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Instructional Strategies for Effective Infusion of Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction. Newton, Mass. USA

Derek Goddard's picture
23 October 2009 - 10:31am — Derek Goddard
Event Time: 
Monday, 15 February 2010 - 8:15am - Tuesday, 16 February 2010 - 5:00pm America/New_York

The National Center for Teaching Thinking Announces Its 2010 February seminars on Thinking-Based Learning

The National Center for Teaching Thinking has now listed its February Seminars, to be held during the weeks of the 12th of February and the 17th of February. The first of these seminars is on classroom techniques used in teaching lessons that infuse instruction in thinking skills into content instruction; the second is on assessing skillful thinking. Their goal is to develop models of instruction and assessment that can set 21st Century standards for teaching thinking.   WEEK I: Feb. 15-16, 2010 Instructional Strategies for the Effective Infusion of Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction. M – F, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM. Seminar Leaders: Dr. Robert Swartz and Ms. Rebecca Reagan   In this seminar we will explore a variety of special techniques for infusing the introduction and guided use of the important critical and creative thinking skills needed to meet the challenges of the 21st Century into content instruction in K – 12 classrooms. Actual lessons and unit designs that have been implemented in K – 12 classrooms will be the basis for the work we do in this seminar. The goal of the seminar is to produce quality lesson paradigms of this kind of instruction. Questions to guide our work towards this goal include:
  • How can lesson planning organizers be developed that mesh the planning of infused skillful thinking lessons with current approaches to curriculum mapping and design?
  • How can the techniques of direct instruction be best utilized in lessons that infuse critical and creative thinking skills into content instruction?
  • How can infusion lessons be clustered into broader units (including problem-based units) for maximal effectiveness both in facilitating deeper content learning and in leading to students’ internalizing the thinking skills they are being taught?
  • How can we best insert instruction in thinking-based writing into such units?
  • How can we best use metacognitive techniques to help students monitor and guide their own thinking?
  • How can the mental behaviors that manifest what are called “habits of mind” be operationalized so that they can be taught directly, and can such instruction be melded with teaching infusion lessons in ways that enhance the depth of thinking and understanding that students gain through such lessons?
  February 22nd - 26th, 2010.    Developing Diagnostic Assessment Instruments to Monitor Students Thinking Skills  M – F, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM. Seminar Leader: Dr. Robert Swartz   This seminar will explore what is needed to develop assessment instruments that will define our goals in teaching our students skillful thinking for the 21st Century. The basis for our work in the seminar is the new Critical Thinking Assessment Instrument developed by The National Center for Teaching Thinking. The goal of this seminar is to develop an assessment instrument that can provide us with reliable information about the quality of a person’s thinking. In the seminar we will explore the following questions:
  • Can paper-and pencil thinking skill assessment instruments effectively blend selected-response assessment items and extended response assessment items to give us reliable information about the thinking of people who are tested using these instruments?
  • Can such assessment instruments be structured as diagnostic tests which can provide us with information that can be used to guide decisions about the kind of instruction needed to help the respondents become more skillful as thinkers?
  • Is it possible to develop a set of paradigm assessment items for such tests that can be used to create a bank of specific and viable assessment items for such test?
  • Can the use of such assessment instruments be supplemented with reliable active performance assessment?
  • Can such assessment instruments can be adapted to foster students’ abilities to assess their own thinking and to provide them with directions that they themselves can take to enhance the level of their thinking?
  Enrollment in this seminar presupposes a basic understanding and experience with infusing the teaching of thinking into content instruction. Enrollment in this seminar is limited. Qualified applicants will be admitted on a first-come first-served basis.   These seminars will take place in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.    You can enroll in one or both weeks.  The cost is $595.00 for one week or $1100.00 for both.  Housing is extra - NCTT will help participants find adequate lodgings.    Those who complete the seminars will be awarded NCTT Certificates of Advanced Research on Teaching Thinking and/or Assessing Thinking.    Three graduate credits for each seminar is an option available to participants at an additional cost.
  To request a registration packet please contact us at info@nctt.net. 
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