Impact of Critical and Creative Thinking Program on its students
Extracts from testimonial letters, Fall 1995
Jeanne Abrons
I am an Adjunct Instructor of logic whose former students return to say that the skills they acquired in our community of thinkers and its student centered multiple strength approach to learning have aided them in other courses, in family life, and in their places of employment. I have applied thinking skills as a resource parent helping families seek medical and educational services for their children with special needs, emphasizing nonadversarial approaches to interacting with service providers. I have utilized thinking skills as a member of the Federation for Children with Special Needs' Board of Directors, and have been honored with their first Friends of the Federation award. These are the tangible qualitative results of a CCT experience. about the average in statistics. I am an Adjunct Instructor of logic whose former students return to say that the skills they acquired in our community of thinkers and its student centered multiple strength approach to learning have aided them in other courses, in family life, and in their places of employment. I have applied thinking skills as a resource parent helping families seek medical and educational services for their children with special needs, emphasizing nonadversarial approaches to interacting with service providers. I have utilized thinking skills as a member of the Federation for Children with Special Needs' Board of Directors, and have been honored with their first Friends of the Federation award. These are the tangible qualitative results of a CCT experience.
Edwin Aguiar
It is my sincere belief that the Critical and Creative program is focused in the right direction. They are interested in providing the best preparation to students who are teachers or those who aspire to be teachers. They provide students with challenges and experiences that are offered nowhere else in a college curriculum.
Leor Alcalay
My CCT experience has not only enriched me personally in intellectual and academic ways, however. Far more importantly, it has enabled me to enrich the educational experience of many, many others. At Quincy college (where I am in my eighth year, and am proud to say that I have finally attained full-time, tenured status), I have been instrumental in infusing critical and creative thinking into the curriculum. A course I designed, 'critical thinking for academic development', serves as the capstone transitional course of the academic support center, and facilitates long-term academic achievement for many of our academically under-prepared native-English-speaking as well as non-native-English speaking (ESL) students.
Deborah Allen
My work in the Critical and Creative thinking program was demanding and rigorous. It forced me to examine what science I teach and how I teach it, as well as the nature of scientific inquiry. In addition, I learned how to develop the skills of thinking both critically and creatively in my students and myself. These skills are exactly the higher order thinking and problem solving skills that are so lacking in many students today. During my time in the program, I rewrote over fifty percent of my curriculum to reflect the integration of critical and creative thinking and problem solving into life science activities. Without the guidance of the full and part time professors in the critical and creative thinking program, I would not have been able to do this valuable work.
Patricia Artis
As a public school teacher, I had delayed applying to local graduate schools, looking for a program that would fit my needs. No other local university provided such a profoundly important. The experience of the CCT program also affected me in a deep and personal way. I questioned my own thinking style and abilities. The effect of the CCT program upon me, as a learner, has been profound.
Mumtaz Badshah
I have invested two years in researching the area of Thinking Skill in India. Having heard about this unique program and met with the faculty, I decided to enroll into the Masters program. Because of the encouragement I received from the students and the faculty of the CCT program, I have been empowered to start a Non Government Organization in order to initiate and implement projects for the development of education internationally. The philosophy and vision of the CCT program is the necessary ingredient of educational reform all over the world.
Carol Beal
The mentoring from CCT continues to inspire the way I work with colleagues around Illinois in my work as a quality review specialist for the Illinois State Board of Education.
Kathleen Bertrand
The CCT program being a student centered learning environment provided its students with the rare opportunity for interdisciplinary fellowship and scholarship. The CCT program provided a framework that supported inquiry into the knowledge domain itself.
Varis Blaus
The CCT Program was destined to provide me with the balance of structure and freedom I needed to reach my potential. What is referred to as "tacit knowledge" is what I have learned to recognize in the CCT Program as a form of unconscious common sense that can be brought to consciousness and used to one's advantage. I know that I have benefited from my experience here. I have developed the skills and confidence to create work for my self that is both personally rewarding and highly paid.
