(912) THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX, A CHALLENGE FOR STUDENTS OF HIGHER LEARNING: CASE STUDY OF POLYTECHNIC OF NAMIBIA

摘要

One of expected primary goals of a teacher is to help students develop the desire and ability to selfthink;;also known as independent thinking. Independent thinking refers to making sense of situationsbased on one's observation, understanding and experience rather than uncritically accepting theopinions of others. Teaching using the independent thinking methods is more likely to cause somediscomfort when students are truly challenged to apply their thinking ability. However, it is thediscomfort that brings about being an active learner. This paper investigates independent thinkingaccording to the set-up of the Polytechnic of Namibia and assesses the teaching methods used todevelop and measure independent thinking. It also assesses the correlation between independentthinking and educational achievement, and investigates and evaluates methods in the educationalsetting 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 studentcentredapproach.