 Hello everyone who's coming in welcome. How are you? Please go ahead and say hello in the chat Tell us who you are where you're from what the weather is like. I Can tell you it. I'm coming from dark and dull Dublin today So we have a great webinar lined up for you We just give it a minute to let people come in so go ahead and introduce yourselves From Romania. Yeah, there's always a good Romania crew. All right Gray Brussels, ah What about what about where you are? Antonella Maria Rosa is probably lovely and sunny is it? No, not so much actually is it's Friday in today, so Hey, and it's it's pretty cold. Was it what's pretty cold? Rome of course. What's pretty cold to fire? Yeah, it's about six seven degrees Oh, that is actually pretty cold. Yeah. Yeah, so you see it's not Was I thought you're about to say no No, no, no not today. It's it's a bit cold and it really Raining Docs as you say there that sounds familiar And we've got some creations brilliant. So nice nice mix of people I'm gonna start sharing my screen for the slides Francesca and you can You can start Thank you, so off Thank you, and just give me a nod when you want the Perfect Thank you everyone to be here. I'm very happy to Introduce this webinar that is named the critical thinking in education We will have three great presentations from Antonella Pocha Maria Rosario From Roma Trai University and or laughing in from Duke Dublin City Universities I am Francesca Mendoni and I will co-moderate this webinar with Orna Farell That is a member. We are a member of Eden sitting committee now So please thank you So I will briefly tell you something about the network of academic and professional Then we will open up with the the presentation from Antonella and Maria Rosario the role of museums and digital storytelling in the development of students critical thinking in higher education And then we will have a presentation from or la regarding critical thinking in business model and how to apply it in real-life situations then we will close the presentation with a question and answer session and if you want to Continue the conversation. We will move on Twitter for our Eden chart that will start at 6 p.m. Now I want to give you some information regarding the activities of the NAP So the the missions the mission of the NAP are To support networking between among Eden members Professional collaboration and knowledge sharing to achieve these purposes we organize different kinds of activities included webinar like this one and Eden shots and many other kinds of activities. I Want to show you briefly who are the member of the Eden NAP steering committee. So we have Vlad Miescu that is the chair of the Eden NAP and Orna Fardel is a new the newly elected deputy chair So congratulations Orna for this new role in the our NAP steering committee There are other members are me Francesca Mendoni, Igor Balaban, Mohamed Samer, Afsan, Alfredo Suhero and Ines Gill-Aurena and Now I'm very happy to announce the first two speakers from Roma Trey University, Professor Antonella Poccia She's a senior Eden fellow and currently associate professor at Roma Trey University in the She teach experimental pedagogy at the Department of Education And she directs also the Center for Museum Studies and two postgraduate courses both in the field of museum Education she coordinates National units with European project frameworks and she has been chairing international academic committees dealing with distance learning and she's also Outer of different publication of national and international relevance on the topics of innovation Assessment and the use of technology in teaching and learning in the context of editing and I will present also Maria Rosario Ré, Dr. Maria Rosario Ré a collaborator and colleague of Antonella She's a research fellow at the Center for Museum Studies University of Roma Trey and she's also an Eden fellow In 2020 she obtained a PhD in experimental pedagogy She used to be a temporary researcher at the Department of Actually, too sorry if I interrupt you, but she is she is yes She's currently she's currently a temporary searcher at the Department of Education research fellow. Yes and She carrying out research in interactive teaching and learning online with specific reference with two massive open online courses and She has been she cooperates with the Center for Museum Studies since 2013 and she She's part in national and European research projects in the field of museum education and digital and transversal skills Critical thinking promotion and new learning methodologies and evaluation. So I give the floor to Professor to start a presentation Thank you so much Thank you so much Francesca for this introduction And sorry if I interrupt you, but actually Maria Rosario will tell you more. She's she's Still a research fellow at our Department of Education and cooperating and working Actively within the Center for Museum Studies that HF. So thank you so much. I'll start the presentation In a minute. I'm trying to share the screen We had the trial a minute ago, but of course Okay, so thank you so much Maria Rosario, I will ask you to go Forward anyway, we have been working on critical thinking in education in particular in higher education for many years now and We have been developing this very complex Skill and Constructor I would say From different different perspectives and in different Fields at different levels Today we will try please the next the next one We will try to tell you about the Relation that we have been investigating Between critical thinking the use of technologies in education in particular. Of course we refer to the post Pandemic here because this is a time when we have been forced to use technologies And in at every moment in our lives It's true that of course also before the pandemic came in we technology every Time of our in our days is is made of using our mobile phones is made of Accessing the internet is free of Working With our computers But what we have learned especially during this first covid Time is that we need to use to be able to use technologies in a critical way We need to understand what's the best Technology to be used according to different situations and in this Situation of choosing of this of making decisions of solving problems we develop Cross-sectional soft skills and we need to develop soft skills that sort of sort of soft skills Which are linked to digital Technologies, but are not only Related to how to use certain technologies the idea of Supporting the ability to use Technology