Developing Minds 2018

Peter Ellerton

“Reasoning as a social competence: collaboratively developed thinking communities”

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, opens 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.  

In my work, I focus on critical thinking pedagogies that involve an understanding of the nature of inquiry and the pedagogical shifts required to teach for effective thinking. Another way this is framed is around developing teacher expertise in teaching for thinking. Since expertise is also about practice, I am therefore concerned with two vital questions. The first is “what do you do in the classroom to focus on student thinking?” But such a focus on doing can lead to nothing more than mimicry and does not develop expertise. The second question, therefore, is “how does our thinking need to change so that we know what to do to focus on thinking?” The schematic nature of expert knowledge in this domain is of critical importance and that’s what the text below addresses.

Bio:
Peter Ellerton is Director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project and lecturers in critical thinking and in education. Peter was a high school teacher of physics, mathematics and philosophy when an interest in the public understanding of science and the nature of rational public engagement lead him to UQ to do a PhD thesis in Teaching for Thinking. He has worked internationally with teachers and schools to increase teacher expertise in teaching for thinking and with the International Baccalaureate Organisation to create the subject Nature of Science currently in pilot in schools around the world. Peter’s current projects include working on programs to help high performing indigenous students develop thinking skills necessary for achieving academic excellence at high school and at university.

Nic Fillion

“Overview of Critical Thinking in the BC K-12 Curriculum Revisions: Implications for Post-Secondary Teaching and Learning”

This presentation will highlight features of the K-12 curriculum reform that is currently being implemented in British Columbia. Following a documented articulation of the intent and structure of the reform, we will identify areas in which there is room for improvement, in the sense that the general guidelines motivating the reform need to be better integrated with the practical needs that teachers face in the classroom. Finally, we will discuss avenues for further collaboration between schools, the Ministry, and post-secondary institutions that could contribute to the success of the reform.

Bio
Nicolas Fillion is a philosopher and mathematician who is assistant professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University. His main research contributions are in the philosophy of science and applied mathematics, but his research and teaching includes the history of science & mathematics, formal logic, decision and game theory, critical thinking, and epistemology broadly construed. He has also been involved with various outreach, regulation, and curricular initiatives to promote the teaching of philosophy and critical thinking in BC high schools.