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Save the Date: 40th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking

 

The 40th Annual International Conference
on Critical Thinking


...The Longest-Running Critical Thinking Conference in the World

July 22 – July 26, 2020

in

The Arkansas Ozark Mountains


More Information and Open Registration Available Soon!

Limited Room Block!
(See Below)

Venues


Join us in the Ozarks in Bentonville, Arkansas! All Conference sessions and activities will take place in several Downtown venues, all within easy walking distance of each other:

Where to Stay
We have a limited room block available at 21c Museum Hotel at $185 per room night. 21c is ideally located for the Conference. Book early to ensure you get a room in the middle of Downtown!

Call for Proposals


We are now seeking proposals for Concurrent and Roundtable Presentations! Please see our Call for Proposals page here.

Primary Presenters


Dr. Linda Elder is an educational psychologist and international authority on critical thinking. President and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Critical Thinking, she has taught psychology and critical thinking at the college level, and has given presentations to more than 50,000 educators and leaders. She has coauthored four books, including 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living through Critical Thinking and Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life, as well as 24 Thinker's Guides on critical thinking. Concerned with understanding and illuminating the relationship between thinking and affect, and the barriers to critical thinking, Dr. Elder has placed these issues at the center of her thinking and work.

Dr. Gerald Nosich is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Critical Thinking and a prominent authority on critical thinking. He has given more than 150 national and international workshops on critical thinking, has worked with the U.S. Department of Education on a project for the National Assessment of Higher Order Thinking skills, has served as the Assistant Director of the Center for Critical Thinking, and has been featured as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Nosich is Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo State and the University of New Orleans, and is the author of two books including Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum .



About the Conference
Since 1981, The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking – sister organizations that together represent the world's oldest think tank dedicated to critical thinking – have hosted the world's longest-running critical thinking conference. The conference emphasizes the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking, which stands apart from other critical thinking theory in that, first,  it applies to all human thought in all fields, professions, and domains of life; second, it relies on natural, rather than technical, language to provide tools and concepts that enable the thinker to break down, assess, and enhance his or her own thinking; third, it accounts for human emotions and desires; and fourth, it emphasizes the importance of ethics in reasoning.

Regardless of your professional, educational, or personal background, The Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking provides a unique opportunity for you to improve your understanding of critical thinking, as well as your ability to apply it to your everyday work, learning, and life.



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.