Teaching Creative Thinking to Enhance Critical Thinking
SIDNEY J. PARNES, Buffalo State College
June
1-3, 2000 in Memphis, TN
Apply: CBU
Undergraduate students who will become professional physical or social scientists, engineers, mathematicians or teachers must learn how to actualize goals, visions and dreams into reality. In this short course, instructors of these students learn and practice strategies to train their students to do this by using creative and critical thinking skills. Participants will be guided in preparing plans for helping students attain a creative outlook as they develop and use more of their thinking abilities.
The course focuses on opportunity making with respect to wishes and desires of individuals, their organizations, and the society in which they live. It helps participants uncover productive new ways to view, define and approach challenges, desires, or dilemmas in order to achieve effective implementable resolutions.
Too often a problem solver examines what exists and chooses the least of available evils without much satisfaction. Ultimately the Osborn/Parnes model results in creative decision-making in which one speculates on what might be, then chooses and develops the best alternative with satisfaction.
Participants will be introduced to creative/innovative processes that have been applied successfully in every academic discipline. These processes have also been applied by business executives desiring more creativity and innovation from their managers and employees. The short course provides participants the opportunity to experience the processes themselves and this helps enable them to effectively integrate these methods into their courses.
Participants will learn a new version of the Osborn/Parnes model. Many other proven techniques for stimulating both imagination and judgment are incorporated eclectically within the Osborn/Parnes model. The principles and processes presented have been derived from more than fifty years of research and practice in improving both imagination and judgment.
For college teachers of: all disciplines. Prerequisites: none
Dr. Parnes is Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Center for Studies of Creativity and its Master of Science degree program in Creative Studies at Buffalo State University College. The College presented its first Presidents Award for Excellence to Dr. Parnes in recognition of his outstanding contributions in research, scholarship and creativity. His latest book (1997) is entitled OPTIMIZE The Magic of your Mind. It will be provided to each participant. Among a number of his other books on creativity are Visioning: State-of-the-Art Processes for Encouraging Innovative Excellence (1988) and Source Book For Creative Problem-Solving (1992) .The Source Book is a 50 year anthology of creative problem-solving techniques and processes. Dr. Parnes is a Lifetime Trustee on the Board of the Creative Education Foundation, which presented him its highest award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 1990.He also serves on the Foundations Advisory Board of the Journal Of Creative Behavior.
Cognition and Teaching: Part 2
RUTH S. DAY, Duke University
May
10-12, 2000 in Durham, NC
Apply: TUCC
In “Cognition and Teaching: Part 1” we examined various cognitive processes (such as attention and memory) and their implications for teaching and learning. Since then, participants have returned to their classrooms and used course materials in both explicit and implicit ways. After a brief review of the major concepts examined in Part 1, we will discuss their effects on subsequent teaching. New material on “higher” cognitive functions will then be presented, including knowledge representation, problem solving, writing, and relationships between language and thought. This material will then be applied to teaching in the traditional divisions of inquiry – natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Small Focus Groups will also meet to discuss the material in terms of specific disciplines (e.g., physics, chemistry, biology, math, computer science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, history, philosophy, literature), and report their observations to the entire class. Concluding discussion will focus on cognitive aspects of teaching in the various disciplines – and the possibility that each can benefit from including approaches characteristic of other disciplines.
For college teachers of: all disciplines. Prerequisites: completion of the Chautauqua course, “Cognition and Teaching: Part 1,” given by Dr. Day.
Dr. Day has done extensive research in cognitive psychology, including perception, memory, comprehension, problem solving, mental representation, knowledge structures, individual differences and cognitive aspects of aging. Her forthcoming book, Cognition and Teaching incorporates some of the material from this course. She was on the faculties of Stanford and Yale Universities before going to Duke and was also a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. She was designated one of the “Ten Best Teachers” at Yale, “Distinguished Teacher” at Duke and “All Star Teacher” by the Smithsonian Institution/Teaching Company.
Constructive Processes in Learning And Teaching
DIANE L. SCHALLERT, The University of Texas at Austin
June 1-3, 2000 in Austin, TX
Apply: TXA
It is easy for college teachers to operate “on automatic” when it comes to their teaching duties. True, they are likely to be devoted to incorporating the latest disciplinary knowledge in their lectures. However, in the press of everything else they have to do, worrying about the best way to present that information or about how their students’ minds and emotions will be affected is often a low priority for college teachers. This course is intended to provide an opportunity for reflection on some of the latest insights that scholars and researchers interested in the process of learning and teaching have to offer.
