Profiles of CCT Teachers and Advisors


Full-time faculty, associates from other Departments, and part-time faculty are important members of the CCT Community. Here are their profiles.

Lawrence Blum (Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education) has written two books in moral philosophy (Friendship, Altruism, and Morality; and Moral Perception and Particularity), dealing with issues of compassion, friendship, moral motivation, moral development, community, and morality during the Holocaust. Currently he works in race studies and multicultural education, especially the moral dimension of those areas, and is the author of the 2002 book, "I'm Not a Racist, But...": The Moral Quandary of Race. Larry teaches "Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education" (CCT 627) and gives workshops on antiracist education to K-12 teachers in a variety of settings.
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Phone: 617-287-6532
Email: lawrence.blum@umb.edu
Office: W-5-012
Office hours Fall '02: Tue 2:15-3:45 and 3:15-3:45, and by appointment CCT Syllabi: CCT 627

Allyn Bradford (Adjunct Professor, CCT Program) regularly teaches CCT616, Dialogue Processes, through Continuing Education.

Allyn has a strong background in organizational and human resource development. A Congregational Minister for 12 years, he worked at Synectics Inc. for 6, and then became an Independent Consultant and Trainer. In addition, he is currently teaching at both the college and graduate levels, using a highly innovative approach which makes extensive use of group process and action learning.

Among the education centers where he has designed and conducted training are the American Management Association, the American Society of Training Directors, the Association of Field Service Managers, the Mecuri Institute in Sweden and the Accelerated Management Institute in England.

In the private sector he has designed and conducted training for such companies as Block Drug, General Foods, Avon Products, Honeywell, Digital, Stop & Shop, Johnson & Johnson, Warner Lambert, Monsanto, New England Electric, Telex, Fidelity Trust, Kodak, New England Nuclear, Burger King, FW Faxon, Becton Dickenson, Semicon, The First Years and Matritech.

In the public sector he has designed and conducted training for the Personnel Commission of the State of Idaho, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, the Office of Personnel Services of the United Nations, the Boston Neighborhood Development and Employment Agency, and Massachusetts Half-Way Houses, Inc.
Publications: He is the author of "Freedom of Information Changes the Rules" published in the Journal of Management Consulting,"Team Communications" in the Honeywell USMG Mgr. "Suspending Judgement: How to Build Teams Through Critical and Creative Thinking" in The New England Non-Profit Quarterly Journal, "Modern Art and Modern Organizations" in Context, an on-line publication and co-author of Transactional Awareness, a book published by Addison-Wesley.

Allyn teaches Leadership and Management and Effective Team Building at Wentworth Institute of Technology and Dialogue at U-Mass, Boston and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
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Email: allynb@aol.com
CCT Syllabi: CCT616

Nina Greenwald (Visiting Professor, CCT Program) is an educational consultant, national teacher trainer and keynote speaker with specializations in critical and creative thinking, problem-based learning, multiple intelligences, and gifted education. An elected member of the Danforth Associates of New England, an organization of selected higher education faculty distinguished for excellence in teaching, she has taught courses in creative thinking, critical thinking, and humor for the program for over a decade. A national teacher trainer, workshop leader and keynote speaker, her publications include articles on teaching thinking and problem-based learning (PBL), teaching gifted children, and teaching thinking through multiple intelligences. She is former director of K-8 programs to develop critical and creative thinking for a Massachusetts educational collaborative, and an advisor to the exhibits department of the Museum of Science, Boston, on the development of innovative exhibits that engage visitors in thinking and problem solving. Nina is a founding member and past president of The Massachusetts Association for Advancement of Individual Potential (MA/AIP), an advocacy organization in behalf of gifted education.

Her published articles include instructional models for teaching thinking and curriculum for gifted students. Curriculum publications include those which promote thinking and problem solving in science for the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research, The National Institute of Health, The American Medical Association,The New England Aquarium, and NOVA. She is co-author of a chapter on cultural impediments to creative development in Fostering Creativity in Children, Allyn and Bacon, 2001. Her book, Science in Progress, containing authentic issues and dilemmas in biomedical science, and a PBL model for guiding students in the use of this material, has been adopted by the Pennsylvania State Department of Education as a basis for promoting instructional reforms in science education. Currently, she is collaborating on a new book focused on concept-based teaching of biology with two colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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Phone: 617-287-6523
Email: ngreenwald@attbi.com
Office: W-2-142-03
Office Hours: Tues. 2-3:30
CCT syllabi: CCT602 | CCT640

