October 2019 Critical Thinking Academy for Educators and Administrators

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of critical thinking. This session will lay the foundation for teaching critical thinking through your subject(s). It will introduce you to the essential conceptual sets in critical thinking – namely, how to analyze thinking, how to assess it, and how to develop and foster intellectual virtues or dispositions.

One conceptual set that we will focus on is the elements of reasoning, or parts of thinking. The elements or parts of reasoning are those essential dimensions of reasoning that are present whenever and wherever reasoning occurs, independent of whether we are reasoning well or poorly. Working together, these elements shape reasoning and provide a general logic to the use of thought. They are presupposed in every subject, discipline, and domain of human thought.

A second conceptual set we will focus on is universal intellectual standards. One of the fundamentals of critical thinking is the ability to assess reasoning. To be skilled at assessment requires that we consistently take apart thinking and examine the parts with respect to standards of quality. We do this using criteria based on clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logicalness, and significance. Critical thinkers recognize that, whenever they are reasoning, they reason to some purpose (an element of reasoning). Implicit goals are built into their thought processes. But their reasoning is improved when they are clear (clarity being an intellectual standard) about that purpose or goal. Similarly, to reason well, they need to know that, consciously or unconsciously, they are using relevant (relevance being an intellectual standard) information (another element of reasoning) in their in thinking. Furthermore, their reasoning improves if and when they make sure that the information they are using is accurate (accuracy being another intellectual standard).

A third conceptual set in critical thinking is intellectual virtues or traits. Critical thinking does not entail merely intellectual skills; it is a way of orienting oneself in the world. It is a way of approaching problems that differs significantly from that which is typical in human life. People may have critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet still be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet still be unable to analyze the beliefs that guide their behavior. They may have critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know, to persevere through difficult problems and issues, to think fairmindedly, or to stand alone against the crowd. Thus, in developing as a thinker, and fostering critical thinking abilities in others, it is important to develop intellectual virtues – the virtues of fairmindedness, intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, and confidence in reason.

A process will be modeled throughout this workshop that will exemplify the essential ingredients of teaching for ownership: modeling thinking, requiring thinking, and assessing thinking.

• raise vital questions and problems within it, formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gather and assess information, using ideas to interpret that information insightfully;
• come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
• adopt the point of view of the discipline, recognizing and assessing, as need be, its assumptions, implications, and practical consequences;
• communicate effectively with others using the language of the discipline and that of educated public discourse;
• relate what one is learning in the subject to other subjects and to what is significant in human life.

• What is the main purpose or goal of studying this subject? What are people in this field trying to accomplish?
• What kinds of questions do they ask? What kinds of problems do they try to solve?
• What sorts of information or data do they gather?
• What types of inferences or judgments do they typically make? (Judgments about…)
• How do they go about gathering information in ways that are distinctive to this field?
• What are the most basic ideas, concepts, or theories in this field?
• What do professionals in this field take for granted or assume?
• How should studying this field affect my view of the world?
• What viewpoint is fostered in this field?
• What implications follow from studying this discipline? How are the products of this field used in everyday life?

• What is our main purpose or goal today? What are we trying to accomplish?
• What kinds of questions are we asking? What kinds of problems are we trying to solve? How does this problem relate to everyday life?
• What sort of information or data do we need? How can we get that information?
• What is the most basic idea, concept, or theory we need to understand to solve the problem we are most immediately posing?
• From what point of view should we look at this problem?
• What can we safely assume as we reason through this problem?
• Should we call into question any of the inferences that have been made?
• What are the implications of what we are studying?

Participants who have attended our conferences or academies in the past may sign up for one or both sessions of the Advanced Seminar (these options are available during online registration process), which will be based upon the Oxford Tutorial Approach ( click here for our description and modification of this approach). Participants seeking Certification in the Paul-Elder Approach to Critical Thinking , and who have met the prerequisites, are able to complete the certification process during this Advanced Seminar.

If you require a partial scholarship to attend and would like to apply for one, please visit this page for the application form and instruction.

In this Seminar, we will focus on the following topics:

1. Going Beyond Critical Thinking Skills: How Can You Help Students Develop Intellectual Character? (Days 1-2)

2. Why are the Barriers to Critical Thinking – Namely, Egocentric and Sociocentric Thought – So Important to a Rich Conception of Critical Thinking? (Days 1-2)

3. On the Instructional Design of Richard Paul and Linda Elder (Days 3-4)

4. Working Through Classic Readings which Illuminate Critical Thinking (Days 3-4)

5. Exploring Your Deeper Questions (All Days, 1-4) 

Our advanced group will join the newer participants for a few sessions and activities throughout the four days. This helps everyone develop at a higher level during the time we are together and makes for more varied discussions.

• Teachers, faculty and administrators who seek to understand the core concepts and principles in critical thinking essential to reasoning with skill through problems and issues in every field of study and within all domains of human thought.
• Teachers, faculty and administrators who seek to understand the proper role of intellectual standards in teaching and learning, as well as how to foster understanding of critical thinking standards in student thinking.
• Colleges and Universities committed to bringing critical thinking into the foundations of instruction across their respective institutions or within particular departments or divisions.
• Colleges and Universities seeking accreditation or re-accreditation with emphasis on critical thinking (including critical reading and critical writing) through any accreditation body.
• K-12 school districts and schools committed to infusing critical thinking within their curricula.
• Those in government, business and the military who seek to use and teach the Paul-Elder Approach in their work as trainers or consultants.
• Instructors who seek to more deeply command the concepts and principles found in a rich conception of critical thinking.

• The world is swiftly changing, and with each day, the pace quickens. The pressure to respond intensifies. New global realities are rapidly working their way into the deepest structures of our lives: economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental realities with profound implications for thinking, teaching, learning, business, politics, human rights, and human relationships. These realities are becoming increasingly complex, and they all turn on the powerful dynamic of accelerating change.
• Can we deal with incessant, accelerating change and complexity without revolutionizing our thinking? Traditionally, human thinking has been designed for routine, habit, automation, and fixed procedure. But the challenges that educators and students now face, and will increasingly face, require a radically different form of thinking – thinking that is more complex, adaptable, and rationally sensitive to divergent points of view. The world that students will inhabit in the 21st century demands that they are able to routinely rethink their decisions and reevaluate the ways in which they work and live. In short, there is a new reality facing us in which the power of the mind to command itself, and to regularly engage in self-analysis, will increasingly determine the quality of our learning, our teaching, and our lives.   

• It is clear that, at present, most students are perilously unprepared to deal with the intricacies of the world they will be entering. The question of how to survive and succeed in this new reality is a question continually being transformed. Accelerating change and increasing complexity have sounded the death knell for traditional methods of thinking and instruction. How do we adapt to reality when reality seemingly won’t give us time to master it before it changes itself, again and again, in ways we can but partially anticipate? The only answer is to revolutionize our thinking.