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43rd Conference Focal Session Descriptions


Focal Session Descriptions
for the
43rd Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking

Pre-Conference: July 23, 2023
Main Conference: July 24 - July 28, 2023

List of Sessions


Click a session title to see its description . . .


Pre-Conference Sessions
Sunday, July 23, 1:00 - 7:00 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions I
Monday, July 24, 12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions II
Monday, July 24, 3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions III
Monday, July 24, 8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions IV
Tuesday, July 25,
12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions V
Tuesday, July 25,
3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions VI
Tuesday, July 25,
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT



Guest Presentations Posted
Wednesday
, July 26,
3:00 p.m. EDT

Read More Here



Special Meetings on Professional Development
Wednesday
, July 26,
8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT

Read More Here



Focal Sessions VII
Thursday
, July 27,
12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions VIII
Thursday
, July 27,
3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT



Focal Sessions IX
Thursday
, July 27,
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT



Early Closing Session

Friday
, July 28,
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EDT


Read More Here



Late Closing Session
Friday
, July 28,
8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT

Read More Here


Sunday, July 23


Pre-Conference Sessions
1:00 - 7:00 p.m. EDT


Foundational Concepts and Principles in Critical Thinking and Their Importance to All Instruction... Dr. Brian Barnes

This session will lay the foundation for all conference sessions and is therefore highly recommended for new conference attendees. It will introduce you to some of the most basic understandings in critical thinking – namely, how to analyze thinking, how to assess it, how to develop and foster intellectual virtues, and how to identify common barriers to critical thinking.

One conceptual set we will focus on is the elements of reasoning, or parts of thinking. These elements or parts of reasoning are those essential dimensions of reasoning that are present whenever and wherever reasoning occurs, independent of whether we are reasoning well or poorly. Working together, these elements shape reasoning and provide a general logic to the use of thought. They are presupposed in every subject, discipline, profession, and domain of human thought.

A second conceptual set we will focus on is that of universal intellectual standards. One of the fundamentals of critical thinking is the ability to assess reasoning. To be skilled at assessment requires that we consistently take apart thinking and examine its parts with respect to standards of quality. We do this using criteria such as clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logicalness, significance, fairness and sufficiency.

A third essential conceptual set in critical thinking is intellectual virtues or traits. Critical thinking does not entail merely intellectual skills. Rather, it is a way of orienting oneself in the world. It is a way of approaching problems that differs significantly from that which is typical in human life. People may have critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to analyze the beliefs guiding their behavior. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to distinguish between what they know and what they don't know, to persevere through difficult problems and issues, to think fairmindedly, or to responsibly dissent. Thus, it is necessary to develop intellectual virtues - virtues of fairmindedness, intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, and confidence in reason.

Finally, we will illuminate two intrinsic barriers to critical thinking development: egocentric and sociocentric thought. These natural pathological human tendencies will be briefly introduced and explored.

In short, in this preconference session, we introduce the foundations of fairminded critical thinking; throughout the day we will explore critical thinking theory while applying this theory to instruction, the professions, and everyday life problems.


Socratic Questioning Through Critical Thinking... Dr. Gerald Nosich

Socratic questioning is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, and to follow out logical implications of thought. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, and deep, and usually focuses on foundational concepts, principles, theories, issues, or problems. Socratic questioning depends on critical thinking concepts and principles to give direction and substance to, and to expand, the questioning process. Further, the art of Socratic questioning is intimately connected with critical thinking because the art of questioning is important to excellence of thought. Both critical thinking and Socratic questioning share a common end. Critical thinking provides the conceptual tools for understanding how the mind functions (in its pursuit of meaning and truth); and Socratic questioning employs those tools in framing questions essential to the pursuit of meaning and truth.

Teachers, students, or indeed anyone interested in probing thinking at a deep level can and should construct Socratic questions and engage in Socratic dialogue. When we use Socratic questioning in teaching, our purpose may be to probe student thinking, to determine the extent of their knowledge on a given topic, issue or subject, to model Socratic questioning for them, or to help them analyze a concept or line of reasoning. In the final analysis, we want students to learn the discipline of Socratic questioning, so that they begin to use it in reasoning through complex issues, in understanding and assessing the thinking of others, and in following-out the implications of what they, and others think.

When we use Socratic questioning throughout life, we have systemic ways of opening up and exploring any line of reasoning for any purpose whatsoever.

