KI NR OSS WOL AR OI S C HO O L
Fergus Baldwin
Year 11 – Critical Thinking course
C
ritical thinking skills are invaluable across all disciplines and are said to benefit students in academic contexts and in life well beyond university. The Philosophy 137 Critical Thinking Course offered by Macquarie University aims to teach students the fundamentals of critical thinking and reasoning so that they can learn how to construct, analyse and critically evaluate arguments; how to detect common fallacies in reasoning; and how to think logically and creatively. This year, ten students across three schools in Orange made up the NSW regional cohort attempting the critical thinking course, with remarkable results. “The cohort achieved an impressive average result of 76 (Distinction grade) with 50% of the cohort achieving an individual High Distinction result of 85 or higher,” said Mr Yooie Choi, KWS Coordinator of Learning Enhancement. Of those students, our very own Fergus Baldwin and William Rawson (both Year 11), each achieved a High Distinction, with Fergus also claiming top honours with an exceptional result of 95.
“Fergus achieved 1st place out of 68 school students involved in the program and also 1st out of the whole cohort of 1,239 university students enrolled in the course,” said Mr Choi. “This is a phenomenal achievement considering the large intake of university students and having to spend a third of the course undertaking remote learning.” “I got involved in the course after some encouragement from my older brother who had already completed the course himself, and thought it worthwhile,” said Fergus. “The actual course work, although challenging, was not too difficult – it mostly just required a decent amount of logical thinking and an open mind to approach each new situation or task. The assessments, although challenging, were fairly straight forward,” he said. “The online learning aspect was well constructed and enjoying it probably made it easier,” Fergus said. “We received weekly doses of coursework and information, followed up by an online quiz and a podcast with an associated Q&A to help consolidate our
learning. There was a great amount of online contact from our tutors and our peers – it was a very supportive online environment.” Upon learning of his top honours, Fergus said he was surprised and amazed but most of all proud of his achievement. “I initially understood that I had come first of out of the group of students from Orange completing the course and was pretty happy with that. But to learn that I had also placed 1st amongst the entire cohort of university students is unbelievable and I’m thrilled,” Fergus said. So where to next for Fergus? “I have not yet decided if I will head straight to university after school or if I will take a gap year – I don’t yet know what career path or course of study I will undertake,” he said. “I am trying to keep my options open for the everevolving world, studying a high level of mathematics along with physics, chemistry and software design and development.”
I am trying to keep my options open for the everevolving world, studying a high level of mathematics along with physics, chemistry and software design and development.” Fergus Baldwin
••• 59
SUMMER 2020
