Hello there, welcome to my blog....
Expect to be thrilled, bored, amused.... nah just expect me to let you know what it is like to be studying for a degree with the Open University..... and trying to live a life along with it....
I am studying for a BA (honours) English Language and Literature.
The courses I am doing this year are: a sixty point, level one course called AA100/The Arts Past And Present and another sixty point, level two course called A215/Creative Writing.
Let me explain how degrees work, you do courses at three levels, one-which is the easiest, two- which is more difficult and three- which is the hardest level to do.
You must do courses with a total value of 360 points to earn a degree with at least 120 points at level 2 and at least 120 at level 3, most people choose to do 120 at level 1.
Now Open University suggest you only do one course per academic year.... I am a glutton for punishment and am doing two.... as well as rearing a child on my own, and volunteering, and looking after a rescue dog/rescue cat/two kittens.... oh and possibly moving along with all the joy that brings.
So.... let me, let you discover an excerpt from an Open University article about critical thinking.....
The stairway to critical thinking
The stages and skills involved in critical thinking can be seen as an eight-step stairway to high grades. As your thinking skills develop in depth and complexity, your other study skills will also improve.
- Process - Take in the information (i.e. in what you have read, heard, seen or done).
- Understand - Comprehend the key points, assumptions, arguments and evidence presented.
- Analyse - Examine how these key components fit together and relate to each other.
- Compare - Explore the similarities, differences between the ideas you are reading about.
- Synthesise - Bring together different sources of information to serve an argument or idea you are constructing. Make logical connections between the different sources that help you shape and support your ideas.
- Evaluate - Assess the worth of an idea in terms of its relevance to your needs, the evidence on which it is based and how it relates to other pertinent ideas.
- Apply - Transfer the understanding you have gained from your critical evaluation and use in response to questions, assignments and projects.
- Justify - Use critical thinking to develop arguments, draw conclusions, make inferences and identify implications.