This session will focus on the mechanics of Socratic dialogue, on the conceptual tools critical thinking brings to Socratic dialogue, and on the importance of questioning in cultivating the disciplined mind. The preconference session will be highly interactive as participants practice Socratic question using the foundations of critical thinking.


Critical Thinking for Professional and Personal Life... Dr. Paul Bankes

You are what you think. Whatever you are doing, whatever you feel, whatever you want — all are determined by the quality of your thinking. If your thinking is unrealistic, your thinking will lead to many disappointments. If your thinking is overly pessimistic, it will deny you due recognition of the many things in which you should properly rejoice.

Since few people realize the powerful role that thinking plays in their lives, few gain significant command of their thinking. And therefore, most people are in many ways “victims” of their own thinking, harmed rather than helped by it. Most people are their own worst enemy. Their thinking is a continual source of problems, preventing them from recognizing opportunities, keeping them from exerting energy where it will do the most good, poisoning relationships, and leading them down blind alleys.

This session will discuss ways to improve the quality of your thinking and, therefore, help you achieve your goals and ambitions, make better decisions, and understand where others are trying to influence your thinking (for better or worse). It will help you take charge of what you do in your professional and personal life, how you relate to others, and even what emotions you feel. It’s time for you to discover the power and role of thinking in your life. You are capable of achieving more significant professional goals. You can become a better problem solver. You can use power more wisely. You can become less subject to manipulation. You can live a fuller, a more happy and secure life. This session will guide the way.



Monday, July 24


Focal Sessions I
12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT


Placing Critical Thinking at the Core of the Curriculum… Dr. Paul Bankes

There is no more important goal in schooling than cultivating the intellect. But we cannot achieve this goal unless we place intellectual development at the heart of instruction. To do this, we must approach our students at all levels as thinkers, as persons capable of figuring things out for themselves, as persons with their own thoughts, emotions, and desires, as persons with minds of their own.

At present, thinking is often ignored in schooling (and indeed in society). Critical thinking has historically been treated in schooling as another add-on, as something interesting we combine with other things we do. But when we understand what it takes to cultivate the intellect, we bring the concepts and principles of critical thinking into everything we do in the classroom, so that it becomes the centerpiece of instruction. This is true because it is through critical thinking that we make explicit the intellectual tools students need to live successfully and reasonably, to grapple with the complex problems they will inevitably face, to think their way through content of any kind. In this session, we introduce the foundations of critical thinking essential to teaching and learning at all levels, and begin to apply these foundations to classroom structures and strategies.


For Business and Government: Why Purpose-Driven Leadership Requires Critical Thinking… Dr. Brian Barnes

The problems we increasingly face require a radically different form of thinking: thinking that is more complex, more adaptable, and more sensitive to divergent points of view. The world in which we now live requires that we continually relearn, that we routinely rethink our decisions, and that we regularly reevaluate the way we work and live. In short, the world we now face is one in which the power of the mind to command itself, to regularly engage in competent analysis, will increasingly determine the quality of our work, the quality of our lives, and perhaps our very survival.

Increasingly we hear of the importance of purpose driven leadership. And while this is essential to the effective leadership, understanding and driving toward one’s purpose is only part of critical thinking. Through this session you will broaden your understanding of purpose driven leadership through explicit tools of critical thinking to better guide your organization or department toward reasonable and significant goals, as well as to analyze problems and decisions, and reason through complex questions. To analyze your own thinking, you must be able to take it apart and scrutinize how you are using each part. To analyze others’ reasoning you must be able to scrutinize how others are using each part. When you clearly understand the parts of thinking (or elements of reasoning), and begin to use them explicitly in your thinking on a daily basis, the quality of your leadership significantly improves.

This session will help business, government, and education leaders:

  • understand a rich conception of purpose driven leadership through the tools of criticality,
  • begin to, or better, internalize the elements of reasoning essential to skilled decision making;
  • better use analytic thinking as a tool for thinking deeply about the questions, issues, and challenges you face as a leader.

For Returning Attendees: Richard Paul’s Contributions Within the History of Critical Thinking… Dr. Linda Elder

Richard Paul is widely considered to be a seminal thinker in the emerging field of Critical Thinking Studies. In this session, we will consider some of Paul’s important contributions to the substantive conception of critical thinking that he cultivated over half a century of study and inquiry. We will discuss how the theory continues to be developed and contextualized. We will view and discuss video footage of Paul articulating the theory of critical thinking and how to foster it throughout instruction. We will also read and discuss excerpts from Paul’s anthology, Critical Thinking: What Everyone Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World – a collection of texts which laid the groundwork for what has come to be known as the Paulian Approach to Critical Thinking or The Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking.



