Critical and Inventive Thinking in the Secondary Classroom
PDF Print E-mail

Critical and Inventive Thinking in the Secondary Classroom

 

Date: 19 November 2018 Monday
Venue: To be confirmed
Time: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Closing date: 26 October 2018 Friday

Click here to register

Workshop Fee:
S$350.00 per participant. If 2 or more participants from the same school/organization attend the same workshop, the discounted fee will be S$300.00 per participant for that particular workshop. Fees are subject to GST and include all training materials, 2 tea breaks and a lunch.

 

Other Information:
Registration is on a first-come-first serve basis. No refunds will be made for cancellations or in the case of absentees. The Academy accepts replacements for registered participants who are unable to attend for whatever reasons.

School/Cluster Based Workshop Registration
Dates available for booking: 21, 22 and 23 November 2018
Please contact Joseph Loy by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or tel: 6363 0330 on the cost of conducting the workshop.


Workshop Description

Critical thinking is widely acknowledged as a powerful instrument for cognitive development. Central to much of it is inventive/creative thinking.

It provides skills in analysis of reasoning, evaluation of the significance of claims and reasoning, interpretation, and production of argument.

What is the value of a student having the skills of analysis?

  • Seeing relationships between claims
  • Understanding the difference between different types of reasoning
  • In looking at argumentation, the student will be clear about what is being argued for (or against).
  • In looking at argumentation, the student will be clear as to the detail of the reasoning.
  • Analytical skills are necessary for the understanding of complex reasoning.
  • Analytical skills are necessary for the development of useful evaluative skills.
  • Analytical skills are necessary for the effective production of argument.


What is the value of a student having the skills of evaluation?

  • They focus the student on the need to look at the nature of the claims (including evidence-claims) made. This will get them to look at the central issue of significance (and thereby focus on the importance of creative thinking).
  • They focus the student on the need to assess the relationship between claims (as reasons) and inference.
  • The skills should/will operate in a self-reflective way to improve the student’s own reasoning.

What is the value of a student having the skills of interpretation?

  • Students can deal with issues of ambiguity and conflation.
  • Students can deal with possible questions of definition.
  • Students can suggest possible meanings of given evidence.

What is the value of a student having the skills of argument-production?

  • The student can produce coherent and clear argumentation.
  • The student is familiar with the requirement of justification.
  • The skills reinforce analytical and evaluative skills.


Structure of workshop on Critical and Inventive Thinking

Content

  • Thinking - issues and problems: how and why we do/might think less critically than we should
  • An overview of critical thinking (skills and dispositions) and how rigour and inventive thinking can profitably coexist
  • Teaching critical and inventive thinking
    • infusion and explicit instruction
    • using a questioning approach (including cognitively challenging classroom talk)
    • the value of dialogue
    • collaborative learning
    • mentoring
    • using authentic material
    • using checklists
    • using structured organisers
    • scaffolding
    • modelling
    • developing metacognition
    • the use of thinking aloud techniques
    • teaching for transfer (both near and far)
  • Assessment
    • clarifying the purpose of assessment
    • designing assessments

 

NB: In each section, material from a range of subjects will be used to illustrate how critical thinking is required in them, and how inventive/creative thinking is an important part of such critical thinking.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, staff should be able to:

1. understand the nature of critical thinking;

2. understand the creative/inventive thinking possibilities within critical thinking;

3. carry out a critical thinking skills audit of their subject syllabus(es);

4. use strategies for developing and reinforcing critical thinking (and thus creative/inventive thinking) with their students;

5. develop resources for critical thinking in their own subjects;

6. produce assessments in critical and creative thinking to use with students.

 

Target Audience
Classroom teachers of all levels, staff developers, teachers of leadership programs and institutes, and leaders of school systems


069About the Trainer - Dr Roy van den Brink-Budgen

Dr Roy van den Brink-Budgen has been working in the area of Critical Thinking for 31 years, 18 of which he worked on the development of assessment materials not only in Critical Thinking but also other thinking skills. He was employed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (now Cambridge Assessment) for part of this time, developing assessments in both 'Critical Thinking' and 'Communication' as part of a Thinking Skills assessment programme. Roy was also employed as the Chief Examiner for the British GCE 'A'-Level subject in "Critical Thinking" between its inception in 1999 until 2005.

 

He has taught the subject for twenty-two years to a diverse variety of groups and ages, ranging from primary children to higher education students, prison inmates, to teachers at all levels, and to staff in organisations and companies. Roy has brought the subject to a wider audience of teachers as well as students than anyone else in the UK.

Dr Roy has also delivered papers and workshops at various international conferences on both Critical and Creative Thinking.

First published in 1996, his book "Critical Thinking for Students" was a pioneering piece of work in the fact that, unlike other literary resources on Critical Thinking that catered to the niche of university undergraduates, his book was tailored to benefit a wide range of students. Dr Roy's educational resources are not only limited to his books on the subject but include online courses and even a Critical Thinking game. His resources are now widely used in many countries around the world.

He is currently Head of the Critical Thinking Advisory Board for a London-based company that specialises in the development of resources for both the assessment and learning in the subject. He is also an advisor to an international company that has developed self-coaching by AI.

Click here to view Dr Roy's videos on The Skills of Critical Thinking & Critical Thinking - Issues of Training and Creativity