Part I: My Time in the Learning, Teaching, and Educational Transformation program - A time of stops and starts, a growing family at home and semesters off.
Fall 2012
Creative and Critical Thinking 645: Biology and Society: Critical Thinking.
Biology and Society was my first class in graduate school and was my introduction to the critical and creative thinking program. Through introduction to pedagogical methods, such as problem based learning, and reflective practices, such as free-writing, the class started my journey on how I viewed myself as an educator. The class started to reveal to me the complex interactions that exist between the biological sciences, the process of science and social-cultural constructs. I was able to make connections between some of the inquiry practices that I had used in the classes I teach and to see how those promoted, or did not promote, critical thinking. Additionally, this course was my first experience with a grading structure that involved revising work in relation to feedback. This structure produced a sense that the work was always a work in progress. The work represented my thinking at the moment and that there would always be new avenues to explore when prompted. This became a theme throughout the classes and my approach throughout the program. Selected work here includes the final project in which I attempted to develop a more student-centered version of a first year Biology course. This work sowed the seeds of what would become my synthesis. Also, included is my process review in which I reflect on aspects of the course that moved my thinking in an educational context.
cct_645_developing_sws_biology-final.pdf | |
File Size: | 967 kb |
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cct_645_process_review-kozel.docx | |
File Size: | 128 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Spring 2014
Creative and Critical Thinking 602: Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is really all around. I came to the course imagining creativity as a gift bestowed upon a few but left the course realizing that it is a skill to be honed. This class opened my eyes to the fact at the heart of science is the creative process. It exists in the ways in which we observe the world and how to conceive of ways to test hypotheses. Imagining how to present concepts to a classroom is an expression of creativity. Included here are visual aids from my virtual museum exhibit in which I explore analogical thinking in classrooms as creative expressions of how to explain a scientific principle. Also, included is a reflective review completed towards the end of the course in which I discuss how my concept of creativity changed.
cct_602_kozel_wk12_virtual_museum_with_notes.ppt | |
File Size: | 1833 kb |
File Type: | ppt |
cct_602_kozel_wk12_reflective_review.docx | |
File Size: | 141 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Summer 2014
Creative and Critical Thinking 619: Biomedical Ethics
Biomedical ethics opened my eyes further to the complex interaction between the pursuit of knowledge and human constructs in which that pursuit occurs. Human bias exists and permeates into all areas of society including scientific inquiry. This class opened me to creating experiences in my classroom that would ask students to struggle with Bioethical issues using a framework for understanding the concept and for discussion. If schools want to prepare young people to members of a democratic society then learning how to consider an bioethical issue is more important than learning, for example, the polyatomic ions. This class also helped me to develop my own unique ethical position statement, included here is the short paper titled Balance Ethics.
cct_619_personalal_ethicshort_paper_.docx | |
File Size: | 174 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Part II: Transferring to Science In a Changing World - Finding the space in work and life to get serious about my personal and professional growth.
Fall 2015
Creative and Critical Thinking 670: Thinking, Learning and Computers
Thinking, Learning and Computers opened my eyes to two large themes that would become relevant to my professional teaching carrier and to my time in CCT and SICW. First, technology has fundamentally changed the world and the people in the world and therefore education will never be the same. Educators need to both come to grips with this and to start to determine how to exist within this space. Designing learning spaces that take advantage of this can enhance education but there may also be sacrifices. The expert project for this course was my attempt to develop one of these experiences for my classroom and to try it out. Included here is the link to my expert project and my process review essay.
cct_670_expert_project_–_process_essay.docx | |
File Size: | 163 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Fall 2016
Creative and Critical Thinking 692: Processes of Research and Engagement
The processes of research and engagement created for me the CCT learning community. The course structure allowed me to invest in my peers and I felt their investment in my intellectual pursuit. This was the class that revealed to me the wide diversity of my classmates interests and inquiries but at the same time I found so much similarity in our collected works. During this course I developed in the area of receiving and giving feedback to peers, especially during the work in progress presentations which served to focus and clarify what I was trying to do in my inquiry. This class also illustrated to me that the prescribed steps of research and engagement were not linear or ridged but instead a more fluid system of thinking processes that served to develop our projects. Included here is my final self-assessment on the phases of research and engagement, which describes areas of success and areas for growth for each of the phases.
