Electronically mediated technologies are prohibited from use in a major assessment component of a blended learning subject. This subject employs a multidisciplinary problem-based approach to explore international issues and perspectives using a rich blend of face-to-face, electronically mediated, individual and team-based activities. The…

The concept of the "public university" has been widely promoted as the principal alternative vision for higher education to the neoliberal, managerialist model that currently prevails. However, if the public university is to serve as the holder for collective ideals of a just, sustainable and democratic future in higher education, then…

This article deals with giving a perspective of mathematics to students whose majors are not related to mathematics. A course named "Mathematical View" was specifically designed and implemented for this purpose. The course was given to students majoring in the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Duzce University who opted to…

This article integrates a series of studies conducted over a 15-year period in a multi-section educational course taught by the same supervising professor and his GTAs . The purpose of each study was to determine whether particular interventions or student characteristics affected performance levels in the course. Over the extended period of…

Critical thinking skills are often assessed via student beliefs in non-scientific ways of thinking, (e.g, pseudoscience). Courses aimed at reducing such beliefs have been studied in the STEM fields with the most successful focusing on skeptical thinking. However, critical thinking is not unique to the sciences; it is crucial in the humanities and…

Can design education have a positive impact on primary school education beyond merely preparing designers? As designers, we know almost intuitively that design education is "good education", and most designers would affirm that it would be beneficial to expose children to design education, because of the benefits of the signature…

In order to help students develop their critical thinking skills, teachers need to model the critical thinking skills and dispositions in front of their students. Unfortunately, very rare studies investigating prospective teachers' readiness in critical thinking dispositions are available in the field of mathematics education. This study was…

Several concept inventories have been developed to elicit students' alternative conceptions in chemistry. It is suggested that heuristic reasoning may bias students' answers in these types of assessments toward intuitively appealing choices. If this is the case, one could expect students to improve their performance by engaging in more analytical…

The article studies the verbal manifestation of critical thought in a school context. Four modes of thought--logical, creative, responsible, and metacognitive--accompanied by six epistemological perspectives, are studied from 1,730 pupils turns to speak analyzed in eight class groups. The pupils dialog about freedom. Quantitatively and gradually…

This paper presents the findings from a collaborative inquiry research study that explored instructors' perspectives and students' perceptions of an innovative ten-day graduate level human rights education course for educators. The course was the result of a partnership between the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the…

With the massive amounts of conflicting information and opinion bombarding us from all sides today, it has never been more important to teach young people to suspend judgment, to weigh evidence, and to consider multiple perspectives. Teaching students the craft of argument writing--not only in language arts classes, but also in social studies,…

The contemporary education process frequently emphasises the importance of teaching and learning by focusing teaching activities towards research and collaborative work, the encouragement of critical thinking, the creative and productive application of knowledge, an active approach to the teaching content, and solving specific problems in project…

A three-year collaborative research project in a K-6 elementary school is underway. The collaboration entails participating educators and their students exploring curricular enactment that embraces critical and creative thinking within its conduct. This article reveals whole-school efforts over Year One to build educators' and students' confidence…

Long before the release of the Common Core State Standards (CCSSI 2010), the Mathematical Tug-of-War was engaging students in the type of reasoning and problem solving described by the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP). In this updated version of a Marilyn Burns task, students use algebraic reasoning to determine the outcome of a contest…

This article proposes a Confucian conception of critical thinking by focussing on the notion of judgement. It is argued that the attainment of the Confucian ideal of "li" (normative behaviours) necessitates and promotes critical thinking in at least two ways. First, the observance of "li" requires the individual to exercise…