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Spring 2010 Workshop Strands

March 20 and 21st, 2010 at the

Berkeley Doubletree Marina, Berkeley, California

 Download the Printable Flyer (PDF Format) for this event

Critical thinking concepts and tools are the essential core of all well-conceived instruction. They define the ultimate goals of education. Taking ownership of these goals is the crucial first step in educational reform. The second step consists in contextualizing the goals. This entails creating strategies for bringing critical thinking into the teaching of every subject.  Accordingly, each of our spring workshops focuses on internalizing and contextualizing critical thinking concepts and principles as detailed in the session descriptions below.

For more than a quarter century, the Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking have been working together to bring about essential change in education through the cultivation of fairminded critical thinking.  Each year we offer workshops and conferences to advance this important goal.  Our spring workshops provide an opportunity for you to learn or deepen your understanding of the foundations of critical thinking and to contextualize them in your work or teaching.  Critical societies are created one person, one teacher, one professor, one administrator at a time.

We hope you join us. 

Choose one of the three sessions described below, the same session for both days.  Registration is 8:00-9:00 am on Saturday March 20.  Sessions are 9:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. Please see downloadable schedule at the bottom of this page.  We encourage groups to attend; please see group rates when you register.
 

Hotel Information

This Event has Concluded


Choose one of the following three workshops when registering:



Integrating a Comprehensive Understanding of Critical Thinking into Effective Design for Teaching and Learning Academic Content… Richard Paul

 
The most effective way to understand any “whole” is through its “parts.” The most effective way to understand any “part” is through its function in the “whole.” So too for critical thinking. In this session, Richard Paul will use his 30 years of scholarship and activism to help participants put the parts of critical thinking together in a practical holistic way. Participants should expect to come away from the session with a richer understanding of the theory and practice of critical teaching and learning.



Placing a Robust Framework for Critical Thinking At the Heart Of Your Institution’s Mission, Accreditation or Reaccreditation Process… Linda Elder

 
Critical thinking is not an isolated goal unrelated to other important goals in education. Rather, it is a seminal goal which, done well, simultaneously facilitates a rainbow of other ends. It is best conceived, therefore, as the hub around which all other educational ends cluster. For example, as students learn to think more critically, they become more proficient at historical, scientific, and sociological thinking. They develop skills, abilities, and values critical to success in everyday life. All of this assumes, of course, that those who teach have a solid grounding in critical thinking and in the teaching strategies essential to it.
 
To develop a deep understanding of the foundations of critical thinking involves a long-term approach to learning and applying those foundations. Faculty in a long range professional development program come to recognize explicitly that critical thinking is not just one of many divergent educational aims, but is rather a way of teaching and learning at a high level of effectiveness.  This workshop will thus focus on a substantive, robust framework for critical thinking and how it can be placed at the heart of the institution’s mission, accreditation, or reaccreditation process. A long-term approach to staff development will be emphasized.



Approaching Students as Thinkers; Cultivating the Intellect

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 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. However, thinking is often ignored in schooling (and indeed in society). Historically critical thinking has 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. Critical thinking 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. However, we can’t foster critical thinking if we don’t understand it ourselves. Realizing that we cannot deal with all of the theory of critical thinking in one weekend, this workshop will emphasize some of the foundations of critical thinking. We focus on initial internalization of these foundations, coupled with application to classroom structures, lessons and strategies. Participants will develop some modest initial plans for redesigning instruction with critical thinking at its foundation, and most importantly they will acquire a plan for continuing their own development as thinkers and teachers.



Registration Information

Hotel Information     REGISTER ONLINE NOW

Spring 2010 Workshops in Critical Thinking Cost Per Person

EVENT OPTIONS: 
IF PAID AFTER Feb 20 2010 and BEFORE Mar 01 2010

1 Person 2-3 people 4-6 People 7 or More
Spring 2010 Workshop Series $440.00 $410.00 $380.00 $295.00
EVENT OPTIONS: 
IF PAID AFTER Mar 01 2010 and BEFORE Mar 21 2010
1 Person 2-3 people 4-6 People 7 or More
Spring 2010 Workshop Series (late registration) $470.00 $440.00 $410.00 $325.00


Files available for download  »
  • 09-043 academy fly_07.pdf



  • Files available for download  »
  • Spring '10 Schedule.doc





  • 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.