While critical
thinking skills are important in any setting, they are especially important
in the field of Black Studies.
"Critical thinking
and information literacy skills need to be consciously merged.
They must become part of the assessment criteria for American
students"
-
Christina Doyle
Information
Literacy in an Information Society
|
Bias, especially
cultural bias is evident in almost all fields of research. Therefore,
Black Studies students must learn to evaluate information for a variety
of criteria including: subtleties of language, external and internal motivations,
and social or historical context. They must learn the differences between
correlation and fact, Stereotypes and Attributes and the manipulation
of statistical data to fit into schema.
For example,
merely reading the Constitution of the United States word for word does
not provide the same context as being able to read the constitution in
its transformation over time.
"While
critical thinking skills provide the theoretical basis for the
process, information literacy provides the skills for practical,
real world application."
-
Christina Doyle
Information
Literacy in an Information Society
|
Information
literacy is merely a tool for critical thinking. Being information literate
allows students to look at an issue and realize there is additional information
to find, evaluate and apply before coming up with conclusions. Information
literacy skills provide students with all the puzzle pieces needed to
solve a problem or issue.
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