We have some exciting news. As our forum on Saturday (10:45am) (Link: HERE) doubles as our AGM, JALT CT SIG members should be able to attend for free!

From Saturday 10:35am, you should (“should” as we have asked this to be open to the public but…. technology) be able to go to the following website:

https://jalt2021.edzil.la/session/2389

and watch our Forum/AGM without a ticket to the conference proper. NOTE: You will only be able to watch this session and if you would like to watch other critical thinking focused sessions (there are many great ones in this conference) you will need a ticket to the conference.

I hope we will see you at our forum/AGM this saturday!

James Dunn

Coordinator – JALT CT SIG

Dear CT SIG members,

As your elected representative of the JALT Critical Thinking SIG, I attended the JALT Executive Board Meeting last weekend. Here are the important points from this meeting…

Presenters needed for the Online PanSIG CT SIG Forum

If you would like to submit a presentation proposal for the Critical Thinking SIG’s forum at the JALT PanSIG Conference 2021 the deadline is March 10, 2021.

Check our latest email from the Coordinator, James D. Dunn, for more information.

CALL for Presentations at JALT 2021

If you would like to submit a presentation proposal for the JALT International Conference 2021, Nov 12-15, in Shizuoka, the deadline is March 14, 2021. Go to: https://jalt.org/conference/call-proposals

If you would like to submit a presentation proposal for the JALT CT SIG Forum at JALT 2021, the deadline is March 20th, 2021. Please send submissions to: program@jaltcriticalthinking.org for internal vetting. make sure to include:

1- Your Name and Affiliation, 2- Your title (Max 10 words), 3- A short abstract (up to 50 words) for vetting purposes.

The JALT Website database

The JALT Website is being updated so from March 15th to 18th, the JALT Website database will be offline (no login, so membership renewal during this period), but we can still view content, such as the Job Center and Event Calendar.

Upcoming Events

Check out the JALT Event Calendar (https://jalt.org/events), there are some great events coming up from various JALT Chapters and SIGs. As JALT members, you can join most Chapter events for free. Sendai is hosting a talk on April 25 (15:00 – 17:00) with Scott Thornbury, entitled “Just for Fun” on Zoom (Register to get meeting information)

An important event for us, CT SIG members, is the CT SIG Online Event on February 28th. Please check out the event information at: https://jalt.org/events/critical-thinking-sig/21-02-28

In addition, as part of a new peer-support program, there is a Zoom meeting for Professional Development, February 28th, 7pm-8pm. So, after learning about critical thinking in online classes, you can learn more about the peer-support program at JALT. To sign up or submit a discussion topic, and to receive the Zoom link, click here: http://bit.ly/ZPDRSVP

The JALT International Conference 2021, Nov 12-15, Shizuoka Granship

Currently, the JALT International Conference in November is expected to be face to face with some online features. We’ll let you know if changes occur.

New Groups in JALT

A new Listening SIG was formed. For more information contact:

E-mail – jaltlistening@gmail.com

Mentoring and Orientation Committee

The Mentoring and Orientation Committee ​was created and will be responsible for developing mentorship-related initiatives, welcoming and orienting new members, and cultivating future leadership within JALT.

The Graduate Student Subcommittee

​The Graduate Student Subcommittee ​was created and will be responsible for programming and matters related to graduate student issues (and student issues) within JALT.

Volunteer opportunities available

Are you passionate about environmental issues?

The Environmental Committee needs volunteers!

This committee gives advice on setting up the committee or environmental policy ideas and helps to source sustainable and fair-trade product options, find recycling companies, and give suggestions on environmentally friendly approaches to conference management. To volunteer, contact Jennie: roloffrothman@gmail.com

Peer Support Group

The Peer Support Group has become an official committee within JALT. This group gives feedback on academic papers prior to submission. It also needs volunteers to help (and learn about) peer-review of academic papers. Contact Rich Bailey (Chair): jaltpubs.peer.group@jalt.org

IAC Seeking Committee Members

The International Affairs Committee is looking for one or two new IAC roles to be filled. If one person can do both of the duties listed below that would be ideal, but the tasks could also be done by two people. The time required would likely be several hours per month for each position. Please see the descriptions below. Interested JALT members should contact Andrew Tweed: ​international@jalt.org

Don’t forget to submit your manuscript to the CTLL

The Critical Thinking SIG’s peer-reviewed journal, Critical Thinking and Language Learning, is looking for quality submissions for our November, 2021 issue. If you would like to learn more about our submission requriements or have questions about the process, Curtis Chu, our Publications Chair and the Chief Editor of the CTLL can answer your questions. Email him at: editor@jaltcriticalthinking.org

Thanks for being a member of the CT SIG!