Focal Sessions II
3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT


Teaching Students to Formulate and Reason Through Essential Questions in Your Discipline… Dr. Gerald Nosich

One of the most important skills in critical thinking is that of evaluating information. However, instead of a simple series of steps to memorize and follow mindlessly, students need a rich perspective on evidence-based decision making; this begins with the important recognition that information and fact are not the same thing. It also requires the important recognition that not everything presented as fact is true.

It is essential to comprehend that the prestige or setting in which information is asserted, or the prestige of the person or group asserting it, is no guarantee of accuracy or reliability. Consider the following helpful maxim: An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be incomplete at best, and very often is false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious, etc.

Careful thinkers, skilled in evidence-based decision making at a high level, use a wide variety of safeguards in making decisions based on actual evidence – not merely on information asserted to be true. It is not possible to learn these safeguards separately from an actual study of the best thinking within the disciplines. It is possible, however, to develop a healthy skepticism about information in general, especially when encouraged to support a belief that serves the vested interests of a person or group. This skepticism is applied by regularly asking key questions about information presented to us:

  • To what extent could I test the truth of this claim by direct experience?
  • To what extent is this belief consistent with what I know to be true or in which I have justified confidence?
  • How does the person who advances this claim support it?
  • Is there a definite system or procedure for assessing claims of this sort?
  • Does the acceptance of this information advance the vested interest of the person or group asserting it?
  • Is the person asserting this information made uncomfortable by having it questioned?

These questions, both singly and as a group, represent no panacea. They do not prevent us from making mistakes. But, used with good judgment, they help us lower the number of mistakes we make in assessing information.

In this session, we will explore a rich conception of evidence-based reasoning, indispensable in preparing students for a world where misinformation spreads globally within minutes. This includes understanding how the concept of evidence connects with the other elements of reasoning. 


Fostering Emotional Intelligence in Teaching and Learning and Throughout Human Societies... Dr. Carmen Polka

Critical thinking provides the crucial link between intelligence and emotions in the ‘emotionally intelligent’ person. It is the only plausible vehicle by means of which we can bring intelligence to bear upon our emotional lives, and enables us to take active command of not only our thoughts, but our emotions and desires as well. Hence, neither teaching nor learning can afford to disregard the emotional dimension of the mind.

If we are concerned with developing our rationality in order to improve our lives, we must understand the powerful role that both emotions and thoughts play in our minds. We must understand the ways in which affect and cognition influence one another in determining both our outlook on life and our behavior. Most importantly, we must come to terms with those truths about the human mind that enable us to begin the process of taking charge of our minds: that thoughts and emotions are inextricably bound, that we have both irrational and rational tendencies, that our inner conflicts are never best understood as a simple matter between emotion and reason, that self-command of mind requires both extended education and self-discipline, that our fullest rational development is dependent on the development of rational affect, and that to bring intelligence to bear upon emotions, we must take charge of the thinking underlying those emotions.


Why Intellectual Character is Essential to Effective Leadership in Business and Government… Dr. Paul Bankes

It is possible to develop as a thinker, and yet not to develop as a fairminded thinker. It is possible to learn to use one’s mental skills in a narrow, self-serving way, and many highly skilled thinkers do just that. Think of politicians, for example, who manipulate people through smooth (fallacious) talk, who promise what they have no intention of delivering, and who say whatever they need to maintain their positions of power and prestige. In a sense, these people are skilled thinkers because their thinking enables them to get what they want. But the best thinkers do not pursue selfish goals. They do not seek to manipulate others. They strive to be fairminded, even when it means they have to give something up in the process. They recognize that the mind is not naturally fair, but selfish. And they recognize that to be fairminded, they also must develop specific traits of mind – traits such as intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual courage, intellectual autonomy, intellectual empathy, intellectual perseverance, and confidence in reason.  

In this session, we juxtapose the fairminded critical thinker with the selfish thinker, and we develop our understanding of how all the intellectual virtues are essential to strong-sense, or ethical, critical thinking. If you are to cultivate fairminded critical thinking within your organization, you will first need a reasonable conception of it, and then a plan for bringing it to your circle of influence. This session, therefore, will enhance your understanding of the intellectual virtues and why they are essential to fairminded critical societies, businesses, and government entities; this session will also help you develop a plan for implementing fairminded critical thinking as a leader within your work community.