Constance Borab
I have been actively looking for a program that would not only allow the combining of the creative and critical but would encourage it. In my recent efforts doing graduate level work at Northeastern University in the NEH African American Literature Institute, I have been asked to write a chapter for a text to be published on the Teaching of African American Literature. The work that I did for the institute was thought to be cutting edge as I combined theory, experience, the creative and the critical. The CCT program addresses all of these aspects to learning and presents a life and teaching altering experience for those who take it.
Katherine M. Borton
With an undergraduate degree in dance, I am interested in using the arts to promote critical and creative thinking in the educational system. I chose this program over other Masters programs including the Harvard Masters in Education program, because I felt its commitment to enhancing critical and creative thinking in areas outside of education would give me the chance to focus on thinking skills without being restrained by the field of education.
Susan Butler
They introduced me to teaching and learning strategies which I have incorporated into my own teaching. (I teach photography at Pine Manor College). They provided me with a valuable model of innovative teaching strategies, which, as a member of Pine Manor's Curriculum Committee and Planning Committee, I now find myself in a position to share with other faculty and administrators as the college reevaluates its pedagogical mission. They encouraged me to expand my own creative arena. As a direct result of the process initiated in these courses, I turned my hand to writing. On the basis of the first 50 pages, I signed a contract with Orchard Books.
Jennifer Chidsey
I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Science Education at the University of Iowa. Preparing for presentations at national conferences and papers submitted for publication, as well as participating in classes and discussions with others in my profession have confirmed how much my background in Critical and Creative Thinking has benefited my current work. I have conducted research on conceptual change, alternative assessment strategies and am currently working with using children's literature as a vehicle to teach science at the elementary level. I am convinced that my two years at UMass, Boston in the CCT program were instrumental to shaping my understanding of a broad base of issues that relate to all aspects of education. There is a genuine spirit of commitment to ideals, expectations for thinking and thoughtfulness, and an underlying belief that makes you realize that you do have something to offer and that your goals are attainable. What I have learned from the CCT program is very valuable to me and is something that I hope to be able to share with my current and future students.
Mark J. Connerty
I can attest to the high level of scholarship and creativity that the program engenders in its faculty and student body. This is my first semester in the CCT program. Already it has changed the way I think about and relate to the world around me.
Ellen Connors
Because of my impending Master's degree in CCT, along with my work history, I have been asked to interview for a position as Project Coordinator for a School to Work Collaborative. I am currently a Captain of a tug boat working on the Boston Harbor Clean up Project. I also have a B.S. in Chemistry from U Mass Lowell. CCT provided a vehicle for me to synthesize my broad experiences in education and industry. There is no other program in the country that provides the interdisciplinary opportunities available in CCT.
Peggy Cronin
My background is in teaching college English and writing across the curriculum. An education degree would not have been appropriate to either my scholarship or career path. I chose UMass specifically for the CCT program because it is a cross-disciplinary community of inquiry that honors the multiple intelligences and varied learning styles of its students. Three years ago, I turned down a fellowship in the English PhD program at Tufts because I felt the stimulating, humane, and learner-centered character of the CCT program would serve me better. I made the right choice.
Brian Daniels
In the time of excruciatingly narrow professional specialities I believe CCT fosters the broader view that so many see as lacking from our educational system, business environment, and government. Critical and Creative Thinking is training people to allow themselves to take up leadership roles in their particular areas of professional interest and to cross-pollinate the artificial division that have grown in the academic and business communities.
Paul Demakis
From what has been explained to me, and from the information I have obtained directly from the Program, I believe that the CCT program has provided - and should continue to provide - just what students, families, institutions, and businesses need. The interdisciplinary nature of the program enables it to maintain an intellectual integrity which draws upon the expertise of a number of established fields: education, philosophy, science, mathematics, the arts, psychology, and others. It has graduated students who have learned how to function as critical thinkers in a variety of sectors, including education, business, public policy, the arts, research and others. CCT graduates who have gone into or continued in the teaching field have emerged from the program transformed by their experiences, and able to make education more meaningful to their students.
Derek Engquist
I have had many great classes with many great professors. The classes I have taken in creative thinking has had a greater positive impact on my scholarship, my writing and my personal life than virtually all of the other classes I have taken in my academic career. Please do no take this complement lightly. I have had some truly extraordinary professors. I am in my first semester of the Masters in Education program here at UMass Boston. I can only speak from personal experience about the level of instruction in the creative thinking class.
