News2016March
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston30 March 2016
Student Matters
Registration for summer courses opens on April 4. The Critical and Creative Thinking program offers the following courses:
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking (Theme: Design for Living Complexities)
hybrid format, July 18-August 25th, 2016; Class meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:00-8:00pm EST starting July 18. Face-to-face students: register for class #2138; online students register for class #2074)
CRCRTH 612 Seminar in Creativity (Theme: Overcoming Creative Blocks)
online format, May 31-July 14, 2016; Register for class #2075
CRCRTH 619 Biomedical Ethics
online format, July 18-August 25, 2016; Register for class #2076
CRCRTH 627 Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education
online format, May 31-July 14 2016; Register for class #2077
CCT Community
The Latin American and Iberian Studies Department at University of Massachusetts Boston will host a special Memorial to honor our colleague, Ann Blum (and wife of CCT Program Director, Peter Taylor) on Thursday April 21st from 3:30 to 6pm at the Alumni Lounge, Campus Center. Ann died of ovarian cancer just after Thanksgiving. http://annblum.wordpress.com provides more detail, tributes, reflections.
CCT Events
CCT Open House: Monday, April 4, 6:30-8:15pm, EST (on campus, Campus Center third floor, room 3545, or online via Google Hangout)
Theme: Critical and Creative Thinking, East Meets West
In this open house, we'll hear from alums/students who will give short presentations, followed by discussion. Under the theme of "East and West", we'll consider how critical and creative thinking can be applied when teachers and learners cross international borders and cultures. Topics include the use of Islamic Arts in support of teaching creative thinking, and using problem-based learning in the teaching of English conversation in a Korean school. You'll have a chance to hear about ongoing projects, talk with faculty and students, and learn more about the Critical and Creative Thinking program and how the study of CCT can serve students to create change in a variety of ways in their schools, workplaces, and lives. Free and open to all. Light refreshments will be served. Look for the most up-to-date information here.
RSVP: cct@umb.edu for instructions to join online. Additional open house events this spring will take place on May 2 and 3 - details to be announced.
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Luanne E Witkowski (CCT '03) has an upcoming new solo exhibit, "New Observations" at the Kingston Gallery (450 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA)
On View: March 30 - May 1, 2016
First Friday Opening Reception: Friday, April 1, 5:30-8:00 pm
Talk and Discussion: Sunday, April 24, 2:00 pm
More information: http://www.kingstongallery.com/exhibitions/2016/april-luanne-witkowski-new-observations.php
Ashok Panikkar (CCT '97) continues his work as the Principal Consultant with Meta-Culture of Bangalore, India, a consulting firm focusing on conflict resolution and facilitating organizational change. Ashok is leading the upcoming "Critical Thinking Workshop for ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Professionals" in Boston on May 26-27. See below under Events for more details.
CCT alums and associates are encouraged to send items of interest to the Critical and Creative Thinking community to be included in future newsletters. Please submit events, announcements, and opportunities through this form: http://bit.ly/CCTSICWi
Events
Workshop: Critical Thinking for ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Professionals
May 26-27, 2016 9:00am-5:00pm (day 1) and 9:00am-2:00pm (day 2, optional)
Location: Boston, MA; MWI, 10 Liberty Square, 4th floor
For more information and to register: http://tiny.cc/adr_critical_thinking
Presenter - Ashok Pannikar of MetaCulture, Bangladore, India
Description: The current field of conflict resolution valorizes the role that emotion plays and teaches ways to validate them, create empathy and manage emotions. While recognizing that working with feelings and emotions is an absolute necessity, many practitioners and theoreticians have undervalued the role of reason and critical thinking in creating effective resolution and transformation. In the process the field has opened itself to accusations of hyper subjectivity, political correctness and being manipulated by groups that do not wish to have their questionable and even arbitrary values and behaviors examined. Most of all by neglecting the role that critical thinking can play in problem definition, analysis and problem solving we have compromised our ability to create powerful processes that can seriously shift and transform conversations about ethnicity, religion, migration and climate change, among other issues.
