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
Tatjana Jevsikova
Critical Thinking in Informatics Education: Developing Computational Thinking
Critical Thinking in Informatics Education: Developing Computational Thinking
Tatjana Jevsikova
Vilnius University, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies,
Lithuania
Critical thinking is considered one of the core components of 21st-century skills, encompassing a broad range of abilities and competencies essential for success in the modern world. Even in its early stages, informatics (or computer science) education has naturally contributed to developing students’ critical thinking through the subject’s primary goals of information processing with information technologies and developing complex information systems (Fagin et al., 2006). Students’ development of multiple skills, including critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making, learning to learn, ICT literacy, and personal and social responsibility, can be facilitated by implementing programming instruction as part of informatics education (Hu et al., 2024).
In recent years, students’ computational thinking (CT) in education has been stressed as “thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that an information-processing agent can effectively carry out” (Cuny et al., 2010). CT has expanded beyond informatics as it allows us to solve problems using computers and understand social and natural phenomena (Denning & Tedre, 2022).
In this presentation, we look at the development of critical thinking through the lens of informatics education and computational thinking at different levels of education. Recent national Lithuanian initiatives and historical perspectives are presented. Various ways of thinking developed within informatics education (critical thinking, computational thinking, design thinking) and their relationships are discussed.
Keywords: informatics education, computational thinking, digital literacy, critical thinking, design thinking
References
Cuny, J., Snyder, L., & Wing, J.M. (2010). Demystifying computational thinking for non-computer scientists. Unpublished manuscript in progress, referenced in http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/resources/TheLinkWing.pdf
Denning, P. J., & Tedre, M. (2022). Computational Thinking: A Disciplinary Perspective. Informatics in Education, 20(3), 361–390. https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2021.21
Hu, L. (2024). Programming and 21st century skill development in K-12 schools: A multidimensional meta-analysis. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 40(2), 610–636. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12904
Fagin, B., Harper, J., Baird, L., Hadfield, S., & Sward, R. (2006). Critical thinking and computer science: implicit and explicit connections. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21(4), 171–177.
Biography
Tatjana Jevsikova is a Senior Researcher and Associate Professor at the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, within the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Vilnius University, Lithuania. She holds a Ph.D. in informatics. Her primary research interests encompass informatics education, the development of computational thinking, STEM education, e-learning, teacher training, and the cultural aspects of human-computer interaction. Dr. Jevsikova has authored over 40 research papers, along with several methodological works and educational books. ORCID 0000-0002-6253-7941