Taking first a cognitive perspective, we will discuss how students think, how they use their existing knowledge to filter and interpret everything they observe, hear, and read, and how they change their existing knowledge. We will consider how learning is always a social and cultural experience, reflecting the context in which it occurs. We will then explore the emotional and motivational side of learning, the point of intersection between affect and cognition.
Throughout our discussion of the learning process from cognitive and socio-constructivist perspectives, we will refer to what practitioners and scholars have had to say about the teaching process. Thus, course participants should come away with a better understanding of their students and of how to teach them more effectively.
For college teachers of: all disciplines. Prerequisites: none
Dr. Schallert is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches a course on learning, cognition, and motivation in the undergraduate teacher preparation program, and graduate courses in learning and cognition, psycholinguistics, models of comprehension, and theories of writing. Her most recent research interests have been focused on the nature of classroom discourse, and how student affect intersects the language-learning interaction.
Process Workshops - A New Model for the Science Classroom
DAVID HANSON and TROY WOLFSKILL, State University of New York
June 1-3, 2000 in Stony Brook, L.I., NY
Apply: SUSB
A process workshop is defined as a classroom environment where students are actively engaged in learning a discipline and in developing essential skills by working in self-managed teams on activities that involve guided discovery, critical thinking, and problem solving, and that include reflection on learning and assessment of performance. The term process is used because the focus is on developing skills in key learning processes, and the term workshop is used because students are given tasks to complete as the active agents in the classroom. The essential skills, which we think most appropriate for a science workshop, lie in the areas of information processing, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication, management, and assessment. Performance skills in these areas, just like skills in laboratory work and athletics, can be developed, strengthened, and enhanced through practice. These skills therefore need to be included explicitly in university-level courses, not only to help students be successful in these courses, but also to prepare them for the workplace and for life in general.
In a process workshop, students work in teams to acquire information and develop understanding through guided discovery. They accomplish tasks and examine models or examples, which provide all the information central to the lesson, in response to critical-thinking questions, which we call key questions. The key questions compel the students to process the information, to verbalize and share their perceptions and understanding with each other, and to make inferences and conclusions, i.e. construct knowledge. They then apply this knowledge in simple exercises and to problems, which require higher-order thinking involving analysis, synthesis, transference, expert methodologies, and integration with previously learned concepts. The teams report their results to the class, assess how well they have done and how they could do better, develop strategies for improving their skills, reflect on what they have learned, and submit a written report.
The course will model the process-workshop classroom, review teaching strategies that help make it successful, and examine both text-based and computer-based materials that support this learning environment. The process-workshop format is being developed through grants from the National Science Foundation.
For college teachers: all disciplines. Prerequisites: none.
Dr. Hanson is a Professor of Chemistry at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is an established research scientist with over 125 publications, has served as Chair of the Department, and currently is Chair of Stony Brook’s Learning Communities Program. Dr. Wolfskill is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and an Education Specialist in Stony Brook’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. He has a special interest in developing computer-based learning systems.
Ethics in the Science Classroom
THEODORE GOLDFARB, State University of New York at Stony Brook
June 15-17, 2000 in Stony Brook, L.I., NY
Apply: SUSB
Recent concerns about scientific misconduct, increasing secrecy in science, and the various urgent ethical issues associated with contemporary developments in biotechnology have led to an increased interest on the part of the scientific community, government funding agencies and the public in ethics in science. This course will explore the need for, and the value of, the integration of ethics and values issues in all levels of science teaching.
For college teachers of: all disciplines and science education. Prerequisites: none.
Dr. Goldfarbteaches environmental chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. During the past decade his NSF-supported research and teaching have included a focus on ethics and values in science.