Focal Sessions III
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT



Repeat Session: Placing Critical Thinking at the Core of the Curriculum... Dr. Gerald Nosich

There is no more important goal in schooling than cultivating the intellect. But we cannot achieve this goal unless we place intellectual development at the heart of instruction. To do this, we must approach our students at all levels as thinkers, as persons capable of figuring things out for themselves, as persons with their own thoughts, emotions, and desires, as persons with minds of their own.

At present, thinking is often ignored in schooling (and indeed in society). Critical thinking has historically been treated in schooling as another add-on, as something interesting we combine with other things we do. But when we understand what it takes to cultivate the intellect, we bring the concepts and principles of critical thinking into everything we do in the classroom, so that it becomes the centerpiece of instruction. This is true because it is through critical thinking that we make explicit the intellectual tools students need to live successfully and reasonably, to grapple with the complex problems they will inevitably face, to think their way through content of any kind. In this session, we introduce the foundations of critical thinking essential to teaching and learning at all levels, and begin to apply these foundations to classroom structures and strategies.


Repeat Session: Fostering Emotional Intelligence in Teaching and Learning and Throughout Human Societies... Dr. Carmen Polka

Critical thinking provides the crucial link between intelligence and emotions in the ‘emotionally intelligent’ person. It is the only plausible vehicle by means of which we can bring intelligence to bear upon our emotional lives, and enables us to take active command of not only our thoughts, but our emotions and desires as well. Hence, neither teaching nor learning can afford to disregard the emotional dimension of the mind.

If we are concerned with developing our rationality in order to improve our lives, we must understand the powerful role that both emotions and thoughts play in our minds. We must understand the ways in which affect and cognition influence one another in determining both our outlook on life and our behavior. Most importantly, we must come to terms with those truths about the human mind that enable us to begin the process of taking charge of our minds: that thoughts and emotions are inextricably bound, that we have both irrational and rational tendencies, that our inner conflicts are never best understood as a simple matter between emotion and reason, that self-command of mind requires both extended education and self-discipline, that our fullest rational development is dependent on the development of rational affect, and that to bring intelligence to bear upon emotions, we must take charge of the thinking underlying those emotions.


Repeat Session (For Returning Attendees): Richard Paul’s Contributions Within the History of Critical Thinking... Dr. Linda Elder

Richard Paul is widely considered to be a seminal thinker in the emerging field of Critical Thinking Studies. In this session, we will consider some of Paul’s important contributions to the substantive conception of critical thinking that he cultivated over half a century of study and inquiry. We will discuss how the theory continues to be developed and contextualized. We will view and discuss video footage of Paul articulating the theory of critical thinking and how to foster it throughout instruction. We will also read and discuss excerpts from Paul’s anthology, Critical Thinking: What Everyone Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World – a collection of texts which laid the groundwork for what has come to be known as the Paulian Approach to Critical Thinking or The Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking.



Tuesday, July 25


Focal Sessions IV
12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT


Understanding And Teaching Your Subject as a Mode of Thinking... Dr. Brian Barnes

There are a number of connections we must make conceptually and pragmatically to successfully advance educational curricula. Most educational practices sadly still cluster around or emerge from either a didactic conception of teaching, or group-centered activities void of proper standards. Both of these practices lead to lower-order learning while wasting precious intellectual resources.

To get beyond this, students must come to understand every subject as a mode of thinking they need to learn to think within, using critical thinking concepts and principles. For instance, substantial improvements can only occur by restructuring math courses so students learn to think mathematically, history courses so students learn to think historically, science courses so students learn to think scientifically, and so on. In other words, we must approach our disciplines not as bodies of content to be delivered and consumed, but constellations of concepts to be reasoned through and internalized. By so doing, we provide a toolkit of actionable knowledge that can continue elevating our students’ thinking and learning as they face situations and decisions throughout life.


Teaching Students to Develop Intellectual Character... Dr. Paul Bankes

Critical thinking is not just a set of intellectual skills. It is a way of orienting oneself in the world. It is a way of approaching problems that differs significantly from that which is typical in human life. People may have critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet still be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet still be unable to analyze the beliefs that guide their behavior. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know, to persevere through difficult problems and issues, to think fairmindedly, to stand alone against the crowd. This session introduces the intellectual character traits at the heart of a fairminded conception of critical thinking - the traits of mind embodied by fairminded critical persons - intellectual virtues such as fairmindedness, intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, and confidence in reason.


