Critical Thinking Skills and Problem Solving
What is the course about?
This course looks at the challenges of working with 21st Century learners and the living in a VUCA world (with Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), and the need to promote Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skills (Novel and Adaptive Approaches) with learners, as well as developing their own skills.
Frequently Asked Questions
This course is for his course is aimed at teachers of English and subject teachers using English in class, who wish to combine the chance to further develop their own English language skills with the opportunity to explore alternatives to traditional, transmission-based approaches and look at ways of promoting Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skills (Novel and Adaptive Approaches) with their students, and in their own approach to teaching.
After registration, participants on this course programme will receive:
- a pre-course questionnaire which will enable trainers to learn about the participants’ backgrounds
- information about the Europass Mobility Certificate
- a recommended reading list to prepare participants for various aspects of the course
- information about York to prepare teachers for their cultural experience.
At the end of the course, you will:
- be able to indentify practices to promote creative thinking and innovation
- have a knowledge of the link between creativity and innovation
- be able to understand, explain, and identify practices that create an innovative working environment
- have developed an understanding of the techniques involved in the creativity process
- be able to develop their own creativity techniques and apply them in the teaching environment
- be better able to develop ways of generating new ideas to solve problems
- have the ability to apply these techniques in real-world situations for optimum effectiveness
The course ends with an evaluation session, where teachers are asked to reflect upon the value of the knowledge gained on the course, create a Personal Development Action Plan, and select activities which they would like to try out in their own classes or projects. They are invited to join the York Associates Community, which allows networking and contact with the trainers and fellow colleagues, and with participants from other courses.
If you are from a country outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, you will need a visa. Students from certain countries do not need to apply for a visa before arriving in the UK. You can check if you need to apply for a visa on the UK Visas and Immigration website.
In the unlikely event of a course not recruiting sufficient numbers you would be offered an alternative.
Do you have any more questions?
Resources
Fast Facts
Start date(s)
- January 27th 2020
- March 30th 2020
- July 13th 2020
- October 5th 2020
- January 25th 2021
- March 29th 2021
- July 12th 2021
- October 4th 2021
Max. group size
12
Min. age
21
Minimum CEF level
Starting from
B1
Course materials
Included
Hours
Starting from
21
Is Erasmus+ funding available?
Price
£
395
Booking fee
£
55
Testimonials
Meet the trainers
Sample Course Programme
| Session One | Session Two | Session Three | |
|---|---|---|---|
| MONDAY | Ice-breaker Introduction to the course: objectives and methodology | What are Future Work Skills and which teaching skills are necessary to support your learners as global citizens | |
| TUESDAY | Traditional, transmission-oriented teaching vs a guided discovery approach | Creative thinking vs critical thinking Applying Design Thinking to teaching methodology | Defining and developing critical thinking approaches with our learners |
| WEDNESDAY | Using a problem solving approach in teaching | Creative Core thinking | Exploring practices to promote creative thinking and innovation |
| THURSDAY | Exploiting technology and supporting students’ critical appraisal of sources of information | The Kano approach to Delivering Innovation | Types of innovation – incremental v radical |
| FRIDAY | The Starbursting approach to problem solving | Brainstorming techniques and De Dono’s 6 Hat Thinking approach to problem-solving | Output: Personal Action Plan further professional development |