The Nature of Nature: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Teaching College Science
BRIAN HAGENBUCH and GERARD L’HEUREUX, Holyoke Community College
June 8-10, 2000 in Philadelphia, PA
Apply: TUCC
Informal surveys by the authors reveal that non-science students find traditional science classes to be “boring, difficult, and irrelevant.” In an effort to change this attitude, we designed an exciting, cross-disciplinary, team-taught science course entitled Our Changing Universe-Understanding the Nature of Nature that integrates both the content of scientific knowledge with the context in which science is used. We focus on student-active learning and methods where instructors act primarily as facilitators in the accumulation of student knowledge, not as lecturers.
Initially, we attempt to place the changing universe of scientific knowledge within a historical and philosophical context. Learners will be challenged to respond to fundamental issues with acquiring knowledge. How do we know what we know? How does Nature work? Through readings and class discussions, learners outline the rise of “modern” science during the Enlightenment period and identify its strengths and weakness. “Postmodernism” which may include ecology, indigenous knowledge, and the convergence of science and religion, is also identified to determine challenges and contributions to scientific inquiry.
Building upon the context in which science shapes knowledge, learners would explore the nature of nature by becoming familiar with basic scientific principles that govern matter and energy and applying this knowledge to the relationships that govern cycles and ecosystems. Learners may then analyze complex problems such as global warming, acid rain, ozone depletion, genetic engineering, and rainforest destruction and understand the multiple perspectives in the arguments.
Participants will become familiar with the cross-disciplinary pedagogies and justifications for integrating both the content and context of science in undergraduate courses for non-science majors. In addition, STEMTEC teaching methods that incorporate effective student active learning strategies such as cooperative learning, interactive lectures, small-group discussions, and other learning techniques to improve student comprehension and involvement in science will be demonstrated.(STEMTEC is an NSF-sponsored grant activity designed to stimulate college interest in science and math and to encourage college students to consider careers in science and/or math teaching at the K-12 level).We will also share both formative and summative evaluations and outline both strengths and weaknesses of our approach.
For college teachers of: all disciplines. Prerequisites: none
Dr. Hagenbuch is instructor of Life Sciences at Holyoke Community College and teaches general biology, current environmental issues (a distance education course), Topics in Science, and joint courses between science and the humanities. He is also involved in using Web sites, on-line communications, and other interactive technology tools for the general science classroom. He is exploring the use of various methodologies in the science classroom. Dr. L’Heureux is Professor of Chemistry at Holyoke Community College and also teaches Geology and Topics in Science. He is an active participant in the NSF STEMTEC (The Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Teacher Education Collaborative) grant and serves as the H.C. Coordinator for STEMTEC. He is a member of the IPSE Learning Community Leadership Team at Holyoke Community College and is active in the National Learning Communities Dissemination Project with the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. He has taught numerous learning communities that include Unity and Variety in Science and Literature and Our Changing Universe-Matter, Energy & the Environment both of which integrate ENG 102 with a lab science course.
Teaching Dendrochronology (Tree-Ring Analysis) in College-Level Courses
THOMAS W. SWETNAM and PAUL R. SHEPPARD, University of Arizona
May 18-20, 2000 in Tucson, AZ
Apply: UAZCampus Map:http://parking.arizona.edu/maps/campus/
Dendrochronology, or tree-ring science, is the study of annual growth bands of trees to better understand environmental conditions and human behavior of the past. Dendrochronology has been applied as a research tool in many distinct scientific disciplines, including forest ecology, geomorphology, climatology, environmental studies, and archaeology. Because of its broad application and interdisciplinary nature, dendrochronology can fit in as a topic in many courses typically offered at universities. Students often find dendrochronology interesting and enjoyable to learn about because it relates to many fascinating phenomena in the real world, from volcanic eruptions and forest fires to the abandonment of ancient cliff dwellings. Dendrochronology also affords opportunities for students to experience hands-on activities with specimens and data in the field and in the laboratory.
The
purpose of this course is to provide college teachers with a basic understanding
of dendrochronology principles and applications. The course will provide
various tools and ideas for teaching dendrochronology as part of an existing
course in environmental sciences or archaeology. The course will include
overviews of applications of dendrochronology plus benchmark examples,
hands-on experiences of lab and computer activities, and a trip to the
nearby Santa Catalina Mountains to experience fieldwork techniques and
to see examples of environmental issues to which tree rings
Apply. Participants will carry home hand outs that will be helpful
in the classroom for teaching dendrochronology.
For college teachers of: natural, geological, anthropological, or environmental sciences. Prerequisites: none.