James Smith
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James Smith is the Education Officer, and cofounder along with Julian Davies of Consensus Education. Both have worked closely with schools over the last fifteen years using a combination of explicit teaching and guided dialogue to run classes and workshops in critical thinking, debating, public speaking and media studies. The understanding gained through this work, and our many discussions with teachers and school leaders, has helped us appreciate the clear need for broader and deeper education in creative critical thinking and communication skills.
James is highly experienced in school debating, public speaking and critical thinking. He has run programs and workshops in these skills for the last 17 years. Teams he has coached have won every division of the Premiers Debating Challenge multiple times. He has served as the Chief Adjudicator for the Greater Public Schools Debating Competition, the Schools Debating Network, and as a NSW Combined High Schools selector. James has adjudicated multiple state finals for debating and public speaking and is the current coordinator for the Plain English Speaking Award in the ACT. He is the current selector for the Northern Sydney Regional Junior State Debating Squad and the coach of the Hunter Central Coast Primary State Debating Squad, who were undefeated at the State Championships in 2022. Follow James: Consensus Education |
Workshop:
Critical Thinking Through Guided Dialogue
As teacher librarians and educators, we are passionate about developing our students’ abilities to engage deeply with literature, to infer meaning at a deep level, to identify symbolism and motif, to make connections to the world and real events or issues and to articulate an opinion and articulate this successfully. This is a challenge!
This session will focus on examining strategies to facilitate deep contemplation and discussion that engages students in logical problem solving, evaluation, and critical analysis - the core elements of developing the capacity for critical thinking. The content will cover:
This session will focus on examining strategies to facilitate deep contemplation and discussion that engages students in logical problem solving, evaluation, and critical analysis - the core elements of developing the capacity for critical thinking. The content will cover:
- An understanding of guided dialogue
- Techniques for asking open ended questions
- The use of counterfactual stimulus
- Embedding contemporary elements into discussions
- Practical strategies for problem solving sprints
