Classroom: Wheatley 6-047

Co-ordinator: Peter Taylor, Critical & Creative Thinking Program

Email: peter.taylor@umb.edu; Phone: 617-287-7636

General email: Emails sent to PT with "For cct697" in the subject line will be forwarded to all students in the course.

Assistant: Laura McGovern, cct@umb.edu; Phone: 617-287-6520

Allyn Bradford, Adjunct Professor, CCT Program (allynb@aol.com)

Tom Flanagan, School of Management, UMass Boston (TRflanagan@aol.com)

Kevin Dye, The Green Light Foundation, Inc. (KMCDye@aol.com)

Renae Gray, The Algebra Project (kinshipgray@hotmail.com)

The goal of this course is to improve the ability of students working in business, schools, social change groups, and other organizations to take initiative and generate constructive change. Through interactive, experiential sessions students are introduced to and then practice using critical and creative approaches to communication, team-building, facilitating participation and collaboration in groups, promoting learning from a diversity of perspectives, problem-finding and solving, and reflective practice. This course is presented in 3 two-day workshops: 1. Effective Teambuilding; 2. Large Group Collaborative Design; and 3. Diversity Awareness.

You are expected to attend both days of each workshop you are enrolled for and participate actively in the exercises and hands-on activities in which you practice with various ideas and tools and adapt them to their own teaching situations. This work will not be graded during the workshops. However, you must submit a portfolio to Peter Taylor's mailbox in the Grad. College of Ed. by August 10th. The portfolio should include: a) a cover note (300-500 words) reflecting on the development of your thinking and work during the course and cross-connections among the workshops you attend; and b) 4-6 exhibits from your workshop work that demonstrate this process. Explain your choices through annotations (post-its are a good way to do this) or in the reflection.

If you participate actively and submit the portfolio you will receive at least a B+. Grades of A- and A will be awarded to the extent that the portfolio cover note and annotations show deep reflection on your development and cross-connections among workshops. The grade will be assigned in colsulatation with the instructors. You are welcome, but not required, to submit a draft and revise in response to comments.

1. July 20-21, 9am-4.30pm

Allyn Bradford, Adjunct Professor, CCT Program (allynb@aol.com)

This workshop introduces creative communication strategies for teamwork that really addresses workplace problems and issues. Through simulations of typical organizational situations you develop skills in giving and getting feedback, presenting your ideas and opinions, and ensuring shorter and more productive meetings. The course takes the form of an interactive, experiential workshop, which will make you more aware of your communication style, its effect on others, and options for improvement.

2. July 27-28, 9am-4.30pm

Tom Flanagan, School of Management, UMass Boston (TRflanagan@aol.com)

Kevin Dye, The Green Light Foundation, Inc. (KMCDye@aol.com)

Complex planning under conditions of limited resources is not a new challenge. Historically, however, such types of planning has been authored by experts with deep generic understanding of the problem. Such plans, once sufficiently developed, are then typically brought forward to the public for review and endorsement. This model is no longer working as reliably as it formerly had. The public has increased access to information and a decreased reliance on the infallibility of experts. For this reason, many planning activities have been opened up for a broader and more direct public input. The public input is also being solicited earlier in the design process. While these are admittedly promising trends, the new challenge has become how to manage the dialog. In this workshop, participants will engage a process for dialog management. The dialog will be focused on a socially and technically complex design challenge --"defining the requirements for effectively managing collaborative design of sociotechnically complex systems." Participants will come away with both a deeper systematic understanding of the dialog management challenge, an experientially understanding of one approach for managing that challenge, and a network of individuals who are engaged in a shared management challenge.

3. August 3-4, 9am-4.30pm

Renae Gray, The Algebra Project (kinshipgray@hotmail.com)

Participants in this workshop experience and learn approaches aimed at enabling groups and organizations to: become more diverse; address tensions arising from lack of awareness of differences and inequalities; and undertake coalition work that dismantle traditional barriers. Dimensions of diversity addressed include race, class, gender, and sexuality.