Abstract:

One of expected primary goals of a teacher is to help students develop the desire and ability to self-think otherwise referred to as independent thinking. Independent thinking refers to making sense of situations based on one’s observation, understanding and experience rather than uncritically accepting the opinions of others. Teaching using the independent thinking methods is more likely to cause some discomfort when students are truly challenged to apply their thinking ability. However, it is the discomfort that comes with being an active learner. This paper investigates independent thinking according to the set-up of the Polytechnic of Namibia and assesses the teaching methods used to develop and measure independent thinking. It also assesses the correlation between independent thinking and educational achievement, and investigates and evaluates methods in the educational setting that could encourage independent thinking. A case study of two groups of students is used; control and experimental group. The former is based on tutor-centred while the latter on student-centred approach.

Keywords:

Teacher, self-think, independent thinking.