Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce
Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce
We are delighted to invite you to our upcoming international conference on “Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce”. The conference is interdisciplinary, it will cover a diverse range of fields and perspectives on the development of critical thinking skills in different academic fields at universities and labour market institutions. Showcasing the holistic approach, the conference aims to explore the vital role of critical thinking in diverse academic disciplines and its significance in the ever-evolving landscape of labour market institutions.
The conference aims to bridge the gap between universities and labour market institutions, fostering a culture of critical thinking that thrives in the classroom and enhances professional growth in the workplace. This conference will serve as a platform for educators, researchers, and labour market professionals from diverse fields to explore innovative strategies, and share best practices and collaborate on integrating critical thinking skills into educational curricula.
Keynote speakers
Alistair Starling
Co-Founder and Managing Director of the European Diplomats
Luís Sebastião
Associate Professor in the Department of Pedagogy and Education, Director of the Center for Research in Education and Psychology, University of Évora
Dimitris Pnevmatikos
Professor in the Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Macedonia
Erika Vaiginienė
Associate professor in the Department of Business, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius University
Inga Jončienė
Head of Business Development at Alliance for Recruitment
Adam Mastandrea
Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University
Daiva Penkauskienė
Director of Modern Didactics Center, Associate Professor in the Institute of Educational Sciences and Social Work, Mykolas Romeris University
Sandra Kairė
Associate Professor, Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University
Kay Hemmerling
Dr Kay Hemmerling, Chairman at the Institute for Moral-Democratic Competence (IMDC e.V.)
Programme
Programme
Loreta Zavadskienė
Complexity Theory-Based Insights Into What Is More Important in Higher Education: Critical Thinking or Reflective Thinking? Or Both?
Complexity Theory-Based Insights Into What Is More Important in Higher
Education: Critical Thinking or Reflective Thinking? Or Both?
Loreta Zavadskienė
Institute of Foreign Languages, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Abstract
Higher education is about complex learning. Amongst other things, it is about the development of critical thinking and reflective thinking, skills highly needed by university students to succeed in their academic endevours, and the ones employers want graduates with. Although having the same denominator, that is thinking, in theory and research on higher education both types of thinking are mainly approached as separate phenomena, in this way contributing to the fragmentation of understanding of both their significance and interrelationship. Therefore, to overcome such a fragmentation, this research draws on complexity theory as a lens for the holistic approach to re-conceptualising critical and reflective thinking. Against this background, the aim of the current study is to gain a deeper understanding of critical and reflective thinking as complex phenomena. The theoretical framework developed for this research uses complexity theory in two ways: as an epistemological frame and an interpretative tool. The aim of this research is pursued first by overviewing some complexity-based concepts characteristic of complex phenomena, such as a complex system, emergence, self-organisation etc., and demonstrating their relevance to the concepts under study. Following this, complexity informed investigations into the synergistic nature of the relationships between critical thinking and reflective thinking are discussed. Finally, the need for seeing critical thinking and reflective thinking as an emerging complex system in higher education is justified. In conclusion, assuming that there is an urgent need to foster a broader awareness of complex phenomena in higher education, seeing complexity theory as an alternative conceptual space for theorising critical thinking and reflective thinking as an emerging complex system seems to be of great promise for nurturing it in higher education.
Keywords: A complex phenomenon, complexity theory, critical thinking, higher education, reflective thinking.
Biography
Loreta Zavadskienė, a junior assistant and doctoral student at the Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Loreta Zavadskienė is an author and co-author of 5 research papers and 27 presentations delivered at the national and international scientific conferences. She has been teaching English for academic and scientific purposes at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University for sixteen years. While pursuing her career at university, she has been constantly interested in the importance and proper development of critical thinking skills among her students. She is also a doctoral student of Educational sciences at Vilnius University. Her current research interests are in reflective practice-based studies of higher education with a particular focus on reflective practice in initial teacher education. Email: .
