This post by Twinkle Dhawan on letting yourself be in uncomfortable situations with others and with your learning is very thought provoking for me. Her commentary, based on a post from an external blog, talks about the increasing importance of not memorization, but critical thinking when it comes to synthesizing ideas. This is intriguing mainly because of how it affects me, as well as all students in Comm 101.

Terms such as “flipping the classroom” and the “Harkness approach” are fairly new concepts in teaching that are focused on discussion based learning to enhance critical thinking. These teaching, or rather learning, styles involve putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and forcing yourself to expose your ideas and are highlighted throughout Twinkle’s post. I fully agree with Twinkle’s thoughts in support of these methods because of how they have enhanced my own learning. Rather than getting one method of thought taught to a class by one teacher, discussion based learning allows students to learn from each other.

We hear a huge amount of talk about “changing the world” from events like We Day. Yet, how can we expect youth to “change the world” when they are not taught to think critically and engage with others ? Discussion based learning needs to be a focus in the academic setting because of how it enforces critical thinking and enhances students abilities to communicate and collaborate. Not only this, but it brings together people from various backgrounds with different experiences and expects an open minded atmosphere from all for the method to work. If discussion based learning is made a focus in education, the leaders of tomorrow will be able to better communicate and collaborate with people from around the world, all in very different situations.