Ted Klein, a Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the Swedenborg School of Religion, teaches Moral Education (CCT620) for CCT as well as courses in ethics and philosophyof education for the UMass Boston Philosophy Department. Among his accomplishments, Ted has: taught a variety of adult learners, including prison inmates, adults returning to school, and adults involved in career changes; developed ways to relate abstract concepts to life decisions, career concerns, and social issues; and authored a wide variety of accessible publications relating abstract concepts to practical concerns.
Email: TKlein3388@aol.com
CCT Syllabi: CCT620

Arthur Millman (Associate Professor of Philosophy) teaches in the Philosophy Department as well as in the CCT Program. For CCT, he regularly teaches "Critical Thinking" (CCT 601) as well as "Foundations of Philosophical Thought" (Phil 501). He is in the process of developing a new course that explores recent developments and controversies and relates critical and creative thinking to applied and professional ethics. Arthur's research is in both the philosophy of science and applied ethics, and he has worked to help students with the integration and application of critical and creative thinking in a wide range of areas including elementary and secondary education and business.
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Phone: 617-287-6538
Email: millmanab@aol.com or arthur.millman@umb.edu
Office: W-5-020
Office hours Fall '02: M, W, F 12.30-1.30
CCT Syllabi: Phil 501

Steve Schwartz (Professor of Psychology) is one of the three original founders of the CCT graduate program, and has been a faculty member in the Psychology Department since 1972. He is a cognitive psychologist who regularly teaches such courses as "Creative Thinking" (CCT602), and "Advanced Cognitive Psychology" (PSYCH 650). He has conducted research, published numerous articles and been involved in grants on such topics as Problem Solving, Representation of Information, Math and Science curriculum reform, the uses of technology in education, and the use of metacognitive aids in curriculum development.
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Phone: 617-287-6350
Email: steve.schwartz@umb.edu
Office: McC 4-208
Office hours Fall '02: Tue 12:30 -2 and 5:30 to 7, and by appointment CCT Syllabi: Psych 650

Ben Schwendener is a pianist, composer, and educator who has been a part of the vital Boston music scene since the early 1980's. A former student of jazz legends George Russell, Ran Blake, Jimmy Guiffre, Miroslav Vitous and Joe Maneri, Schwendener is currently on the jazz faculties of both New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music. In addition to his jazz teaching and work as a leading lecturer on Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, Schwendener teaches courses on Creative and Critical Thinking at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and directs the arts education non-profit, Gravity Arts, which he founded in 1997. Gravity Arts provides customized music and dance education opportunities for individuals and various groups, and oversees the independent label, Gravity Records.
A critically acclaimed performer, Schwendener has appeared throughout the United States, Europe and Japan with his group, as a sideman and solo pianist, produced commissioned works for dance companies, independent film, and television commercials and released three recordings as a leader. He is currently supporting his two newest releases, 'Road Trips', with his quintet, Falling Objects, and a recording of piano duets with fellow Boston pianist Marc Rossi, 'Living Geometry', while working on forthcoming recordings, volume II of George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept, and the publication of original children's music.
Ben has taught Creativity courses as an adjunct since Spring 2000. His website is http://gravityarts.org. Email: ben@gravityarts.org
CCT Syllabi: CCT 630

Carol Smith (Associate Professor of Psychology)
I joined the Critical and Creative Thinking Program in 1980, when I was hired as an assistant professor in Psychology who would participate in the CCT program. Over the years, I have taught several courses in CCT: Advanced Cognitive Psychology (Psych 650) a required course in the CCT Program; Children and Science course (CCT 652) a specialty course in the science track of CCT, and the Seminar on Scientific thinking (another specialty course in the science track of CCT co-taught in the past with Prof. Arthur Millman in the Philosophy Department.)
My research focuses on characterizing student intuitive theories (in particular, student matter theories and epistemologies of science) and understanding the dynamics of conceptual change both in children and adults. My research with children has examined the role of models, analogies, and metaconceptual understanding in facilitating the process of conceptual change within schooling contexts as well as the general impact of schooling on metacognitive development. I have also collaborated with Arthur Millman in the Philosophy Department in doing a case study of the reasoning processes used by Darwin in the development of his theory of natural selection, based on an analysis of his scientific notebooks.
In my work with CCT and M.Ed. students, I have taught them how to devise and analyze clinical interviews in order to assess student thinking and conceptual understanding. I have also worked with them in creating curriculum interventions that would enhance both students' domain specific knowledge and their metacognitive understandings of how knowledge is created and justified in science.
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Phone: 617-287-6359
Email: carol.smith@umb.edu
Office: Mc 4-265
CCT Syllabi: CCT 652