technologies to know how to use technologies can be Feed can be supported Can be enhanced exercise practice in our view with the you the support of cultural Relevant Topics and environment, that's why if we go on That's why we try to And this is this slide is is related to what I was saying before that's why We tried to To work on the development of different kind of activities and projects based on cultural environments on especially museum settings and Heritage settings What we have done, of course critical thinking skills Are at the basis and I'm sure that with the next presentation by Orla we've been we will be Driven to a Situation where these kind of concepts are developed of course critical thinking skills are By voted to have innovation to have economic and knowledge growth different kind of Agencies support the development of critical thinking skills They are part of all the frameworks that from different kind of The decision-making agencies come from if we go on if we go on please Maria Yes, thank you and So not here. Thank you So the idea that we Promoted in the project that we are going to Present to you now is related to the possibility to link critical thinking Strategy enhancement strategies to the field of Heritage Education, I'm referring to heritage in the most wide the widest sense And meaning that we can contribute to the term Because we will see that what we have been trying to do through this Technology is to mix different kind of Of cultural aspects in order to Support and and and critical thinking skills What we have done we meant To and I'm really sorry that I can't move from one slide to the other because of course my hair of that I can read my mind but Not completely The main objective of of the project that I'm going to to introduce you today Is related to the idea that a museum objects in particular can be Means of Interaction of Situations where borders are Eliminated in fact the project is set in a wider Project that is the inclusive memory project a project promoted and Supported funded by our University University Roma tree and which involves seven different departments. So inter disciplinary Aspects are taking into great consideration. I was telling you this wide Projects where where they truly a one is set is a project aiming at Showing the ability of museum objects to be tools for inclusion so Inclusion again in the widest meaning That possible is the object of our research in this case they truly a Environment that we created was meant at the very beginning of the project to support physical face-to-face in person visits at a museum in particular a Museum called Museo Etrusco Villa Giulia in Rome where as you might imagine a very important Etruscan collection is Preserved and exhibited After the COVID came out. We couldn't of course support this kind of visits With our students and with other Use kind of users that we wanted to include and Make them participate in our activity, so we developed this environment, which is a museum actually a new sort of museum virtual museum where Specific activity is created What did we do we? Started from a first main assumption the one that makes the object talks about its history its story and telling us its story in as a as a short a short story involves the user in a sort of personal dialogue with it Different authors underlined the way our objects and our Making stories is part of our Human development as children we make sense of reality we Tribute meaning to reality around us telling stories or Listening to stories So what did we do we created this virtual museum with some specific educational path taken and built according to The the objects that we chose for each Specific educational path the one you are seeing in in the images that are going on are related to a specific topic that we developed that is the way women were considered and how their lives were Were Conducted during the trust can the trust can time So starting from different objects the object that you can see in this image here We developed some stories together with No, of course experts in in the field of archaeology and so very well acquainted with the history and the Artistic value also of the objects that you can see here educators and of course Engineers and designers Together we Made up the stories connected to each object and we developed today the system where We tried to involve the users so with different evaluation tools From the very beginning and I think we saw the image from the very beginning we When the user is Entered the system we developed some questionnaires to understand the Individual preferences of the user and according to this individual preferences Address and Guide The user within our virtual Museum within The museum they are they have the users have the possibility to listen to the story connected to the object They can also have the possibility to connect to to listen to a soundtrack related to the the object and In the end they have a Different tool to understand to reflect on what they experienced Through the collection of the data that we got After using this this system we had the possibility to evaluate the experience especially trying to Reflecting on the The possibility of enhancement in critical thinking levels Here you have some data But I won't go through them because time is very short and I would need to To describe The results in details if we stop to the previous one the one where we explain how the The project was carried out and what were the data that we collected through different tools within the system You you can see that besides personal data to develop The profile the users profile and so to understand where to guide our users We worked on their general artistic preferences or on their fabric activities and mood on The dimensions of extroversion and introversion that were connected to some of the results that we collected on their preference for the museum objects that were selected and or on the related contents the narrations the the stories connected to to the objects and their References related to their museum experience preferences so virtual physical or blended we Collected data and analyze data related to their kind of engagement and of course We reflected and we analyze their critical thinking levels enhancement if we go on we'll see different kind of graphics and Results from the first pilot phase to the second pilot phase as you might understand in the first pilot phase We are just a small group of Participants about 20 people and actually With specific characteristics