Summer Institute in Critical and Creative Thinking


July 13 - August 4, 2001
Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts, Boston

Update July 2 '01. Subject to confirmation.

Institute students can enrol in the late Spring through Continuing Education for any of the July-August CCT courses listed in the summer bulletin:

* For information on non-credit and single workshop options, contact the Program Office by phone (617 -287-6520) or email (cct@umb.edu).

** The 15 credit Graduate Certificate can be completed by taking additional CCT courses in the fall or spring semesters. Certificate students must meet the same admissions criteria as students entering the Master's program (except that a shorter statement and one letter of recommendation fewer are required) and should apply to Graduate Admissions by Aug. 15th.

Course Descriptions
CRCRTH 601
Critical Thinking
Sched. No. 701932

CrCrTh 611
Biomedical ethics (Seminar in Critical Thinking)
Sched. No. 708344
Critical thinking about dilemmas in medicine and health care policy: Allocation of scarce resources in organ transplants and managed care, informed consent, experimentation on human subjects, AIDS research, the ethics of genetic screening, and finally, euthanasia and physician assisted suicide.

CrCrTh 697
Critical and Creative Thinking in the Workplace
Sched. No. 709653
The goal of this course is to improve the ability of students working in business, schools, social change groups, and other organizations to take initiative and generate constructive change. Through interactive, experiential sessions students are introduced to and then practice using critical and creative approaches to communication, team-building, facilitating participation and collaboration in groups, promoting learning from a diversity of perspectives, problem-finding and solving, and reflective practice. This course is presented in 3 two-day workshops: 1. Effective Teambuilding; 2. Large Group Collaborative Design; and 3. Diversity Awareness.
Schedule numbers for for-credit single workshop options: 1. 708414; 2. 708428; 3. 708442.
Schedule numbers for not-for-credit single workshop options: 1. 3136151; 2. 3171151; 3. 3170151.


Workshop Descriptions
Critical and Creative Thinking in the Workplace
EFFECTIVE TEAMBUILDING
Allyn Bradford, Critical & Creative Thinking Program, U. Mass Boston
This workshop introduces creative communication strategies for teamwork that really addresses workplace problems and issues. Through simulations of typical organizational situations you develop skills in giving and getting feedback, presenting your ideas and opinions, and ensuring shorter and more productive meetings. The course takes the form of a two day interactive, experiential workshop, which will make you more aware of your communication style, its effect on others, and options for improvement.

LARGE GROUP COLLABORATIVE DESIGN: MANAGING COMPLEXITY
Tom Flanagan, College of Business, U. Mass Boston & Kevin M. C. Dye
Complex planning under conditions of limited resources is not a new challenge. Historically, however, such types of planning has been authored by experts with deep generic understanding of the problem. Such plans, once sufficiently developed, are then typically brought forward to the public for review and endorsement. This model is no longer working as reliably as it formerly had. The public has increased access to information and a decreased reliance on the infallibility of experts. For this reason, many planning activities have been opened up for a broader and more direct public input. The public input is also being solicited earlier in the design process. While these are admittedly promising trends, the new challenge has become how to manage the dialog. In this workshop, participants will engage a process for dialog management. The dialog will be focused on a socially and technically complex design challenge --"defining the requirements for effectively managing collaborative design of sociotechnically complex systems." Participants will come away with both a deeper systematic understanding of the dialog management challenge, an experientially understanding of one approach for managing that challenge, and a network of individuals who are engaged in a shared management challenge.

DIVERSITY AWARENESS
Renae Gray, The Algebra Project
Participants in this workshop experience and learn approaches aimed at enabling groups and organizations to: become more diverse; address tensions arising from lack of awareness of differences and inequalities; and undertake coalition work that dismantle traditional barriers. Dimensions of diversity addressed include race, class, gender, and sexuality.