Creative Thinking at Work: Critical and Creative Thinking

Faculty

Peter Taylor
Associate Professor, CCT Program
I joined the Critical and Creative Thinking Program in the Graduate College of Education 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 critical science and environmental education.
Website: www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt
Email: peter.taylor@umb.edu
Jorgelina Abbate-Vaughn
Assistant Professor, GCOE
I joined the Graduate College of Education (GCOE) faculty in the Fall 2004. In my recent past life, I was an urban teacher, working at both elementary and secondary levels in both Spanish bilingual and mainstream classes, in Boston and Miami. At UMass, I intend to merge my past and present experiences as an urban educator with commitments to social justice and change. Part of my work consists of helping prospective teachers and practitioners in other fields to become aware of the many aspects that working in increasingly diverse settings involve and in facilitating the academic growth of novice researchers in identifying their own perspectives and positionality as they embark in their projects. Who we are and what we value as people is imprinted in the challenges in which we choose to focus, in the questions we ask, in the participants we deem as relevant informants, and in the context(s) in which we choose to analyze what we have documented. Drawing from Paulo Freire's work in that all educational processes must be liberatory and leading to transformation, my own research typically takes place in the intersection between critical ethnography and participatory action research, with sprinkles of discourse analysis.
Lawrence Blum
Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education
Lawrence 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.
Allyn Bradford
Adjunct Professor, CCT Program
Allyn regularly teaches CCT616, Dialogue Processes, through Continuing Education and the Teamwork part of CCT618, Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change (plus the whole course on-line).
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 UMass, Boston and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Nina Greenwald
Visiting Professor, CCT Program
Nina 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.
Arthur Millman
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Arthur 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.
Steve Schwartz
Professor of Psychology
Steve 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.
Ben Schwendener
Ben 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.
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.
Janet Farrell Smith
Philosophy Department
Janet has taught CCT601, Critical Thinking, Foundations of Philosophy, and Biomedical ethics for the Program. Her interests include Biomedical ethics, Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Language.