44th Conference Focal Session Descriptions

Humans routinely assess thinking– their own and that of others. And yet they don’t necessarily use standards for thought that are reasonable, rational, and sound. To think well, people need to routinely meet intellectual standards like clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, logic, and so forth. These are universal intellectual standards, because the failure to meet them defeats the purposes of reasoning itself.

This session will illuminate the standards essential to quality reasoning and how to begin applying them more consistently.

Every field of study and work presupposes and strives to meet basic and essential intellectual standards such as accuracy, relevance, and logicalness. However, some intellectual standards may be more important to reasoning well within any given field than others. Therefore, it is up to those working within each discipline to articulate the intellectual standards most important to reasoning through the problems and issues in the discipline, to detail how the standards should be contextualized within the field.

By explicitly contextualizing intellectual standards within disciplines, we raise our awareness of them; we are more likely to consistently meet them; we are more likely to see when they are being ignored or violated.

Careful analysis of any field helps illuminate the intellectual standards most necessary to thinking well within it. This session will provide tools for laying bare this logic in your own field, and for keeping in mind the elements or structures of thought embedded therein. You can then begin to apply intellectual standards to the logic of your discipline and to see how these standards are most usefully contextualized within it.

To effectively assess and improve thinking, we must first be able to deconstruct it into its most basic elements. These elements or parts of thinking are those essential dimensions of reasoning present whenever 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, profession, and domain of human thinking.

This session will introduce the elements of thought, how to identify them in reasoning, and how to leverage them as tools for improving reasoning.

There are predictable stages through which people who develop as critical thinkers pass. These can be categorized as 1) unreflective, 2) challenged, 3) beginning, 4) practicing, 5) advanced, and 6) accomplished.

Accomplished thinkers not only have systematically taken charge of their thinking, but are also continually monitoring, revising, and re-thinking strategies for continual improvement of their thinking. They have deeply internalized the basic skills of thought, so that critical thinking is, for them, both conscious and highly intuitive. Through extensive experience and practice in engaging in self-assessment, accomplished thinkers are not only actively analyzing their thinking in all the significant domains of their lives, but are also continually developing new insights into problems at deeper levels of thought. They are deeply committed to fair-minded thinking and have a high level of control over their egocentric nature.

By studying examples of thinking at this level, we can reap important insights that help us elevate our own thinking practices. This session will demonstrate how to do this while providing useful specimens of accomplished thinking.

3:30 - 5:00 p.m. EDT

View the following videos during this time-period or beforehand in preparation for the 5:15 discussion. Take notes, write down your questions, and bring them to the discussion:

• Socratic Questioning, Part 1
• Socratic Questioning, Part 2
• Socratic Questioning, Part 3
• Socratic Questioning, Part 4

5:15 - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Watch the four videos above and then join this discussion facilitated by Dr. Paul Bankes. Together you will probe the ideas that Richard Paul advances and details in his Socratic questioning video series. Dr. Bankes will field questions and lead discussions based on your questions and thoughts. Please make notes and write down your questions as you view the videos, pausing periodically as needed. Bring your thoughts and questions to this session and be ready for a lively discussion.

Richard Paul’s video series is based in two assumptions: 1) that it is hard to imagine someone being a critical thinker while lacking the disposition to question skillfully, deeply, and fairly, and 2) that the thinking of Socrates, as it has come to us, offers exemplars for deep questioning. Critical thinking and Socratic questioning are essential to one another; one presupposes the other, and they enrich each other. It follows that those truly interested in critical thinking will also be interested in the art of deep questioning, or Socratic questioning.

We hope you will join our discussion.

Confirmation bias refers to the human inclination to interpret information in ways that validate existing beliefs and that are unreasonable in themselves.

Biased thoughts come either from egocentric (in individual biases) or sociocentric (in group biases) thinking, both of which are made possible through self-deception. Various authors have offered methods for understanding or attempting to prevent or intervene in such bias; they typically offer fragmented lists of research findings, with some offering “tips and tricks.” Though any one of these methods may be substantive in itself, unless it is presented as an integrated whole and in connection with the pitfalls in everyday human reasoning, it is unlikely to take hold. The idea of confirmation bias is therefore easily forgotten in the many contexts in which it tends to arise.

