Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Students with disabilities; Thinking skills; Edward de Bono; Accommodations;

Journal/Book/Conference Title Title

Journal of STEM Education

Volume

13

Issue

1

First Page

43

Last Page

54

Abstract

Students with sensory or motor disabilities are often dissuaded from pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) careers. They are frequently underprepared to succeed in post-secondary STEM coursework because of inadequate high school preparation and limited post-secondary accommodations. A two-day working conference stimulated dialogue to improve attitudes toward, to better support, and to plan accommodations for students with physical disabilities in STEM areas. Discussion questions during the five small group dialogue sessions that followed panels of speaker presentations were based on Edward de Bono’s (2000) CoRT ten Breadth thinking skills. These thinking skills broaden perception so that thinkers might see beyond the obvious, immediate, and egocentric. These ten strategies encouraged conference participants to consider all factors (CAF), rate the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of ideas (PMI), think about other people’s views (OPV), generate alternatives, possibilities, and choices (APC), list aims, goals and objectives (AGO) and then prioritize them (FIP), determine rules (Rules), consider consequences and sequels of actions (C & S), make a plan (Planning), and come to decisions (Decisions) in the context of the issues addressed by the conference. The CoRT Breadth thinking skills provided a robust structure for guiding meaningful discussions and are recommended for generating discussion questions for future working conferences. The ideas that were generated during discussions are reported so that readers who are secondary or post-secondary STEM instructors might consider implementing them in their classrooms and programs.

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Comments

First published in Journal of STEM Education, v. 13, no. 1 (2012), pp 43-54, published by Laboratory for Innovative Technology in Engineering Education. Article

Original Publication Date

2012

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library

Copyright

©2012 Institute for STEM Education and Research. The copyright holder has granted permission for posting.

Date Digital

2012

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

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