Teaching Critical Awareness

Jane Mayer begins the article by bringing out the important part in teaching sociology which is ensuring that the students have understood the various types of social structures and their relationship with each other and to individuals. In order to achieve the above objective, integration of various processes and learning experiences is important. They involve an integration of both passive and active models of collective and active learning.

The use of various teaching devices such as films, lecture and student seminars enhance critical understanding because they give students more opportunities to be actively involved in the subject matter (Jane, pp.

253). According to Jane, (pp. 253), when using critical teaching, one is supposed to look for a way through which the problem of apathy and self-involvement in students can be overcome. This is: stimulation of a critical understanding of the social structures. In the choice of tutorial framework to be used in the course: it should include academic sociology, commonsense and journalism.

Children should be encouraged to analyze day-to-day occurrences from different perspectives.

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She explains that although lecturing is important in teaching, it does not trigger critical thinking because it puts more emphasis on memorizing. Video is an affective mode of teaching when combined with audio devices. They help open sensory avenues which promote learning. Self-learning also provides an opportunity for analytical skills to develop while reading and writing. Collective learning like student seminars provides a collective way of learning.

This provides the students with skills necessary to deal with contemporary social issues (Jane, pp.

253). Because of the various elements in the different types of teachings, they are supposed to be combined together for one to achieve maximum results. Self-learning, passive, active and collective learning have a part to play and therefore should be integrated.

Works cited

Jane, Mayer. Teaching critical awareness in an introductory course. Teaching sociology, vol. 14, No. 4(Oct. 1986), pp. 249-256.