Zen Library of Blogs

  • On Becoming a Critical Thinker?

    On Becoming a Critical Thinker?

    There are many courses within higher education (HE) which claim to turn students into “critical thinkers”.  The focus is on skills and techniques students can learn, adopt, or adapt such that they “become” a critical thinker, as if such a designation (or identification) was a personal possession and/or that the individual student’s transformation, chrysalis and Read more

  • Why place a baby in an oven?

    Why place a baby in an oven?

    It seems inconceivable that anyone would put a baby in an oven, let alone one still alive.  Yet, this was a claim made in relation to the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel between 7th and 9th October 2023.  Leading Zionist activists, such as Ben Shapiro, even showed photographic evidence of the aftermath – the charred Read more

  • Affliction of the Grade-seeking Student

    Affliction of the Grade-seeking Student

    How might students behave if grades and marks are removed from their course assignments, yet they are still able to obtain the necessary credits for ‘progression’ to the next level in education?  Would their approach to learning, or their ‘philosophy’ of learning, change as a result?  In this article I am going to explore this Read more

  • AI? Aye, aye! Hyperbolic claims from Snooze-inducing Technologists

    AI? Aye, aye! Hyperbolic claims from Snooze-inducing Technologists

    We’ve heard it all before. A new technology is going to ‘revolutionise’ everything, from the way we work to the way we play, learn, and relate. Yet, funnily enough, according to the ‘visionaries’, the basic social and political features of our current conditions won’t change. These aren’t going anywhere – the profit motive, unequal access Read more

  • On the Scottish Origins of Social Science (Part 2)

    On the Scottish Origins of Social Science (Part 2)

    [Opening Note: In line with comments made in Part 1, this text was originally intended for a foundation student audience and is written in a teaching (second person) style. For reasons of editorial convenience, I have left the text in this style. Also, a large part of the argument (Section II) is an exegesis of Read more

  • On the Scottish Origins of Social Science (Part 1)

    On the Scottish Origins of Social Science (Part 1)

    About a decade and a half ago, I was asked to contribute / write materials for a “Scottish Version” of a UK-wide social science course (at a UK distance learning institution).  The aim of these teaching materials was to address the growing divergence between Scottish society (including its laws and civil life) and the ‘rest Read more