Critical & Creative Thinking Graduate Program

Annual report to CAPS & Graduate Studies, 2012-13

by Peter Taylor, Program Director, 15 June 2013

Overarching Goals for '12-13

A. Support the intellectual, professional, and personal development of CCT and other students, through teaching, advising, mentoring, a coherent program of study, and community building that extends to include alums.

B. Attract applicants to CCT and advise them through to matriculation.

C. Establish sustainable, non-exploitative operations and planning.

Numbers

Since the last annual report (i.e., from June ’12 – May ’13):

4 M.A. students matriculated.

8 students graduated with M.A.’s and 4 with Certificates.

2 M.A. students and 2 Certificate students withdrew; 1 transferred to another UMB program, leaving 17 continuing M.A. students, 4 of who have completed all course work but not their capstone.

7 applicants have been admitted so far for fall ’13 matriculation, all but one online.

Through regular, online, other UC, and cross-listed sections and a cross-campus course, CCT instructors served 241 course registrations in CCT and SICW courses, made up of 73% non-CCT to 27% CCT students. 49% of these registrations were in sections taught by core CCT faculty and the UC-funded assistant program coordinators; 51% were taught by part-timers through UC. The total number of registrations is a 16% decrease on the previous year (back to the level of AY 10-11, but still yielding positive net revenue for CAPS).

Strengths and Challenges (reframing weaknesses and threats as challenges)

1C. One challenge for CCT is having only one regular faculty member dedicated to CCT, Peter Taylor, especially challenging when he is away from UMass (as he was this fall on a Fulbright fellowship in Portugal) or has other administrative responsibilities (see 4C).

This year this challenge was both lessened with another faculty member directing LTET and increased when the 50% staff person serving the Science in a Changing World track took up a full-time position elsewhere.

1S. A strength of CCT lies in incubating innovations in pedagogy[1], reflective practice, program documentation on the internet, alum involvement[2], and planning that makes the most of limited resources.

A major area of development this AY has been in “hybrid” courses that bring students from a distance (and Peter Taylor from Portugal) into regular face-to-face sessions. The Inter-college Seminar on Humanities and Sciences continued both semesters, hosted by CCT with support from CAPS.[3] See also “Collaborative Explorations” in 5S.

Other CCT strengths lie in its partnerships:

2S. Since 1980 CLA departments of Philosophy and Psychology have each maintained a 50% teaching commitment to CCT.

3S. For a decade CAPS (CCDE/UC) has been the primary or sole source of funds for CCT courses (other than those taught by the regular faculty), as well as for program assistants, honoraria for guests to classes, publicity and promotion, and outreach activities. CCT’s formal home became CAPS effective 9/1/2013, with a view to a) enhanced promotion of the Program and b) the possibility of hiring a second full-time faculty member after Prof. Smith retires, probably at the end of AY 13-14.

4S. CCT courses have always served students from CEHD (GCE) and other programs, which has allowed CCT to offer a wider range of electives to its own students and, more recently, more online sections. Since 2009 students from the LTET (non-licensure) M.Ed. program (formerly Track A) have become the majority of students in CCT courses.[4]

5S. Since 1999 alums have been drawn into series of regular events[5], with participation, recordings and documentation online, monthly news bulletins[6], and, more recently, into online forums[7]. This spring CCT initiated month-long “Collaborative Explorations” that bring together small groups of students, alums, and others to dig deeper into topics and make “thicker” connections with other learners that is typical in MOOCs.[8]

The corresponding challenges from those same partnerships:

2C. The CCT faculty from CLA have leadership roles in CLA that limit involvement in (but not support of) Program development and outreach. The CLA faculty in CCT are nearing retirement.

3C. a) Finding the right form of Program promotion through CAPS that translates into applications; and b) getting a second full-time faculty member hired through CAPS.

4C. CEHD priorities and resources are typically directed towards licensure programs and accreditation and program faculty periodically have to address changes they did not initiate. Since 2008 LTET has depended for its continuation on Peter Taylor co/directing it (or serving as a backup to the LTET director) in addition to his CCT leadership role. This AY LTET has continued on uncertain grounds as the new Department chair considers changes that might reduce the role of CCT courses.

5C. Adapting community-building to address the growing proportion of online students (see “collaborative explorations” under 5S).

Looking forward

Overarching Goals A-C continue for 2013-14 (see above).

Goal C may be elusive until there is a second full-time faculty member dedicated to CCT, so this is major goal #1 for the next year.

Major goal #2 is to sustain or increase the admissions for fall ’13 into the spring and beyond (Goal B). If successful—and if LTET preserves the role of CCT offerings—overall registration in CCT courses can continue to provide net revenue for CAPS (see goal #1).

In light of the increasing proportion of online students, major goal #3 is for the Program to continue to develop its hybrid courses and to take stock of its long-standing community-building activities and its newer initiatives (Goal A).

Major goal #4 is to see whether Collaborative Explorations can grow, building community among alums and online students as well as drawing attention to the Program and eventually yielding more applicants.

[1] For some years CCT had run a writing support group each semester rather than refer students to the GWC, but this has become incorporated into the capstone seminar. Students who do not complete their capstone in one semester are invited to join the writer’s workshop and writing support group components of the seminar.

[4] Indeed, just before the site visits for the 2010-11 AQUAD reviews for both programs, the CEHD & GS Deans suggested that the reviews be combined. In the end they were kept separate, but the post-AQUAD partnership became closer (see Peter Taylor’s role under 4C).