Petra Farias
It has taken me years to find the 'right' program to suit my intellectual and professional interest. The student-centered approach to learning creates an enriching and supportive community of inquiry. Never before have I been in an educational setting offering genuine fellowship and continuous opportunities for personal and professional growth. Being a part of the CCT program has benefited me immeasurably-as a learner, a teacher, and a professional athletic coach.
James Figler
The unique, student-centered methodology allows for complete integration of the academic experience with one's occupational pursuit, regardless of the nature of that pursuit. My personal experience in the CCT program has not only benefited me, it has helped literally hundreds of people with whom I work. They have learned a creative thinking approach to problem solving and a critical thinking approach to implementation plans.
Michael Flanagan
For me one of the most purposeful aspects of the program was a personal improvement in thinking, problem solving, and discussion making. Another was an immediate up-grading of my science curriculum at Dedham High School.
Patricia Germain
CCT is rare gem within the university; its value understated primarily due to the inability to measure its worth by traditional means. I treasure my experience in CCT. Daily, I call on insights gained through my exposure to faculty and students associated with the program. To say CCT has had an impact on my life does not convey the extraordinary proficiency I have gained through an awareness of magnified thinking skills, increased decision making ability, understanding of relationships with others, that have marked every aspect of my life. It is the spirit of creative thought that enriches the CCT program and permeates the academic, professional and personal lives it touches. plan to seek funding to develop and implement a community-based literacy program
Lillian Greeley
I decided that the CCT Program at UMass, Boston, was the best place for me tocontinue my education in the area of writing philosophical novel for children. I applied, got an assistantship and a master's, and admission to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, were I have received my doctorate. During the course of my graduate work, I have discovered an unsuspected cognitive brain processing operation, which is now leading to new insights into the fields of cognitive neuropsychology, complexity theory and literacy. I hope that it will soon lead to new diagnostic and remediative techniques for the understanding of attention-based memory dysfunctions, such as ADD, ADHT, Alzheimer's disease, AIDS dementia, and others, as well.
Christine Jacques
For the past five years I have been teaching writing, college reading, and study skills classes at Cape Cod Community College because of my involvement in the CCT program, which is highly regarded by my colleagues and the academic community. CCT puts theory into practice; it models what it espouses: the Critical and Creative Thinking Program is thinking in action.
Katherine Kittredge
I am a NSF-sponsored New England Physics Teaching Resource Agent; as such, I teach science teachers throughout New England. In this position, I work some of the most gifted high-school educators to be found. Few other programs promote quality education with such meaning, complexity, and understanding of real-life considerations. I cannot stress enough how CCT has helped me to develop my teaching skills, my own creativity, and my ability to encourage the highest level of thinking possible from my students. I teach Physique and Applied Physics at Minuteman Regional Vo-Tech High School and Adult Career Center.
Sabine Koopmann
I have just returned to the Boston area this fall after completing my doctoral degree at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitit in Heidelberg, Germany. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to complete this program. And I would without hesitation label it the best learning experience I ever had. The training I received in the CCT classes and through my thesis writing was an excellent foundation to build on in my doctoral research.
John Landis
The program not only helps teachers to develop new and exiting approaches for their classroom, but also equips them to lead educational reform efforts. While I am one year away from certification as a school library media specialist, I am confident that I am already well equipped with the basic qualities that will ensure my success as an educator.
Donna Letteriello
I am working on my thesis which defines visual documentation and representation of Italo-American female creativity. The Critical and Creative Thinking program articulates and refines various knowledge and skills that include cooperative learning and inter-disciplinary/thematic instructional approaches while enhancing one's ability towards a better understanding of what is meant by personal self-growth in relationship to one's self and in acommunity environment.
Mona Liblanc
As a professional employee of the Commonwealth for almost 15 years, I have discovered that the skills and insight I am acquiring in the CCT program are far more valuable than the fact I was fed in the many continuing education courses I have taken. Being more creative and productive in my work projects positively both on my professionalism and that of my agency.