As always, thank you for being a member of the Critical Thinking SIG. We look forward to helping you learn about critical thinking in ELL and giving you opportunities to professionally develop in 2021 and beyond.

We would like to bring your attention to a few items:

JALT 2020 Call for presenters

We would like to let you know we are looking for presenters for the JALT 2020 Conference. The CT SIG Forum will be focusing on “Thinking Skills for All Ages” as we would like methodology sharing for both early learners and university/adult students. If you have something you would like to share, please send us your abstract before the end of Feb.

yokohama jalt event coming on feb 15th

Feb 2020: Three different approaches to supporting students’ learning: understanding neurodiversity, working memory, and critical thinking.

Speakers: Jennifer Yphantides, James Dunn, and Caroline Handley
Date: Saturday February 15
Time/Location: 1pm / Yokohama Youth Centre.  (Please go to yojalt.org for directions)

We hope you can join us there!

As always, thank you for being a member of the JALT Critical Thinking SIG,

The CT SIG Executive Board

We are excited to have three presentations at our JALT 2019 CT SIG Forum. It is going to be a really interesting time. We also will be holding our annual general meeting right afterward so stick around for an update on what the SIG was up to in 2019.

JALT 2019 Line-up

John Peloghitis & Guy Smith: Facilitating Debiasing in a Reading and Writing Course

A primary goal in teaching critical thinking is to reduce the impact that cognitive biases have on learners so they may make more rational decisions. The attempt to mitigate biases is also known as debiasing. Recent studies have found that using an intuitive approach to reduce cognitive biases is not an effective method of instruction. The following presentation reports on the effort to move away from an intuitive approach in teaching debiasing to one that incorporates a more effective and sophisticated perspective. Material will be presented from a first-year reading and writing course to illustrate some of these proposed changes.

Michael Hofmeyr: Skill-Building and Scaffolding Ideas for Training Great Debaters

Class debate is an excellent way for teachers to encourage learners’ development of critical thinking skills. At the intermediate proficiency level and above, debate activities may also be successfully integrated into English oral communication courses within the Japanese educational context. Nevertheless, without careful planning and consideration for the particular needs of Japanese language learners, teaching may quickly take an unfortunate turn for the inefficacious. This presentation will briefly outline the approach I follow with my own debate course on current affairs and draw attention to techniques that can enable learners to actively and confidently engage in classroom debate.

James D. Dunn: Critical thinking vs. higher-order thinking skills – what is the difference?

Critical thinking is a buzz-word in many textbooks. However, there still seems to be a misunderstanding as to what critical thinking activities are in the language learner setting. This presentation will go over some examples of “critical thinking” activities in textbooks and show where they excel and where they leave critical thinking lacking. Further to this, original critical thinking prints based on popular textbooks will be shared with the audience. The hope is that educators may return to their classrooms with ideas in mind and examples in hand as to what they could do to encourage critical thinking beyond the confines of the textbook.

Hokkaido Feb. 1-2, 2020

We are also excited to have been invited to participate in the 2020 Hokkaido JALT Chapter Winter Conference. We will be hosting a JALT Critical Thinking room with presentations by YOU.

We understand that not everyone has the research budget to travel to Hokkaido for a presentation so we are going to offer a special dispensation for CT SIG members who will be traveling to Sapporo to present for us.

Keep an eye out for the call for papers that will be showing up soon.

Stay critical,

The CT SIG Executive Board

NEW DEADLINE: January 20th.

If you would like to submit a presentation, please email your

Name:
Affiliation:
Title (Max 10 words):
Abstract (Max 75 words):
Bio (Max 40 words):

to: program@jaltcriticalthinking.org with the subject of: PanSIG 2018

REMINDER 2: The call for the 2018 JALT Critical Thinking Forum in Shizuoka is still open. We are looking for up to 4 presenters who can give 20-30 minute presentations on topics related to Critical Thinking and learning a language.

DEADLINE: January 30th.