because that first group was made mainly of experts in the field of museum education and so with Very peculiar preferences that the second pilot phase instead was characterized by the participation of more than 100 Students higher education students from our department. So completely different Profile characteristics If we go on We can see that besides the Possibility to understand if we let's go to the final one Yes, not the previous one Exactly Here and we we can see that Besides the differences in the characteristics of the two groups first one a very small group at second one a Fairly more consistent one Besides the differences and so the impossibility to I lied to certain Functions of the narratives of the stories that we connected to each object and to the way that the immersive experience in this Technologically advanced environment was developed. We we we can Say that Besides the preliminary dimension of this research Anyway, some Guidance for father developments for father research are clearly I liked it First of all this idea of designing a virtual reality Exhibition according to Certain Content and design and educational path and the possibility to engage users and to Link the Story to their own personal Background Not with the intent of Making them learn about an introscan collection or the trust in history or a trust in art and Archeology but To understand and to learn how to reflect on their own Their own Cultural identity their their own way of interpreting reality and so so doing exercising practicing their critical thinking Skills and dispositions I'm not going in detail today to the results, but we found that there's a general Connection correlation We've between the virtual Exhibition and the appreciation of Certain objects narratives Which is perfectly in line with our pedagogical Hypothesis and starting hypothesis so the idea of combining set digital storytelling and Reflective question methodologies Which is at the basis of the this project and other projects that we have been carried out carrying out on critical thinking development is Is there and support support father Research in in the field the use of technology the use of virtual reality environment and also some immersive Situations support the idea of Enhancing critical thinking schemes, but I hand here my my presentation and I think that Maria Rosario's Presentation Will develop an other other kind of aspects always within this main framework of their research We have been carrying out that the Center for Museum studies Romatria University, please Maria Rosario. Thank you, professor Exactly. Also, my presentation is extremely into the idea that Cultural heritage can support the development of critical thinking skills in education both in formal and informal context and in this Presentation this evening. I just want to introduce to a project that I carried on during my PhD Periods the nominal consequences are a project Which may name was to Design learning path for secondary school pupils So not for higher education institution curriculum, but mainly focus on second secondary school students That can support critical thinking promotion through the use the fruition of a particular Museum object that are Latin inscriptions the idea of combining critical thinking in museum context is extremely linked to the presentation that Professor Poce did before because the museum context the museum objects in general are underlined as Pivotal for the development of active citizenship and also for the development of a person in total idea that we can have in life learning idea of Education the relation between Formal and informal education should be supported So the nominal consequences around started from the idea that we have to create a sort of Interaided learning path between museum and school where competencies Skills are developed together through the use of specific learning path and methodology used for this purpose As regards the learning approaches that support critical thinking development in museum context for sure the idea of The active learning the constructivist approach the social constructed is the approach should be underlined because is when visitors users are Part an active part of their learning only in this situation we can find a real promotion of transverse skills competencies As regards the references from the literature of the sector Hands-on and object-based learning visual thinking and digital storytelling are Smart defined as the main important learning Methodologies to be used within museum context in order to support critical thinking education And this is because the active parts of the users or because we are completely involved in thinking routines and thinking activities and also because the Collaborative process that we make when we are part of for example a digital storytelling process. So Critical thinking is extremely linked to these kind of particular learning methodologies and the the use of Latin inscription as museum objects are very particular museum objects in it in these experimentations wants to Starts from the idea that language communication is at the basis of Critical thinking a good critical thinking is also a good Health has also a knowledge of his or her language She or he can use it very well. So the idea to connect critical thinking and language skills is Relating tax to these research hypothesis in the nominal soon consequential 144 Pupils from two different vocational schools Participants participating in the project We divided for sure the group in an experimental group composed by four classes and Control group composed by three classes the students involved are between 15 and 17 years old and The museum context was a particular Museum context is the Psy capitalini is one of the most important museum in Rome and the museum of capitalini is Composed by two different buildings in this picture. We have just one building and the aisle that Connect the these buildings is the Galleria La Pidaria You can see is a sort of aisle aisle where the Latin inscription from them Latin period Periods are based on the left on the right of the island itself so users and visitors can read or Simply touch the object just walking on through this aisle This cool and the participants involved in the project Participate into three different activities Each of them were devoted to one particular learning methodologies So object-based learning visual thinking and digital storytelling One activity of object-based learning was conducting within the museum and the digital