The Critical Issues Forum (CIF) and the Critical Thinking Curriculum Model (CTCM) Overview

The Critical Issues Forum (CIF) was developed to give students and teachers an opportunity to address issues and circumstances involved in safeguarding nuclear weapons. As the CIF program began to be developed, a conscious decision was made to develop a curriculum model that encompassed our educational philosophies and experiences as they pertained to successful teaching and learning practices. This model became the “Critical Thinking Curriculum Model (CTCM).”

The Critical Thinking Curriculum Model (CTCM) was developed by Richard Alexander and Bill Robertson as employees of the Science Education Team at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a response to what they considered a gap in the American educational process. The model encompasses the higher order thinking skills as outlined by Bloom, Gardner and others. Each brought a wealth of experience, as classroom teachers and as a high school administrator.

The CTCM was designed as a project-based research experience to help students make sense of the content they were studying in school in the context of a current global issue. The model engages students in research, critical thinking, communicating thoughts, and making connections. To ensure that students have a conceptually correct understanding of the issue with which to make recommendations, curriculum was designed to include a series of assigned tasks within a multidisciplinary approach to the study of a given topic.

Based on the CTCM, Alexander and Robertson developed challenging curricula in five topical areas focusing on the nuclear world. The five nuclear world topics are inter-related and form the basis of five semesters of work. Each topic area requires teams of students to conduct academic research while addressing specific task assignments. Completion of each task assignment prepares students for the next assignment.

The constructive nature of the program affords students the opportunity to develop and refine their knowledge base as they delve into real world issues. By the time students complete all the task assignments, they will have a much deeper understanding of not only the issue at hand, but also the world as a whole. As they investigate the selected topic area, students will discover connections between four major domains, the scientific, the political, the economic, and the social/cultural.

CIF curriculum must be designed so that it reflects real life situations, especially in the area of science. So much fascinating science is at the fingertips of learners everywhere, and with the increase in affordability of technology, an ever increasing amount of scientific knowledge is present in homes across America. The use of societal issues as an organizer for science curriculum has been seen as a method of teaching science to counteract the concepts as distinct and unique disciplines of study. (Hofstein & Yager, 1986) Scientists in the real world cross over barriers between disciplines all the time, and never operate solely in the area of science, but integrate the use of language, writing, content knowledge and application of processes.

CIF curriculum should be integrative and students need opportunities to apply their learning. CIF curriculum development should be "a complicated and continual process of environmental design." (Apple, 1995) There should be a multidisciplinary approach that includes the integration of subjects, and emphasis on education as a process, not a product. The teacher needs to assume the role of facilitator and guide students through a curriculum. In this approach, student interests can fuel the framework for facilitating scientific concepts. As stated in Science for All Americans, "Concepts are learned best when they are encountered in a variety of ways, for that ensures that there are more opportunities for them to become embedded in a student’s knowledge system." (Rutherford and Ahlgren, 1984)

References:

Apple, M.W. (1993). Official Knowledge, New York: Routledge.

Hofstein, A and Yager, R. (1982). Societal Issues as Organizers for Science Education in the 80s, School Science and Mathematics, Volume 82, pp.539-547.

Rutherford, J. and Ahlgren, A. (1990). Science For All Americans, New York: Oxford University Press.

http://www.criticalissuesforum.org/ctcm_model.html
updated 30 April 2007