Teaching critical reasoning is set to transform the learning culture in schools. At the moment, a lot is missing in the school system. And these gaps are negatively impacting learning and education. The school system puts too much emphasis on rote learning. School pupils are expected to memorize whatever they are taught and then reproduce them during examinations as a demonstration of knowledge. Many students are compelled to cram to pass their examinations.
The prevailing model of education does not encourage the active participation of students in the learning process. The school system has turned children into passive recipients and recyclers of information and ideas. In other words, learning mainly is teacher-, not student-centered. Pupils have to commit every piece of information to memory. Many students are unable to question and interrogate whatever they are taught or told. But with the introduction of critical reasoning in schools, this form of education is about to change. It would no longer be a rote-learning business as usual.
A different mode of education and pedagogy informs the subject of critical reasoning. The human mind is not only a storehouse of facts and information. It is a device to process and evaluate knowledge and experiences. The norm in schools makes posing questions the prerogative of teachers. Teachers ask questions mainly to assess students. And students ask questions often at the discretion of teachers. This culture of learning does not provide ample opportunity for students to sufficiently exercise their minds.
The introduction of critical reasoning as a subject would address this need in the school system. Lessons have been designed to make students more curious and to provoke them to probe and inquire. Learning materials have been formulated to help children to question storm, not brainstorm, in schools. So a different way of schooling and learning is presenting itself. Will schools and school managers seize this opportunity and improve the culture of education
Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria
Discover more from The Maravi Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
