News2016September
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston28 September 2016
Student Matters
New and ongoing MA students in the CCT program are encouraged to review the background and requirements for the Reflective Practice and Metacognitive Portfolios (use your umb.edu account to log in), which are developed throughout the course of study. You can also see examples of how the portfolios have been developed by past students.
See http://www.cct.umb.edu/rpp/. The instructor of each course typically indicates which assignments are most appropriate for inclusion in your ongoing portfolio or may be able to recommend one during the course term.
Spring 2017 course offerings will include the following. Look for announcements about schedule and registration in later weeks.
CRCRTH 602 Creative Thinking
CRCRTH 615 Transformative & Holistic Teaching
CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes
CRCRTH 652 Conceptual Change and Learning (formerly: Children and Science)
CRCRTH 653 Epidemiological Thinking (subject to confirmation)
CRCRTH 688 Reflective Practice
CRCRTH 693 Action Research for Professional, Educational, and Personal Change
CRCRTH 694 Synthesis of Theory and Practice
Changing Life: Genes, Ecologies, and Texts (co-taught by Peter Taylor through a cross-campus consortium)
CCT Community
CCT Events
Fall 2016 Dialogues on Reflective Practice in a Changing World
Participate on campus or online.
Next Event: Wednesday, October 5, 7:00-8:30pm ET, UMass Boston, Integrated Sciences Complex building, first floor, conference room 1200
Online participation through Google+ Hangout: RSVP cct@umb.edu for instructions.
Theme: Reflective Practice in Times of Crisis
Organized by the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking, University of Massachusetts Boston
For more information: cct@umb.edu
Please join us for one or more of these dialogues, free and open to the public.
Reflective Practice is relevant to any field -- education, health care, organizational leadership, arts, and sciences, activism and many others. It refers to ways that people continually develop or change the practices that they use in their workplaces, schools, and lives. Through reflection, we examine our experiences and seek to understand how they can guide us to make those changes. In this series of participatory dialogues, we'll explore together how we might then relate our individual directions to the bigger picture -- the changing world around us.
The sessions use a Dialogue Process format, centered around a 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 us as developing reflective practitioners. The goal is that learning emerges directly from the discussion among all participants, rather than through presentation or lecture. See the full description for this theme, "Reflective Practice in Times of Crisis".
Upcoming Themes (see future newsletters for details in advance of each theme):
- Thursday. November 10, 5:00-6:30: Reflective Practice for Civic Engagement
- Wednesday. December 7, 7:00-8:30: Reflective Practice for Lifelong Learning
Intersecting Processes: New England Workshop on Science and Social Change 2017
8am Sat May 27-4pm Tues. May 30, 2017; Location: Old Fire Station, Woods Hole MA, USA
(a limited number can participate from a distance via Google+ Hangout)
Apply: http://bit.ly/NewSSCa (priority to those who apply by January 15)
Organizer: Peter J. Taylor, University of Massachusetts Boston, Science in a Changing World graduate track, http://www.cct.umb.edu/sicw.html
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 "intersecting processes." Taylor and García Barrios (1995; following Wolf 1982, 387 ) introduced the term to capture the ways that social and environmental change involves processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales and drawing on elements as diverse as the local climate and geo-morphology, social norms, work relations, and national political economic policy. Such intersecting processes are interlinked in the production of any outcome and in their own on-going transformation. An equivalent picture fits the changing structures we face in many areas, such as biomedicine and epidemiology, agriculture and ecological restoration, political economy and mental illness, science and social theory, project-based learning and fostering creativity. To understand such complexity requires our attention to the ways the intersecting processes transgress boundaries and restructure “internal” dynamics, thus ensuring that the situations do not have clearly defined boundaries and are not simply governed by coherent, internally driven dynamics. Engaging with some complexity invites agents to link "transversally" across different kinds of agents and scale, not to focus on one class or place or dynamic....full description.
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Jane LaChance continues to develop her practice around health and well-being and offers Tour Guides for Health, which uses a "
holistically based; mind-body-spirit approach with recognition of our natural capacity to heal". To learn more about Jane's work, please see her web site.
Luanne Witkowski (CCT graduate '02 and Creative Thinking instructor) recently exhibited her work at the South End Open Studios in Boston. Luanne frequently exhibits her work at the Hutson Gallery in Boston.
Events
UMass Boston, partnering with the Boston Globe and WBUR radio, is hosting a series of November 8th election debates related to Massachusetts state issues. For schedules of upcoming debates and recordings of previous debates, see the links below.
The debates will be conducted each Tuesday as part of WBUR's "Radio Boston" program, from 3 to 4 p.m., before a live audience in the McCormack Theatre on the UMass Boston campus. The debates will also be broadcast live on WBUR radio and live-streamed by the sponsors at bostonglobe.com, wbur.org, and umb.edu.
