Essay Example on Critical Thinking: Building Resistance in the Classroom

Critical thinking is a student-centered approach that is used to encourage students to learn. The approach is more appropriate than using the instructions approach. The only relationship between a teacher and a student has been when confronting resistance. To build critical thinking, teachers should examine their resistance and that of their students. They then include a continuous dialogue on-resistance for the instructors to implement active education in the classroom.

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Earners' critical thinking can also be improved by reframing the situation that encourages learners to create more valuable opinions. For example, learners can be encouraged to accept frustrations as essential for their growth and not a sign of insufficiency, hence encouraging critical thinking (Alexander and Luborsky 328). It can be achieved by creating useful questions such as “is there any advantage of this situation that I have not considered?” “Is there any other way to view the situation?” “What other thought might other students have about the situation?”

When dealing with students to enhance critical thinking, negotiating on smaller changes in a particular behavior may provoke too much of the anxiety among the students. In this case, the teacher and the student can work together to adjust the assignment if the learning steps are too steep. It is also vital to examine possible teacher contributions to the resistance (Alexander and Luborsky 344). Teachers may block the capacity for the learner to invoke critical thinking. If they find out a pattern of resistance, they tend to check out the learner's attitudes and approach instead of invoking their thinking that may affect the learner. For example, they may ask questions such as, "I am breaking the assignment strategies' rules. Is my input to the classroom assignment enough?

Teachers should also examine if they are the possible cause of the resistance among the students. Teachers have a problem of checking more attitudes and approaches whenever they notice a pattern of resistance (Birchler 130). They should be considerate when they are demanding too much from the student. They should set limits when the students cannot meet the reasonable expectation.

Resistant management should be divided into two phases. The first phase is to address resistance before it occurs and addressing it after it had occurred (Birchler 132). The process is meant for heuristic purposes that shows that responding and anticipating to students behaviors should involve integration pattern.

Psychotherapist suggests that for a client to change their behavior, there should be a therapy that would emphasize on building a therapist-patient relationship (Bentle et al. 234). There should also have developed a helping alliance between the client and the therapist. At this point, the client will experience the therapist as warm, very helpful, and at the same time, supportive. There should have a shared responsibility between the client and the therapist to attain the goals of treatment and the ability for the patient to achieve help.

The teacher and the student can maintain a good relationship by continuing a collaborative setting to solve problems. If trying to overcome resistance exceeds budgets, the educator and the learner may decide to work together as a joint to solve a problem (Bentle et al. 238). They can do this by evaluating and testing dysfunctional thoughts. It can be done by encouraging the student to investigate to get the truth by asking such questions as is that a good basis? Is there any evidence for the thoughts? Setting limits without having to communicate hostility would also help enhance critical thinking amongst the students.

Conclusion

Critical thinking should be seen as a student-centered approach that should encourage all learners to learn effectively. Teachers should build a relationship that would encourage critical thinking by encouraging learners to produce more useful thoughts.

Works Cited

Alexander, L.B. and L. Luborsky. 1986. The Penn helping alliances sacles. In The Psychotherapeutic process: A research hand-book., 3rd ed,. Eds. S.L. Garfield and A, E Bergin, 325-66. New York: Willey.

Bentle, L. E., P. P. P. Machado, and S.A. Neufeldt1994. Therapist variables. In handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change, 4th eds. A. E. Bergin and S.L Garfield, 229-69. New York: John Willey.

Birchler, G, R,1988. Handling resistance to change. In handbook of behavior family therapy, ed. I. R. H. Falloon, 128-55, New York: Guilford Press.