Critical and Creative Thinking and Why Each Presupposes the Other... Dr. Linda Elder

To the untutored, creative and critical thinking often seem to be opposite forms of thought — the first based on irrational or unconscious forces, the second on rational and conscious processes; the first undirectable and unteachable, the second directable and teachable. There is some, but very little, truth in this view. The truth in it is that there is no known way to generate creative geniuses, or to get students to produce novel, ground-breaking ideas. There are manifestations of creativity we do not fully understand. The same is true of forms of criticality. Yet there are ways to teach simultaneously for both creative and critical thinking. To do so requires that we focus on these terms in practical, everyday contexts, that we keep their central meanings in mind, that we seek insight into how they overlap and interact with one another. When we understand critical and creative thought truly and deeply, we recognize them as inseparable, integrated, and unitary.

We believe that creative thinking, especially, must be demystified and brought down to earth. For this reason, we shall consider creativity, not only in terms of its highest manifestations (in the work of geniuses), but also in its most mundane manifestations (in everyday perception and thought).

In learning new concepts, in making sense of our experience, in apprehending a new subject field or language, in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, our minds engage in full-fledged (though commonplace) creative acts. To understand how and why this is so, we need not appeal to the esoteric, the recondite, or the arcane.

To live productively, we need to internalize and use intellectual standards to assess our thinking (criticality). We also need to generate — through creative acts of the mind — the products to be assessed. That minds create meanings is not in doubt; whether they create meanings that are useful, insightful, or profound is. Imagination and reason are an inseparable team. They function best in tandem, like the right and left legs in walking or running. Studying either one separately only ensures that both remain mysterious and puzzling, or, just as unfortunate, are reduced to stereotype and caricature.



Focal Sessions V
3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT



Helping Students Learn the Fundamental and Powerful Concepts in Your Courses... Dr. Gerald Nosich

Concepts are ideas we use in thinking. They enable us to group things in our experience into different categories, classes, or divisions. They form the basis for the labels we give things in our minds. They represent the mental map (and meanings) we construct of the world, the map that tells us the way the world is. Through our concepts we define situations, events, relationships, and all other objects of our experience. All of our decisions depend on how we conceptualize things, and all subjects or disciplines are defined by their foundational concepts.

For instance, a fundamental concept in ecology is that of an "ecosystem," defined as a group of living things dependent on one another and living in a particular habitat. Ecologists study how differing ecosystems function and how they interrelate with other ecosystems. They are concerned with "ecological succession" the natural pattern of change occurring within every ecosystem when natural processes are undisturbed. This pattern includes the birth, development, death, and then replacement of ecological communities. Ecologists have grouped communities into larger units called "biomes," regions throughout the world classified according to physical features, including temperature, rainfall, and type of vegetation. Each of these is a seminal concept that cannot merely be seen (or memorized) as just one of many equally important details, but as fundamental for thinking one’s way through virtually any ecological issue, such as imbalance, energy, nutrients, population growth, diversity, habitat, competition, predation, parasitism, adaptation, coevolution, and conservation.

When we master foundational concepts at a deep level, we are able to use them to understand and function better within the world. In this session you will work toward identifying the fundamental concepts in your discipline or profession, explaining their role in thinking within your discipline or profession, and helping students take command of these concepts.


How To Reason Through Ethical Issues Using Critical Thinking... Dr. Brian Barnes

Few have thought much about the difficulty of getting ethically relevant facts about the world, few are skilled in tracing the implications of the facts they do have, and few can identify their own moral contradictions or clearly distinguish their self-interest and egocentric desires from what is genuinely ethical. Few have thought deeply about their own ethical feelings and judgments, have tied these judgments together into a coherent ethical perspective, or have mastered the complexities of ethical reasoning. As a result, everyday ethical judgments are often a subtle mixture of pseudo- and genuine morality, ethical insight and moral prejudice, ethical truth and moral hypocrisy.

The proper role of ethical reasoning is to highlight acts of two kinds: those that enhance the well-being of others, and those that harm or diminish the well-being of others. Developing one’s ethical reasoning abilities is crucial, because there is in human nature a strong tendency toward egotism, prejudice, self-justification, and self-deception. These tendencies are exacerbated by powerful sociocentric cultural influences that shape our lives not the least of which is the mass media. These innate tendencies can be actively combated only through the systematic cultivation of fairminded critical thinking. In other words, ethical questions must be answered by the same means as all questions of judgment: by using explicit tools of reasoning to analyze information and ideas, and to evaluate them for their accuracy, precision, breadth, depth, fairness, and so forth.