cct_692_bkasmtjdec19.docx | |
File Size: | 140 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Biology 639: Conservation Biology
Conservation Biology, taken the same semester as CCT 692, was a seminar course on conservation biology. The course worked with current literature in the field focusing on the concept of sustainability. In this class I found myself in the role of a student, but in a different way than a typically CCT class. I was the receiver of the curriculum and in this role it was very interesting to think about how the professors engaged us in our learning. The included work is a presentation created and delivered to the class about a fictional island nation called Knuristan. The professors had us divided into groups and we played the roles of various stakeholders who were involved in the management of the ecosystems. I appreciated he exercise from a pedagogical standpoint and I engaged in a process of critical and creative thinking that moved my understanding of conservation biology. The experience helped me to reflect on the experiences of my students as I create curriculum.
week_8_knuristan_brad.pptx | |
File Size: | 1035 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Spring 2017
Creative and Critical Thinking 693: Action Research for Educational, Professional and Personal Change
Action research, through the development of an action research project, helped to establish my professional voice at my work and to seek the input from my co-workers. As a result of this class I talked to my co-workers about teaching much more often. Since the action research was placed with in my professional setting I needed to cultivate relationships within various stakeholder groups. These interactions proved fruitful for the action research undertaken in cct 693 but also set the stage for my synthesis project. Additionally, the professional development journal, which documented my thinking as I developed an action research project, was used regularly for free-writing. Included here are pages from my process journal and my final review of course processes that repeatedly references free-writing, what emerged and how that influenced my project.
cct_693_p5_final_pd_workbook_kozel.docx | |
File Size: | 143 kb |
File Type: | docx |
cct_693_pd_workbook_mar9_kozel.pdf | |
File Size: | 1468 kb |
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Biology 5470: Evolution in Context for Teachers
Evolution in context for Teachers taken through Umass Lowell was an evolution course focused on how to bring the concept of evolution into the classroom. The course allowed the opportunity to do some creative lesson planning on topics that I have taught for many years. I reflected on my practice and imagining new and possibly better ways to present the material. This process pulled me back to the creative thinking class and the use of analogy and models to teach scientific principles. Included here is the outline of a mini-unit that presents how a population could evolve. The centerpiece of the mini-unit involves a fictional population of organisms “bead bugs” and creates scenarios that lead to change the population’s color variation.
kozel_-_asmt4_miniunit_draft.docx | |
File Size: | 132 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Fall 2017
Creative and Critical Thinking 650: Mathematical Thinking
Mathematical Thinking culminated in the creation of a manifesto for integration of mathematics into my Biology curriculum. Throughout the course my conception of mathematical thinking was intertwined with the concept of data literacy and how it does or does not manifest in my first year Biology curriculum. At the heart of this is student’s opportunity to do scientific investigations that ask students to draw patterns from observation. This logical deductive process is scientific and mathematical. The course progressed from big ideas on mathematical thinking, such as; How do you define it? Where does it exist in our world?, to local applications of mathematical thinking in our professional or education context. This is where the course turned toward the question, What can I do to promote mathematical thinking? The manifesto is a statement to myself about how I can shape my practice and influence my co-workers in this area.
650bkce3final.docx | |
File Size: | 158 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Creative and Critical Thinking 651: Advanced Cognitive Psychology
Advanced Cognitive Psychology helped me to consider very big questions in education such as; What does it mean to learn and how does that relate to memory and recall?, and What is attention and how does that effect learning? These considerations brought me back to big ideas in education around student engagement and the context surrounding the material as it is being presented. I reflected back to Thinking, Learning and Computers and the role of technology in cognition. Included work here are a selection of general principle journals that connect an aspect of cognitive phycology to my context as a teacher.
cct_651_process_journals.docx | |
File Size: | 153 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Spring 2018
Creative and Critical Thinking 694: Synthesis of Theory and Practice
The synthesis pulled together the experiences of the program as expressed through a project. The project showed my growth as a reflective practitioner but also an ability to create a product that was meaningful, not just personally but one that is value added to my work as a teacher. Much in the same way that the synthesis pulls together the aspects of biology, science and teaching I have been considering throughout the program, the synthesis also represents reflective processes that were developed throughout the program. The CCT learning community provided support, feedback and encouragement. Peer and instructor feedback prodded me forward and caused me to think deeper or differently. The organizational practices initiated in previous courses became important structures in order to work efficiently. Relationships developed through other CCT work in my school environment became valuable footholds for new conversations. The creation of the synthesis represents a step in an on going process of my personal and professional growth. Included here is the abstract for my synthesis.
cct_694_synthesis_abstract_kozel.pdf | |
File Size: | 58 kb |
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