Summer Institute in Critical and Creative Thinking


July 15 - August 3, 2002
Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts, Boston


Institute students can enrol in the late Spring through Continuing Education (http://www.conted.umb.edu, 617-287-7916) for any of the July-August CCT courses listed in the summer bulletin:

* For information on non-credit and single workshop options, contact the Program Office by phone (617 -287-6520) or email (cct@umb.edu).

** The 15 credit Graduate Certificate can be completed by taking additional CCT courses in the fall or spring semesters. Certificate students must meet the same admissions criteria as students entering the Master's program (except that a shorter statement and one letter of recommendation fewer are required) and should apply to Graduate Admissions by Aug. 15th.


Course Descriptions

CRCRTH 601
Critical Thinking
Mc Cormack 2-628
Sched. No. 702121
This course explores issues about the nature and techniques of critical thought, viewed as a way to establish a reliable basis for our claims, beliefs, and attitudes about the world. We explore multiple perspectives, placing established facts, theories, and practices in tension with alternatives to see how things could be otherwise. Views about observation and interpretation, reasoning and inference, valuing and judging, and the production of knowledge in its social context are considered. Special attention is given to translating what is learned into strategies, materials, and interventions for use in students' own educational and professional settings.

CrCrTh 611
Biomedical ethics (Seminar in Critical Thinking)
Mc Cormack 2-628
Sched. No. 702135
Critical thinking about dilemmas in medicine and health care policy: Allocation of scarce resources in organ transplants and managed care, informed consent, experimentation on human subjects, AIDS research, the ethics of genetic screening, and finally, euthanasia and physician assisted suicide.

CrCrTh 618
Creative Thinking, Collaboration and Organizational Change
Mc Cormack 2-628
Sched. No. 711522
Through interactive, experiential sessions and structured assignments students learn critical and creative approaches to working in organizations. Skills addressed include: communication and team-building; facilitation of participation and collaboration in groups; promotion of learning from a diversity of perspectives; problem-finding and solving; and reflective practice. Students apply these skills to situations that arise in business, schools, social change groups, and other organizations with a view to taking initiative and generating constructive change. This course is presented in 3 two-day workshops: 1. Effective Teambuilding; 2. Facilitating Participatory Planning and Design; and 3. Diversity Awareness.
Schedule numbers for for-credit single workshop options: TBA.
Schedule numbers for not-for-credit single workshop options: TBA
Workshop Descriptions

Effective Teambuilding
Allyn Bradford, Critical & Creative Thinking Program, U. Mass Boston
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 a two day interactive, experiential workshop, which will make you more aware of your communication style, its effect on others, and options for improvement.

Facilitating Participatory Planning and Design
Peter Taylor, Critical & Creative Thinking Program, U. Mass
Experience and learn how a facilitator can lead participants through four phasesÑpractical vision, underlying obstacles, strategic directions, and action plansÑin a way that brings insights to the surface and ensures the full range of participants are invested in collaborating to bring the resulting plans or actions to fruition.

Diversity Awareness
Renae Gray, The Algebra Project
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.

Also of potential interest to CCT students:

COMSTU 485B, Team Building
on-line course taught by Allyn Bradford, May 28-Aug 22, Sched # 710836
Team building is a critical dimension of effectiveness in the professional setting. This course is a learning experience designed to develop skills in the "give and take" of successful communications in teamwork. Using a variety of experiential learning processes and simulated teams, this course sharpen both thinking and interactive skills. Through practice and feedback students develop skills in creative problem solving, rationally presenting ideas and opinions, and in conducting shorter, more productive meetings. Students work on individual real problems and issues and, through a learning process, develop strategies to achieve best results.

Updated: 7-14-02