Health Literacy as Catalyst for Critical Thinking
From LiteracyTentWiki
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2195] Re: What do we mean by studentinvolvement and critical thinking?
From: Priscilla Witte pgwitte at yahoo.com
Date: Mon Jul 7 18:53:27 EDT 2008
Hi Everyone,
I'm a doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, working on a manuscript about health literacy for the adult literacy community. It is a topic that has received much attention from the health care sector but much less in the adult literacy arena. It is of critical importance to improve the health literacy of so many people because it can be a matter of life and death.
Is health literacy a topic that would generate student involvement and critical thinking? Is it included in the curricula of adult literacy centers?
Thanks for your feedback. I would appreciate any suggestions that you might have regarding my manuscript.
Priscilla Grace Witte
Northern Illinois University
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2196] Re: What do we mean by studentinvolvement and critical thinking?
From: mev at litwomen.org mev at litwomen.org
Date: Mon Jul 7 21:11:59 EDT 2008
WE LEARN's 1st publication of student writing -- Women's Perspectives
-- focused on health and wellness. We provided a pre-writing lesson
plan that can be found in the back of the issue. We still have some
hard copies available for sale (we recently reprinted some) or you
can download it --For more information go to: http://www.litwomen.org/
perspectives.html
As you look at these writings, I think you'll notice that a number of
students were thinking/writing/using critical thinking in their
essays, stories, and poems.
btw - i know a number of programs that do teach through health
literacy -- including (especially) through issues relating to
stress, violence, access to medical care, cancer, drug use (abuse)
and so on -- so, I'd say the answer to your question is "yes."
Mev Miller, Ed.D., Director
welearn at litwomen.org
WE LEARN
Women Expanding: Literacy Education Action Resource Network
www.litwomen.org/welearn.html
182 Riverside Ave.
Cranston, RI 02910
401-383-4374
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2207] Re: What do we mean bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?
From: Cynthia Peters cynthia_peters at worlded.org
Date: Tue Jul 8 10:47:12 EDT 2008
Mev mentions a great resource. It prompts people to think both on an individual and systemic/environmental level about their health. I think this is a great example of inspiring/teaching critical thinking — that is, asking questions that encourage people to see themselves as individuals, yes, but also as members of a community, as people who are
- affected* by how their environment and their health care systems, jobs,
families, etc. are structured.
Here's the link again:
http://www.litwomen.org/perspectives.html
Another resource is The Change Agent, which did a special issue on
health about 10 years ago (and may be doing another one soon).
http://www.nelrc.org/changeagent/backissues.htm
Cynthia
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2208] Re: What do we mean bystudentinvolvement and critical thinking?
From: Winston Lawrence WinstonL at lacnyc.org
Date: Tue Jul 8 11:36:18 EDT 2008
Hi Priscilla: I just want to respond quickly. NIU is my alma mater. I'm off on vacation and can write much more extensively on this. But just briefly, I would answer uneqivocally that health literacy has the power to generate student involvement and foster critical thinking.
As David Rosen points put "problem based learning" is one of those approaches that enable students to work as teams and provides opportunities for individuals to demonstrate their expertise - investigating an issue, asking both surface and deep questions about it and identifying solutions. For example, in discussing the issue of access to health care and who has or does not have health insurance, students have a great opportunity to tease out all of these themes. Students may also examine authentic reading materials such as informational brochures available at health centers and hospitals and pose questions about them such as "For whom were they written? Why were they written? Who wrote them - a drug company? the hospital? Who benefits? Who loses? Why don't they write so that those with limited literacy could understand?
Posing questions about who gets what type of health information/advice and discussing this is very illuminating and allows students to really think about the services they receive versus what others with more wealth receive.
Approaching health literacy within the context of the need to reduce racial and ethnic health disparity creates a great avenue for students and teachers to engage in critical thinking. This is the framework that we at the Literacy Assistance Center (LAC) have used ( based on Dr Rima Rudd's - Harvard school of Public Health - and NCSALL's Health Literacy Study Circles) as we have worked with adult literacy programs to incorporate health literacy into their curricula.. Teachers have noted that students became much more involved in the classroom as a result of their engagement with the health literacy theme.
Winston Lawrence Ed. D.
Literacy Assistance Center (LAC)
New York
