CUR/515 - Critical Thinking and Innovative Skills

Course Description

Learners in this course explore the development and application of critical thinking skills for all academic content areas in elementary, middle school, and high school settings. Participants identify the educational needs of students by exploring current instructional theories, models, and strategies; and state, local, and national standards as they relate to developing critical thinking skills in classroom teaching. Prospective educators develop skills in selecting and adapting delivery methods and behavior management plans for diverse individual students and student populations.

This graduate course is 6 weeks.

This course has a prerequisite. Please see details in the Prerequisite section below.

PLEASE NOTE:
Attendance and participation are mandatory in all university courses, and specific requirements may differ by course. If attendance requirements are not met, a student may be removed from the course. Please review the Course Attendance Policy in the Catalog for more information.

This course is not available for enrollment to residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and New York.

Course Objectives

Week 1

• Identify multiple teaching perspectives within academic disciplines.
• Apply quality questioning strategies to academic content areas.
• Identify strategies to provide students with equal access to academic content.
• Identify Common Core State Standards, or other relevant state academic standards, that encourage critical thinking within academic disciplines.

Week 2

• Design instruction to support a diverse student body.
• Design instruction to meet rigorous learning goals by integrating knowledge of academic content areas, curriculum, and cross-disciplinary skills.
• Design instruction that supports quality questioning.

Week 3

• Integrate technologies into instruction effectively to promote critical thinking.

Week 4

• Identify a variety of assessments to measure student progress in reaching content standards.
• Identify appropriate feedback to encourage student progress in meeting content standards.
• Identify a variety of assessments and feedback to encourage critical thinking.

Week 5

• Integrate critical thinking instructional strategies into lessons to promote diverse student interest and engagement in the classroom.

Week 6

• Determine strategies to collaborate with families and community members to develop a thinking culture.
• Collaborate with others to create learning environments that support individual and collaborative learning.

Notes

Disclaimers

The University of Phoenix reserves the right to modify courses.

Although our continuing education for teacher’s courses are accepted by some state agencies in the United States toward teacher certifications and endorsements, this may not be the case in all states or foreign jurisdictions. If you plan to use courses for certification or endorsement, please check with your own state agency and your school district for applicability. Continuing education for teachers’ courses is not eligible to apply to degree programs at University of Phoenix. These courses are not eligible for federal financial aid.

Transferability of credit is at the discretion of the receiving institution. It is the student’s responsibility to confirm whether credits earned at University of Phoenix will be accepted by another institution of the student’s choice.

While widely available, not all programs are available in all locations or in both online and on-campus formats. More information about eligibility requirements, policies, and procedures can be found in the catalog or please check with a University Enrollment Representative.