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GCE - Dean's Office
Wheatley Hall, Floor 01, Room 00077
Tel. 617-287-7600
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Critical and Creative Thinking
Announcement: Critical and Creative Thinking Program Spring Elective!
CRCRTH 611: Investigating Authentic Problems Through PBL (Seminar in Critical Thinking)
The best way to get better at problem solving is to experience the thought and actions needed to tackle real world problems! Problem-based learning (PBL) is a powerful process that develops problem solving abilities by immersing students in the active role of problem solvers confronted with messy real world problems. This robust process is directed by students who decide what to learn and how. The instructor raises questions that shape self-directed learning so that the search for meaning becomes a personal construction of the learner. Students use a state-of-the-art PBL model field-tested by the instructor.
An outstanding cross-disciplinary elective that trains students to solve messy, ill-defined problems – regardless of their nature!
Wed. 7-9:30
Nina Greenwald (nlgreenwald@comcast.net)
UMB: (617)287-6523
Overview
The Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) program at the University of Massachusetts Boston provides its students with knowledge, tools, experience, and support so they can become constructive, reflective agents of change in education, work, social movements, science, and creative arts.
The Program
The Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) is a unique interdisciplinary program that provides its students with knowledge, tools, experience, and support so they can become constructive, reflective agents of change in education, work, social movements, science, and creative arts.
Critical thinking, creative thinking, and reflective practice are valued, of course, in all fields. In critical thinking we seek to scrutinize the assumptions, reasoning, and evidence brought to bear on an issue—by others and by oneself; such scrutiny is enhanced by placing ideas and practices in tension with alternatives. Key functions of creative thinking include generating alternative ideas, practices, and solutions that are unique and effective, and exploring ways to confront complex, messy, ambiguous problems, make new connections, and see how things could be otherwise. In reflective practice we take risks and experiment in putting ideas into practice, then take stock of the outcomes and revise our approaches accordingly.
The rationale for Masters and Certificate programs of study in CCT is that an explicit and sustained focus on learning and applying ideas and tools in critical thinking, creative thinking, and reflective practice allows students involved in a wide array of professions and endeavors to develop clarity and confidence to make deep changes in their learning, teaching, work, activism, research, and artistry. By the time CCT students finish their studies they are prepared to teach or guide others in ways that often depart markedly from their previous schooling and experience. In these processes of transformation and transfer, CCT students have to select and adapt the ideas and tools presented by faculty with diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary concerns. Although each CCT course is self-contained and is open to students from other graduate programs, students matriculated in the Program benefit from extended relationships with core CCT faculty and fellow students that support their process-learning—experimenting and taking risks in applying what they are learning, reflecting on the outcomes and revising accordingly, and building up a set of tools, practices, and perspectives that work in their specific professional or personal endeavors.
Content of Studies
Traditionally, the foundational knowledge emphasized in Critical and Creative Thinking has included psychological studies of the scope, limits, and techniques of critical and creative thought, information processing, and conceptual learning in children and young adults; philosophical studies of reasoning, argument, logical thinking, valuing, and judging; and work with cognitive structures and metacognitive techniques for stimulating creativity and critical thought. In the CCT Program this knowledge base is expanded through elective courses that take students into areas of specialization and through required courses in research, implementation, evaluation, and communication that introduce a range of tools for students' own personal and professional development and for helping others develop equivalent processes. In recent years required and elective CCT courses have delved further into inter- and intra-personal dimensions of critical and creative thinking and reflective practice, involving empathy, listening, dialogue, and facilitation of other group processes. An interest in contributing to constructive social change has also led CCT faculty and students to address anti-racist and multicultural education and to promote the involvement of teachers and other citizens in debates about science in its social context.
Students and intended impact of studies
The CCT Program appeals to students looking for professional and personal development who are interested in learning from and with others of diverse backgrounds and interests. Many are mid-career educators: teachers and college professors, curriculum specialists, teacher educators, museum educators, or school administrators. Others are policy makers or personnel trainers in government, corporate, or non-profit settings. Some are artists, musicians, or writers. Through course projects, independent studies, pre-capstone research courses, and the capstone synthesis projects, CCT students explore issues they have not had much chance to address before and translate what they learn into strategies, materials, and interventions for use in diverse educational, professional, and social settings. Graduates leave CCT well equipped for ongoing learning, addressing the needs of their schools, workplaces, and communities, adapting and contributing to social cha! nges, and collaborating with others to these ends. [Testimonials and Notes from Alumni of the program]
Programs of Study
Most students in CCT seek a Master of Arts (MA) degree (10 courses/30credits), but others study for a Graduate Certificate (5 courses/15credits) and some of these then apply to transfer their credits into the M.A. program. The Certificate may be completed through online courses. CCT courses also allow students from other graduate programs to fulfill requirements for courses in critical and creative thinking and in teaching in the different subject areas, especially in mathematics and science. In particular, students in the non-licensure and professional Teacher Education tracks who want to build a specific area of interest in CCT should contact the Program to be assigned a CCT faculty advisor. Non-degree students can also take CCT courses; this opportunity, together with workshops, summer institutes, forums, and other outreach activities further extend the range of educational experiences offered by the Program. To accommodate the schedules of teachers and other professionals, courses are offered after 4 pm as well as in intensive sessions during the summer. While it is possible for a full-time student to complete the Master’s program in one calendar year, most students combine the program with their ongoing careers and therefore take at least two or three years.M.A. students complete four foundation courses, three electives, and three final required courses including a capstone thesis or synthesis. The elective courses offered specifically address four areas in which students apply critical and creative thinking skills: moral education; literature and arts; mathematics, science, and technology (including sub-specialties in science in society, and environment, science, and society); and workplace and organizational change. Additional areas of specialization can be constructed through cooperation with other UMass Boston graduate programs, such as Instructional Design, Special Education, Educational Administration, and Dispute Resolution.
Profiles of CCT Faculty
Like the students in the Program, CCT faculty members are engaged in ongoing personal and professional development, which builds on, but extends some distance from, their original disciplines of education, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, and the life sciences. Indeed, faculty members value teaching in CCT as an opportunity for innovation and process-learning—ideas incubated with input from the diverse practitioner-students of CCT can then be brought back into the faculty's home disciplines and undergraduate teaching. In turn, students' experience of the faculty as reflective practitioners in their own work is an essential part of the content of CCT studies.
CCT Student Handbook
An overview of CCT and its mission, and all students need to know about joining and moving through the program (PDF version), including course offerings.
How to apply
Application Procedures, Info, Tuition & Fees
More Information
Please consult the CCT web site at http://www.cct.umb.eduor contact the Program Coordinator, Peter Taylor, at peter.taylor@umb.edu or the CCT Program Office at cct@umb.edu. Telephone: 617.287.6520, Wheatley Hall, Second Floor, Room 143-09 (opposite Dept. School Counseling & Psychology Office) University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125-3393 (Directions).