If you would like to submit a presentation, please email your

Name:
Affiliation:
Title (Max 12 words):
Abstract (Max 100 words):
Bio (Max 40 words):

to: program@jaltcriticalthinking.org with the subject of: JALT 2018

The 2017 academic year is almost over and we would like to share what has been done to give you, the CT SIG Member, value for your membership.

– We have had six events this year, PanSIG 2017 in Akita, The Hokkaido Chapter, GILE, and CT SIG event in Sapporo, the Tokyo Chapter BRAIN/CT SIG event in Tokyo, the Kyoto Chapter CT SIG event in Kyoto, the Sendai Chapter CT SIG event with the ETJ Expo in Sendai, and of course the JALT CT SIG Forum at JALT 2017 in Tsukuba. We have had a very busy year!

– We have had 3 CT SIG newsletters, The CT Scan, published with member submitted articles sharing ideas with the membership on how to integrate Critical Thinking into the classroom.

– We have published our 4th peer-reviewed journal, Critical Thinking and Language Learning.

– We have offered JALT members discounts to all the events we have given and even had special incentives for CT SIG members to attend.

With all this going on, we hope you feel that your membership with our group is worth your time and hard-earned money. But, did you know that there may be MORE you could be doing with us?

Would you like to publish? We have TWO avenues to publish with us: 1- The CTLL, our peer-reviewed journal. If you have a manuscript you would like considered, please send it to: editor@jaltcriticalthinking.org and get the process rolling. 2- The CT Scan, our newsletter. The CT Scan is not a peer-reviewed publication, but it is edited. If you have something for the CT Scan, please send your manuscript to: publications@jaltcriticalthinking.org

We are looking forward to publishing you!

We are always looking for presenters at events to share your vision of how Critical Thinking influences your teaching. Not an experienced presenter? That is okay! We can offer you assistance with PowerPoint slides and tips on giving a good presentation (sorry, the nervousness before a presentations doesn’t go away). We are here to help you.

We are also always in need of members that can donate a little time to help make our SIG even better. Know how to put posts on WordPress? Why not help out with the website? Is your hobby graphic design? Why not help with the publishing? Have a little free time? You could help with paper/presentation vetting. If any of these things seem appealing or interesting, please contact James Dunn, the Coordinator of the CT SIG to see how you can add to this great group of educators. You can reach James at: coordinator@jaltcriticalthinking.org

Maybe this post has probably gone on long enough. Thanks for reading to the end and please consider presenting with us in Tokyo at PanSIG and in Shizuoka at JALT 2018 and publishing with us in the CTLL and CT Scan. **Note: We have a few other events in the works for 2018. More information on those soon!

We would also like to give a big thanks to all the presenters who helped make this year so successful at our events. We are truly lucky to have such a wealth of talented people in our group.

To wrap up, we are excited about 2018 and what we have to offer you, our members. We hope to see you in 2018!

Critically yours,

The JALT CT SIG Executive Committee

We will be holding a one-day event with the BRAIN SIG and the JALT Tokyo Chapter at Rikkyo University on September 24th. We will have 4 (and a half!) great presentations with an exciting guest featured speaker. Our guest speaker is the previous coordinator of the JACET Critical Thinking SIG. Dr. Kahoko Matsumoto will be speaking on her research into Critical Thinking, Higher Order-Thinking Skills, and Japanese student sense of self.

You can find our handbook below with a description of the schedule, presenters, and a map to the venue.

CT BRAIN Handbook

We also have a flyer that you can print out and give to your colleagues to get them come along with you! BRAIN CT 2017 Flyer

See you there!

Welcome to 2017! We hope this year will be a great one for you, your friends and families, and your career!

Update on the PanSIG CT SIG Forum:

The theme of this year’s forum is: Implementing Critical Thinking into the LL Classroom: Stories from the field.

We have selected six presentations for our forum at PanSIG (yes, SIX!). A big thanks to all those who submitted. While we cannot always accept everyone’s submission, if you didn’t make your submission this time, please consider submitting for the upcoming events.

These presentations will be a modified Petcha Kucha style where all six presenters will be presenting at the same time. Each presentation will be 6 minutes long with a short Q&A period afterward. After the Q&A session of that presentation, all the attendees will rotate around to the next presentation and the cycle continues.

All attendees will be able to see all presentations.

Important upcoming deadlines:

PanSIG:

The deadline for submitting to the CT SIG Forum has passed, but the deadline for submitting a personal presentation has not!

