In the article read for this section of the course, I have been encouraged to consider the notion of critical thinking as a social process, whether synchronous or asynchronous. The article attempted to construct a heuristic to diagnose the presence or absence of processes in a community based upon the use of key terms or phrases that are indicators of ongoing community processes reflected in the text transcripts of interactions. Although I believe the attempt at coding discussions for the processes indicated was misguided and the progress made in assessing and categorizing phases present in the course was too uncertain, I consider the conceptual framework of the learning process to be a useful one. I like both the challenge to imagine critical thinking as less an individual project and more a community one and the handing over of judgement to a collective, rather than a hierarchical and imposed power move. I also enjoyed considering the construction of meaning as a by-product of cognitive presence. While it might be possible to view the construction of meaning as an individual’s response to a situation, it is more subtle to notice how ‘meanings’ are negotiated in a community, with individual reactions being suppressed and again supported by reactions from others in the social context. For example, consider a joke told in a community of speakers. Hypothetically suppose that one person in the audience is offended by the joke, while another is significantly amused. It might be possible to take the joke as having two meanings in that context. However, notice that it is also possible for the ‘meanings’ to be negotiated in further interaction, resulting in the mitigation of both offense and amusement, as the two audience members reflect upon each other’s reaction. Also note that the two reactions may not resolve each other, but may provoke greater offense/amusement on the part of each person. That is, we need not necessarily assume that all social interaction will necessarily resolve into similarity, but make further distance interlocutors. I am not here saying that the individual reactions are irrelevant, but I do claim that the further interactions are relevant to the overall process of the construction of meaning in a social context.
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