29 September 2025

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Student Matters

Prospective students: applications for the spring 2026 term are due by December 1, 2025. Please see the UMass Boston Graduate Admissions page or contact cct@umb.edu for more information. Critical and Creative Thinking information sessions are open to prospective students and others interested in learning more about program. The following fall sessions are scheduled:

• Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 5:00-7:00pm ET: Graduate Studies Open House (on campus) for learning about graduate programs across UMass Boston. For more information, see the event page and visit the CCT table.
• Monday, October 6th, 2025, 5:00-5:30pm ET: Virtual information session for Critical and Creative Thinking (join in Zoom here)
• Thursday, November 6th, 2025, 7:00-7:30pm ET: Virtual information session for Critical and Creative Thinking (join in Zoom here)

Continuing students are invited to join Q&A sessions for the Reflective Practice Portfolio requirement. The following sessions are remaining for this fall – RSVP below to receive the Zoom link:

• Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 (RSVP here)

CCT Events

The CCT Dialogue Series on Reflective Practice in a Changing World (virtual) continues in fall 2025 with a series of virtual events designed around bringing critical and creative thinking to our practices in work and life. In this series of sessions, we consider the role of reflective practice for thinking critically and creatively about work and life. Reflective Practice is relevant to any field and refers to how we make connections between our past experience and future actions. For each engaging hour-long session, we focus on one reflective process that builds our capacity to confront change, uncertainty, and complexity. All sessions are free and open to all.

• Thursday, October 9th, 2025: 7:00pm ET: Dialogue Process (RSVP here to receive login details).
• Monday, November 3rd, 2025, 7:00pm ET: Open Space Technology (RSVP here to receive login details).
• Monday, December 8, 2025, 7:00pm ET: Focused Conversation (RSVP here to receive login details).

Alum, Student, and CCT Associates Notables

CCT 2025-26 Alum Studio: Peer Coaching as Reflective Practice
In this virtual series, we will use a dialogue-based peer coaching model to explore ways that mutual support can become a basis for reflective practice, as we as CCT alums continue to address the needs of our workplaces and lives. All CCT graduates are invited to participate in any number of fall sessions, but RSVP here is required to receive virtual meeting details.
Fall 2025:
–Friday, October 3, 2025, 12:00-1:00pm ET
–Thursday, October 23, 2025, 12:00-1:00pm ET
–Friday, November 14, 2025, 12:00-1:00pm ET
–Thursday, December 4, 2025, 12:00-1:00pm ET
Spring 2026:
–Dates TBD

CCT former faculty and graduate Bob Schoenberg recently completed an article on “The Problem with Artificial Intelligence and the Dangers It Presents to Critical Thinking”. You may download the article here.

CCT graduate Kaylea, PhD, recently started in the position of Assistant Professor, Computing & Software Systems, at the University of Washington Bothell.

CCT students, alums, and associates are encouraged to send items about accomplishments, new publications, or offerings to the Critical and Creative Thinking community to be included in future newsletters. Please submit items of interest to cct@umb.edu.

Events

Save the Date: Black Lives Matter Day event at UMass Boston, Monday, November 3rd, 2025 in the UMB Campus Center Ballroom, 10:00am-3:00pm ET. This year’s theme is “Still We Rise… Black Cultural Resilience in Challenging Times.” See upcoming university announcements for full details and registration information.

Florida Creativity Conference
March 11-14, 2026, Sarasota, FL at Ringling College of Art + Design; Sponsored by the Creative Education Foundation
The Florida Creativity Conference isn’t about painting, crafting, or traditional notions of creativity—it’s about thinking differently. Whether you’re a professional, educator, business leader, consultant, or simply someone curious about problem-solving, this conference offers an accepting and collaborative environment to explore innovative ways to tackle challenges. At the heart of our event are two immersive core workshops: Foundations of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and Tools for Creative Problem Solving. For more information about registration and submitted proposals, please see the website.

Food for Thought

• Is a Noisy Classroom a Thinking Classroom? (The Learning Dispatch)
• The World’s Classrooms Are Short 44 Million Teachers (EdSurge)
• World Happiness Report 2025 (WHR)
• Our Finite World versus Our Infinite Appetites (Resilience.Org)
• Why Creativity is the Future of Business (Good Things Podcast)
• Restoring the Academic Social Contract (National Affairs)
• How to Think, Not What to Think (The Atlantic)
• Hiding in the brain for centuries and finally uncovered ― Now we know what’s consciousness (The Pulse)
• How We Came to Know Earth (Quantum Magazine)
• Beyond the job description: how to use your creativity at work (U. of Alberta)
• The Top 5 Myths Elementary Teachers Believe About the Science of Learning (Education Week)
• Don’t Believe Everything You Think (ACSH)
• Creativity is essential to the ethos of universities (Nature)
• The Night Science Institute Is Changing How Science Teaches Creativity (Technology Networks)
• Diversity Training Is Out. Dialogue Workshops Are In (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• The Neuroscientist Beyond the Brain (John Horgan)
• Inside the search for a universal signature of unconsciousness (Big Think)
• Taking on racial bias in early math lessons (Hechinger Report)
• The pseudoscience of learning (Filling the Pail Substack)
• ‘They’re Just Waiting to Just Get Back on Their Phone’: 12 Teachers on What’s Changed in Schools (New York Times)
• Sharp rise in memory and thinking problems among U.S. adults, study finds (American Academy of Neurology)
• The Myth of the Lone Genius: Why Creativity Thrives in Community (The Rabbit Room)
• Why Green Man Festival made me think about creativity in a whole new way (Creative Boom)
• “Eureka!”: Surprising Brain Clues Predict When Inspiration Will Hit (Neuroscience News)
• Neuroscience needs a new paradigm: The brain is not a machine (IAI News)
• Flat Earthers on a Cruise (MIT Press Reader)
• What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property (Aeon)
• What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones (The Atlantic)
• The future of creativity is here—and you only need to type a sentence (The Scotsman)
• MIT researchers show how the brain distinguishes ‘things’ from ‘stuff’ (EurekAlert)
• New Study: Female Teachers Much More Stressed, Burned Out Than Male Colleagues (The 74 Million)
• 5 innovations that are repurposing harmful pollutants for good (The Cool Down)
• A Summer Camp Where Professors Are the Focus: How two weeks at Hamilton College helped philosophy instructors become more innovative teachers (Chronicle of Higher Education)