It is our belief that practitioners of conflict resolution need a deep knowledge and appreciation of critical thinking. Participants in both the webinar and workshop will learn about:
- Individual thinking styles and patterns, and gaps in their reasoning;
- Common thinking fallacies used in arguments;
- Sloppy or manipulative thinking in themselves and the groups they might facilitate/mediate
The 36th International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform
Conference Theme: Fostering Robust Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines - In Every Classroom, Every Day, Across the World
July 25-29, 2016 (Preconference: July 25)
Sonoma State University in Northern California
Sponsored by the Foundation for Critical Thinkin
Registration and more information: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/36th-international-conference-on-critical-thinking-amp-educa/1240
New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan: Robert C. Wood Visiting Professor of Public and Urban Affairs Lecture
Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 6:00-8:00pm
UMass Boston Campus Center, 3rd Floor ballroom B
Please join us for this talk, sponsored by the UMass Boston McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
Registration: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ecb9ntv26f9eae5d&oseq=&c=&ch=
Governor Hassan has served two terms as New Hampshire's chief executive. Previously, she served three terms in the state Senate, the last two years as majority leader. She is the daughter of Peggy Wood and the late Robert C. Wood, for whom the visiting professorship is named.
Opportunities
Call for Proposals: Critical Questions in Education Symposium to be held October 3-4, 2016, in Salt Lake City, Little America Hotel. Cost of attendance: $265 ($150 for Graduate students)
Symposium question: Pressure for perfection: What is it doing to teachers, students, school communities, and teacher education?
Submission deadline: July 1, 2016. For submission requirements see the web site of the sponsoring organization, the Academy for Educational Studies.
This Symposium is an intimate gathering of scholars and interested others designed to "get to the bottom" of a given educational issue or question-with intentions, then, to publish. This year our question will push us to think through contemporary teacher, student, and school accountability systems-as well as certain pedagogical practices like individualized or computer-assisted instruction-that intend to produce the "perfect" teacher who can produce the "perfect" student in the "perfect" school. This noble, even quite appropriate ideal still deserves some scrutiny.
Call for Proposals: 9th Annual Mentoring Conference
Theme: Developmental Networks: The Power of Mentoring and Coaching
For proposal requirements and deadlines, conference information, and other opportunities, see http://mentor.unm.edu/conference
We invite faculty, staff and students of higher education, researchers, K-12 educators, community leaders, administrators, non-profit partners, government agencies, and other professionals to participate in the 2016 Mentoring Conference. Together, we will develop dynamic conversations and networking opportunities through hands-on workshops and the engagement of scholars and professionals in the fields of mentoring, coaching, and leadership.
Conference dates: Monday-Friday, October 24-28, 2016 in Albuquerque, NM.
The 2016 keynote speaker is Wendy Murphy, Associate Professor of Management at Babson College. She will present her keynote session titled: Developmental Networks: Learning from Mentors, Coaches, and Peers.
Applications are being sought for the MTA (Massachusetts Teachers Association) Next Generation Leadership Training Program.
This program will teach members to work with other members to create bottom-up activism and help make their local associations powerful and effective organizations.
As our organization gears up to take on the challenges facing public education and public education workers, it is more important than ever to build teams of leaders/activists who are flexible, collaborative, inclusive and armed with skills to help increase member involvement and collective power at the local level.
For application steps and training schedule see this page.
Resources
The Systems Thinking Habits app includes 14 Habits of a Systems Thinker that describe ways of thinking about how systems work and how actions taken can impact results seen over time. They encompass a spectrum of thinking strategies that foster problem-solving and encourage questioning. The Habits also encourage flexible thinking and appreciation of new, emerging insights and multiple perspectives. A variety of the app’s elements allow the user to assess and practice different habits in a fun and engaging way.
See a quick video tour or download the app (currently only for Android devices).
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:
Wintergatan's Marble Machine
Bill and Melinda Gates 2016 Annual Letter: Two Superpowers We Wish We Had
Charlie Chaplin's speech from The Great Dictator
To Read:
The rise of American authoritarianism
Is the Critical Thinking Craze Over?
Dr. Paul Lowe: Why Diversity is Important in Education and Beyond
OPEN Glasgow: 48 hours to hack the future
The right conditions for creativity
Doing a TED Talk: The Full Story
Educational Leadership:Teaching Screenagers:Too Dumb for Complex Texts?
What Do "Future Ready" Students Look Like?
These Students Wrote To Their Celebrity Heroes, But Only ONE Responded. Here's What He Said.
Just Art, Not Credentials': Artist-Owned Touchstone Gallery Turns 40 This Year
Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet
Who's Regulating for-Profit Schools?
How One Little Number Erodes Trust in Science
How Journalists Can Help Hold Scientists Accountable
University of Wisconsin and the aftermath of destroying professor tenure
What's Behind America's Widening College Graduation Gap?
What is better?: A happy life or a meaningful one?
Why E O Wilson is wrong about how to save the Earth ...
The inadvertent art of tiny bodies
The Reductive Seduction of Other People's Problems
NEA Launches Creativity Connects
Humor
On fear and creative solutions