SGI Educator’s Conference 2015
HUMANISTIC EDUCATION
Soka Values
 Makiguichi: To make students happy
 Ikeda: To foster humane and life-affirming
values, on peace and on encouraging
students to lead contributive lives.
Historic Values
 In North America
 Education started by religious groups and taken over by
state
 Emphasis on abstract thinking and rote learning i.e. Learn
and regurgitate
 Gentlemen’s education was non practical
 Latin, classics, travel, languages
 Practical skills considered evidence of lower class
status.
 Higher Ed still divided
 Abstract, theoretical: University > Desirable
 Practical: College > Necessary
 Efforts recently to combine - polytechnical school
Highest Value Today
 Critical Thinking
 Life skill for all situations?
 Recent study:
 Students need to utilize concrete applications st
1
before attempting critical thinking.
 Critical thinking skills in one area do not transfer to
another knowledge area
 E.g. Politics, nursing, law, medicine, advertizing etc.
Compassion for Students
 Critical thinking is great but can be force fed
at expense of student’s growth like other
ideologies.
 Stage 1 – Students manipulate concrete
objects or processes & learn the lingo
 Step 2 – Students discuss what worked and
values involved
 Step 3 – Student draws own conclusions
based on experiences.
Vocabulary from Experience
 Professor Hirsch, states that students learn
abstract knowledge comes from exploration
of “real subject matter”
 Concrete exploration leads to conceptual
realizations. We cannot put the cart before
the horse.
Teachers Like Abstracts
 Teachers background - information class
 Find thinking troubles of concrete thinkers perplexing
 We were read to.
 Reading builds abstract skills of:
 Imagination
 Making inferences
We want to
 Speculation as to outcome
invite them into
 Projection as to motivation
our pool but
 Seeing the whole picture
they are scared.
 Concrete thinkers did not
get this
Concrete Thinkers
 ” ...experience the world as a series of
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separate, discrete objects and events, and
Learn by the experience of working with
objects, or by seeing or hearing concrete
examples.
Once they learn how something is done,
that’s the only “right” way to do it.
Ruth Miller 2011.
We help them see patterns in the dots.
Cultural Background
 83% International Students 8% in 2014 are in Ontario. About 16%
of all Int. students are in Ontario
 This does not count ESL citizens and/or first generation Canadian
residents
 Statistics Canada
 Education in many cultures differs from Canada
 E.g. Indian Education focuses on rote learning.
 http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Rote-Learning-Biggest-Hurdleto-Education-Prof/2014/08/04/article2363619.ece
 African education is based on respecting the word of others
versus questioning it.
 Critical Thinking – Considered disrespectful?
 www.emeka.at/african_cultural_vaules.pdf
 China – rote learning issues in education

http://business.time.com/2013/06/27/china-just-as-desperate-for-education-reform-as-theu-s/
Critical Thinking Fallacies
 Critical thinking is not an independent skill, usable across
disciplines.
 “..no evidence that practice of this sort enhances abstract
thinking in a generalizable way. ... This failure of transfer is
connected with the theme of “domain specificity” ..:
 a person can be a reasonably flexible and abstract thinker in one
area (e.g., sports) and remain a concrete thinker in another area
(e.g., literature). Therefore, attempts to facilitate increasingly
abstract thinking should be made within all relevant academic
areas (

