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40th Annual International Conference Goes Virtual



March 19, 2020
 
Dear Friends and Colleagues in Critical Thinking:
 
Due to uncertainties around the coronavirus pandemic, and the fact that many of you are not able to travel for professional development this year, the 40th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking will be postponed until September and will be held online. We plan to utilize a virtual platform as well as real-time, online discussion groups including question-answer sessions with presenters. We are finalizing plans now. Our virtual conference will enable you to:

  • view all presentations on your own time, and
  • participate as you wish in real-time discussions with our Fellows and Scholars, and with Guest Presenters, based on those presentations.

One advantage of the online format is that you can attend all available presentations, which will begin in mid-September and continue through the end of October. We plan to present most or
all of our already-announced Focal Sessions, and to invite all accepted Concurrent and Roundtable Presenters to conduct virtual presentations as 'Guest Presenters.' We will also reopen our Call for Proposals, since we are able to include more Guest Presentations than at an in-person conference, and many more people will now be able to attend with the need for travel removed.
 
We will announce the beginning date and further details as soon as we have all plans finalized. All of your registration fees will be good for the postponed dates.
 
Focal Presentations will include individual activities you may work through in your own time to internalize the content. All Focal Presenters will be available for online scheduled, real-time discussions which you may join as you wish. Focal Presenters will elaborate on and contextualize their presentations during these discussions for those who attend.
 
Groups will run roughly from September 15th through October 30th, so attendees may join any or all of the discussions.
For each Focal Presentation, there will be at least two Discussion Groups, in order to include as many people as possible and to accommodate attendees in differing time zones as best we can.
 
Though we would have preferred our traditional conference format, we are pleased to give you the opportunity to view all presentations at your leisure, and then to attend the online Discussion Groups after viewing.
 
We are working out plans for the pre-conference as well, which will be a set of live, interactive online workshops in which our presenter will present foundational content in critical thinking, and you will work with other participants to read, write, and think your way through the content.
 
Lastly, we regret to announce the cancellation of the International Summit for the Advancement of Critical Thinking Across Human Societies. Thank you to all of you who stepped forward to lead the way on this. We will let you know when we plan to hold this summit in the future.
 
Thank you for your commitment to advancing and understanding a rich conception of critical thinking across your work and life. We look forward to working with you at this decidedly unusual, but still exciting, learning event.
 
We will keep you posted on new developments regarding the 40th Annual International Conference.
 
Sincerely,
Dr. Linda Elder
Educational Psychologist
President & Senior Fellow


Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.