storytelling workshop at school The critical thinking assessment tool was a test that we used at the beginning and on the end of the experimentation and from just a combination Analysis between the results. We can see through the dependent t-test between pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group that the differences in Scoring is not due to the case So critical thinking is was really promoted during the activities There was a promotion probably Thanks to the learning path at the end of the nominal sub-consequential project. So The Important point that I want to underline that Is that these students even if they are part of vocation students So school that are not completely linked to Latin Culture and humanistic Field in general were completely engaged by the activity especially by the digital storytelling ones, so they Had the possibility to use Technology in a very innovative way because museum was not part of their life before This project and they have also the possibility to promote their critical thinking scheme So I want to stop my presentation And thank you Maria Rosa got you some beautiful pictures there in your presentation And I like and I love seeing the kids engaging as well fantastic stuff there. So in the second now Orilla is going to Start speaking and I just introduced Orilla So dr. Orlifini is a chartered accountant and associate professor in accounting from Dublin City University Business School or DC UBS She lectures predominantly in the area of management accounting and research methodology Her research includes the role of accountants in business the impact of digital technology on accounting and strong Structuration theory her work has been published in journals including accounting audit and accountability journal qualitative research in accounting and management and she's the module coordinator for a really interesting module about critical thinking in business that she's Going to tell us about today. So over to you Orilla Excellent, how are you doing? Thank you for that introduction Orna? I really enjoyed hearing Antonella and Maria's Presentations as you'll see in terms of my content the discipline I'm talking about today is vastly different To the two guys, but it was interesting how much I recognize some of the concepts or a lot of the concepts that you were talking about So, you know, we're all very much on the same page Yes, so listen, yeah, Orlifini, I'm Dublin City University. I I'm primarily an accounting and finance lecture And I'm a director director the accounting and finance program in the business school But I'm speaking to you today because I was part of a team That developed and now delivers a module entitled critical thinking for business Within the business school. So this is a very practical walkthrough How we developed a module what the module is all about and so far how it's landing And we just kind of hope that those insights might be helpful to any of you out there that are about to embark on a similar project Hold on now, and I try and be as slick as I can about sharing my screen Here we go. That's not very slick That's perfect Orilla. Yeah, happy days. So listen What are we going to talk about today 15 16 minutes? That's what it's down to unless I ramble off piece, which I generally do I'm going to talk about who we deliver the module to the objective of the module Talk a little bit about how it was developed I want to speak about the content of the module the learning outcomes and how we assess it I'll talk briefly about the feedback because I think it was important for us to understand how the module landed with the students At least in the first year and throughout I will try and speak to the online Environment and how we dealt with our pivot to the online environment in the last few months So first of all who takes critical thinking for business. Well, it's a module delivered to all first-year undergraduate students in the business school So that's six programs and it's about 650 students all in So basically every single student that comes into us to take a degree in the business school Has to take this module in first year. It's a prerequisite. It's part of it That's actually really nice that diversity of perspective is lovely for the students You have accounting students sitting in there beside marketing students sitting in there beside language students So that diversity of perspective In the midst of a shared learning experience We find it really useful It's actually great just for getting kids to talk to each other as well and get to know each other and branch out a little bit um, the objective of the module is It's to develop their critical thinking skills um, and Listen, it's quite intentional that we're doing it in first year We want to get them young We want to get them the minute they come in the door because we want to try and instill in them Some strong theoretical a strong critical thinking foundation on which to build their core discipline content We don't want this module to just be a module in its own right The idea is that we give them skills in this module that we hope Helps them in their degrees in their relevant degrees. We want them to go and study accounting to better effect We want them to be better at their marketing. We want them to engage to better effect with their mis information We want to build their discipline. We want them to build Their discipline content on this strong foundation that we're going with in this module The initial challenge because their first years and they're only in the door Was really to try and help them to understand what critical thinking is beyond the rhetoric beyond the both words Um, it's a bit of a both word and and the kids come in and they can I agree with the thinking But they don't actually know what it is and do you know what until we were in the midst of this project I don't think we were particularly in tune what it was either So what I do is I start by telling them a story and I'm going to tell you guys the story as well I've ever heard of Stanislav Petrov Stanislav Petrov was a lieutenant colonel in the soviet air defense forces He was serving as a chief officer on duty in a bunker outside Moscow on september the 26th 1983 at the height of the cold war between the u.s and the soviet union Tensions were a boiling point the soviets had just shot down a south korean civilian flight When a u.s senator on board reagan had denounced the soviet union as an evil empire nuclear war was a very big possibility So much so that at that time both