii 1 soil), the concentration, uptake and translocation of Pb in rice straw and paddy was found significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in salt-affected soil than normal soil. The higher growth, yield, physiological features, lower Pb concentration, uptake and translocation were found in Shaheen basmati than KS-282, at all rates of applied Pb, in both types of soils. Chemical immobilization of Pb with soil-applied inorganic amendments seems very important for Pb-contaminated soils. A pot study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of inorganic amendments at different rates of application for the immobilization/remediation of Pb in normal and salt-affected soils. There were three amendments with different rates viz. gypsum (3, 6 and 9 me Ca 100g-1 soil), rock phosphate i.e., RP (3, 6 and 9 me Ca/P 100g-1 soil) and di-ammonium phosphate i.e., DAP (20 and 40 % higher P than the recommended P as DAP fertilizer). Shaheen basmati was grown in spiked soil with Pb at 100 mg kg-1. The results showed that the reduction in rice growth, yield and physiological attributes were more pronounced in salt-affected Pb-contaminated soil than normal Pb-contaminated soil. The decrease in rice growth, yield and physiological features were counteracted by the applied gypsum, RP and DAP amendments. Gypsum application at 9 me Ca 100g-1 soil was proved the most efficient in improving rice growth and yield, and reducing Pb concentration, accumulation and translocation in the normal and salt-affected Pb-contaminated soils. Total heavy metal contents provide little information on the bioavailability of the heavy metals. Understanding the mobility of Pb in the soil and its chemical speciation in the soil solution is of great importance for accurately assessing environmental risks posed by Pb. Therefore, an incubation study was conducted to explore the effect of amendments (gypsum, RP and DAP) under different soil moisture regimes i.e., flooding regime (FR) and 75 % field capacity (FC) and incubation time on Pb mobility and chemical speciation in normal and saltaffected Pb-contaminated paddy soils. The results showed that after 110 days of incubation, the concentration of Pb in pore water was more in soils at 75 % FC than FR. Gypsum remained more effective in reducing Pb bioavailability followed by DAP and RP. After 2 and 30 days of applied treatments, Pb species were estimated by using geochemical modeling software Visual MINTEQ version 3.0. Among these species, free Pb2+ was found more in Pb-contaminated soils, while PbCl+ was pronounced in salt-affected soils. Whereas, gypsum increased Pb(SO4)2 2-, while DAP and RP enhanced the PbH2PO4 + species formation and decreased free Pb2+ in pore water, thereby reduced the availability of Pb.