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2007 Conference Theme and sessions

The 27th Annual
International Conference on Critical Thinking

Ultimate Goals, Subject-Based Contextualizations, Documented Results . . .
Critical Thinking in Every Field of Knowledge & Belief

 

You will note that, unlike most academic conferences, the International Conference on Critical Thinking requires intellectual work of all participants in all sessions. One cannot learn critical thinking without doing critical thinking and one cannot do critical thinking without doing intellectual work. Therefore, look forward to dynamic interactions with others at the conference as you read, write, think the ideas of critical thinking into your thinking.

Critical thinking concepts and tools are the essential core of all well-conceived instruction. They define the ultimate goals of education.

Taking ownership of these goals is the crucial first step in educational reform.

The second step consists in contextualizing the goals. This entails creating strategies for bringing critical thinking into the teaching of every subject.

The third step consists in documenting results.

Own, contextualize, document---keys to success

 Thus follows the design of the conference. 
  • The first conference day will focus on participants taking ownership of the core concepts and tools that define critical thinking as an intellectual and personal set of understandings.
  • The second conference day will focus on strategies for bringing these core concepts into the logic of subjects, disciplines and domains of human thought.
  • The third conference day will consist in alternative ways of documenting results.
  • Click Here To View the Daily Sessions

Files available for download »




CONFERENCE MENU


Day One: Taking Initial Ownership of the Foundations of Critical Thinking
Elements of Reasoning


The first day of the conference will focus on the fundamentals of critical thinking. This session will lay the foundation for all other conference sessions. 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 (element of reasoning). Implicit goals are built into their thought processes. But their reasoning is improved when they are clear (intellectual standard) about that purpose or goal. Similarly, to reason well, they need to know that, consciously or unconsciously, they are using relevant (intellectual standard) information (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 (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, 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 through-out the day that will exemplify the essential ingredients of teaching for ownership: modeling thinking, requiring thinking, testing thinking.

 

Each registrant, working under the direction of a facilitator, will engage in repeating cycles of reciprocal teaching and assessment focused on the foundational concepts and principles of critical thinking. These sessions will be facilitated by Dr. Richard Paul, Dr. Linda Elder, and Dr. Gerald Nosich. In addition, there will be an advanced session for returning registrants.

 Advanced Session: Foundations of Critical Thinking – Going Deeper

The “Advanced Ownership” Session will focus participants on the task of constructing a glossary of critical thinking concepts — which they subsequently assess by comparing their formulations to model formulations. The session is advanced in that it assumes that participants have (previous to the conference) developed the ability to orally state, explain, and exemplify basic critical thinking concepts (namely the elements of reasoning, intellectual standards and intellectual virtues). For example, one of the activities in the basic session might be to state and explain ORALLY what an inference is (after hearing it explained by the facilitator). The advanced group, on the other hand, would be expected to state, explain, and exemplify what an inference is IN WRITING (so clearly, accurately, and precisely that it would be adequate for insertion in a Critical Thinking Glossary of fundamental concepts.)

The common denominator of both groups is engagement in a process that can be used in a classroom (subsequently) to aid students in taking ownership of basic concepts in academic disciplines. The participants will experience the power of reciprocal teaching or writing as forms of deep learning. In reciprocal teaching we teach the students concepts in such a way that they must teach what they have learned from us to other members of the class. They take turns teaching each other until they are able to express what they are learning clearly and accurately.)


Day Two: Contextualization

 All of this day’s sessions will model the process of contextualizing the basic principles of critical thinking within domains, subjects, and disciplines. The process of intellectual engagement continues.
 
Day Two: Morning 

(The contextualization process begins)

Participants will choose one from the following selections:

Practical Ideas for Improving Student Learning . . . Rush Cosgrove

This session is based in the idea that substantive teaching and learning can occur only when students take ownership of the most basic principles and concepts of the subject. The teaching strategies recommended are rooted in a vision of instruction implied by critical thinking and an analysis of the weaknesses typically found in most traditional didactic lecture/quiz/test formats of instruction. The session will utilize the Thinker’s Guide on How to Improve Student Learning, which highlights strategies that require students to think actively within the concepts and principles of the subject. An important uniqueness of this session is that it will be facilitated by an insightful student skilled in critical thinking and will thus highlight a student perspective on teaching and learning. 

