Suha's Post for Week 10 (Emailed to Me Due to VPN Barrier) | W10 Q1 | Forum

Course: Critical thinking
Grade: 10th grade
Age: 15 yo

Critical thinking is a necessary skill that most fields across the world require of their employees in current times. However, while it may be a skill that different teachers try to hone in their students through the study of varied disciplines, there is a need for focused attention to be given to just teaching critical thinking. And this can be done with the use of Facebook as the platform where the 10th graders can observe different sides to an argument, and use their critical thinking abilities to form their own opinion. While social media may legally be for children above 13 years of age, they start their engagement with it at a much younger age (Weeden et al., 2013). Therefore given that they are already spending a considerable amount of time on social media platforms, these platforms may as well be incorporated into school curriculum as well. This will make the learning content more accessible, relevant and relatable to the students, and their engagement with the platform won’t be related to only entertainment purposes.
Even though legal, children at 15 are still vulnerable to the negative effects of social media, and to ensure that the platforms do not add to the negative experiences of the kids, the teachers play an essential role in guiding these interactions. Their own savviness with the platforms are important, to ensure that the platform is being used for the task at hadn’t as correctly as possible (Weedan et al., 2013). The teacher’s experience and ease with the platform also ensures their full understanding of the student’s experiences, thereby helping their own self-efficacy beliefs about their own teaching (Blonder & Rap, 2015).