Tuesday, September 13 - Question 2: would raise the cap on charter schools
Tuesday, September 20 - Question 3: would regulate the treatment of farm animals
Tuesday, September 27 - Question 1: would allow for an additional slots gambling parlor
Tuesday, October 4 - Question 4: would legalize the recreational use of marijuana
2:30 p.m. Doors open, 2:45 p.m. Doors close, 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Live broadcast
UMB 3rd Annual Diversity Month (October) events
Talks, film screenings, diversity fair, and other events at UMass Boston during October 2016, open to the campus and greater community. Full schedule of programs available here.
including:
Diversity in the Workplace: a panel discussion among UMB alumni
Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 6:00-8:30pm, UMass Boston, University Hall 2nd floor, room 2330
Questions to be addressed include the following:
-How do gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation present challenges and opportunities in professional life?
-How does diversity of thought enrich the workplace?
-Does your identity change at work?
Register here.
IDEAS Boston
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at UMass Boston
Provocative and inspiring talks moderated by journalist Callie Crossley, with speakers from several organizations throughout the day and luncheon discussion panel with the Boston Globe Spotlight Team (Scott Allen, Sacha Pfeiffer, Todd Wallack)
To register and for more details, see the full description.
Opportunities
Position for Hire: Executive Director, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
"The Executive Director’s primary responsibility will be to develop and implement a comprehensive fundraising strategy in support of CMind. The Executive Director will be responsible for front-line work, proposal writing, developing strategic long-term and annual fundraising plans, evaluating progress of goals, and cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major gifts and donors. They will establish and maintain cooperative relationships with appropriate individuals and groups in the contemplative practice community as well as with corporations, foundations, and donors." Read more, and to apply, see the position description.
Proposals Sought for 2017 Teaching Professor Conference
(held June 2-4, 2017 at the Marriott St. Louis Grand, St. Louis, MO)
See more details on the Call for Proposals
http://www.magnapubs.com/2017-teaching-professor-conference/call-for-proposals.html
Deadline for proposal submissions is Saturday, October 31st, 2016.
The Teaching Professor Conference is three intensive days of plenary sessions, preconference workshops, concurrent sessions, poster presentations, and more.
For educators who are passionate about the art and science of teaching, there is no better forum for an exhilarating exchange of ideas with your colleagues. We are now accepting proposals for sessions and poster sessions! The Teaching Professor Conference is known for attracting a roster of high-quality, engaging presenters; that’s why we’re asking you to be a part of next year’s event. If you have previously submitted a proposal for past conferences, we sincerely ask you to submit again. And if you have never submitted a proposal for a session or poster session, we ask that you seriously consider this opportunity to share your expertise at the conference.
Featured topical areas are:
Topical Area 1: Instructional Design
Topical Area 2: Active Learning Assignments and Activities
Topical Area 3: Teaching Specific Types of Students
Topical Area 4: Instructional Vitality: Ways to Keep Teaching Fresh and Invigorated
Topical Area 5: Teaching and Learning with Technology
Topical Area 6: Grading and Feedback
Topical Area 7: Faculty Development
Resources
New Book: Productivity for Creative People
by Mark McGuinness (Lateral Action)
How to get creative work done in an “always on” world -- this newly published book is available for free (ebook edition). See the full description for more about the book and where to find it for free online.
Breakthrough Greater Boston is one of over 25 sites of the national Breakthrough Collaborative, a unique dual-mission organization with a proven track record in both college access and teacher training. Through six years of intensive, tuition-free, out of school time programming, Breakthrough changes students' academic trajectories and supports them along the path to four-year college. Simultaneously, BTGB builds the next generation of teachers through competitive recruitment of college students, research-based training, and coaching from master teachers. In 2013, after two decades of success in Cambridge, Breakthrough expanded into Dorchester with its home base at TechBoston Academy. See more information in the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i13BDikKxpE
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
Street artist playing Hallelujah with crystal glasses
To Read:
Morning Pages: How writing 750 words a day could change your life
6-Year-Old Painting Prodigy and Her Therapy Cat Continue to Inspire with Their Creative Memoir
Linda Elder: Is critical thinking valued in our society? Who even knows what it is?
Listen to the world's OLDEST song: Ancient melody was recreated from hymn cut into clay tablets dating back to 1400 BC
A philosopher’s 350-year-old trick to get people to change their minds is now backed up by psychologists
Deep Work: The Secret Weapon Your Organization Isn’t Using
6 Math Concepts Explained by Knitting and Crochet
New Partnerships Announced to Promote Creative Placemaking
October 28 is Arts Matter Day: Celebrate Arts and Culture Across MA
15 Little Things To Do When You’re In A Career Funk
The Region Where The Most Creative Americans Live Might Surprise You
UC Irvine Accidentally Invents a Battery that Lasts Forever (Joins Play-Doh and champagne as the world’s best unintended innovations)
Two things native English speakers know, but don’t know you know
How to Think Like Shakespeare
David Lynch on Where Great Ideas Come From
We’ve been wrong about the origins of life for 90 years
Mistakes Grow Your Brain
Transformative Learning through Social Entrepreneurship at Community Colleges
Netherlands on brink of banning sale of petrol-fuelled cars
The End of Meaningless Jobs Will Unleash the World’s Creativity
Artist Peter Doig Says He Didn't Paint This, And A Judge Agrees
How Digital Copyright Law Is Being Used to Run Roughshod Over Repairs
Humor
Hilarious New Yorker Cartoons About Life, Death, And Everything In-between