News2014November
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston26 November 2014
Student Matters
Spring 2015 courses are open for registration. Students are encouraged to register as soon as possible (current students may use WISER, and non-degree students may register through http://caps-courses.umb.edu/courses/spring/cr/gr/crcrth/).
Hybrid (note class numbers following each course; distance students should register for those labeled as online)
CRCRTH 615 Holistic and Transformative Teaching (Wednesdays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7315 / online:#7314)
CRCRTH 652L Children and Science (emphasis on Conceptual Change and Learning) (Mondays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7218 / online:#6783)
CRCRTH 653L Epidemiological Thinking and Population Health (Tuesdays 4:00-6:45pm / face-to-face:#7219 / online:#6784)
CRCRTH 688 Reflective Practice (first Monday of each month 6:30-9:00pm / face-to-face:#7220 / online:#6785)
CRCRTH 693 Action Research for Educational, Professional, and Personal Change (Wednesdays, 7:00-9:45pm / face-to-face:#7221 / online:#6786)
CRCRTH 694 Synthesis of Theory and Practice Seminar (Tuesdays, 7:00-9:45pm / face-to-face:#7222 / online:#6787)
Fully Online:
CRCRTH 602 Creative Thinking (#6780)
CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes (#6781)
Face-to-face:
WGS 597 Gender, Race & the Complexities of Science and Technology (inter-campus course, co-taught by Peter Taylor, meets at MIT, Thurs 4-7pm, place TBA (#13501); application form )
CCT Community
CCT faculty Orin Davis has published a new post on the Front End of Innovation blog: Funding Innovation: The Human Endeavor
Olen Gunnlaugson (long-time instructor of online course CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes) has recently received tenure as faculty at Université Laval (Quebec City).
CCT Events
CCT Community Open House: Monday, December 8th, 7:00-9:00pm. Wheatley 2nd Floor, room 2-157. Theme: From CCT to the Move Mode.
Please join us at UMass Boston for this open house event to end the fall 2014 semester. Prospective students and all others are welcome to come and meet faculty and learn more about the program as we reflect on the year. The event will include an engaging activity that will help us to explore the "move mode" in understanding how critical and creative thinking can help us to move projects forward as part of our development as reflective practitioners.
Register now for upcoming Collaborative Exploration (CE) for December 2014: How Gender Shapes Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking, and Vice Versa
(moved forward from the original November start date). Free, online Collaboration Exploration (CE), open to all, in which participants investigate critical and creative thinking in more specific contexts. A CE involves four 1-hour online meetings in Google+ Hangout spaced one week apart, with time in between the online meetings for independent investigation of the topic according to individual interest. The day and time of the online meetings will be determined based on availability of those who register early. For more information, see http://cct.wikispaces.com/CENov14, and register here: http://bit.ly/CEApply
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Alums and CCT associates are invited to submit items to be included in our email newsletter by using this link. These may be announcements of events, personal news and/or updates on your work and projects, job opportunities and calls for participation, and any other items that you'd like to share with the wider CCT community.
Events
Presentation by Christo Brand
Wednesday, December 3rd, 1:30-3:00pm, at UMass Boston's Venture Development Center (Wheatley Hall, 4th floor)
All are invited to join this presentation and book signing by Christo Brand, former prison guard of Nelson Mandela and author of Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend.
For more information and to RSVP, please contact student.affairs@umb.edu.
Public Discussion on “Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life”
Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 3:00-4:30pm, UMass Boston Healey Library, Lower Level, Room 019 (P2)
UMass Boston has recently become a member of Imagining America, making it part of a national consortium of universities committed to advancing public scholarship and engaged creative practice in higher education, with particular focus on public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design. The discussion will focus on how the university can make use of this opportunity.
UMass Boston’s Second Annual Provost's Book and Performance Art & Music Party
Honoring all faculty who published books, performance art, and CD/media recordings (including CCT professor Peter Taylor).
Thursday, December 4, 2014, 3:00-5:00pm, UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom B
UMass Boston Turns 50: Past and Future
4th annual public lecture by the recipients of the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching, Distinguished Scholarship, and Distinguished Service Awards.
Monday, December 8, 2014 from 3:00-4:30pm in the Alumni Lounge (Campus Center, Second Floor room 2551). For more information, see this page.
Opportunities
Graduate students are invited to explore the Graduate Teaching Program, which supports graduate students to develop their teaching practice through experience teaching undergraduate courses at UMass Boston. For more information, please see: http://www.umb.edu/academics/graduate/info_for_graduate_students/graduate_teaching_program
Resources
New books released by Paul Rogat Loeb
The Impossible Will Take a Little While, and Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times
from http://www.paulloeb.org/: "Paul Loeb has spent over thirty years researching and writing about citizen responsibility and empowerment--asking what makes some people choose lives of social commitment, while others abstain."
World Creativity and Innovation Week: April 15-21, 2015
Noodle: A resource for getting help with decisions about education
Neuroevoloution: Chronicling the Cognitive Revolusion in Neuroscience
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)
From Professor Peter Taylor's blog, Intersecting Processes: Pulling out the yarn from the ball of threads and knots: A 360DegreesOfConnection activity
To Watch:
The unexpected math behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
New Toronto restaurant staffed with deaf waiters
Unlocking a car with your Brain
To Read:
Keep Writing, and It Will Soon Be Automatic
Curiosity: It Helps Us Learn, But Why?
The Price of American Eugenics
A Student-Centred Conceptualisation of Critical Thinking
Controlling Genes With Your Mind
After Draconian Cuts to Arts Education, Is a Creativity Renaissance Coming to America’s Classrooms?
People Say They Care About Brain Science, But Do They Really?
To Find Suspicious Travelers, Try Talking to Them
Students React to a Classroom Without Grades
NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon Dioxide
How Old Brains Learn New Tricks
The Photography of Bernard Lang: Aerial Views Reveal Amazing Patterns
Kermit the Frog Talks TED, and the Muppet Mindset
The British Council's 80 Moments that Shaped the World
How Smiling Can Backfire
On the connections between ADHD and creativity
Homeless Group Books 100 Rooms At Radisson, Manager Says They're 'Not A Shelter'
Meet Jane Goodall’s Famous Chimpanzees Through Google Street View
High-achieving teacher sues state over evaluation labeling her ‘ineffective’
Working Out the Meaning of ‘Meaningful’ Work
New Clock May End Time As We Know It
Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car
Cute chick rover: A new way to spy on shy penguins
HumorHappy Things (and English translation)