Critical thinking via the internet to support a classroom-based course in human rights.

Abstract

Mahidol University International College (MUIC) is Thailand’s only liberal arts college. The medium of instruction at the college is English and students must study at least four trimesters of general education before going on to complete their majors. In the general education component students must complete at least four courses of English. One of these English courses is ‘Exploring Global Realities’, a content course in human rights. In Exploring Global Realities, students use the academic skills - argumentation, public speaking, writing term papers etc - learned in previous English courses to investigate the role of freedom and democracy in defending basic human rights. Course content includes short stories, films, and essays, which are used to investigate vital issues such as torture and genocide. These are also used to explore critical concepts, such as non-violent resistance and universal suffrage, and their role in the democratic process. As part of their assessment, students analyse key human rights documents, for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and use these to assess human rights abuses around the world. The course concludes with a look at the evolution of the Thai Constitution and compares this to the experience of other countries around the world. In my presentation I will describe how I use the on-line discussion forum ‘Nicenet’ to promote critical thinking and reflection, using topics that permit students to engage in the course content. I will give examples of students’ contributions to Nicenet and show how I use their postings to feed back into classroom discussions to personalize the issues. Other features of the presentation will include the use of on-line ‘links’ from Nicenet to widen the exposure to information beyond what is covered in class, and the setting of related topics – e.g. The UN Security Council, the Convention Against Torture, The Rule of Law - for individual 3-minute speeches by students to inform their classmates.