This session will illuminate ethical reasoning as distinct from other forms of reasoning with which it is often confused namely, social conventions and taboos, religious belief systems, and the law. With this set of distinctions clearly in mind, students are able to determine at any given time whether and to what extent they are dealing with any one of them (which is necessary for properly reasoning through the question), and they will be better able to distinguish ethical questions from other types of questions with which they are often jumbled.


How to Understand and Foster Intellectual Empathy as a Habit of Mind... Dr. Carmen Polka

Intellectual empathy entails a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of our egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions of long-standing thought or belief. This trait correlates with the ability to reconstruct accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. This trait also correlates with the willingness to remember occasions when we were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction that we were right, and with the ability to imagine our being similarly deceived in the case at hand.

Empathy of the intellectual sort does not come easily to humans, yet a lack of it reflects a pattern of failure in reasoning that can undermine the reasoner as well as others. This session will provide practical approaches to developing higher levels of intellectual empathy over time.



Focal Sessions VI
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT


Repeat Session: Helping Students Learn the Fundamental and Powerful Concepts in Your Courses... Dr. Gerald Nosich

Concepts are ideas we use in thinking. They enable us to group things in our experience into different categories, classes, or divisions. They form the basis for the labels we give things in our minds. They represent the mental map (and meanings) we construct of the world, the map that tells us the way the world is. Through our concepts we define situations, events, relationships, and all other objects of our experience. All of our decisions depend on how we conceptualize things, and all subjects or disciplines are defined by their foundational concepts.

For instance, a fundamental concept in ecology is that of an "ecosystem," defined as a group of living things dependent on one another and living in a particular habitat. Ecologists study how differing ecosystems function and how they interrelate with other ecosystems. They are concerned with "ecological succession" the natural pattern of change occurring within every ecosystem when natural processes are undisturbed. This pattern includes the birth, development, death, and then replacement of ecological communities. Ecologists have grouped communities into larger units called "biomes," regions throughout the world classified according to physical features, including temperature, rainfall, and type of vegetation. Each of these is a seminal concept that cannot merely be seen (or memorized) as just one of many equally important details, but as fundamental for thinking one’s way through virtually any ecological issue, such as imbalance, energy, nutrients, population growth, diversity, habitat, competition, predation, parasitism, adaptation, coevolution, and conservation.

When we master foundational concepts at a deep level, we are able to use them to understand and function better within the world. In this session you will work toward identifying the fundamental concepts in your discipline or profession, explaining their role in thinking within your discipline or profession, and helping students take command of these concepts.


Repeat Session: Teaching Students to Develop Intellectual Character… Dr. Paul Bankes

Critical thinking is not just a set of intellectual skills. It is a way of orienting oneself in the world. It is a way of approaching problems that differs significantly from that which is typical in human life. People may have critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet still be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet still be unable to analyze the beliefs that guide their behavior. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know, to persevere through difficult problems and issues, to think fairmindedly, to stand alone against the crowd. This session introduces the intellectual character traits at the heart of a fairminded conception of critical thinking the traits of mind embodied by fairminded critical persons intellectual virtues such as fairmindedness, intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, and confidence in reason.


Repeat Session: Critical and Creative Thinking and Why Each Presupposes the Other... Dr. Linda Elder

To the untutored, creative and critical thinking often seem to be opposite forms of thought — the first based on irrational or unconscious forces, the second on rational and conscious processes; the first undirectable and unteachable, the second directable and teachable. There is some, but very little, truth in this view. The truth in it is that there is no known way to generate creative geniuses, or to get students to produce novel, ground-breaking ideas. There are manifestations of creativity we do not fully understand. The same is true of forms of criticality. Yet there are ways to teach simultaneously for both creative and critical thinking. To do so requires that we focus on these terms in practical, everyday contexts, that we keep their central meanings in mind, that we seek insight into how they overlap and interact with one another. When we understand critical and creative thought truly and deeply, we recognize them as inseparable, integrated, and unitary.

We believe that creative thinking, especially, must be demystified and brought down to earth. For this reason, we shall consider creativity, not only in terms of its highest manifestations (in the work of geniuses), but also in its most mundane manifestations (in everyday perception and thought).

In learning new concepts, in making sense of our experience, in apprehending a new subject field or language, in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, our minds engage in full-fledged (though commonplace) creative acts. To understand how and why this is so, we need not appeal to the esoteric, the recondite, or the arcane.

