Steve Pearlman, Ph.D.
Director, Interdisciplinary Writing & Reasoning, University of Saint Joseph. Co-founder, The Critical Thinking Initiative.
Description
Through his role at the University of Saint Joseph, Dr. Pearlman, and his colleague, Dave Carillo, have spent the last seven years researching practices that promote real outcomes in critical thinking, writing, student engagement, transfer, and grit. Dr. Pearlman runs a year-long faculty development group at USJ, where he guides faculty through research on pedagogies that foster all of the above. He’s also created a critical thinking cohort student program at USJ. Through his department’s initiatives, USJ is tracking higher critical thinking outcomes in its students to the tune of a 230% increase in five years.
Steve is also the co-founder of The Critical Thinking Initiative, which focuses on bringing evidence-based tools for critical thinking and student engagement to educators everywhere. Dr. Pearlman possesses 25+ years of experience in higher education and spends the majority of his time helping other faculty develop classroom practices and course designs for improving their course goals while also improving critical thinking outcomes and forging student-centered learning environments.
Workshops
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Critical Thinking: An Integrated Approach
Critical thinking is becoming the hottest term in education. But given the generally low outcomes seen in critical thinking for students across all educational domains, it is also one of the biggest challenges facing educational institutions. In fact, the most common methods of "teaching critical thinking" are not shown to support growth in critical thinking at all. Therefore, this presentation will help educators and institutions get in front of the curve when it comes to demonstrating real critical thinking outcomes.
Learn how to conceptualize critical thinking in a manner that works across disciplines. Learn how to teach, assign, and assess critical thinking all as part of one system that students can actually employ to think more critically about any subject matter, at any level. This presentation offers the five fractures that prevent critical thinking outcomes across education. It grounds all of its points in research, and provides evidence-based means for improving and demonstrating valid growth in critical thinking. Though grounded in research, this presentation offers class-level, pragmatic ways to employ critical thinking in any classroom.Cost: TBD
Duration: 60 minutes or more
Target Audience: All educators
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The Neuroscience of Learning
This workshop offers insights into the emerging research on the relationship between brain function and education. It discusses the relationship between different portions of the brain, stress responses, and neuroplasticity. Most importantly, it provides educators with concrete ways to translate neuroscience into classroom practice and simple ways to improve outcomes by respecting what is occurring at any given time in students' brains.
Cost: TBD
Duration: 60-120 mins
Target Audience: All educators
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Best Practices in Writing Instruction
Much current practice with writing in education is still predicated on "process pedagogy." Yes even though process pedagogy can hold value, formidable amounts of research point to other factors as at least equally essential to developing real growth in student writing. Not only can stronger writing outcomes be accomplished without significantly increasing the amount of time devoted to writing, it is often possible to economize the time devoted to teaching writing by invoking certain key practices. This presentation takes educators well beyond the practices most commonly embraced and into the real research on what fosters improvement in student work.
Cost: TBD
Duration: 60-180 minutes
Target Audience: All educators
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Teach less; learn more: Problem-Based Learning and Mastery Education for Smarter Everything
This presentation takes educators in the research on student-centered learning, focusing on PBL and mastery models. But it moves beyond popular conceptions of those practices into a more detailed understanding of what needs to happen in a classroom in order for student-centered pedagogies to really produce meaningful and improved outcomes. In fact, with the right research-founded pieces employed, these practices can increase student engagement, increase the amount of time they devote to tasks, increase persistence of material beyond a single course, and increase student and teacher satisfaction. And all at the same time.
Cost: TBD
Duration: 90-180 mins
Target Audience: All educators
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Your Institution or Organization Here
Let's talk about developing a workshop specifically designed to meet your needs. My research background and experience with faculty development extends into many arenas of educational practice. The workshops above are just samples; I am always presenting on different topics. If you see a particular need for your school or organization, let's find the right topic that will result in the strongest transformation of your faculty and students.
Cost: TBD
Duration: TBD
Target Audience:
Topics
- assessment
- best practices in writing
- Critical thinking
- formative assessment
- learning neuroscience
- mastery learning
- problem-based learning
- student engagement
- teaching for transfer.
- writing
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