The Role of Administration in Establishing a Critical Thinking Community . . . Linda Elder

Critical thinking, deeply understood, provides a rich set of concepts that enable us to think our way through any subject or discipline, through any problem or issue. With a substantive concept of critical thinking clearly in mind, we begin to see the pressing need for a staff development program that fosters critical thinking within and across the curriculum. As we come to understand a substantive concept of critical thinking, we are able to 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, assessing students, faculty, and the institution as a whole in terms of critical thinking abilities and traits. We realize that robust critical thinking should be the guiding force for all of our educational efforts. This session presents a professional development model that can provide the vehicle for deep change across the curriculum, across the institution.

Teaching Critical Thinking in the Professional Fields . . . Richard Paul

Everyday professionals make decisions that have important implications for human and animal life – medical professionals, engineers, social workers, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, activists, and many others. Critical thinking is essential to thinking well within all the professions. This session will thus explore the concepts, principles, and tools that critical thinking brings to the professions.

Socratic Questioning . . . Dr. Gerald Nosich

All thinking is driven by questions. Good questions generate good thinking. Bad questions generate bad thinking. Deep questions, deep thinking. No questions, no thinking. To think well about thinking we need to learn how to ask questions that take thinking apart and reveal to us how the parts of our thinking are functioning together.  In this session, Gerald Nosich will provide an introduction to the theory and practice of Socratic Questioning, through emphasis on the analysis and assessment of reasoning. Participants will be engaged in Socratic dialogue, and will gain introductory experience in Socratic questioning, that with practice can lead to an increasingly richer understanding of the power inherent in disciplined questioning as a tool of both teaching and learning. 
 

Infusing Critical Thinking into Elementary Instruction: Part One . . . Suzanne Borman and Joel Levine

This session will provide teachers with strategies for fostering critical thinking at the elementary level. Special emphasis will be placed on helping students understand what it means to be a fair-minded critical thinker and how they can achieve this goal by learning to take their thinking apart, evaluate it and then improve it. To this end, Drs. Borman and Levine will focus on strategies for teaching elementary students the Elements of Thinking and the Universal Intellectual Standards and how to use these concepts to evaluate thinking. Participants will have an opportunity to develop learning activities designed to foster student comprehension of specific critical thinking concepts.


Day Two: Afternoon

(The contextualization process continues)

Participants will choose one from the following selections:
 
The Art of Close Reading and Substantive Writing
. . . Enoch Hale

Educated persons are skilled at and routinely engage in close reading and substantive writing.   If we have the ability to read closely, to comprehend and apply what we read, we can — in principle — master a subject from books alone, without benefit of lectures or class discussion. Indeed, if we read widely and skillfully, we may become educated through reading alone. Skilled readers do this through the process of intellectually interacting with the authors they read as they read. They actively question. They come to understand what they read by paraphrasing, elaborating, exemplifying, and illustrating what they read. They make connections as they read. They evaluate as they read. They bring important ideas into their thinking as they read. 

 Substantive writing, in turn, consists in focusing on a subject worth writing about and then saying something worth saying about it. It enhances our reading. It develops the more subjects we read and write about and the more points of view we use as tools for discovering important points. Whenever we read to acquire knowledge we should write to take ownership of that reading. Furthermore, just as we must write to gain an initial understanding of the primary ideas of a subject, so also must we write to begin to think within the subject as a whole and to make interconnections between ideas within and beyond the subject. Quite remarkably, many of our students have never read a text closely nor written a substantive paper in all their years of schooling. Instead they have developed the habit of skirting by with superficial and impressionistic reading, writing, and listening. This session will explore ways and means for developing student skills in close reading and substantive writing in content areas.
 
Creating a Critical Society . . . Richard Paul
The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all its mores, because it is a way of taking up the problems of life. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators ... They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.

William Graham Sumner, Folkways, 1906

It is becoming increasingly clear that the survival and well-being of humans largely depends on our ability to work together successfully and productively, to reach out to one another, to help one another. Yet, problems of nationalism and ethnocentrism are pervasive across the world. People are raised to see their country, or their group, as better than other countries or groups. They tend to favor the groups to which they belong. This is a natural tendency of the human mind. And it is a tendency fostered within most, if not all, cultures across the world.