Sites had built up fairly significant use nuclear arsenals and on this particular day in 1983 stanislav petrov was usually in a bunker When the soviet missile early warning detection system detected five incoming american missiles the siren sounded stanislav's instructions were clear He had to inform his superiors that war had begun and the russians must prepare their arsenal of warheads in retaliation It was going to be nothing short of nuclear annihilation, but stanislav's instructions were clear There was a protocol He must follow the chain of command and remember this was all taking place in a matter of seconds His fellow officers had caught up with the situation They were shouting at him to get on with the next step But stanislav instead calmly called the duty officer and informed him that the soviet's missile early warning system was faulty He said his colleagues were enraged, but as chief officer He had the final world word what gave him the confidence to go against protocol in this way But he taught to himself if the americans were going to launch an attack It would have been all out They would have had to overwhelm the soviet's missile defenses in one foul swoop if they had any hope of surviving the nuclear The ensuing nuclear why why why would they launch five missiles? Also, the ground raider had not detected anything so he'd no corroborating evidence weighing up the probability stanislav decided That a malfunction was more likely and of course he was correct The missile early warning system had misinterpreted reflections from low clouds And incorrectly set off the sirens stanislav's insistence on reasoning before reacting hadn't averted nuclear Annihilation stanislav was a hero and arguably we all exist today because of his ability to think clearly and rationally Understanding the logical connection between the different facets of the decision five missiles no corroborating evidence the natural Russian response No, this doesn't make sense And the reason I tell that story is to try and help the students to internalize what we mean by critical thinking Because there are so many different facets to it And we want them to dial into all of those different dimensions of critical thinking in the different aspects of this module In a word, what I start with with the students is by saying guys, we've gotten really bad at detecting falsehoods We have access to so much more information than we ever have in the past But that has increased the necessity for us to discern good information from bad information I I tell them that 59 percent of articles shared on social media are shared by people who don't even read them We have if it appears glossy, we take it that it's legit. We've gotten really bad at detecting falsehoods Brexit covid American politics We have examples everywhere of how Uh critical thinking has been labeled as liberal elitism by over intellectualism We're not allowed to debate things anymore So we have to try and pair that back and get these students to start examining everything that they encounter all information that they encounter And start examining it in a critical way So listen, I'll get off my soapbox now and get back to the actual project How was the module developed? It was as a result of a critical curriculum review project We were all taken aside two years ago in the business school and we were told right We want to reformulate the curriculum of the of the six undergraduate programs And as part of that one of the key goals Um of the business school Was to produce graduates who can make decisions in an evidence-based manner. Okay So I was part of a cross-functional team and we were charged with incorporating evidence-based into our undergraduate degree program um And the first step in this we felt was to develop their critical thinking skills Listen, it aligned with a clear call from the marketplace and the national skills strategy in ireland for enhancing the critical thinking skills of graduates This is a slide. I actually throw up for the students because they really like it It really makes them feel like this is relevant And this is going to help them in terms of their graduating and getting a degree the world economic forum announced in 2020 And I'm imagining when they have time to update this critical thinking will be even higher But it was the second most important skill in any graduate entering the work for entering the workforce at the time The students really respond to that really advising them just how much employers want them to develop this skill So listen a little bit more about the project It started out as a broad cross-functional team involved in the development So there was like 16 18 of us sitting in a room with a white board going right What would we do in order to develop the critical thinking skills of our graduates? We've pretty quickly decided we wanted to develop a first-year module because we thought it was critical to get them straight away Um, and the first thing is we dreamt big. Okay, we started out by well in an ideal world What would we do with them? Okay, if we didn't have any of the uh strains and stresses of of and and the Infrastructure that we have to fit in what would we actually do if we had a blank out And we could do whatever we wanted then After we dreamt big dreamt big and after we came up with a grand plan We reworked and reconfigured that in light of teaching resource timetable program structures And you know what what we ended up with wasn't so different from what we initially envisaged It was a little bit more realistic. It didn't involve as many hours We had to tone down the assessment But on the whole that idea of starting out with a blank canvas and dreaming big not starting with the problems Not starting with the things that were going to be difficult to manage No, starting with the blank canvas and what we wanted to achieve And then moving on to how we would achieve it within the confines of the Infrastructure of the school that was really really helpful We maintained that cross-functional approach throughout and I cannot tell you how valuable and important that was And even now that initial broad cross-functional team of 16 or 18 people Ended up reducing to the teaching team of five that we have right now So we have two accountants an economist and an organizational psychologist as well as the business librarian Sounds like the start of a joke, but that does that basically comprises the team that delivers this module So what kind of things are we are we trying to work on here? We had to