CCTNetwork7Mar2016Activity

1. Introduction

The theme for the March event is "The Teaching of Critical and Creative Thinking". Specifically, we'll consider the issue of how the teaching of critical and creative thinking works in environments of polarized thinking -- where it seems that individuals or groups are taking extreme positions, or where differences are emphasized over similarities, or where compromise or flexibility are perceived as a signs of weakness or indecision. Here, we are suggesting that there are aspects of one-sided or polarized thinking that create challenges -- those that get in the way of solving important problems, achieving social justice, enabling individual fulfillment of potential.

2. Exploring Polarized Thinking and the Teaching of Critical and Creative Thinking

The following items are just a few approaches, perspectives, or tools of teaching critical and creative thinking that may address the issue of polarized thinking. Take some time to explore these, or others that you know, and think about how they form a potential for learning, extending critical and creative learning, and for people to become "reflective practitioners".

• Paul and Elder's concept of the "Fairminded Critical Thinker"; see page 4 in: http://www.criticalthinking.org/files/SAM_Aspiring_Thinkers_GuideOPT.pdf
• Peter Elbow's Methodological Believing and Doubting; summary: https://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/ideas/believing.html; full article: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=eng_faculty_pubs
• AnxietyBC's toolbox for "balanced thinking": http://www.anxietybc.com/parenting/tools/balanced-thinking
• Lukianoff and Haidt's Atlantic article on "The Coddling of the American Mind": http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/
• Carol Dweck's growth/fixed mindset (and another article)
• William Hare's idea of the "Open-Minded Inquirer": https://philosophynow.org/issues/47/Assessing_Ones_Own_Open-Mindedness
• Lucie Parker, "How to build students' resilience to extremism": http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/how-to-build-students-resilience-to-extremism-1/
  • and a longer report developed for the UK's Department for Education on "Teaching Approaches that Help to Build Resilience to Extremism Among Young People"

Breakout rooms (for those online if wanting to have small-group discussions):
Main room
Breakout room 1
Breakout room 2
Breakout room 3

3. Focused Conversation

A Focused Conversation is an method for having a discussion that supports a group to reflect upon and understand a situation or experience. The discussion involves a structured use of questions to help explore some of the ways that the participants in the group might have overlapping as well as differing perspectives. Through the discussion, the participants learn by listening and considering the range of views. (Source: Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs, Technology of Participation(TOP) method [see Stanfield, B., & Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs. (2000). The art of focused conversation: 100 ways to access group wisdom in the workplace. Gabriola Island, B.C: New Society Publishers.])

By using the Focused Conversation, we move through 4 levels of discussion, with the idea that we try to address one level before the following ones. By doing this, we help to avoid "jumping to conclusions" or simply restating our existing position; instead, we listen for new ideas, reflect on the origins of our thinking, and establish common understandings first. The Focused Conversation gets us to examine a depth of possibility before deciding, once and for all, what is true.

==Objective (General idea: What can be said objectively about this topic/what has been observed directly/what are the facts, non-disputable realities?)

• What are some of the words, phrases, or comments that you've heard that relate to polarized thinking or extreme views?
• What recent key global, national, or local events or news stories relate to this topic?
• What are some of the actions and responses to those actions that you've observed that might be influenced by polarized thinking?
• What practices or approaches in the teaching of critical and creative thinking are currently being used to address situations where people take on extreme views and continue to hold them?

==Reflective (What does this all mean to me? Why is this relevant to my life?)

• What stands out for you when you remember your own learning environments and how they shaped your views?
• What is your own reaction and feelings about the way things are going? What really concerns you?
• What gives you hope?

==Interpretive (What does it all mean? What are the implications? What is really happening?)

• What are the results of polarized thinking (on any scale)?
• What does polarized thinking have to do with the way that people identify as part of a group or community? What happens when people quickly accept or reject the dominant view of a group?
• WAre there situations in which polarized thinking can be beneficial, even valuable?
• What is the responsibility of the educational system to teach critical and creative thinking with a specific goal of addressing polarized thinking?
• Are the existing methods for teaching critical and creative thinking missing anything when it comes to addressing this issue?
• What patterns or trends are emerging?

==Decisional (What should I/we do now? What are actions that might be taken?)

• What else might schools, communities, families, governments, do to encourage flexible thinking?
• What are some ways to continue to support learners, particularly young people, to recognize and manage polarized thinking?
• How might we take advantage of the current state of things to teach critical and creative thinking?
• What other questions need to be asked?