The deadline for PanSIG individual presentations submissions is: January 15th

(NOTE: If you are a CT SIG Forum presenter, you can STILL SUBMIT another presentation. The SIG forums are not counted toward your submission limit.)

JALT 2017 Critical thinking forum:

We are looking for six presenters for our CT SIG Forum at JALT 2017 for a similar style of forum as the PanSIG forum. Stories and methods that you have used in your classroom which have worked (or not!) and what you learned from those experiences.

The deadline for JALT 2017 CT SIG Forum submissions is: January 31st

(NOTE: If you are a CT SIG Forum presenter, you can STILL SUBMIT another presentation. The SIG forums are not counted toward your submission limit.)

JALT 2017 International conference:

Have some research you would like to share? A methodology you think is beneficial? Why not share it at Japan’s largest language teaching conference? The JALT International Conference!

The deadline for JALT 2017 International Conference Individual submissions is: February 13th

JALT GILE and CT SIGs mini-conference in Sapporo:

The Hokkaido chapter has asked the CT SIG to be a part of the GILE SIG mini-event in June. We will be looking for presenters to give short, 30-min presentations on topics related to critical thinking. If you are in the area, why not share your vision of critical thinking with the members of the Hokkaido chapter.

The deadline for  GILE/CT SIG Event submissions is: March 31st

JALT brain and critical thinking sigs event in Tokyo:

The JALT BRAIN and CT SIGs are getting together for a meeting of the minds in September! We are looking for presenters to present of methodology for, and research in, critical thinking integration into the language learning classroom. We want to focus on activities and information that attendees can take with them back to the classroom. These types of presentations will have priority in the selection process.

The deadline for the BRAIN/CT SIG Event submissions is: May 30th

And more!

These are some of the many many upcoming events for 2017! We are also looking at Sendai (October) and Kyoto (December). So keep an eye out for the CT Scan with more information and always remember to check our facebook page and website for up-to-date information. As always, if you ever have questions about what the CT SIG is or what you can do to help out, please contact James Dunn, the coordinator at: coordinator@jaltcriticalthinking.org

Warm regards,

The JALT Critical Thinking SIG Executive Board

JALT 2016 Recap

Well, JALT 2016 has finished and it was a resounding success with new members to our group, 4 thought-provoking presentations, new offices, and a TON of interest in having your Critical Thinking SIG be part of events all over Japan. Here is a brief recap and what you can expect for the future.

CTLL: Issue 3 of the Critical Thinking and Language Learning peer-reviewed journal has been published! You can look forward to a physical copy of the journal arriving at your door soon! It is the largest CTLL yet and full of great articles! We even have our first article on Critical Thinking written in Japanese! Share it with your JET friends and encourage them to join us to learn more about Critical Thinking and Language Learning!

SIG Table: We had many visitors to the SIG table on Saturday and Sunday. We even got a few new members who signed up to join us on our journey to understanding and implementing critical thinking! I (your coordinator) took 14 copies of our new issue (Issue III) of the CTLL and was able to give them all away to new members, interested parties, and a few lucky members of our JALT 2016 Critical Thinking forum.

Critical Thinking SIG AGM: At the AGM, we had a good group of members and non-members who attended to vote for officers, find out about what we did in 2016, and what we plan to do in 2017. James Dunn (Me) was re-confirmed as the coordinator (I look forward to my second year as the coordinator of the JALT Critical Thinking SIG!), Wayne Malcolm was re-confirmed as our PR officer, Hiroshi Nakagawa was re-confirmed as our treasurer, Stephen Jennings was re-confirmed as our membership chair. NEW OFFICERS: We have an incoming program chair: Wayne Devitte, an incoming Editor for the CTLL: Curtis Chu, and possible two assistant editors to help us make your papers the best they can be! So, if you come to an event and you see one of your officers, new or old, say hi and see how we can help you to learn more about critical thinking, share your ideas/opinions of critical thinking, share what has worked (or hasn’t worked!) for you in your classrooms, and even help to spread the word about your research into critical thinking and language learning!

Critical Thinking Forum: All four of our presentations were very well attended. It was obvious the presenters had worked hard to bring their ideas to the audience and the audience was phenomenal. I just wish we had more time! We will have another forum in May at PanSIG but it will be a little different! (SEE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PANSIG)

Overall it was a great conference for your Critical Thinking SIG. We are going to have more opportunities than ever next year for you to present and publish on your experiences/methods/research/ideas on critical thinking! All of the Critical Thinking SIG’s executive board is very excited about the opportunities to see and hear from our members in the coming events.

