ABSTRACT

The study explores how critical thinking can be practised and taught in the training of social work students. It investigates the nature and possible developments of critical thinking in an educational environment, asking which learning practices can be described as ‘critical thinking’ since this is not well defined or understood in an academic context or, particularly, in social work education. The approach, based on Legitimation Code Theory, allowed the creation of pedagogic interventions suitable for teaching skills and practices which clearly demonstrate what constitute examples of critical thinking. Students’ reflective writing showed a capability for recontextualising, generalising and assessing the meanings connected to the incident through weakening semantic gravity. High-achieving students produced ‘semantic waves’ by comparing different interpretations of knowledge, based on incident analysis, and successfully transforming these into a new form of individually ‘invented’ knowledge. Additionally, the study proved that mastering ‘semantic gravity’, the ability to manage knowledge which is to be decontextualised, transferred and recontextualised, may improve critical thinking skills. The analysis demonstrates how movements in semantic gravity in students’ writing assignments provide conditions for cumulative knowledge building that could be used in the future implementation of ‘semantic gravity’ in social work curricula.

摘要

该研究探讨了如何在社会工作学生的培训中练习和教授批判性思维。它调查了教育环境中批判性思维的性质和可能的发展，询问哪些学习实践可以被描述为“批判性思维”，因为这在学术环境中或者特别是在社会工作教育中没有得到很好的定义或理解。该方法基于合法化代码理论，允许创建适合教学技能和实践的教学干预，清楚地展示什么构成批判性思维的例子。学生的反思性写作表现出通过削弱语义重力来重新情境化、概括和评估与事件相关的意义的能力。成绩优异的学生根据事件分析比较不同的知识解释，并成功地将这些解释转化为个人“发明”知识的新形式，从而产生了“语义波”。此外，该研究证明，掌握“语义引力”，即管理将被去语境化、转移和重新语境化的知识的能力，可以提高批判性思维能力。该分析展示了学生写作作业中语义引力的运动如何为累积知识构建提供条件，这些知识可用于未来在社会工作课程中实施“语义引力”。研究证明，掌握“语义引力”，即管理将被去语境化、转移和重新语境化的知识的能力，可以提高批判性思维能力。该分析展示了学生写作作业中语义引力的运动如何为累积知识构建提供条件，这些知识可用于未来在社会工作课程中实施“语义引力”。研究证明，掌握“语义引力”，即管理将被去语境化、转移和重新语境化的知识的能力，可以提高批判性思维能力。该分析展示了学生写作作业中语义引力的运动如何为累积知识构建提供条件，这些知识可用于未来在社会工作课程中实施“语义引力”。