Presenter: Peter Ellerton, Director UQ Critical Thinking Project (The University of Queensland)
Critical thinking is the cheshire cat of educational curricula, appearing everywhere half formed but disappearing on close inspection. What is it, where is it and how is it taught to students? One way of thinking about this problem is to focus on the relationship between three key components:
cognitive skills, affective dispositions and the values of inquiry.
Cognitive skills are the things we do with knowledge, such as infer, categorise, analyse, synthesis and so on. Affective dispositions are those things that are typical of critical thinkers, such as willingness to inquire, open to new ideas, self reflection, etc. The values of inquiry are those things applied during the process of inquiry, such as precision, clarity, plausibility, coherence and the like. Accepting this leads to certain pedagogical imperatives, principles that can be applied in any situation to guide the development and implementation of our assessment and learning experiences.
Delicious treats will be provided! All welcome!
About Teaching and learning seminars
Our teaching and learning seminars focus on innovations and projects that are underway in teaching mathematics, statistics and physics at UQ and other institutions.
We discuss the hot issues, and hear from people who are trying out new things.
Over the past 10 years many new ideas have been generated, collaborations made both within and across disciplines, and teaching grant proposals designed, submitted and received.
Students, staff and visitors to UQ are welcome to attend, and to suggest speakers and topics.