News2016August
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston19 August 2016
Student Matters
CCT New and Returning Student Orientation (on campus/online)
Thursday, September 22, 5:00-6:30pm
UMass Boston, Wheatley Hall 4th floor, Room W04-170. Online participation via Google+ Hangout.
RSVP: cct@umb.edu
All students are invited to join this informal event and meet other students and faculty and get to know more about the CCT program and community. The event will include a discussion and examples of the Reflective Practitioner's Portfolio as well as other ways to explore what happens through the Critical and Creative Thinking program. Those attending on campus are welcome to bring a small potluck food item to share, and those online can participate by joining the Google+ Hangout video conference.
Registration continues for fall 2016 courses. Spaces remain in most courses for continuing and non-degree students. Most fall courses are hybrid format, where face-to-face students attend on campus, and online students join class meetings via web conference. See more information about registration and course descriptions.
CRCRTH 601 Critical Thinking. Sept. 15-Dec. 15, Thursdays 7:00-9:45pm. Wheatley 4-170. Face-to-face students: register for class #14047; online students register for class #6915).
CRCRTH 603L Foundations of Philosophical Thought. Sept. 13-Dec.13, Tuesdays 4:00-6:45pm. Wheatley 4-170. Face-to-face students: register for class #12553; online students register for class #6916).
CRCRTH 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change. Sept. 12-Dec.12, Mondays 7:00-9:45pm, Wheatley 4-170. Face-to-face students: register for class #14048; online students register for class #6917).
CRCRTH 655 Metacognition. Sept. 12-Dec. 12, Mondays 4:00-6:45pm, Synchronous online (all participants join online each week, although it is still possible to register for either the face-to-face or online section). Face-to-face students: register for class #12550; online students register for class #6919).
CRCRTH 688 Reflective Practice. Sept. 12-Dec. 12, Occasional Monday meetings, Rm. TBA (9/12, 10/3, 11/7, 12/5) with most weeks involving asynchronous work. Face-to-face students: register for class #12552; online students register for class #6920).
CRCRTH 692 Processes of Research and Engagement. Sept. 13-Dec. 13, Tuesdays 7:00-9:45pm, Wheatley 4-170. Face-to-face students: register for class #14049; online students register for class #6921).
CCT Community
A new paper has been released from the CCT program: Slow EdTech: Pedagogical principles, collaborative explorations, and persistent challenges. (Taylor, Sullivan, Szteiter). The paper describes program initiatives to develop capacities for learning with a mindful approach to the use of digital tools, such as recent organization of Collaborative Explorations.
CCT Events
Workshop: Impossible to Simply Continue Along Previous Lines: Changing Life in Times of Crisis
Location: Arlington MA, USA (and room for a limited number to participate from a distance via Google+ Hangout)
Dates: Saturday, 8 October 2016 at 8.30am to Tuesday 11 October at 5pm (preceded by a cookout from 6.30pm on Friday the 7th)
Website: http://sicw.wikispaces.com/newssc16a
Organized by Peter J. Taylor, University of Massachusetts Boston, Science in a Changing World graduate track as part of the New England Workshop on Science and Social Change (NewSSC).
Description: In this four-day workshop participants will create spaces, interactions, and support in formulating plans to extend our own projects of inquiry and engagement around "changing life in times of crisis." As indicated below, a wide range of projects might fit under this intentionally broad topic; these need not directly related to science and society. Activities will, as they have at NewSSC since 2004, build on what the particular group of participants contribute and employ a range of tools and processes for "connecting, probing, and reflecting" so as to support and learn from each others' inquiries...read more
Apply: http://bit.ly/NewSSCa. Applications are sought from teachers, researchers, graduate students, and activists who are interested in facilitating discussion, reflection, avid learning, and clarifying one's identity and affinities in relation to the workshop topic. The workshop format will allow for a limited number of participants over the internet. Newcomers and return participants are welcome. Registration (sliding scale of $125-300) covers meal costs, but not accommodation.
Fall 2016 Dialogues on Reflective Practice in a Changing World
Participate in person, or online through Google Hangout
organized by the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking, University of Massachusetts Boston
For more information or to RSVP: cct@umb.edu
Themes (see future newsletters for details in advance of each theme):
- Wednesday. October 5, 7:00-8:30: Reflective Practice in Times of Crisis
- Thursday. November 10, 5:00-6:30: Reflective Practice for Civic Engagement
- Wednesday. December 7, 7:00-8:30: Reflective Practice for Lifelong Learning
Through the use of a Dialogue Process format, these events involve group discussion where participants hear what others are saying and take a turn to speak when they are ready, and where the discussion emphasizes listening well, sharing thoughts-in-progress, and raising questions to help us get clear in supporting our own development as reflective practitioners. The learning emerges from the discussion itself, rather than through presentation or lecture.
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Suzanne Clark (CCT '02, and instructor of CCT course Seminar in Creativity) has collaborated with the Berklee International Radio Network (Berlee U, Boston) to create And in the End, a new type of show that features music from students in three courses that she teaches at Berklee themed around the Beatles: The Music of the Beatles, Solo Careers of the Beatles and The Music of John Lennon. The live sessions (July 31 and August 6) were also videotaped and will be available on the BIRN's Youtube Channel after the show airs. In addition, the show includes a round table discussion hosted by Suzanne where students talk about their songs and their experiences in these classes.