think about what You know Stanislav Petrov Aside and the world economic forum aside. What does critical thinking look like for students? business students Doing first year in a degree program What we talked to them about the need to Okay, finding out where the best evidence lies for the subject that you were discussing Evaluating the strength of that evidence To move this here so I can see the strength of the evidence to support different arguments And this was a big thing trying to encourage them to subscribe to both sides of an argument Students are very much inclined to subscribe to the argument that they already Believe in so a big thing that we do in a lot of our sessions is nearly forcing them to engage with the converse Or the contrary opinion that that seemed to be something that's quite new to them Encouraging to come to a conclusion about where the best evidence appears to lead Guiding the audience through the evidence leading them towards the conclusion selecting examples and ultimately providing evidence to illustrate their argument So as students we want them to find evidence evaluate that evidence come to interim conclusions Guide the audience through the evidence select examples and ultimately present your own evidence having worked through it They're the things that we really wanted to work on with them as students The thing is we always have to remember they are first years This is a five credit module out of 60 credits in first year It's one hour one formal lecture hour or one to two formal lecture hours a week Over two semesters. This is not a high impact module So we had to cut our cloth In accordance with what we were trying to deliver here So with that in mind, I was going to talk you through the learning outcomes that we deciphered for the module So at the end of this module again five credits about an hour a week over two semesters So over maybe eight weeks and then again, maybe four or five weeks in second semester So it's not a huge amount of contact time But at the end of all of that we wanted them to be able to conduct reliable and effective library research with a particular emphasis Emphasis on electronic information sources Also teach them how to use appropriate citing and referencing techniques Accessing and evaluating a wide range of information sources which can be used to inform the decision-making process Teaching them to go beyond google Teaching them how they can access information for all of their particular disciplines Encouraging the accountants to access professional information encouraging the marketing students to access appropriate information for their discipline But just getting them to access information just beyond your basic google search Exploring issues making decisions using well researched facts rules concepts and ideas Encouraging to understand and recognize bias in decision-making or problem-solving scenarios and developing skills to counteract the negative impact of bias um Helping them to think critically and logically when forming opinions and judgments and ultimately combining insights from a broad range of disciplines and helping them to understand the importance of the weight of evidence in a decision-making scenario Um, so that's what we wanted to achieve with the module. So listen A couple of slides on how the actual module works in terms of nuts and bolts on a weekly basis Okay, so sometimes the students are in a large plenary session like that one Okay, and the objective of these large plenary sessions is to disseminate content explain concepts go through the basics um This year because we couldn't sit in a room like that We delivered these sessions in live zoom sessions with approximately 200 students per session Listen, we don't like zoom sessions with 200 students. It doesn't feel like a nice way to teach But we got a couple of tas in for the sessions We got them to manage the chat boxes We broke them into breakout rooms every 20 minutes half an hour and got them to talk to each other And and you know what it did the job. It worked Particularly for those sessions where you really are just trying to go through content go through basic concepts To help them deal with the workshops that were coming the week after We supplemented this with some asynchronous content. So they weren't overloaded with live content So where we had particular tools and techniques that we wanted them to use an assessment thereafter We would pre-record this on this Is synchronously and pop it up on the web for them Because we didn't want to overburden them in the live sessions We kind of wanted the live sessions to be fun. We try to have a bit of crack as we say here In these sessions. So we tried to keep them light. So we didn't want to overburden them So there were the live plenary sessions Sometimes students worked in smaller workshops and this was really this really came out of the curriculum review project We were very invested in breaking these guys into small groups and dealing with them in small numbers 650 That wasn't easy. That was enormously challenging and from a resourcing perspective. It was our biggest challenge but we did it and It works and that's why it is a big team of us delivering this module so we can still do it Why do small groups look at it? It helps to foster greater engagement and create norms of academic citizenship It's a very lofty way of saying it gets them talking to each other And when they talk to each other they internalize the things that we're trying to teach them And when they're internalizing the things that we're trying to teach them They're learning property and they're going to utilize it in their other in their other modules And that's exactly what we want to do So this year, how did we manage that instead of getting them into smaller rooms? Which is what we did last year So what we did last year was we broke the 650 into 20 Small groups and Whoever was taking that particular part of the module just took the workshop 20 times It was a pretty hairy couple of weeks, but you got through it And the sessions were fun. So it wasn't tough teaching. It was enjoyable teaching, but it was busy This year what we did because we couldn't get them physically into the room was we delivered 12 or 12 to 14 zoom workshops And we split those workshops into two breakout rooms and it would be the key lecturer and a ta Would look after them and then we would flash over to make sure that the students got lecturer contact So it worked out at about 25 students per breakout room and it it was it was okay It was