Podcasts

Explore episodes of the TC² podcast Re: thinking education, where we pull back the curtain on critical, creative, and collaborative thinking. Or browse through our selection of episodes from other organizations that have featured TC² facilitators and other team members as guests, discussing a wide variety of topics related to critical thinking.

Other podcasts

TC² facilitators and other team members have appeared as guests on the podcasts of many other organizations. Scroll below to browse and listen to a selection of podcast episodes featuring The Critical Thinking Consortium.

Elementary: A podcast from the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario

Artificial intelligence and climate justice

In this episode, Dr. Maria Vamvalis, Director of The Critical Thinking Consortium, examines the intersection of artificial intelligence, climate justice, and pedagogy, arguing that AI must be engaged through rigorous critical inquiry rather than uncritical adoption or outright rejection. She foregrounds discernment, the use of clear criteria, and transformative thinking habits to help educators and leaders evaluate AI’s ethical, ecological, and social implications, and to make pedagogical choices that support justice, agency, and collective flourishing in a time of accelerating complexity.

A corresponding article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of EFTO Voice, the magazine of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.

Beyond Sustainability: AI, Education and Regenerative Futures
Meagan Perry in Conversation with Dr. Maria Vamvalis
 

Leading the Implementation of Ontario's Revised Language Curriculum

Through this series, principals and vice-principals will gain a better understanding of key changes in the curriculum and focus on implementation leadership strategies through a student-centered inquiry stance respecting equity and culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy.

Episode 1 - Getting started: Engaging Staff through a Critical Inquiry Approach

Features Usha James from The Critical Thinking Consortium. Listen in on this 33-minute episode as Usha and our project leads from CPCO and the OPC discuss an inquiry based approach to leading the implementation of the Ontario’s Revised Language Curriculum (Grades 1-8) with a focus on leadership moves/actions to support principals and vice-principals in beginning this important work.

Episode 2 - Continuing the Work: Leadership Moves/Actions

Usha James from The Critical Thinking Consortium continues the conversation about leading the implementation of Ontario's Revised Language Curriculum (Grades 1-8), through an inquiry approach alongside our project leads from CPCO and the OPC. This 29-minute episode will focus on modelling the inquiry process.

Episode 3 - Going Deeper: Leadership Moves for a Critical Inquiry Approach

Usha James from The Critical Thinking Consortium continues the conversation about leading the implementation of Ontario's Revised Language Curriculum (Grades 1-8), through an inquiry approach alongside our project leads from CPCO and OPC and two principals from the field. This episode will focus on monitoring the work and considering next steps.

ShiftED Podcast

In Conversation with Garfield Gini-Newman: The Thinking Classroom

In this episode of the ShiftED Podcast, Garfield Ginie-Newman of The Critical Thinking Consortium offers practical ways to spark deeper thinking and meaningful engagement by making small but impactful shifts in your practice. Garfield’s insights are a reminder that transformative learning doesn’t require starting from scratch. It’s about building on what’s already working well—tweaking and fortifying your existing approaches to help learners think more critically, creatively, and collaboratively.

The UnLeading Project: A podcast with Dr. Vidya Shah

Leading for Climate Justice

In this episode, Maria Vamvalis of The Critical Thinking Consortium focuses on climate justice as an intersectional approach to the climate crisis that moves beyond a focus on climate change, and considers the impact of the climate crisis on local and global communities and how we might understand and support those experiencing eco-anxiety related to the existential and physical threat of the climate crisis.

Writers Festival Radio

Maria Vamvalis: Teaching in the Anthropocene

Teaching in the Anthropocene calls for a reorientation of the aims of teaching so that we might imagine multiple futures in which children, youths, and families can thrive amid a myriad of challenges related to the earth’s decreasing habitability.

OAME talks

Laura Gini-Newman: Assessing Mathematical Thinking: Who, What, When and How?

You have, or wish, to put thinking is at the core of math learning for your students. After all, you know that your students can’t construct rich understandings, make meaningful connections, strategically manage problems, and communicate clearly and concisely in math in the absence of thinking, or should I say good thinking. But how can you tell how well your students have learned to think mathematically? How can you help each of your students grow the quality of their thinking in a way that meets their individual learning needs? Come explore a few key assessment practices that will begin to answer these questions for you.