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
R. Payan-Carreira, R. Silva, H. Rebelo, L. Sebastião
Participatory co-design of critical thinking blended interventions: Bringing the workplace into the classroom
Participatory co-design of critical thinking blended interventions:
Bringing the workplace into the classroom
Rita Payan-Carreira1; Ruben Silva2; Hugo Rebelo; Luis Sebastião
1University of Évora / CIEP-UE, Évora, Portugal ; 2 Anicura Atlântico – Hospital Veterinário, Mafra, Portugal
Under the Think4Jobs project, collaborative partnerships were established between Higher Education Institutions and Labor Market organizations to develop real-world scenarios to be integrated into Critical thinking (CrT) blended curricula. These aim to stimulate students’ critical thinking (both skills and dispositions), addressing profession-specific real-life challenges by seeking solutions. The participatory co-design of the interventions was rooted in the previous identification of the CrT skills and dispositions deem necessary for day-one graduates by labor market representatives, gathered from focus groups interviews. The identified needs concerned making well-informed decisions, whether within clinical or non-clinical settings, critically analysing ambiguous or poorly defined problems, offering corrective solutions, and anticipating potential challenges.
In Portugal, the partnership was established with a large Veterinary Hospital. Together, two labour market representatives and educators structured three sequential interventions, covering the course contents in Andrology, Gynecology, and Obstetrics. The design of the activities followed an adapted “think aloud” approach to deconstruct clinical reasoning into multiple interwoven small steps starting with the initial evaluation of a clinical case and aiming at deciding on the most adequate solution for the proposed problem. For each activity, a document should be produced, conveying the rationale behind the clinical analysis and proposed solutions. The documents were assessed for the factual and conceptual understanding related to the course, and the strength of students’ reasoning, including the ability to substantiate procedural and metacognitive dimensions of knowledge with evidence. CrT skills and dispositions were assessed by a questionnaire at the beginning and end of the term.
In this presentation, we will discuss the operationalization of the University-Business collaboration, and the students’ CrT gains associated to the interventions piloted in the second term of the 2022/23 academic year.
Keywords: critical thinking; curriculum development; learning strategies; educational innovation; university–business collaboration
Biography
Rita Payan-Carreira is a Full Professor at the University of Évora (Portugal), Department of Veterinary Medicine since June 2018. With a teaching career of nearly 35 years, she has been actively engaged in pre-clinical and clinical courses in the Veterinary Medicine Master Programme. Rita's dedication to enhancing her students' clinical reasoning skills prompted her to explore critical thinking. She specifically concentrated on pedagogical interventions that cultivate critical thinking skills and dispositions, integrating these elements into the core content of her courses. She participated in two ERASMUS + Projects – Crithinkedu and Think4jobs, gaining valuable insights and advancements in pedagogy. Find out more at https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5225-4510