To live productively, we need to internalize and use intellectual standards to assess our thinking (criticality). We also need to generate — through creative acts of the mind — the products to be assessed. That minds create meanings is not in doubt; whether they create meanings that are useful, insightful, or profound is. Imagination and reason are an inseparable team. They function best in tandem, like the right and left legs in walking or running. Studying either one separately only ensures that both remain mysterious and puzzling, or, just as unfortunate, are reduced to stereotype and caricature.



Wednesday, July 26

Guest Presentations Posted


 3:00 p.m. EDT


Guest Presentations become viewable on this day by 3:00 p.m. EDT. They will remain available to conference participants through the end of August.


Special Meetings on Professional Development


8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT


Those interested in discussing professional development with our Fellows and Scholars may attend any of the following meetings:

  • K-12 with Dr. Linda Elder

  • Higher Education with Dr. Gerald Nosich

  • Business and Government with Dr. Brian Barnes 


Thursday, July 27


Focal Sessions VII
12:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT



Teaching Students to Think Within the Logic of Your Discipline... Dr. Paul Bankes

One of the main goals of instruction is to help the student internalize the most basic concepts in the subject and to learn to think through questions in everyday life using those concepts. Critical thinking in biology is biological thinking. Critical thinking in anatomy is anatomical thinking. Critical thinking in literature is thinking the way a knowledgeable, sensitive, reasonable reader thinks about literature. A discipline is more than a body of information. It is a distinctive way (or set of ways) of looking at the world and thinking through a set of questions about it. It is systematic and has a logic of its own. In this session, participants will think through the logic of a discipline of their choosing. They will also focus on teaching the logic of their discipline so students internalize the way of thinking inherent in the subject as a life-long acquisition. 


Fostering Critical Thinking in the K-12 Classroom: Practical Strategies... Dr. Carmen Polka

Bringing critical thinking into the K-12 classroom entails understanding the concepts and principles embedded in critical thinking and then applying those concepts throughout the curriculum.   It means developing powerful strategies that emerge when we begin to understand critical thinking. In this session we will focus on strategies for engaging the intellect at the K-12 level. These strategies are powerful and useful, because each is a way to routinely engage students in thinking about what they are trying to learn as they are learning. Many of the strategies offer students methods for questioning, and for appropriately analyzing and assessing, the ideas they are “receiving” in the schooling process. Each strategy represents a shift of responsibility for learning from teacher to student. These strategies suggest ways to help your students learn to do the (often) hard work of learning. 


How Classic Thought Reveals Essential Knowledge, and Why Critical Thinking Is Essential to Judging the Classics... Dr. Linda Elder

Classic literature, when well chosen, captures the highest-level standards in human thinking and creativity. One way of deepening our understanding of critical thinking and its role throughout history is to routinely and systematically interrelate explicit critical thinking concepts and principles with transformative ideas developed by deep thinkers throughout history. Many people in modern times – including many with extensive formal education – have little to no understanding of the important and essential ideas that have been developed by significant thinkers in history, nor do most know how to intellectually access or assess classic texts.

In this session, we will briefly consider literary works by several distinguished thinkers throughout history and discuss how these thoughts interrelate, as well as how they connect with the conceptual tools in critical thinking. We will also explore how critical thinking tools are essential for assessing literature considered classic.




Focal Sessions VIII
3:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT


Critical Reading as Primary Vehicle for Cultivating the Intellect... Dr. Carmen Polka

Educated persons are skilled at, and routinely engage in, close reading. They do not read blindly, but purposely. They have a goal or objective they are pursuing as they read. Their purpose, together with the nature of what they are reading, determines how they read. They read differently in different situations for different purposes. Of course, reading has a nearly universal purpose: to figure out what an author has to say on a given subject.    

When we read, we translate words into meanings. The author has previously translated ideas and experiences into words. We must take those same words and re-translate them into the author’s original meaning using our own ideas and experiences as aids. Accurately translating words into intended meanings is an analytic, evaluative, and creative set of acts. Unfortunately, few students are skilled at this translation. Few are able to accurately mirror the meaning the author intended. They project their own meanings into a text. They unintentionally distort or violate the original meaning of the authors they read.

Reading, then, is a form of intellectual work. And intellectual work requires willingness to persevere through difficulties. But perhaps even more importantly, intellectual work requires understanding what such work entails. In this session you will be introduced to five levels of close reading and will work through one or two of them closely (as “students”). Accordingly, you will experience the process of critically reading significant texts, so as to better understand how to bring this process into your classrooms, and into your students’ thinking, on a typical day.