If we are to create a world that advances justice for the vast majority of people across the globe, we must become citizens of the world. We must denounce nationalism and ethnocentrism. We must think within a global, rather than national, view. We must take a long-term view. We must begin to relegate the interests of any given country, including our own, to that of one of many: no more worthy, no more needy, no more deserving of the world’s resources than anyone else on the planet. We must see the lives of people in other countries as no less precious than the lives of people in our own country. We must oppose the pursuit of narrow selfish or group interests. Integrity and justice must become more important to us than national advantage and power. This session will focus on these essential ingredients of a critical society and briefly explore the possibilities for the creation of such a society in the future.
 
Learning the Physical and Life Sciences: a Student Perspective . . . Rush Cosgrove 
  • To study well and learn any science is to learn how to think scientifically within that subject. It is to learn to
  • raise vital scientific questions and problems within it, formulating them clearly and precisely,
  • gather and assess scientific data and information, using scientific theories and principles to interpret those data insightfully,
  • come to well-reasoned scientific conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant scientific criteria and standards;
  • adopt the point of view of the science, 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 science to other sciences and to what is significant in human life.
 To become a skilled scientist is to become a self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinker, who has given assent to rigorous standards of thought and mindful command of their use. Yet most scientific instruction falls far short of fostering disciplined thinking. In this session, Rush Cosgrove, a college student, will share his experiences as a student in physical and life sciences, discussing methods that have fostered his intellectual development and those that have hindered his development. Participants will come away with instructional strategies which they can use in the classroom to help students think more deeply in the physical and life sciences.
 

Teaching Critical Thinking in the Social Disciplines . . . Linda Elder

The social disciplines include academic courses that foster understanding of the individuals, groups and institutions that make up human society. They study how humans live together in groups in such a way that their dealings with one another affect their common welfare. In this session, we focus on fostering critical thinking within the social disciplines – within history, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, psychology and sociology .  

Teaching Critical Thinking in the Arts and Humanities . . . Gerald Nosich

Painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, music, drama, and literature as art forms are all attempts to create something that goes beyond simple skill or demonstrable knowledge. They represent modes of seeking to express what is “beautiful,” “deep,” “insightful,” and/or “profound” in nature or in human life. They attempt to transcend or transform the “ordinary,” “obvious,” or mundane. In this session, we focus on fostering critical thinking within the arts and humanities, including those mentioned above, as well as philosophy and religious studies.  

Infusing Critical Thinking into Elementary Instruction: Part Two . . . Suzanne Borman and Joel Levine

Building on the foundational concepts covered in the first session, this session will continue to focus on infusing critical thinking in elementary instruction throughout the curriculum and within student relationships. Participants will be engaged in applying the elements of reasoning and intellectual standards within content areas including math, language arts, and social studies. Classroom management issues will also be addressed through application of critical thinking strategies.



Day Three/Four
Documenting Results, Assessment, & Testing

Day Three

Day Three: Morning
(Invited concurrent sessions)


Participants will select from concurrent sessions at the conference. These sessions focus on contextualization and documentation of critical thinking foundations. All concurrent sessions are invited.

Day Three: Afternoon

(The focus on assessment begins)

Participants will choose one selection from each 1 ½ hour session. Each selection is repeated so that participants can attend more sessions.
 
First Block:
 

Critical Thinking Concept Test . . . Gerald Nosich

A new machine-scorable Foundation for Critical Thinking test focused on assessing one’s knowledge of basic critical thinking concepts will be discussed. Participants will take and then score the test.

 Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test: Levels One-Two . . . Enoch Hale

The first two levels of the Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test will be the focus of this session. Participants will get practice in these two levels of reading and writing.

 Fairmindedness Test . . .  Richard Paul

A Foundation for Critical Thinking machine-scorable test focused on determining the extent to which students are likely to think fairmindedly, to think empathically, to consider alternate ways of looking at complex issues will be the focus of this session. Participants will take and then score the test.

 Peer Assessment . . . Linda Elder

Instructional strategies and methods for effective peer assessment will be the focus of this session.

Strategies for Assessing Your Development as a Thinker . . . Rush Cosgrove

Strategies for identifying and dealing with the barriers that all of us face in progressing as thinkers will be the focus of this session.

 Assessing Critical Thinking Skills at the Elementary Level . . . Joel Levine and Suzanne Borman

The focus of this session will be on multiple ways of assessing students’ ability to think critically. Measurement strategies designed to foster student learning and growth in these areas will be considered. Participants will have an opportunity to participate in developing assessment strategies which allow students alternative ways to demonstrate what they have learned.

