It may seem like Social Thinking is teaching the opposite of
what I described in the previous posts. That is because Social Thinking
contradicts itself a lot. That can make it hard to figure out what it is
actually teaching and can make those being taught confused.
One of the things Social Thinking tells educators is to
avoid making assumptions (Winner & Crooke, n.d.). However, Social Thinking
makes a lot of unwarranted assumptions itself, and the whole thing falls apart
without them.
Social Thinking says that we should respect others. However,
Social Thinking doesn't respect students with “social-cognitive deficits”,
dismissing some of their true thoughts and feelings as a lack of self-awareness.
It also tells educators to listen to their students when teaching social
thinking. However, Social Thinking says that certain things students say about
themselves are wrong.
Social Thinking is supposed to help students with theory of
mind. However, Michelle Garcia Winner assumes that everyone else thinks the
same way she does. In fact, in one article she said she observed her own thought
processes when in the presence of other people before founding Social Thinking.
Social Thinking says following rules all the time is having
a rigid brain, yet says that conforming to social rules is a step you need to
do in order to be flexible. However, there are many circumstances in which
making people comfortable with your behavior does not help to solve a problem.
For example, you may realize there is a major flaw in a system that other
people don’t notice. However, when you fix it, people have uncomfortable
thoughts about you because they are afraid of the new. In fact, that was the problem Temple Grandin
encountered when she found flaws with cattle chutes.
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