Janet Farrell Smith (Philosophy Department) has taught CCT601, Critical Thinking, and a course on biomedical ethics for the Program. Her interests include Biomedical ethics, Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Language.
Phone: 617-287-6547
Email: janet.smith@umb.edu
Office: W-5-11

Peter Taylor (Associate Professor, CCT Program) I joined the Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) Program in the Graduate College of Education (GCOE) at UMass Boston in the fall of 1998 and have been enjoying new challenges teaching experienced educators, other mid-career professionals, and prospective K-12 teachers. Working in the CCT Program also provides opportunities to promote reflective practice in ways that extend my contributions to ecology and environmental studies (ES) and social studies of science and technology (STS). In those fields I focus on the complexity of, respectively, ecological or environmental situations and the social situations in which the environmental research is undertaken. Both kinds of situation, I argue, can be characterized in terms of "intersecting processes" that cut across scales, involve heterogeneous components, and develop over time. These cannot be understood from an outside view; instead positions of engagement must be taken within the complexity. Knowledge production needs to be linked with planning for action and action itself in an ongoing process so that knowledge, plans, and action can be continually reassessed in response to developments -- predicted and surprising alike. In this spirit, ES, STS, and critical pedagogy/reflective practice have come together for me in a project of stimulating researchers to self-consciously examine the complexity of their social situatedness so as to change the ways they address the complexity of ecological and socio-environmental situations. Through collaborations in and beyond the GCOE I also seek to promote a vision of critical science and environmental education that extends from improving the teaching of scientific concepts and methods to involving citizens in community-based research.

This project had its beginnings in environmental and social activism in Australia which led to studies and research in ecology and agriculture. I moved to the United States to undertake doctoral studies in ecology (Harvard 1985), with a minor focus in STS. Subsequently I combined scientific investigations with interpretive inquiries from the different disciplines that make up STS (working, among other places, at U. C. Berkeley and Cornell), my goal being to make STS perspectives relevant to life and environmental students and scientists. (This is evident in my contributions to a book I co-edited, Changing Life: Genomes, Ecologies, Bodies, Commodities, U. Minnesota Press, 1997.) Critical thinking and critical pedagogy became central to my intellectual and professional project as I encouraged students and researchers to contrast the paths taken in science, society, education with other paths that might be taken, and to foster their acting upon the insights gained. Bringing critical analysis of science to bear on the practice and applications of science has not been well developed or supported institutionally, and so I continue to contribute actively, to new collaborations, programs, and other activities, new directions for existing programs, and collegial interactions across disciplines.
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Phone: 617-287-7636
Email: peter.taylor@umb.edu
Office: W-2-143-09 (opposite Dept. School Counseling & Psychology
Office hours Spr '03: M, 1.30-3.30pm (in office or by phone, by signup), or by arrangement CCT Syllabi: CCT698 | CCT694 | CCT693 | CCT640 | CCT645
Website: www.faculty.umb.edu/peter_taylor
Associated faculty (not teaching CCT courses currently)

Dennis Byrnes (Associate Professor of Psychology) has taught in the Psychology Department at UMass Boston since 1973. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brandeis University (1972). Dennis frequently taught the "Advanced Cognitive Psychology" course (PSYCH 650) for CCT and serves on the committees of students who do their synthesis or thesis work in cognitive psychology. His research interests focus on the influences of attention on human memory and learning.

Patricia S Davidson (Emerita, Mathematics and Computer Science Department) regularly taught CCT 650, Mathematical Thinking Skills. Her interests include Mathematics Education, Neuropsychology of Mathematics Learning, Creative Teaching Strategies and Assessment Techniques.

Delores Gallo (Professor Emerita, CCT Program), one of the three original founders of the CCT graduate program, was a central member of the Program since its inception. Her interests include Creativity and Learning, Professional Development, Curriculum Design, Elementary and English Education, and Invention. She led a six year staff and curriculum development process and an Invention Convention involving over 1000 students at the Quincy Public Schools. She is widely sought after as a speaker or as a consultant on Professional Development workshops in educational and corporate settings. (Delores retired in June 2002)

Joan Lukas (Professor, Math. and Computer Science) taught CCT650, Mathematics Thinking Skills for the Program in the fall of '99. She has taught mathematics and computer science at UMass Boston since 1967, after receiving a PhD in Mathematics from MIT. Her interests include mathematical logic, history of mathematics, issues in learning and teaching mathematics, natural and artificial languages, and software engineering.
Email: Joan.Lukas@umb.edu

Brian White (Biology Department) has interests in Biology Education, and in Educational Software and Multimedia.
Phone: 617-287-6630
Email: brian.white@umb.edu
Website: www.faculty.umb.edu/brian_white

updated:13 Feb 03