In contrast, critical thinking enables the explicit analysis, assessment, and improvement of all human reasoning. This approach primarily categorizes confirmation biases as unjustifiable assumptions leading to unreasonable inferences. It integrates confirmation bias with other forms of dysfunctional thinking, and it makes connections between confirmation bias and other theory of critical thinking.

This session will elucidate how the systematic, comprehensive nature of genuine critical thinking makes it the most powerful toolset for both identifying and combatting confirmation bias. It also introduces egocentric and sociocentric thinking as primary causes of confirmation bias.

Our thinking largely determines the quality of our work, learning, and lives. Routine use of explicit concepts in critical thinking helps you gain control of your reasoning, emotions, desires, and decisions, and it helps you identify and leverage important opportunities.

When it comes to effectiveness in daily life, we cannot overstate the importance of 1) learning the explicit tools of critical thinking; 2) using them to understand your immediate circumstances, the trajectory of your life, and the complex and rapidly-changing world we live in; and 3) forging the best path forward for self-fulfillment and achievement at the highest level of which you are capable.

This session will provide practical ways of leveraging critical thinking insights and tools in day-to-day decision-making.

Humans routinely assess thinking– their own and that of others. And yet they don’t necessarily use standards for thought that are reasonable, rational, and sound. To think well, people need to routinely meet intellectual standards like clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, logic, and so forth. These are universal intellectual standards, because the failure to meet them defeats the purposes of reasoning itself.

This session will illuminate the standards essential to quality reasoning and how to begin applying them more consistently.

Humans have the raw capacity to become reasonable and ethical persons, to develop as fairminded critical thinkers. But to do so requires 1) understanding how the mind works, and 2) using this understanding to develop skills and insights. This session introduces the first of these requirements.

Though thinking, feeling, and wanting are, in principle, equally important, it is only through thinking that we take command of our minds. It is through thinking that we figure out what is going wrong with our thinking; it is through thinking that we figure out how to deal with destructive emotions; it is through thinking that we change unproductive desires to productive ones. Fairminded reasonability is what frees us from intellectual slavery and conformity, along with the unfruitful negative emotions and unhealthy desires that accompany these states. This requires understanding of the interactions that occur between thinking, feeling, and desiring in our own minds.

Critical thinking entails a vast array of different competencies, some of which are general – applying to all reasoning within all contexts – and some of which are specific to certain domains, subjects, and disciplines. As such, no teacher in any single subject can teach all critical thinking competencies.

While teaching students the full range of critical thinking competencies requires institution-wide coordination, it is both possible and essential for individual educators to 1) identify which competencies should be fostered in each subject and for each grade level they teach, and 2) learn how to foster these competencies in practical ways. The most important general competencies must be reinforced within most instruction, while other competencies might well be taught in a more restricted way.

This session will focus on understanding critical thinking competencies and how to begin to bring them into your K-12 instruction. 

To effectively assess and improve thinking, we must first be able to deconstruct it into its most basic elements. These elements or parts of thinking are those essential dimensions of reasoning present whenever 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, profession, and domain of human thinking.

This session will introduce the elements of thought, how to identify them in reasoning, and how to leverage them as tools for improving reasoning.

Critical thinking does not entail merely intellectual skills. Rather, 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 some critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have some critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to analyze the beliefs guiding their behavior. They may have some 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 responsibly dissent. Thus, it is necessary to develop intellectual virtues - virtues of intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, confidence in reason, and fairmindedness.

This session will describe the desirable intellectual virtues shared by critical thinkers – necessary for high-level functioning throughout learning, teaching, and work and life in general – and how to develop them over time.

Reasoning through issues and problems with skill and competence is essential to functioning at a high level in business, government, and educational administration. This requires understanding and internalizing fundamental critical thinking concepts and principles and using them routinely throughout the workday, as well as planning for the future of the company, agency, or institution of learning.

Through this session you will learn how to apply explicit tools of critical thinking to better reason through questions, better analyze problems and decisions, and better evaluate potential solutions to function more effectively in your work each day.

The proper role of ethical reasoning is to highlight acts of two kinds: those that enhance the well-being of others, and those that harm or diminish it. Developing ethical reasoning abilities is crucial, because there is in human nature a strong tendency toward egotism, prejudice, self-justification, and self-deception. These tendencies are exacerbated by powerful sociocentric cultural influences that shape our lives (such as social and other mass media), and they can be actively combated only through the systematic cultivation of fairminded critical thinking. In other words, ethical questions must be answered by the same means as all questions of judgment: by using explicit tools of reasoning to analyze information and ideas, and to evaluate them for their accuracy, precision, breadth, depth, fairness, and so forth.

