Last week I had the very great pleasure of teaching some critical thinking skills to postgraduate students at AUT University with my good friend Dr Barbara Gibson. The students were physiotherapists, nurses, case managers, occupational therapists and others, and few of them, in truth, knew much about critical thinking. So we concentrated on what is perhaps the most important, but also the hardest skill in thinking critically: questioning things that we otherwise take for granted. Because something is taken-for-granted it is, by definition, hard to see. They include things we unquestioningly support (like taking care of your own health, for instance); things that are custom and … [Read more...] about Keys to critical thinking
Births, deaths and marriages
There was a time, not so long ago, when physiotherapy journals included all sorts of ephemera; parliamentary reports, branch proceedings, and notices about the latest pay rise. But by far the best bit of the journal came in the Personal section and notices about births, deaths and marriages. Here's an example from the Physiotherapy Journal of June 1962: DAWSON.--On March 26, at Copton Ash Farm, Sheepy Magna, Atherstone, to Jean(nee Tudor, traing The Middlesex Hospital) and Peter Dawson, a daughter (Anna Rosemary), a sister for James and Richard. Anna Rosemary of Sheepy Magna. I kid ye not. Well lest we be accused of taking our task too seriously, I'd like to end another busy week … [Read more...] about Births, deaths and marriages