Congratulations to Associate Professor Deborah Brown, Mr Peter Ellerton and Dr Dominic Hyde who received a UQ Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award! These awards celebrate the members of staff who are inspiring students through teaching excellence.
They received an award in the category of programs that enhance student learning for their work on the UQ Critical Thinking Project.
The University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project (UQCTP) works in partnership with communities, schools and the Department of Education and Training (DET) to widen participation and potential success in higher education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, low SES, remote and rural students. It engages university students as ambassadors and activity leaders in event days, representing >30 UQ disciplines, all faculties and four research institutes, making the UQCTP the university’s single most extensive collaboration on any outreach project.
UQCTP operates on the principle that creating new knowledge, leading change and being an effective member of a community requires the capacity for creative and rational thought. It sets the necessary foundations for improving access to higher education by developing in K-12 school students the cognitive skills critical for success in higher education. By providing professional development, curriculum design and course delivery to school and university teachers, UQCTP embeds critical thinking across the curriculum. It transforms teaching and learning by shifting the focus from the dissemination of accumulated knowledge to more autonomous and critically engaged learning, empowering a view of higher education as a potential future for those school students and their parents who would otherwise see such a prospect as unobtainable.