This session will distinguish ethical reasoning as distinct from other forms of reasoning with which it is often confused — namely, social conventions and taboos, religious belief systems, and the law. It will also discuss how the innate forces of egocentricity and sociocentricity work tirelessly against the development of ethical reasoning skills and traits, both in individuals and at the societal level.

In this session we will focus on strategies for engaging students’ intellects as a means of empowering them to internalize course content. These strategies are powerful and useful, because each is a way to routinely engage students in thinking about what they are trying to learn as they learn it. Many of the strategies offer students methods for questioning, and for appropriately analyzing and assessing, the ideas they are “receiving” in the schooling process. Each strategy represents a shift of responsibility for learning from teacher to student; each suggests at least one way of helping your students learn to do the often hard work of learning.

Our earth is our only home, and it is under attack from many pollutants spewed into the atmosphere and oceans by our species. We can no longer afford to continue shortsightedly placing convenience before sustainability and survival. Yet we humans are skilled at deceiving ourselves in all kinds of ways, including that our precious desires and whims are more important than the health of the earth, the wellbeing of our families, and the future of the planet. This is why critical thinking is so important – because it helps us see through our self-deception to the real facts and challenges before us.

This said, the problem of climate change and its associated mass ecological damage is complex. It requires addressing many questions across many domains of thought, and it requires effective action throughout many areas of life and society. This session will explain how critical thinking must be used to tackle the climate crisis – thereby illuminating ways that critical thinking can address other complex, widescale problems facing humanity at large.

The quality of our students’ learning is determined by the quality of their thinking. The quality of their thinking, in turn, is largely determined by the quality of their questions, for questions are the engine, the driving force behind thinking. Without questions, students have nothing to think about. Without essential questions, they often fail to focus on the significant and substantive.

When students ask essential questions while reading, writing, speaking, and listening, they engage with what is necessary, relevant, and indispensable to course content. They recognize what is at the heart of the matter; their thinking is grounded and disciplined; they are ready to learn and able to intellectually find their way about. Sadly, few students are adept at the art of asking essential questions. Most have never thought about why some questions are crucial and others peripheral. Their questions, when asked at all, are haphazard and scattered.

This session will provide practical ways of teaching students to ask essential questions and thereby equip them to internalize essential knowledge within your course.

3:30 - 5:00 p.m. EDT

View the first 1.5 hours of the following video during this time-period or beforehand in preparation for the 5:15 discussion. (If you wish to view the entire video, you will need to begin watching it sooner.) Take notes, write down your questions, and bring them to the discussion.

• Intellectual Virtues: Going Deeper – Overview & Intellectual Empathy

5:15 - 6:00 p.m. EDT

Watch the video above and then join this discussion facilitated by Dr. Paul Bankes. Together you will probe the ideas explored by Drs. Elder and Nosich in the video. Dr. Bankes will field questions and lead discussions based on your questions and thoughts. Please make notes and write down your questions as you view the videos, pausing periodically as needed. Bring your thoughts and questions to this session and be ready for a lively discussion.

Intellectual virtues are inclinations toward reasonable thinking that emerge over time with consistent practice in 1) analyzing thinking through the elements of reasoning, 2) evaluating thinking through Intellectual Standards, and 3) remaining vigilant for manifestations of egocentricity and sociocentricity, which are innate human barriers to critical thinking.

Intellectual virtues include traits such as intellectual courage, intellectual humility, fairmindedness, confidence in reason, and intellectual integrity. These positive dispositions are to be contrasted with counterproductive ones – intellectual vices – such as intellectual cowardice, intellectual arrogance, selfishness, distrust of reason, and intellectual hypocrisy.

While some people are more naturally inclined to embody certain intellectual virtues than others, these virtues largely represent a shift within the thinker toward more (but never total) automation of critical thinking.

Join this discussion on those aspects of intellectual virtues explored in the video assignments above.

Numerous elements of the modern world have proven disastrous for the mental wellbeing of humans, and many who seek help from mental health professionals experience little, if any, improvement. Some are even harmed when undergoing treatment, and this in some cases has resulted in tragic losses of life.