 Second Block
(Repeat of first block):
 

Participants will choose one selection from each 1 ½ hour session. Each selection is repeated so that participants can attend more sessions.

 Critical Thinking Concept Test … Gerald Nosich

A new machine-scorable Foundation for Critical Thinking test focused on assessing one’s knowledge of basic critical thinking concepts will be discussed. Participants will take and then score the test.
 

Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test: Levels One-Two . . . Enoch Hale

The first two levels of the Critical Thinking Reading and Writing test will be the focus of this session. Participants will get practice in these two levels of reading and writing.

Fairmindedness Test . . . Richard Paul

A Foundation for Critical Thinking machine-scorable test focused on determining the extent to which students are likely to think fairmindedly, to think empathically, to consider alternate ways of looking at complex issues will be the focus of this session. Participants will take and then score the test.
 

Peer Assessment . . . Linda Elder

Instructional strategies and methods for effective peer assessment will be the focus of this session.

Strategies for Assessing Your Development as a Thinker…Rush Cosgrove

Strategies for identifying and dealing with the barriers that all of us face in progressing as thinkers will be the focus of this session.
 

Assessing Critical Thinking Skills at the Elementary Level…Joel Levine and Suzanne Borman

The focus of this session will be on multiple ways of assessing students’ ability to think critically. Measurement strategies designed to foster student learning and growth in these areas will be considered. Participants will have an opportunity to participate in developing assessment strategies which allow students alternative ways to demonstrate what they have learned.

Day Four: Morning

(The focus on assessment continues)

First Block

(Participants will choose one selection from each 1 ½ hour session. 
Each selection is repeated so that participants can attend more sessions.)

Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test:
Levels Three-Four and International Critical Thinking Test . . . Richard Paul


The first third and fourth levels of the Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test, as well as the International Critical Thinking Test, will be the focus of this session. The overlapping nature of these two tests will be discussed. Participants will get brief practice in analyzing and assessing reasoning, the two main processes targeted in these tests.
 

Analytic Reasoning Test . . . Gerald Nosich

A new machine-scorable Foundation for Critical Thinking test focused on assessing one’s ability to analyze reasoning will be the focus of this session. Participants will take and score the test.

Portfolio Assessment: Including Journals and Written Self-Assessments . . . Linda Elder

The importance and role of portfolio assessments in instruction are the focus of this session, which will introduce how to use journals and written self-assessments in instruction.
 

Critical Thinking Competency Standards . . . Enoch Hale

A Guide for Educators to Critical Thinking Competency Standards are the focus of this session – which includes critical thinking standards, principles, performance indicators and outcomes with a scoring rubric.

Identifying and Dealing With Your Bad Habits of Mind . . . Rush Cosgrove
All of us engage in bad habits of thought, habits which are often powerful barriers to our development as thinkers. This session offers suggestions for beginning to identify and deal with those barriers.

 
Second Block
(Repeat of first block)

Participants will choose one selection from each 1 ½ hour session. 
Each selection is repeated so that participants can attend more sessions.

Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test:
Levels Three-Four and International Critical Thinking Test…Richard Paul


The first third and fourth levels of the Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test, as well as the International Critical Thinking Test, will be the focus of this session. The overlapping nature of these two tests will be discussed. Participants will get brief practice in analyzing and assessing reasoning, the two main processes targeted in these tests.

Analytic Reasoning Test…Gerald Nosich

A new machine-scorable Foundation for Critical Thinking test focused on assessing one’s ability to analyze reasoning will be the focus of this session. Participants will take and score the test.

 Portfolio Assessment: Including Journals and Written Self-Assessments . . . Linda Elder

The importance and role of portfolio assessments in instruction are the focus of this session, which will introduce how to use journals and written self-assessments in instruction.
 

Critical Thinking Competency Standards . . . Enoch Hale

A Guide for Educators to Critical Thinking Competency Standards are the focus of this session – which includes critical thinking standards, principles, performance indicators and outcomes with a scoring rubric.

Identifying and Dealing With Your Bad Habits of Mind . . . Rush Cosgrove
All of us engage in bad habits of thought, habits which are often powerful barriers to our development as thinkers. This session offers suggestions for beginning to identify and deal with those barriers.