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
Rimas Norvaiša
Critical thinking in school mathematics
Critical thinking in school mathematics
Rimas Norvaiša
Vilnius University, The Center for Mathematics Education, Lithuania
Critical thinking is a part of the cognitive competence included in the latest version of the Lithuanian curriculum framework. According to D.T. Willingham, thinking is defined as critical if it is novel, self-directed, and effective. In any school subject matter, the person’s thinking is self-directed if they are not merely executing instructions given by someone else. Additionally, their thinking is effective if they respect certain conventions that make thinking more likely to yield useful conclusions. The meaning of effective thinking depends on the subject matter of study. We discuss critical thinking in the context of school mathematics.
Thinking in school mathematics is effective if it follows habits of mathematical reasoning similar to those used in academic mathematics. Specifically, mathematical reasoning in a school context involves looking for patterns among mathematical objects, making, testing, proving or disproving conjectures, refining them, and, finally, communicating the results. The implementation of mathematical reasoning and critical thinking in schools depends on the alignment of the three dimensions of the curriculum. Aligning with these dimensions ensures that the educational goals set forth in the intended curriculum are what gets taught in the enacted curriculum and ultimately what students actually learn. Finally, all this depends on teacher preparedness to teach mathematical reasoning effectively.
Rimas Norvaiša is a professor with a habilitation degree in mathematics and serves as the Head of the Center for Mathematics Education at Vilnius University. He graduated from Vilnius University in 1980 and has been a researcher at the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies (formerly known by different names until 2018) at Vilnius University since 1991. From 1994 to 2006, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Between 2003 and 2018, he was a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Vilnius University. Since 2018, he has been a Chief Researcher and Professor at the Institute of Applied Informatics at Vilnius University. He also served as the President of the Lithuanian Union of Scientists from 2010 to 2012. Professor Norvaiša's research interests include probability theory, mathematical statistics, and function theory. He has published more than 50 scientific papers.
