Summer 2010 Courses in Critical and Creative Thinking


Registration process for non-matriculated students who are welcome to enroll any of the June-August CCT courses. Matriculated students register, as usual, using WISER. (Summer 2010 is semester "1940".)
You can use these course to work towards a Graduate Certificate or MA degree, or participate for the pleasure of thinking and reflecting with others.
The 15 credit Graduate Certificate can be completed by taking additional CCT courses in the fall or spring semesters (including online options). 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 612
Seminar in Creative Thinking
Theme: "Inside the Creative Process: Exploring Blocks and Finding Creative Ground"
Suzanne Clark, Assoc. Prof. Berklee College
ONLINE, June 1-Aug 26, Class #1360
The creative process is a journey through your inner world, where sights along the way are channeled into a product and eventually are shared with the outer world. Because it is a process that relies on self-perceptions, self-truths, beliefs and values, it implies that a system be in place in order to acquire, express and ultimately share this self-knowledge. The personal nature of this process can give rise to creative works, yet at the same time, it can become the weight that causes a fracture in the process. This course will examine the tensions that exist while creating and the blocks they can give rise to. Throughout the course, students will gain a clearer understanding of the creative individual and his/her creative process. The course will look at some of the commonalities, both good and bad, that occur for creative artists and explore ways to maintain a healthy approach in your own creative process. Through the use of reflective practice, students will learn to identify obstacles to their creativity as well as learn a number of tools to work through such blocks. Students will experiment with the skills that lead to meaningful creative works and employ these skills in their daily living and creative life. Understanding and supporting the link to your inner world will enhance your ability to nurture your own creative spark and strengthen your ability to sustain your creative work. By establishing a deeper awareness of the self and incorporating this into your creative endeavors, you might more readily fan the spark that helps kindle your creativity.
CrCrTh 601
Creative Thinking
Jeremy Szteiter
Room W-1-19
Class #1988
This course explores issues about the nature and techniques of critical thought, viewed as a way to establish a reliable basis for our claims, beliefs, and attitudes about the world. We explore multiple perspectives, placing established facts, theories, and practices in tension with alternatives to see how things could be otherwise. Views about observation and interpretation, reasoning and inference, valuing and judging, and the production of knowledge in its social context are considered. Special attention is given to translating what is learned into strategies, materials, and interventions for use in students' own educational and professional settings.
CrCrTh 618
Creative Thinking, Collaboration and Organizational Change
Instructors to be confirmed
Abby Yanow (lead instructor), Gregg Turpin , Allyn Bradford
Room W-1-19
Class #1052
Through interactive, experiential sessions and structured assignments students learn critical and creative approaches to working in organizations. Skills addressed include: communication and team-building; facilitation of participation and collaboration in groups; promotion of learning from a diversity of perspectives; problem-finding and solving; and reflective practice. Students apply these skills to situations that arise in business, schools, social change groups, and other organizations with a view to taking initiative and generating constructive change. This course is presented in 3 two-day workshops: 1. Diversity Awareness; 2. Effective Teambuilding; and 3. Facilitating Participation and Collaboration in Groups
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Workshop Descriptions

Diversity Awareness
Greg Turpin
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.

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.

Facilitating Participation and Collaboration in Groups
Abby Yanow, Boston Facilitators' Roundtable
This workshop introduces students to a number of different techniques of group participation, such as working in small groups and stakeholder groups, and World Cafe or Open Space. The topics of discussion within each technique will be chosen in an effort to make the learning experience as close as possible to real-life situations, within our workplaces and our communities. We will focus on the art of careful listening and the crafting of effective questions. You will experience the generativity of the participatory process, in which the wisdom comes from the group. You will be encouraged to consider ways of implementing these techniques into your practice, with your colleagues and in your communities.

CrCrTh 619
Biomedical Ethics
Instructor, Mark Robinson
Online
Class #1939
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.
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Last update 28 May 2010