Abstract

This paper examines how critical thinking is perceived and transmitted in higher education (HE) classrooms using two Vietnamese undergraduate programmes as case studies. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with teachers, supervisors and institutional leaders from both programmes reveals transmission of critical thinking is impacted upon by power relations from not only outside, in the form of cultural and political ideologies, but also within the pedagogic discourse itself. Guided by Bernstein’s concepts of the pedagogic device, classification and framing, the discussion centres on how organisational and pedagogic decisions on critical thinking prepare Vietnamese students to think, or not, ‘the unthinkable’. While teachers cannot unilaterally alter official curriculum texts to make critical thinking accessible to all students, it is the former’s engagement, or not, in the re-organisation of curricular texts, and the use of particular pedagogic practices that can bring about change.

摘要

本文使用两个越南本科课程作为案例研究，探讨了在高等教育 (HE) 课堂中如何感知和传播批判性思维。与教师，监事和机构的领导人从两个方案的半结构式访谈进行的分析表明批判性思维的传输是通过不仅来自外界的权力关系的影响时，在文化和政治意识形态的形式，也是内教学话语本身。在伯恩斯坦的教学方法、分类和框架概念的指导下，讨论的中心是关于批判性思维的组织和教学决策如何让越南学生准备好思考“不可想象的”。虽然教师不能单方面改变官方课程文本以使所有学生都可以使用批判性思维，但教师是否参与或不参与重新组织课程文本，以及使用特定的教学实践可以带来变化。