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Our Team of Presenters

Below is a list of Foundation for Critical Thinking Fellows and Scholars.

Scholars are critical thinking practitioners who have worked with us over a number of years and shown an extraordinary degree of dedication to internalizing critical thinking principles and concepts, as well as having shown an uncommon capacity for teaching these principles and concepts to others.

Fellows are critical thinking theoreticians and develop original critical thinking theory. They write and publish articles, books, and guides on critical thinking and its applications, and they lead the way in fostering a defensible concept of critical thinking in their work.

Those interested in becoming Scholars should first seek critical thinking certification at Levels 1 and Level 2. This opens new opportunities to work with us, through which our Fellows can consider one's candidacy for Scholar status. This latter part of the process does not depend on fixed, quantitative outcomes, but is more organic, with a focus on identifying and shoring up areas of application in which the potential scholar still needs significant improvement.

For brief biographies on our presenters, please click on the links below. For our presenters' availability and honoraria, please call our office (+1 707 878 9100 or +1 800 833 3645) or email cct@criticalthinking.org.

For more information about our professional development programs, please visit our professional development pages.

Dr. Linda Elder
Senior Fellow
Dr. Gerald Nosich
Senior Fellow


Dr. Paul Bankes
Scholar
Dr. Brian Barnes
Scholar
Dr. Carmen Polka
Scholar
Dr. Linda Tym
Scholar


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.