e.g., math, literature, science, social studies), without expecting that
improvements in one area will yield improvements in another area.”
 From Tutorial: Concrete vs. Abstract Thinking by Mark Ylvisaker,
PHd Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the
College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, Learn.net
Start Concretely
 Hirsch says the build up of knowledge should
be “sensible, cumulative” to build student
confidence.
 Vocabulary Declines, With Unspeakable Results E.D. Hirsch Jr.
Challenges for Concrete
Thinkers
 Multi-step sequential thinking
 Predicting logical outcomes
 Creative imagination – requires synthesizing
 Problem solving – many unknown steps
 Instructions for students to “fill in the blanks”
 Research, analysis of articles & information
 Fear of being wrong
 Professor Anthony Gregorc, professor of curriculum and
instruction at the University of Connecticut
Strengths of Concrete
Thinkers
 Programmed instruction, workbooks, lab
manuals, field trips, and applications (Gregoric,
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2014)
Hands on projects
Repetition
Direct, practical knowledge
Activity based learning
Order and quiet
Step by step directions and Guided Practice
Finding accepted method
Approval for specific work done
Need Predictability in:
The Course Design
The Major Assignment
The Rubric
The In-Class Assignments
Predictability in Course Design
 One pivotal character to identify with
 ..\..\1. Introduction to Journey of Ernie.pptx
 Grasp impact of events on a feeling level.
Care about character
 Supports acquisitions of abstract concepts.
 Back to index
Predictability of Assignment
 Terms and commands explicitly defined and
made numeric
 E.g.
 Compare 6 positive & three negative qualities
in each site/article/proposal with the same in
another site/article/proposal.
Return to Index
Mandatory Structure
 Require mandatory section heads
 Under those titles give questions that require
answers.
 Return to Index
Operationalize Abstract
terms:
 Examples Analyze: Find connections
 Compare and contrast? – Define these.
 Define : Tell the meaning and the qualities of..
 Describe: Observe and select important details
 Evaluate: Use facts to argue whether something
is good, bad, best etc.
 Propose: Identify a problem and argue for a
solution Return to Index
Rubric Potholes 1
 Rubric - construction manual for assignment.
 Define qualitative evaluation in
 quantitative terms when possible.
 E.g. Did a good job of evaluating.
 Try : Identified and compared three positive
factors and three negative factors in each article.
 Instructive for concrete student and reduces
appeals based on differing interpretations
 Clarity not “What I meant was...”
Give Them Imagination
 The Scenario Generator.
 Give Handout
In Class Assignments
 Give them a standard sequence of behaviours
they must follow, track and evaluate.
 With a standard format, other group
members can give valuable feedback even if
the instructor cannot be there.
 Procedural Feedback Sheet
End
References 1
 Cai Cai X Subway-Poem-Checklist-and-Rubric, http://w/
ww.docstoc.com/docs/100711096
 Ennis, RH, 1993, Critical thinking assessment‟, Theory into Practice,
vol.32, no. 3 , pp. 179 - 186.
 Ennis, RH,1989, “Critical thinking and subject specificity:
clarification and needed re search‟, Educational Researcher, vol.18,
no. 3, pp. 4 - 20.

Graves, Roger, Clear instructions, great expectations retrieved from
http://www.ualberta.ca/~graves1/assignments.pdf on June 1, 2014
 Gregorc A, from Thomas G. Reio Jr. and Albert K. Wiswell (2006). "An
Examination of the Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the
Gregorc Style Delineator". Educational and Psychological
Measurement 66 (3): 489.

Retrieved from http://www.newindianexpress.com, cities/chennai, RoteLearning-Biggest-Hurdle-to-Education-Prof/2014/08/04/article2363619.ece,
References 2
 Nicholson T, & Dymock, S, (2010) Teaching Reading Vocabulary

NZCER Press, Aukland, NZ
 Romano, A, “Best Practice Based Model of Context - Specific Critical
Thinking in Management”, World Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 2.
No.1. January 2012. Pp.1 - 11 A
 Sugrue B, PhD, CPT, http://www.performancexpress.org/
0212/mainframe0212.html#title3
 Ylvisaker Mark Hibbard, Mary. and Feeney, Timothy, . What Are
Concrete and Abstract Thinking? Retrieved from Learn.net on May
15, 2014 at
http://www.projectlearnet.org/tutorials/concrete_vs_abstract_thinki
ng.html
 Wang, J Basic Idea, Retrieved May 2014