Teaching Students to Study and Learn Using the Principles of Critical Thinking ... Dr. Gerald Nosich

To study well and learn any subject is to learn how to think with discipline within that subject. It is to learn to think within its logic, to:

1. raise vital questions and problems within it, formulating them clearly and precisely. 

2. gather and assess information, using ideas to interpret that information insightfully. 

3. come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards.

4. adopt the point of view of the discipline, recognizing and assessing, as need be, its assumptions, implications, and practical consequences. 

5. communicate effectively with others using the language of the discipline and that of educated public discourse. 

6. relate what one is learning in the subject to other subjects and to what is significant in human life.  

To become a skilled learner is to become a self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinker who has given assent to rigorous standards of thought and mindful command of their use. Skilled learning of a discipline requires that one respect the power of it, as well as its, and one’s own, historical and human limitations. This session will offer strategies for helping students begin to take learning seriously.  

This session focuses on a number of instructional ideas that are based in the insight that substantive teaching and learning can occur only when students take ownership of the most basic principles and concepts of the subject. These strategies are rooted in a vision of instruction implied by critical thinking and an analysis of the weaknesses typically found in most traditional didactic lecture/quiz/test formats of instruction. This session, then, focuses on some basic instructional strategies that foster the development of student thinking, and on strategies that require students to think actively within the concepts and principles of the subject. 


For Administrators: Placing Critical Thinking at the Heart of the Institution’s Mission... Dr. Brian Barnes

Critical thinking, deeply understood, provides a rich set of concepts that enable us to think our way through any subject or discipline, as well as through any problem or issue. With a substantive concept of critical thinking clearly in mind, we begin to see the pressing need for a staff development program that fosters critical thinking within and across the curriculum. As we come to understand a substantive concept of critical thinking, we are able to follow out its implications in designing a professional development program. By means of it, we begin to see important implications for every part of the institution — redesigning policies; providing administrative support for critical thinking; rethinking the mission; coordinating and providing faculty workshops in critical thinking; redefining faculty as learners as well as teachers; assessing students, faculty, and the institution as a whole in terms of critical thinking abilities and traits. We realize that robust critical thinking should be the guiding force for all of our educational efforts. This session focuses on the importance of placing critical thinking foundations at the core of teaching and learning at all levels of the institution, and it presents a professional development model that can provide the vehicle for deep change across the institution. We will utilize Dr. Elder's article on professional development, published in Times Higher Education.




Focal Sessions IX
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. EDT


Critical Thinking Therapy: For Mental Health and Self-Actualization... Dr. Linda Elder

Critical Thinking Therapy is based in the assumption that to gain command of your life requires, first and foremost, gaining command of the thinking that is commanding your life. It uses explicit concepts in critical thinking to help individuals gain command of their emotional lives, achieve emotional well-being, and realize all of which they are capable as unique persons.

Critical Thinking Therapy stresses the importance of 1) learning the explicit tools of critical thinking for mental health, 2) understanding the complex, rapidly-changing, frequently strange world to which most humans now must adapt, 3) relying on the best thinking that has been done throughout history to address how best to live today (individually and collectively), and 4) helping clients forge the best path for their own self-fulfillment and achievement at the highest level of which they are capable.

This session discusses practical ways that current knowledge about critical thinking and mental health therapy can be integrated to promote mental well-being as well as self-realization.


Fostering Skilled Writing Using the Tools of Critical Thinking... Dr. Gerald Nosich

Educated persons skillfully, routinely engage in substantive writing. Substantive writing consists of focusing on a subject worth writing about, and then saying something worth saying about it. It also enhances our reading: whenever we read to acquire knowledge, we should write to take ownership of what we are reading. Furthermore, just as we must write to gain an initial understanding of a subject's primary ideas, so also must we write to begin thinking within the subject as a whole and making connections between ideas within and beyond it.
Quite remarkably, many people have never written in a substantive way. Instead, they have developed the habit of getting by with superficial and impressionistic writing which only obscures the purpose of writing itself. The result is that many people are blind to the ways in which writing can be used to enrich their learning and lives.

This session will explore ways of developing our abilities in substantive writing, through the tools of critical thinking, as a means for fulfilling, deep learning and communication.



Friday, July 28

Early Closing Session


12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EDT


The closing session is a time to reflect on what we’ve learned at this year’s conference, and to explore ways we can continue to develop our reasoning afterwards.



Late Closing Session


8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT


The late closing session is primarily for those who are unavailable for the first. However, those who wish to attend both sessions are welcome!