Events
University of Massachusetts Boston Fall Convocation
Thursday, September 15, 2016, 9:00am.
UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom
Chancellor's Address, Keith Motley, UMass Boston Chancellor: Vision for UMass for the 2016-17 Year (9:00am)
Guest Speaker, Mass. Secretary of Education James A. Peyser (11:00am).
See the full announcement for more details and to register.
Feminisms Unbound
This Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS) initiative, Feminisms Unbound, is an annual event series featuring debates that focus on feminist concerns, theories, and practices in this contemporary moment. This series is intended to foster conversations and community among Boston-area feminist intellectuals and activists. The series, in its open configuration, endeavors to allow the greatest measure of engagement across multiple disciplinary trajectories, and a full array of feminist investments. See the web site for this series and other events for more details and registration information.
Black Women and the Carceral State: Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 5:30-7:30 PM
Sexual Collisions: Reflections on Empire, Terror, and Violence: Wednesday, October 26th: 5:30-7:30 PM
Trans/Multi/Mediations: February 15, 2017: 5:30-7:30 PM
Graduate Student Roundtable: Wednesday, April 12th: 5:30-7:30 PM
The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (the GCWS) is pleased to announce a new pilot program for the 2016-2017 academic year: Graduate-level Micro-Seminars in topics in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The GCWS micro-seminars are five-week, un-graded reading, writing, and discussion-based graduate seminars that explore feminist, queer, or other gender and sexuality related lines of inquiry. They provide students and instructors the opportunity to delve deeply into ideas not encountered in existing courses at their home institutions. Read more about this program at the web site.
Eligibility and Application: Seminars are open to member institution graduate students, seniors in WGS or a related major, and to faculty. Priority enrollment will be given to graduate students. The deadline for fall 2016 micro-seminar applications is September 1st. Apply here.
Opportunities
International Fall Fellows Academy on Critical Thinking
October 10-14, 2016, Marshall, California.
Organized by the Foundation for Critical Thinking
More information and registration: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/international-fellows-academy-fall-2016/1239
This experience will focus on using first principles of critical thinking as a core of curriculum develop, helping students to see content as a mode of thinking. This event counts toward fulfilling the prerequisites for becoming certified in the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking. Read more...
The NEA Foundation offers grants to NEA members looking to improve achievement of students in U.S. public schools. Individuals may review eligibility requirements and application procedures here. Educators may also be interested in reviewing their recent announcement on "11 Awesome Education Grants to Apply for This Summer".
Resources
The Worldwide Headquarters of the International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment has recently moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. This organization manages the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project, an initiative to design and install clean-burning and efficient wood-burning stoves and solar panel-based electrical systems in the homes of pastoral people in the developing world. For more information, see their web site.
Lawrence Busch, Department of Sociology at Michigan State University has released a new book soon, Real Myths = False Truths: Securing America's Future. Busch explores a number of contemporary issues and how previous solutions have evoked myths that get in the way of progress, and he suggests policies that might help get beyond the myths. For more information, see his web site.
Pre-publication discounts are still available on upcoming book Teaching the Whole Teen: Everyday Practices That Promote Success and Resilience in School and Life, by Rachel Poliner and Jeffrey Benson. See the publisher's page for more details and to order.
Cindy Wider, co-founder of DrawPj.com, has inspired CCTers and others to learn how to draw using her creative method. To learn more about her principle and vision for teaching people to use their natural drawing abilities, see her introductory videos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Food for Thought
(additional web links and posts can also be found on CCT's Diigo pages. General critical and creative thinking focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccreflect; Science in a Changing World focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/sicwumb)
To Watch
What Does a Drummer’s Brain Look Like?
Proof of evolution that you can find on your body
To Read:
Why Making and the Arts Need Each Other to Survive and Thrive in Schools
My Education in Climate-Denial Jujitsu
Are we living in a social economy, or a precarious one?
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
When You Don’t Have a Traditional Job, This Is How You Get Creative
How to be Radically Open-Minded (in times of exponential change and innovation)
Native American Activism: 1960s to Today
Coming to You Soon: Uber U
Must science be testable? String wars among physicists have highlighted just how much science needs philosophy
Norway considers giving mountain to Finland as 100th birthday present
Secrets to a Successful Creative Road Trip
Brainstorm Questions, Not Solutions
Teaching kids empathy: In Danish schools, it’s … well, it’s a piece of cake
Scientific Secrets To Keep Kids In College
Weighing the Strengths and Shortcomings of China’s Education System
The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland
The college debt crisis is even worse than you think
Leo Tolstoy’s theory of everything: Before writing some of the greatest novels in history, Tolstoy asked some of philosophy's hardest questions
The federal government should buy coal plants, shut them down and pay to retrain their employees
Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" of America
These 15 Projects Are Solving the World’s Toughest Education Problems
Wonderfully Offbeat Assignments That Artist John Baldessari Gave to His Art Students (1970)
Metacognition: The Key to Teaching Students Transformative Learning Strategies (Presentation by Dr. Saundra McGuire)
Why Digital Reading Is No Substitute for Print
Fascinating graphics show who owns all the major brands in the world
To Improve Teaching, Look to Professional Tennis
Humor
Fooling Penn and Teller