Karen Litzinger
I am an elementary school teacher who continues to benefit from my CCT experiences. I apply many attributes in my everyday and professional life (with colleagues and my students) that I learned throughout the program. I continue to relate my experiences from UMass Boston's CCT program to my everyday life. The impact of the CCT program has been powerful.
Louise Loomis
The Boston program is a source of knowledge and encouragement for me. The Hartford Critical/Creative Thinking Center is not-for-profit educational and consulting organization that specializes in helping people learn how to effectively use their most valuable resource: their brain. The Thinking Center was founded in 1989 as a means of addressing the need for creative and critical thinking in school, businesses and for individuals. We draw on the resources of experts in critical and creative thinking, and specialists in education, business, and human services to provide workshops, seminars, and individual consultations for the general public based on the current knowledge in the field.
Patricia Manley
The CCT program not only is unique in its approach and areas of study but more challenging and rigorous than most programs many of my colleagues have gone through. Including those who have attended private, so-called "prestigiousî institutions. In the program each student is welcomed into a community of inquiry in which learning, understanding, exploring, and academic rigor are encouraged and expected. The demands and standards of the program are high and the willingness of faculty to help each student succeed is beyond any I have encountered in other institution of higher learning.
Anne McDonough
The academic experience at UMass Boston from 1991-1994 as a graduate student truly transformed me as a learner, as an educator and as a human being. The CCT program is a tool for transformation vital to the re-formation of education.
Michael McKinley
We are currently participants in the course "Critical and Creative Thinking" (CCT697) that is being conducted as a joint venture between the Network Interconnections (NET-I) Group at NYNEX Corporation and the University. Individually, we have learned valuable lessons in how we each think, what forms our opinions and values and the effects our mental models have upon our interaction with others. As a class, we are exploring systems thinking, scenario planning, shared vision and team learning. As the practical value of each of these concepts becomes clearer, we are able to apply these disciplines, knowledges and skills in our personal and corporate lives.
Margaret McPartland
I have also noticed a change in my own teaching practices since I joined the CCT program. I teach adult literacy and GED classes at Jackson Mann School and Roxbury Community College in Boston. Last year, I wrote and received a grant to design a science curriculum that incorporated critical and creative thinking. Last week, I wrote a grant in which our staff at Jackson Mann proposes to the topic of ethics. I would never have dreamed of taking on such a formidable task if I had not enrolled in this program.
MaryAnne Miller
Director, Federal TRIO Program. Through CCT, I have been moved beyond a mindset that focused solely on classroom content. I have learned to foster these skills in others. The results, in the way of program and staff development in the college-based programs that I manage, have been compelling. CCT thesis exercise has helped me to refine the art of writing for the community of scholars-something that perhaps would not have come to be in an ordinary old MED program, and something that I look forward to using as I approach my doctorate dissertation.
Ann Murray
What I learned at UMass, Boston (1) has enabled me to develop numerous workshops and courses in the areas of thinking skills, learning styles, multiple intelligence, and cultural diversity which I have presented at national conferences and in school districts throughout the United State (resulting in annual earnings exceeding $60 000.); (2) was instrumental in my recently receiving a faculty appointment to Salem State College; and (3) has formed the basis of several articles which I have had published by the Mass. Reading Association, the Mass. Title One Dissemination Project, the Mass. Staff Development Council, and the Mass. Association of Teacher Educators. As an educator, I feel that the Critical and Creative Thinking Program is more relevant now than ever in the light of recent Mass. Educational Reform legislation.
Arlene Nichols
Program Director Museums Institute for Teaching Science. As a practicing scientist and later as a science educator, nothing in my earlier education including earning a Master's in curriculum development had taught me to think clearly. Because the program encouraged application to one's work, I was able to hone and extend my improved thinking skills into my curriculum improvement and into professional development workshops I did as a science education consultant. The program is unique in many ways. Because it attracted students from many disciplines, diverse cultural backgrounds and a broad age spectrum, it expands all of the participants. The faculty are superb and supportive of our individual need.