okay We had to do a lot of work to get the students to talk on zoom Zoom is the great silencer where students are concerned up and finding at the moment But it we're getting through we're getting through the material and it's getting kind of better as the year goes on Um The module is based entirely on continuous assessment. The ca happen often happens in class Um, and is spread throughout the year. So I run through the different components of the module There's about five different components and there's a piece piece of assessment at the conclusion of each component um So yeah five components. So the first component of the module is critical information selection great session It's delivered by our business librarian And he comes in and he really talks to the students about how to access information How to discern good information from bad information? And he just does some really really interesting exercises with them He goes through transcripts from white house meetings and asks them for opinion on it But then he shows them the same transcript with information not redacted as it was in the original What's your different perspective on the information of that kind of thing real life examples? Um, we move on from critical information selection to identifying bias. So this is a really really interesting session Um, again, it's done in workshop form. So they do it in small groups to encourage them to talk to each other about their biases And they're given a piece of pre-work to do in advance Um, and then they come into the session and they continue that work and then they do another piece of work Straight after um, they move from their identifying bias session into a session on evaluating evidence and academic reading We think this is really nice because it's giving them access to academic reading at the beginning of first year I believe we have a tendency to Focus in on academic reading In final year or at least in second year We think it's really important to actually start them On a journey of academic reading at the beginning of first year So accessing information accessing good quality academic Literature and also how to use it how to read it how to read an academic article how to process the material How to reference it how to cite it Um, and then we break them into groups and we get them to do a piece of assessment On on academic reading. In fact, what we do is we give each group an academic article and we get them to write the abstract Um, and it just forces them to engage with the article Um, the next piece the fourth piece is thinking critically about measurements This happens in semester two It's delivered by our economist rob galanders And basically he's talking to them about numbers and statistics and he encourages them to engage with Measurement and to engage with Numeracy and to challenge it and and and pink it look beyond the numbers And then finally they come back to me at the end for critical reflection and argument and critical writing So we talked to them about reflecting on their learning We do an exercising class whereby we get them to reflect on the module So it's a useful way of getting to recap on the module And then we talked to them about critical writing and how to present their evidence in a critical way in terms of writing And that leads into their final capstone assignment in which they write a critical discursive piece about a topic if they're choosing Um, so semester one semester two. So this is how the assessment breaks down again Just in terms of knots and bolts. They do a quiz based on the library. They do uh, two in class pieces based on bias Um, they do a group piece based on their academic reading. Um, they do a kind of an assignment Challenging numbers based on rob's piece in semester two and then they finish it off with a capstone essay which requires them to Draw together all of the different components that we uh teach in the module Loop is absolutely critically important loop is our online blackboard and it is enormously important in this module Um, it was more important before we ever had uh, kovat It was critical to this module anyway because of the numbers It's utilized during lectures. It's utilized for communication assignment submission If we didn't use technology in this module, we just would not be able to do it so we have a learning technologist in the business school who is um Our oracle and guru and he uh, did enormous work in terms of helping us build A technological infrastructure around the module. It just could not have happened without it Similarly the teaching enhancement unit of which there are some uh on this call We're just enormously important in terms of helping us develop a solid technological Infrastructure around the module just would not have worked without it. Um, it's a heterogeneous module They're not in the same place every week. Some weeks. They're in a large plenary another week They're in a workshop another week. They're doing an assignment on their own another week They're doing a quiz that requires a lot of housekeeping and a lot of management and the technology helps us to do that Um, listen in terms of feedback We felt it was really important. This is the second year. We're delivering this module So at the end of first year we gathered a lot of feedback from the students because we wanted to know how it was landing And it was very positive. They enjoyed the module. I hasten to add that it's a low impact module It's not very stressful. It's not very difficult. It's not designed to be we want them to experience We want them to learn we want them to internalize it. We don't want them to be stressed out So it is not a stressful module. It's kind of a fun module, but not an easy one Okay, we don't want it to be something that's just seen as a walkthrough But we don't want them stressed out. We want them to really internalize the content And I think by and large they did uh critical thinking pushes us to evaluate information Um, these are the things that we really liked Uh, I don't think I could have met the third level without the module or it helps us to make the switch from the leaving That's what we were really going for here Helping them move on from the second level mentality of really learning by rote and regurgitating in an exam To the third level mentality of actually developing Knowledge and developing insight and how what to do with that knowledge. That's really what we were going with Um Let's get uh before we get our heads too big Let's look at some of the other uh feedback as well The