ANNOUNCING! Spring 2010 Workshops in Critical Thinking March 20 - 21, 2009 Berkeley, CA
Choose one of the following workshops:
- Integrating a Comprehensive Understanding of Critical Thinking into Effective Design for Teaching and Learning Academic Content
- Placing a Robust Framework for Critical Thinking At the Heart Of Your Institution’s Mission, Accreditation or Reaccreditation Process
- Approaching Students as Thinkers; Cultivating the Intellect
As always we encourage groups to attend. We offer reduced registration for groups.
Click for More Information on rates or to Register Online! | Institutions Using Our Approach... We are pleased that a number of institutions are making considerable efforts to foster critical thinking across departments and subjects using our framework. This framework is based on the research of the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking during the last 28 years and utilizes the work of Dr. Richard Paul, Dr. Linda Elder, and Dr. Gerald Nosich.
Notably, the University of Louisville has adopted a campus-wide approach to implementing foundational concepts of critical thinking as a means to fostering student learning and community engagement. In 2007, the University of Louisville launched its quality enhancement plan (QEP) titled Ideas to Acton: Using Critical Thinking to Foster Student Learning and Community Engagement. This is a ten-year initiative which entails a systematic approach to bringing critical thinking across the curriculum. | | Fostering Critical Thinking in the Classroom…
Model skilled thinking for your students: Part I It is most likely the case that your students are unaware of what highly skilled thinking looks like. Most of the time quality thinking is implicitly modeled rather than made explicit. Rather than just thinking well in front of students, we advocate explicit modeling of skilled “moves.” This means not only thinking aloud in front of students, but also calling attention to the “moves” you are making. For example, high quality thinking: - Focuses on purpose and question: “If I had to solve a problem like this, I would first make clear what my main purpose is as well as the precise question I am trying to solve. So let’s take a couple of minutes to do that…”
- Focuses on implications: “Whenever I am thinking through an important complicated decision I always want to think through the implications of the various decisions I might come to. In other words, I want to figure out what the likely consequences would be if I reasoned to this decision or that decision. For example, if I accept/reject the author’s conclusions, what does that commit me to?”
- Focuses on concepts: “I realize that it is important to understand how authors are using concepts in their thinking. I want to clarify the key concepts in the articles and books that I read. Let’s think aloud about what the author means when she uses the concept of x. I’ll begin. Perhaps she means y. Is that an accurate interpretation? How does the dictionary define concept x?”
- Focuses on clarity: “I always want to be clear about the issue I am dealing with, about what another person is saying, about what I am reading, etc. When I am unclear in a discussion, I ask questions of clarification. When I am unclear about the issue at hand, I focus on clarifying the question either by re-expressing the question in my own mind or asking others to clarify it. As I am reading, I repeat in my mind my understanding of the author’s meaning. I figure out what I understand and what I don’t understand about what the author is saying.”
| | "Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it."
-Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund and first African-American woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar | |
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