Volume 4, Number 6

September 2011

In December 2009, the College of Education and SDSU approved The Center for Teaching Critical Thinking and Creativity (CTCTC) to help address growing concerns voiced by CEOs and recruiters about the difficulty of finding potential employees who exhibit critical thinking skills. The mission of the CTCTC is to enhance critical thinking, creative productivity, and academic performance in diverse P-12 schools. The Center addresses this mission through professional development and collaborative activities between university faculty and practicing teachers, applying evidence-based strategies, employing appropriate technologies, and evaluating outcomes. Read More

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In January 2010 and May 2011, the Center co-sponsored with San Diego Unified’s Advanced Studies Program multi-day workshops for 163 elementary and secondary teachers and 7 Center faculty members to address critical thinking in language arts, social studies, and mathematics using evidence-based strategies developed at the College of William and Mary. Read More

The Center collaborated with Southwestern College to provide training to San Diego Unified teachers and COE Special Education pre-service teachers in Spring 2011. Joel Levine, Dean of Language and Literature, and Sylvia Garcia-Navarette, a SWC faculty member and Community College Ed.D. student, presented their soon-to-be-published Our Reading Toolbox. Read More

During Spring 2011, the Center partnered with Educational Technology’s Qualcomm project to support Bernie Dodge and middle school student teachers in developing applications for critical and creative thinking using mobile technologies. Marcie Bober (Chair, Educational Technology) is evaluating the Qualcomm project’s outcomes. Read More

A March 2011 Cracker Barrel enabled the College and greater community to interact with 8 COE faculty members who shared their current projects on critical or creative thinking: Chris Alger, Bernie Dodge, Sandy Kay, Carla Mathison, Alan McCormack, Carol Robinson-Zañartu, Alberto Rodriguez, and Fernando Rodriguez-Valls and his students.Read More

To encourage partnerships and further our mission, Center faculty proposed a program to provide resources to teachers committed to enhancing critical and creative thinking in their classrooms. Center faculty vetted proposals and identified 9 teachers to become the first group of Fellows. The Fellows teach in San Diego, El Centro, Chula Vista, El Cajon, and San Marcos. Each received $1000 to support a project and has a mentor from among Center faculty.Read More