The Punch in the Face

James, Amy and Maddie talk about what it's like running up against that new expectation for critical thinking. James: "I kind of had that rude awakening where I realized just how hollow a lot of my methods for writing had been prior to this class" The tension you're talking about is that when confronting students with this new critical thinking standard which often is really the first authentic critical thinking standard they've ever encountered. There's this standard by which they're being assessed that they're far away from and that creates some frustration and some tension in the classroom.