things the students said at the end of the first delivery that they wanted more of I would like more real life examples of where critical thinking is used I would like to Work more on applying critical thinking in business more real life examples, please and there was a lot of them I think because We were conscious of it being first year We felt they didn't have an experience base on which to build real life examples So I put a possibly underestimated them. So in this delivery, we're trying to bring in an awful lot more real life examples of critical thinking Now, do you know that feeling where you can't remember what's in your next slide? There it is So that's it guys that that concludes it. Um, I I'll stop sharing because I'd say orna and the gang are going to take over In terms of some but happy to take any questions or or deal with anything Thanks so much orla. It's a really interesting module um, and I love the mixture of small group teaching um The skills the application And it's a really brilliant module and I think it's it's something that's really needed In lots of disciplines It was interesting listening to Maria and Antonella. It is amazing how much I recognize some of the things you were talking about and it'll be in a vastly different charge Yeah, because it's um Of course, uh, according to the different situations, uh, you can adapt the main framework for critical thinking and assessment and assessment and um, as I I figured it out You mentioned the top skills and the setting that was at the basis of our work, uh, so But of course it's uh, it's like that and and also um many things that you mentioned in your presentation were Touched and investigated in a project that we have been part of that is the creating a new project a european project uh that actually ended um Already one couple of years ago now. I think yeah When yes one couple of years ago Where our department our group was part of and that was based on the revision Of the curriculum in different in different areas in different subjects In view of enhancing critical thinking skills in higher education students different many different Subjects were involved different departments from different countries in europe and the idea was basically The one that you developed in in in your module. So, uh, trying to adapt every curriculum To the idea of enhancing supporting practicing and teaching critical thinking which is possible actually You were presenting but there was a question in in the q&a session um related to How to uh, to teach is it possible to teach critical thinking? Yes Through these kind of activities that might be different and of course we Me and maria rosario we presented the the cultural and heritage perspective, but that Perspective can be adapted to any any field of study. We have been cooperating for so long with the university college of london Where a center for object-based learning has been created and where they have a large number of university museums so they can Go from one subject to the other very easily but whoever whatever teacher can go there and Be supported in using a museum object to teach their own subject and to Train Young thinkers in their development in their learning Thanks, santana. I suppose we've time for maybe one or two questions. We're we're running a little bit over But we don't mind do we francesca? It's all good Reflexible about the time we're taking an iris style Yes So any questions there was a couple there in the q&a um That some of you have already answered Yes, there was one the especially from from vlad related to the the situation and the fact the post-covid situation and the fact that Um, of course artificial intelligence is Oh an ai one clearly. Yes Clearly linked to the the the topic that we have been uh discussing today and Is asking if this is a threat or an opportunity because of course dealing with artificial intelligence with a large amount of data We need to develop this kind of skills And we need to develop critical thinking and creativity also absolutely And he's asking is this a threat or an opportunity? No, it's an opportunity, of course We we need to to uh use this time and this kind of difficult situation anyway to develop Divergent thinking growth and Really have a change that in a very tragic and difficult way is supported Is prompted By the pandemic True and we can't have robots stealing our jobs. Yeah, I have to i'm a bit obsessed I'm a bit obsessed with critical thinking and ai because i'm doing a bit of research on ai and accounting because i'm an accounting teacher And I want sure that we still exist So i'm very keen to demonstrate how we will always need Uh judgment critical thinking creativity and I actually think the more information as I said to students all the time The more information we have the more the greater the need for critical thinking is the greater the need to turn Good information. Yeah, and I think your argument there at the start about how how poor we've become at discerning Uh good information from bad Um It's you know, that statistic was incredible Yeah, and I I've I've never got to admit that I ever share. I think that I haven't read Um I think any any more quiet. There was one one. I think we probably have time for maybe one more people are leaving though Um, so maybe maybe we will just say thank you very much to everyone for your contributions the panelists Thank you very much. We were really interesting Uh and to the attendees. Thank you very much for coming along That that's a question from Tatiana. I And I think his address to us Uh Tatiana don't don't worry. Please write to me privately my email address is easy to find and Or contact francesca that can give you my my email address and I can answer to your questions With And uh, someone was looking for you to share your materials orla as well. Yeah, sure. Absolutely And you can yeah, and I think I think the secretary. I'll share the slides and stuff as well Yeah, fantastic. So thank you everyone very much. We're gonna jump on to another platform now On to twitter. Let me just give you the details there um For participating It's going to be a like a 16 minute twitter chat now um So the hashtag is Eden chat And how you participate We're going to put up some questions and you can put up some answers and try and remember to put in the hashtag And the a 182 a3 um So looking forward to seeing you on twitter Great stuff Super Take care. Bye. Enjoy the tweet chat. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye everyone. Thank you guys. Thank you