COMING EVENTS AND 3 CALLS FOR PAPERS

It is looking like we are going to have 5 (or possibly more!) opportunities for the Critical Thinking SIG members to present in 2017! Check out below for information and current submission deadlines on the Critical Thinking SIG 2017 events:

MAY: PanSIG – The JALT Critical Thinking SIG will be co-sponsoring Dr. Naoyuki Naganuma on the discussion panel plenary at PanSIG 2017 in Akita (Akita International University). WE ARE ALSO GOING TO BE HOLING A CRITICAL THINKING FORUM: The 2017 PanSIG Critical Thinking SIG Forum call for papers is currently open (until December 25th). We are going to change our style of forum for this PanSIG to a Pechakucha style of presentations (more on that later: check your emails in a day or two!) which means we would like to have anywhere from 4 to 6 short presentations (12 slides over 6 minutes) going at the same time (in small groups) and the audience will rotate to another presentation after a 4-6 minute Q&A session with the presenter. THE FORUM THEME IS: Challenges and Successes in Critical Thinking for Language Learning: Stories from the Classroom. We will be looking for 4-6 (possibly more!) presenters who would like to share their story (with a good ending or a bad one) with people at PanSIG. Please refer to the coming Call for Presentation email that you will receive shortly for more information on submitting for this exciting event.

JUNE: The Hokkaido Chapter would like your Critical Thinking SIG to team up with the GILE SIG for a one day conference in Sapporo! We will be looking for presenters to give short (20-25 minute + 5-10 minute QnA) presentations on Critical Thinking methodology, research, experiences, and definitions. We were just approached about this event this morning and it is still in the early planning phase, so please keep an eye out for information on this promising event coming soon. We are expecting the call for papers to end in early February.

AUGUST: The Critical Thinking SIG and the BRAIN SIG is planning to hold a one or two-day event in Tokyo with the Tokyo Chapter as a co-sponsor. We are very lucky to have a great venue in downtown Tokyo for this event. We will be looking for as many presenters as we can for what is promising to be an exciting and thought-provoking (brain developing?) event in Tokyo. We expect the call for presentations to end in early to mid-march, but please know that this is in the early planning phase and the deadlines may change suddenly.

SEPTEMBER: The Critical Thinking SIG is going to hold our FOURTH critical thinking room at the Tohoku ETJ Expo (the 2016 event in October went very well!) in Sendai. This is an event that always has a great number of interested attendees so if you are interested in going to Sedai to participate in the great event, let us know! Deadline for submissions TBA.

NOVEMBER: The JALT 2017 Critical Thinking Forum is already being planned and the deadline for submissions will be MUCH EARLIER THIS TIME. We want to make sure our presenters get the recognition they deserve in the conference handbook in 2017. To do that, we need to have our Forum lined up and decided by EARLY MARCH. This means our deadline for submissions will need to be LATE FEBRUARY!!!! While it is much earlier than last year, it will be good for all involved as it will be much more professional and better for the presenters of the forum.

DECEMBER?!?!?!: They Kyoto JALT Chapter has approached us to do an event for their chapter in late fall/early winter 2016. The details have not been ironed out but if you are a Critical Thinking SIG member in Kyoto (or the surrounding area!) we might have a good opportunity for you to present! More information on this event coming soon!

In Summary

As you can see, we are growing and going to have more opportunities for the Critical Thinking SIG members to present and publish than ever before! We hope you will present with us and share your understanding, experiences, opinions, ideas, research, and methodology on critical thinkig with educators all over Japan in 2017! Be seeing you soon!

James Dunn

Coordinator – JALT Critical Thinking SIG

This is a friendly reminder that the PanSIG call for submissions is coming to a close this Saturday. If you have not submitted a proposal yet, please consider doing so here: https://www.conftool.net/pansig2015.

CT SIG 2015 PanSIG Forum!

You can also present your critical thinking ideas with the CT SIG at our PanSIG 2015 Forum! See our flyer below for submission guidelines to the CT SIG Forum and get in touch with our Programs Chair to submit your proposal! Contact us here: program@jaltcriticalthinking.org

CT SIG Forum at PanSIG Flyer:

CT 2015 PanSIG flyer