Kevin O'Brien
I have used the methodology taught to me in this program with my interactions with Harvard students on a regular basis, as well as in my personal life. My time spent obtaining my degree was enlightening and rewarding. The Critical and Creative Thinking department, the curriculum and especially the faculty and staff were very impressive representative of a first class institution.
Jane Rando
I have begun my own small business and am increasingly involved in my artwork, something which I had left behind in the crush of family and career. CCThelped me to give more practical definition to my personal skills. The combination of creative thought process and critical process awareness which CCT offers cannot be duplicated in other disciplines.
Annette Raphel
I finished the certificate program last year -- one of my papers was published in The Arithmetic Teacher and I have gone on to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching mathematics.
Nancy Rawlings
This semester I have become so involved in John Murray and Arthur Millman's course in critical thinking, that I have invited my principal, Nanzetta Merriman, and Newton superintendent Irwin Blumer to observe lessons I have developed based on concepts and strategies learned in class. In my Curriculum Night presentation to parents, I described and boasted about the profound effects my CCT courses had on my children in my class. As the school year has gone on, I have received only positive feedback from these parents, my colleagues, and my students.
Jane Robbins
The Critical and Creative Thinking program is unique, and offers UMass/Boston a rare opportunity to develop a special area of recognition in a field of growing visibility and importance. When I entered, I was 42 years old, and had owned my own international consulting firm for over 12 years. I was a published author, well-established in my field, and financially well off. My choice of the CCT program was based on the quality and diversity of the curriculum and teaching methods ñ a combination I could not find at Harvard or anywhere else. For someone like me ñ a full-fledged professional with a clear view of why she is seeking a degree ñ there is no substitute for a program like Critical and Creative Thinking. The CCT program is remarkable in that it motivates students to produce, to make a contribution to thinking and to society. It motivated me to write a book on reforming management education, a book for which I obtained a contract from a scholarly book publisher on the basis of my thesis. It motivated one of my classmates to develop an important health care model, which is being applied at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Patricia Scannell
Two years ago when I was on sabbatical, I planned to take one or two courses in the CCT program. After doing so, I realized that they were some of the best classes I had ever taken in my life. Now three years later I am only two courses and a thesis away from a second M.A. The CCT courses have definitely made me a better teacher, but they have also improved the quality of my life. These courses more than any others have taught me what learning is all about. At the end of each class I feel that I am only at the beginning of my exploration of the subject. Because of the CCT program I have become a better thinker, reader, and writer. I feel blessed to have discovered this wonderful program.
Patricia Schell
The creative and critical skills I acquired thus far are helpful to me as a member of the Council on Aging in the Town of Hull and to me as an active member of the Senior Center. I am impressed by the caliber of my classmates, many of whom are teachers in various school systems. Their accounts of how they utilize their CCT learning in the classroom show the importance of the program. The value of passing on creative and critical thinking skills to future generations is immeasurable.
Marie Schleiff
When considering my decision to request a sabbatical leave of absence, I spent months looking for a worthwhile program since I had completed a Masters degree program in English and had been teaching for twenty-five years. Instead of enrolling in a writing program at Northeastern University as I had previously planned, I chose the CCT Program at U. Mass ñ Boston. The uniqueness of this program, its value to a veteran teacher, and the community of inquiry it has established made its worth immediately apparent to me. Upon presenting the description of the CCT program to the school committee at Cohasset High School, I was granted the sabbatical leave by a unanimous vote for two reasons. The committee recognized its worth in training teachers to prepare students to live and work in the twenty-first century which promises to be a time of rapid change demanding high order thinking skills to solve complex problems. Second, the program offered a degree which assured them of the level of scholarship required.
Jennifer Simmons
I was looking for something relevant and interesting, and the Critical and Creative Thinking Program was both. One of the things I liked most about the program was the variety of people enrolled. I think this variety of people and experiences enriched my education. I would not have found such richness in an education program. There is also a camaraderie among faculty and students. Everyone was excited to be involved and anxious to help and learn from each other. The faculty members I worked with were challenging and caring. It is good for a teacher, like me, to continue to be a student, and the CCT faculty demonstrated the art and science of extraordinary teaching.
