Ron Barnett, University College London, UK

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at University College London Institute of Education, where he was Dean of Professional Development, and also Pro-Director, responsible for the Institute’s longer-term strategy. He is the inaugural President of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society and a past Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE). He was awarded the inaugural annual prize by the European Association for Educational Research for his ‘outstanding contribution to Higher Education Research, Policy and Practice’, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the SRHE and the Higher Education Academy. He is a Visiting Professor at several universities in the UK and across the world, and has been a guest speaker in 40+ countries. For over thirty years, he has been trying to advance a social philosophy of the university, at once realist and critical, in which he has been attempting to identify creative concepts and practical principles that might enhance universities and higher education.
His (30+) books include Higher Education: A Critical Business and – recently – a trilogy on what it is to understanding the university, namely Being a University (2011), Imagining the University (2013), and Understanding the University (2016). His latest book is The Ecological University: A Feasible Utopia. He is also co-editor (with Martin Davies) of The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education (2015). His books have been translated into several languages and several too have won prizes. He has been described as ‘one of the most eloquent defenders of the university of reason’ (Michael Peters, 2014). For more information, please see http://www.ronaldbarnett.co.uk/

 

 

Keynote 1 – Critical Thinking: Avoiding the pitfalls and glimpsing the possibilities

Most - though not all - are in favour of critical thinking but there is no consensus as to what is to count as critical thinking and it has become a contested concept: is it (a) an ease in certain kinds of logical argumentation? Is it (b) a matter of the skills involved in evaluating theories and evidence within a discipline? Is it (c) an ability to identify and to call out ‘fake news’ in the wider society? Is it (d) a propensity to spot and to be critical of inefficient work practices? Is it (e) a disposition to be self-critical and so exhibit what, for many, exemplifies a genuinely higher education? Is it (f) a willingness and the courage to hold the powerful - including the state if necessary - to account? These are profoundly different understandings of critical thinking and they spring from correspondingly different value positions as to the purposes of higher education. What, then, does it mean to incorporate critical thinking into higher education? In my talk, I want to discern pitfalls that lie ahead, in steering between the many different interpretations and purposes. There are a number of key distinctions that need to be made - for example, is critical thinking mainly a matter of attending to the curriculum (what is taught?) or to pedagogy (how is a programme of studies to be taught?). These are no merely technical considerations for the educational specialists but are crucial in bringing off new possibilities for critical thinking that may be emerging in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Linda Elder, Foundation for Critical Thinking, USA

Dr. Linda Elder is an educational psychologist and a prominent authority on critical thinking. She is President of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Executive Director of the Center for Critical Thinking. Dr. Elder has taught psychology and critical thinking at the college level and has given presentations to more than 50,000 educators at all levels. She has co-authored four books, including Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life, and 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living. She has co-authored 24 Thinker’s Guides on critical thinking.

Dr. Elder has also developed an original stage theory of critical thinking development. Concerned with understanding and illuminating the relationship between thinking and affect, and the barriers to critical thinking, Dr. Elder has placed these issues at the center of her thinking and her work. With experience in both administration and the classroom, Dr. Elder understands firsthand the problems facing educators.

She is a dynamic presenter who reaches her audience on a person-to-person level. For more detailed biographical information on Linda Elder, download the file here.

 

Dr. Gerald Nosich, Foundation for Critical Thinking, USA

Dr. Gerald Nosich is a noted authority on critical thinking and has given more than 250 workshops on all aspects of teaching critical thinking. Since the mid-1980s he has become committed to teaching critical thinking across the curriculum. He is convinced that the only way for students to learn a subject matter is to think their way through it. He is the author of Reasons and Arguments (Wadsworth, 1982). His second book, Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum, has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic.

Dr. Nosich has given workshops for instructors at all levels of education in the U.S., Canada, Thailand, Lithuania, Austria, and Germany. He has worked with the U.S. Department of Education on a project for National Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills; given teleconferences sponsored by PBS and Starlink on teaching critical thinking within subject-matter courses; served as a consultant/evaluator for SACS Accreditation of programs at various colleges and universities emphasizing critical thinking; and has been featured as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of numerous articles, audio and video tapes on critical thinking. He has been Assistant Director at the Center for Critical Thinking at Sonoma State University, and is an associate of the Center and the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Dr. Nosich is Professor Emeritus at Buffalo State College in NY, and Professor Emeritus at the University of New Orleans.

Dr. Nosich has not only focused on teaching critical thinking skills in subject-specific areas, but is also adept at teaching critical thinking across the curriculum. Dr. Nosich is a witty presenter whose down-to-earth sense of humor adds spice to his practical insights. For more detailed biographical information on Gerald Nosich, see the video here.

 

Keynote 2 – Embracing Universal Principles of Critical Thinking Across Education to Advance Human Societies

The history of critical thinking reaches back to the time of Socrates, who attempted to develop universal principles of thought that could be applied across all human reasoning. Yet it wasn’t until the late 20th century that an explicit set of principles began to emerge in the field of critical thinking studies, largely based in the original thinking of Richard Paul (1937-2015), philosopher and eminent critical thinking authority.

These principles are essential to reasoning with skill and discipline within any domain of human thought. In this keynote address, by two of the world’s leading authorities on critical thinking, you will be introduced to some of these basic principles – namely focused on how to analyze thinking, how to assess it, and how to develop and foster intellectual virtues or dispositions.

At present, the foundations of critical thinking are largely ignored in schooling at all levels (despite educators’ many claims to the contrary); yet if we are to cultivate fairminded critical societies in the long term, ethical, or strong sense, critical thinking will eventually become central in the human conversation, and will be held up as an integrated set of values for all governments, schools, colleges, universities, military institutions, businesses, indeed all people, to embrace. It is essential for educators across the world to take the lead in this endeavor, embracing authentic, robust critical thinking as essential within their fields and therefore central to their instruction.