Critical Thinking Therapy begins with the assumption that mental health depends, among other things, on reasonable thinking and living a reasonable life. One cannot be emotionally healthy while also being an unreasonable person, and to be consistently reasonable requires critical thinking.

Critical Thinking Therapy stresses the importance of 1) learning the explicit tools of critical thinking for mental health, 2) understanding the complex and rapidly changing world to which most humans must now adapt, 3) relying on the best thinking that has been done throughout history to address how best to live today, both individually and collectively, and 4) helping clients forge the best path for their own self-fulfillment and achievement at the highest level of which they are capable.

In this session, Dr. Elder will introduce critical thinking therapy, explore its advantages over more conventional therapy models, and discuss how it can help address the growing mental health crisis.

The human mind is at once rational and irrational, reasonable and unreasonable. We naturally see the world from a narrow egocentric perspective; we are also highly vulnerable to influence from group traditions, mores, taboos, and customs. We are naturally selfish, self-deceiving, prejudiced, and biased. We naturally distort reality to fit our vision of it. We naturally distort information to keep from seeing what we would rather avoid. We naturally seek more for ourselves – and, by implication, more for our group – than is rightfully ours. We naturally act without due regard to the rights and needs of others.

In short, humans are innately egocentric and, by extension, sociocentric. At the same time, we are capable of developing as reasonable persons, but to do so requires commitment and some fundamental understandings about the pathological side of the human mind. In this session, we will focus on some of these painful truths about the mind. We will explore egocentric thought as an intrinsic mental phenomenon that impedes cultivation of the disciplined mind, and hence the development of rational human beings and fairminded critical societies.

Critical thinking does not entail merely intellectual skills. Rather, 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 some critical thinking skills and abilities, and yet be unable to enter viewpoints with which they disagree. They may have some critical thinking abilities, and yet be unable to analyze the beliefs guiding their behavior. They may have some 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 responsibly dissent. Thus, it is necessary to develop intellectual virtues - virtues of intellectual humility, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, confidence in reason, and fairmindedness.

This session will describe the desirable intellectual virtues shared by critical thinkers – necessary for high-level functioning throughout learning, teaching, and work and life in general – and how to develop them over time.

Effectively assessing reasoning is essential to critical thinking. While most students (and educators) at least sometimes use standards appropriate for assessing thinking, often without consciously realizing it, do they adhere to the most relevant and important intellectual standards in every context? And how often do they fail to use any appropriate standards at all?

Since reasoning is at the heart of every subject, domain of thought, and field of study, it follows that students should be learning to competently assess reasoning in every course they take. One effective way of facilitating this outcome is by having students evaluate one another’s written work using universal intellectual standards such as clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, fairness, and sufficiency.

This session focuses on how to help students internalize intellectual standards through reasonable, fairminded assessment of each other’s work. It will also discuss how to facilitate this assessment in a way that minimizes awkwardness and unnecessary friction among students.

Educated persons skillfully, routinely engage in substantive writing. Substantive writing consists of focusing on a subject worth writing about, and then saying something worth saying about it. It also enhances our reading: whenever we read to acquire knowledge, we should write to take ownership of what we are reading. Furthermore, just as we must write to gain an initial understanding of a subject's primary ideas, so also must we write to begin thinking within the subject as a whole and making connections between ideas within and beyond it.
Quite remarkably, many people have never written in a substantive way. Instead, they have developed the habit of getting by with superficial and impressionistic writing which only obscures the purpose of writing itself. The result is that many people are blind to the ways in which writing can be used to enrich their learning and lives.

This session will explore ways of developing our abilities in substantive writing, through the tools of critical thinking, as a means for fulfilling, deep learning and communication.

In this session we will focus on strategies for engaging students’ intellects as a means of empowering them to internalize course content. These strategies are powerful and useful, because each is a way to routinely engage students in thinking about what they are trying to learn as they learn it. Many of the strategies offer students methods for questioning, and for appropriately analyzing and assessing, the ideas they are “receiving” in the schooling process. Each strategy represents a shift of responsibility for learning from teacher to student; each suggests at least one way of helping your students learn to do the often hard work of learning.

Schedule TBA

The Guest Presentation Program will be posted as Guest Presenters are approved and registered.

See our Call for Proposals here.

Educated persons are skilled at, and routinely engage in, close reading. They do not read blindly, but purposely. They have a goal or objective they are pursuing as they read. Their purpose, together with the nature of what they are reading, determines how they read. They read differently in different situations for different purposes. Of course, reading has a nearly universal purpose: to figure out what an author has to say on a given subject.    

