Creative Thinking at Work: Critical and Creative Thinking

Faculty

Peter Taylor
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
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.
Suzanne Clark
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Suzanne is on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music in the Harmony department and teaches courses in music theory, including one called "The Creative Flame" about what it means to be a creative artist and develop one’s process in creativity. Suzanne graduated from the CCT program and enjoys several other pursuits related to musical performance and creativity.
Wally Clausen
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Wally has been an Independent Facilitative Consultant, Clausen Associates, Weston, Massachusetts, since 1967. Practices include assessment, research and planning (including surveys, culture studies, needs analyses, and interim reviews or evaluations of change projects); strategic planning and team building, including process design and the facilitation of planning meetings; programs for self-assessment, feedback and training; and systems work in organizational and community planning, management and related areas. Public and nonprofit clients have included Federal agencies (US Fish and Wildlife Service, Customs Service, Departments of Education and Commerce, military agencies, and others), state and local agencies (Massachusetts State Departments of Education, Public Welfare and Public Health; Quincy Public Schools; and others), and associations such as American Baptist Churches and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company. Corporate work has included pharmaceutical, high technology, utility, financial services and franchise organizations.
Delores Gallo
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Delores is one of the three original founders of the CCT graduate program, was a central of the Program since its inception. Her interests include Creativity and Learning, Professional Development, Curriculum Design, Elementary and English Education, and Invention. She led a six year staff and curriculum development process and an Invention Convention involving over 1000 students at the Quincy Public Schools. She has been widely sought after as a speaker or as a consultant on Professional Development workshops in educational and corporate settings.
Renae Gray
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Renae is executive director of the Boston Women’s Fund. A founding member, she has been involved with the fund for more than 20 years. She has more than 30 years of nonprofit experience, having worked with the Haymarket Peoples Fund, the Women’s Theological Center, and the Cambridge Algebra Project; for the past several years she has been a consultant with Visions Inc., a nonprofit consulting organization that deals with issues of race and multiculturalism. Renae has served on the boards of many groups in the Boston area. She was also involved in creation of the Funding Exchange, a national funding organization in New York.
Nina Greenwald
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.
Olen Gunnlaugson
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Olen’s passion for dialogue ignited unexpectedly about a decade ago at a secluded resort in Thailand. In dialogue with artists, travelers and social visionaries, here began his early explorations into the transformative potential of conversation that David Bohm proposed in his work On Dialogue. Following travels in the Caribbean, Asia and Europe where he worked as a freelance fine art photographer and adult educator. After returning to university, Olen worked as program coordinator, lecturer and integral coach at Holma College of Integral Studies (Sweden), playing a central role in helping the college make the transition from holistic to integral studies. His graduate research, which focused on applying and building upon Scharmer’s four fields of conversation within transformative, contemplative and integral education contexts, has been fully funded by both Masters and Doctorate Canadian Graduate Scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Olen recently completed his PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and is beginning a two year post-doctoral position at Simon Fraser University, researching presencing as a conversational practice for fostering contemplative and transformative forms of inquiry in classrooms.
David Martin
Part-time Professor, CCT Program
David has served as a teacher, school administrator, director of curriculum and instruction, professor of education, and dean of education (at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.) before joining the UMass Boston faculty in 2001. He holds the title of Professor/Dean Emeritus from Gallaudet University. He has carried out teacher education in critical thinking since 1978, and is a proponent of the Mediated Learning model used by the followers of psychologist Reuven Feuerstein. He has published articles, books, and chapters in the areas of social studies education, educational leadership, teacher education, deaf education, and critical thinking. His published research in the field of critical thinking (which includes three chapters in the most recent edition of DEVELOPING MINDS, ed. by Costa) has focused on the effects of critical thinking strategies on the learner, and he has investigated those effects with special populations in the USA and several other countries.
Arthur Millman
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.
Bob Schoenberg
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Bob is a graduate of the Critical & Creative Thinking Program at UMASS, Boston (’92). He created and has taught the online course in Critical Thinking since 2003. Prior to teaching at UMASS, Boston, he taught Critical Thinking at MassBay Community College in Newton, MA. He has also served as a consultant and trainer to the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), where he has given workshops in Critical Thinking and has taught at Regis College. Prior to teaching Critical Thinking, Mr. Schoenberg served as a software trainer and stress management consultant. He incorporates stress management into his course in Critical Thinking based on the premise that one can’t think critically if one is stressed.
Ben Schwendener
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
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
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.
Jeremy Szteiter
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Jeremy has developed a focus on critical and creative thinking in community-based learning and focuses on developing programs and teaching in continuing and adult education and in learning programs within community-based organizations. A 2009 graduate of the CCT program, Jeremy is the instructor of Reflective Practice and Thinking, Learning, and Computers. His focus on community education includes a focus on implications of technological change in addition to lifelong learning through developing the practice of informal teaching.
Gregg Turpin
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Gregg has taught at Boston Latin since 1985, where he is a Mentor Teacher, and an Instructor of Foreign Policy and World History. He also teaches Communications technology at Framingham State and has served as a Lead Teacher for the Center for Leadership Development in the Boston Schools Department.
Luanne Witkowski
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Luanne is a studio artist in Boston & Wellfleet with works in collections throughout the United States. She represented by: Kingston Gallery, Creiger-Dane Gallery, & J.P. Art Market Gallery, Boston, MA; Hutson Gallery, & Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, MA. Luanne is Communication Design Studio Manager and instructor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Faculty at UMass/Boston, and an independent curator/art consultant.
Abby Yanow
Adjunct Instructor, CCT Program
Abby is a facilitator, trainer, and consultant and is the president of the Boston Facilitators Roundtable. She has addressed a number areas of organizational learning and has worked for organizations such as Jewish Vocational Service and the Department of Public Health / AIDS Bureau.