Anne Marie Stanton
CCT fills a void left by strict, concentrated subjects that do not acknowledge the need for overlap in the real world. I came into this program because I wanted to be challenged to think in way I had not before, and to be re-introduced to subjects from a different perspective.
Clare Sullivan
The courses in the CCT Program taught new skills and activated my mind in a way not done since undergraduate years. I continually use what I learned in CCT courses. I use specific critical skills every time I listen to a news broadcast or read an editorial. I use creative and critical skills in my position as chairperson of the Board of Trustees at the Dyer Memorial Library in Abington. I even use the skills of effective argument in social situations. In short, the CCT program was well worth my time and commitment.
Elizabeth Van Atten
I was introduced to CCT in 1993. I had returned to substitute teaching after a 15 year hiatus involving my own child production and following my husband around the world as his work led him. At that time the Shrewsbury school system was emphasizing CCT and encouraging teachers to take courses. After accumulating several credits, UMass accepted me AND my credits into a Master's program. It turned out to be the most challenging and most rewarding thing I ever did that was JUST FOR ME. Now, three years after writing a thesis and getting this degree, my teaching has become infused with CT so that I am not even conscious of teaching it anymore. The most obvious evidence of the infusion of CT in my teaching is in the structure and organization of my classroom. Through CT techniques, my second graders are empowered to become independent decision makers. And, my CT degree has empowered me with self-assurance about my teaching goals as well as the expertise and self-confidence to explain to parents what it is that I am doing with their children. Through their nurturing, I came to believe in myself and strove to follow the ideal modeling of their teaching. The teaching of every professor was never a dull lecture, but a true demonstration of CT in action.
Lisa Veldran
The importance of the CCT Program to me is not just a group of credits with a degree at the end. Rather, it is a philosophy and a set of real-world strategies that have been of immediate use to me and of critical importance to my students in my role as a teacher in both Boston and Milton schools. The quality of my professors and the dedication and compassion of my classmates has given me increased inspiration that I take into my classroom everyday.
Laurie Jo Wallace
I was initially attracted to the CCT program because I had several colleagues who were engaged in it and they found it demanding work. As a teacher and trainer, one of my main needs was to find a challenging program that would engage me, and I found it in the Critical and Creative Thinking program. The entire program is designed to teach those in education, social services, business, science and the arts to learn how to think and to learn how to teach others to think. I have used the ideas, readings and research discussed in classes to advance my own career in the public health field and to become a better trainer and manager. The Critical Creative Thinking program has intellectual integrity, and more than that it has a profound effect on the personal growth of many of the students. Even as a very part time student, I gained from the community of students and faculty who are really interested in and dedicated to challenge and growth in the human experience.
Zhenxing Wang
I am a Chinese who lived in Germany for more than 3 years. Right after I learned about CCT in Germany, I interrupted my Ph.D program there and decided to come to CCT, UMass/Boston. CCT contributes a great deal to the global issue. CCT has changed my life positively. I don't expect to be changed negatively.
Lauren Young
In a world of academic conformity, the CCT program shines like a beacon. Its piercing light unveils a world of possibilities for students like myself who seek an interdisciplinary program with flexibility to mesh ideas and goals. CCT allows me to pursue my goal of working with adults to develop better problem solving skills in the classroom and in business settings. The caliber of the students and faculty in the Critical and Creative Thinking Program is not to be matched. Never have I had the chance to work with such bright, talented and motivated people who are dedicated to the enhancement of learning and education.
Susan Anne Ripley Young
The Critical and Creative Thinking Program met all of my criteria and exceeded my expectation. The professors are not only devoted to their own area of study, but also to how the ideas of critical and creative thinking are interwoven within their particular disciplines. In general, an individual's way of thinking is broadened and expanded as they uncover assumptions and experiment with different ideas and perspectives. They foster community of learning and inquiry among their diverse pupils. Such collaboration allows for incredible learning opportunities that simply do not happen in single-disciplinary programs.
Cynthia Zafft
The program provides a unique opportunity for education across the disciplines and deals with the essential concepts of human thought and activity. The program provides a unique opportunity for education across the disciplines and deals with the essential concepts of human thought and activity.