One important way of understanding an article, chapter, or book is to analyze the components of the author’s reasoning. This is done by identifying the elements of reasoning, and by recognizing when an aspect of any given work represents more than one element of reasoning simultaneously. This session will elucidate how to do this accurately, and how to teach this approach to your students, in any field of study.

Online learning brings unique opportunities and challenges to the processes of learning and teaching. However, the core elements of effective in-person education still apply: students must think through ideas and information to internalize them; they must formulate relevant questions about significant course content; they must identify foundational, powerful concepts in each subject and discipline; they must practice critical thinking routinely in order to develop the intellectual traits necessary to function effectively in their learning, their future careers, their relationships, indeed, in every aspect of their lives.

This session will shed light on how tried-and-true methods of critical thinking instruction through course content can be translated to online learning spaces.

When we read, we translate words into meanings. The author has previously translated ideas and experiences into words. We must take those same words and re-translate them into the author’s original meaning using our own ideas and experiences as aids. Accurately translating words into intended meanings is an analytic, evaluative, and creative set of acts, and each of these acts require critical thinking to be done competently. Unfortunately, because few people acquire the tools and concepts of critical thinking, few are skilled at such translation. Few are able to accurately mirror the meaning that the author intended, instead projecting their own meanings into a text. In other words, through a lack of critical thinking, they unintentionally distort or violate the original meaning of the authors they read.

Reading, then, is a form of intellectual work. And intellectual work requires willingness to persevere through difficulties. But perhaps even more importantly, intellectual work requires understanding what such work entails. In this session, you will be introduced to five levels of close reading and will work through one or two of them closely. Accordingly, you will experience the process of critically reading significant texts, and this experience will prepare you to practice this indispensable skillset moving forward.

It is essential when thinking critically to clearly distinguish three different kinds of questions:

•    Those with one right answer or which are procedural. Factual questions fall into this category. E.g., “What is the boiling point of lead?”

•    Those with better or worse (well-reasoned or poorly reasoned) answers, and which require reasoned judgment considering all significant, relevant viewpoints. E.g., “How can we best address the most basic and significant economic problems of the nation today?”

•    Those with as many answers as there are different human preferences. This is a category in which mere opinion rules. E.g., “Which would you prefer, a vacation in the mountains or one at the seashore?”

These types of questions are frequently confused for one another. This is problematic, because the appropriate methodology for answering a question depends on what category of question is being considered.

This session will discuss how to identify the category to which a question belongs and what approach is needed to answer each type.

One of the most valued characteristics of critical societies is freedom of thought. Freedom of thought presupposes freedom of speech. If we cannot freely and openly discuss ideas of every kind – ideas that critique the way things are in our societies, ideas that call into question mainstream views, ideas that may even undermine the status quo – it cannot be said that we live in a free society. If we cannot dissent without being stereotyped, typecast, pigeon-holed, and marginalized – if we cannot openly disagree with, oppose, contest, and resist irrational and unfair laws and rules – we are not a free society, nor are we free to develop our intellects to the extent possible within our lifetimes.

But we cannot just think freely. We must also think with discipline, using the principles of critical thinking. This requires adhering to appropriate standards for thinking and presupposes intellectual virtues such as intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, confidence in reason, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, and intellectual civility.

This session will further explore these ideas.

4:15 - 5:15 p.m.EDT

Come together to forge connections that will help you continue your critical thinking journey after the conference ends.

Sociocentricity is the natural human tendency to assume inherent superiority of one’s own group or culture. It entails the inclination to judge “alien” people, groups, or cultures from the perspective of one’s own group, and it involves holding other groups to stricter standards than one’s own.

Sociocentricity functions primarily at the unconscious level and is a primary barrier to critical thinking. This session will discuss the extent to which sociocentricity impacts human behavior, and how you can begin to recognize and relieve this influence so as to act more independently, critically, and ethically.

Learning to think within the logic of a subject, discipline, or profession is analogous to learning to perform well in basketball, ballet, or on the piano. Doing so at an advanced level without disciplined practice is completely unnatural to the human mind, much like sitting down at a piano and spontaneously playing Chopin’s Polonaise.

