Overview:

NCTT brings over 20 years of experience conducting staff-development programs in hundreds of schools and colleges in the United States and other countries on teaching thinking. It’s director, Dr. Robert Swartz, is an emeritus faculty member at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where he taught for 30 years during which time he developed and directed for 6 years the graduate program on Critical and Creative Thinking, a program designed for practicing educators. Dr. Swartz has been involved as a leader in the “thinking skills movement” since the late 1970s and has written many books and articles, most of which are directed at practitioners in the field. The other presenters and consultants who work for NCTT have similar histories. NCTT brings this vast experience into its present-day workshops and programs.

On-site Program Details:

During the academic year, NCTT offers open workshops and courses in various parts of the United States for K-12 educators and college faculty, as well as contracted, custom-designed, on-site staff development programs for specific schools and colleges. These staff-development programs are usually extended programs involving a combination of group workshops and on-site, one-to-one coaching for implementation of the idea presented at the workshops. Moreover, NCTT has conducted workshops and onsite staff development programs in Great Britain, Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, and Northern Ireland.

The On-Site Programs typically involve the presentation of a framework for lesson design. This is coupled with the demonstration and analysis of effective lessons based on this framework that emphasize reading, writing, and thinking. Implementing this framework helps students to develop habits of thoughtful learning and quality written communication. Follow-up support to participants is then arranged. Participants of the program receive a lesson design handbook and sample lessons as part of the course. Moreover Graduate credits are available as well as Professional Development Points.

The costs for such programs are usually:

Group workshops: $1,700/day
Coaching $1,700/coach/day
When multi-semester or multi-year programs are developed these rates are usually discounted and the costing is done on a lump-sum basis.
Travel, including transportation and room & board is extra and billed on a cost basis.
Books used in connection with either short-term presentations or long-term programs are discounted by 10%.

NCTT provides short-term in-service presentations and long-term staff-development programs.

Short-term presentations include keynote addresses and one-time awareness presentations on a variety of issues related to teaching thinking. The main topics of these addresses and presentations are Infusing Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction K-12, Developing Problem-Based/Decision Based Units, Infusing Instruction in Critical Thinking into Core Curriculum Courses in Higher Education, and Assessing the Quality of Student Thinking.

The costs for such presentations are:

Keynote Address: $2,000
Up to a 1 ½ hour presentation: $1,700
Travel, including transportation, room & board is extra and billed on a cost basis.

Long-Term Staff Development programs are custom designed by free consultation between the Director, Robert Swartz, and the contracting agency (either a school or school district, K-12, or an institution of higher education). They usually involve a combination of group workshops conducted by appropriate experts on teaching thinking and one-to-one on-site implementation coaching by workshop staff. Usually practicing teachers whom are certified as trainers by NCTT are included in the program staff.