To learn the think well within a subject, discipline, or profession requires taking command of its fundamental logic – in other words, understanding the elements of reasoning embedded in it and then developing and pursuing your own important questions within the field. This session will teach you to understand your subject as a mode of thinking, and to foster this understanding in students.

While teaching students about your subject or discipline requires teaching them to reason about and within it, students come to us with varying (and usually very limited) knowledge of how to reason about or within any subject area.

Validity and reliability have recently been established for the International Critical Thinking Essay Test through research published in Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum. The purpose of the ICTET is to assess students' understanding of the fundamentals of critical thinking that should be used to reason through any subject, and to do this more accurately and insightfully than any computer-graded test can do. The goal of the test is two-fold: 1) to provide a reasonable way of pre- and post-testing students to determine how extensively they have (or have not) learned to think critically within a discipline or subject, and 2) to stimulate faculty to teach their disciplines so as to foster critical thinking in students.

Once faculty become committed to pre- and post-testing their students using the exam, it is natural and desirable for them to emphasize analysis and assessment of thinking in their routine instruction within the subjects they teach. However, to administer the exam reliably and with consequence, faculty must 1) have significant knowledge of critical thinking concepts and principles, 2) bring these concepts and principles to bear in evaluating students’ written work, and 3) choose prompts that are appropriate for the contexts of their respective classrooms and for their evaluative goals.

This session will demonstrate how you can use the ICTET to assess your students’ grasp of critical thinking fundamentals, and to use it as a guide for modifying your instruction in ways that cultivate better reasoning in your students (regardless of what topics they are reasoning through in your courses). We will also discuss the recent research establishing validity and reliability.

Critical thinking, deeply understood, provides a rich set of concepts that enable us to think our way through any subject or discipline, as well as through any problem or issue. With a substantive conception of critical thinking clearly in mind, we start to recognize the pressing need for staff development that fosters critical thinking within and across the curriculum. As we come to understand such a conception, we can follow out its implications in designing a professional development program. By means of it, we begin to see important implications for every part of the institution — redesigning policies; providing administrative support for critical thinking; rethinking the mission; coordinating and providing faculty workshops in critical thinking; redefining faculty as learners as well as teachers; and evaluating students, faculty, and the institution as a whole in terms of critical thinking abilities and traits.

We understand that robust critical thinking should be the guiding force for all our educational efforts. This session focuses on the importance of placing critical thinking foundations at the core of teaching and learning at all levels of the institution, and it presents a professional development model that can provide the vehicle for deep change across the organization.

There is no more important goal in schooling than cultivating the intellect, but we cannot achieve this goal unless we place intellectual development at the heart of instruction. To do this, we must approach our students at all levels as thinkers, as persons capable of figuring things out for themselves, as persons with their own thoughts, emotions, and desires, as persons with minds of their own.

Critical thinking has historically been treated in schooling as another add-on, as something interesting we combine with other things we do. But when we understand what it takes to cultivate the intellect, we bring the concepts and principles of critical thinking into everything we do in the classroom, so that it becomes the centerpiece of instruction. This is true because it is through critical thinking that we make explicit the intellectual tools students need to live successfully and reasonably, to grapple with the complex problems they will inevitably face, to think their way through content of any kind – including the content of whatever topics we teach.

In this session, Dr Elder will work with you to redesign an entire course within your subject using the strategies you have learned at the conference – as well as additional possible strategies.

Egocentric and sociocentric tendencies can impede your ability to achieve virtually anything, including the development of better reasoning within your education and/or profession. It is essential for you to command the stories you tell yourself about yourself, about your past, and about your ability to achieve within your capacities. For instance, are you telling yourself that you are unable to perform beyond a certain level because people have told you this? Are you allowing messages that you have received from others, or that you have created by drawing irrational lessons from past experiences, to hold you back from advancing as a student and/or professional?

To realize your capacities, you must face down the dark inner voice of failure. Everyone faces the same challenges in this regard: 1) to see oneself as fully capable of realizing one’s goals, within reason, and 2) to repel negative, destructive tendencies and people.

Worrying operates as a merry-go-round ad nauseum, wherein your thinking goes around and around over the same ground but never moves forward to any solutions – while all the while perceiving itself to be achieving something. This is the opposite of critical thinking, whereby we actively seek solutions and believe in our ability to do so.

This session will explicate how self-handicapping thoughts form obstacles to your critical thinking development, and therefore to your advancement as a learner and professional. It will go on to provide ways of identifying and intervening in these tendencies.