About RWCT Program - Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking

Who we are

In 1997, the International RWCT Program began promoting concepts and methods for active learning and critical thinking to classrooms throughout the world. Since then, more than 50,000 teachers and 2 million students in 32 countries have taken part in the program, which was originally sponsored by the Open Society Institute, and coordinated by the International Reading Association, the University of Northern Iowa, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The teachers in the RWCT project believe that opportunities for preparing students for citizenship in open societies are more likely to be found in the how of education than in the what. That is, the means to democratic citizenship resides less in studying the content of subjects like civics or political science than in the daily conduct of classroom instruction - the opportunities that are provided for cooperative work, decision making, critical thinking, opinion formation, and debate.

Mission

The distinct mission of the project is to help teachers change classroom practices at all grade levels and in most school subjects in order to promote:

active inquiry
student- initiated learning
opinion formation
relating education to life
problem solving
critical thinking
cooperative learning
alternative means of assessment
writing as an aid to thinking

Goals & Objectives

Through RWCT teachers learn to help students

read and listen with understanding,
engage in insightful discussions,
relate learning to life,
work cooperatively to solve problems,
write to learn,
conduct community-based inquiries.

How? This is done by

planning active lessons,
creating thematic units,
developing authentic assessments that evaluate learning processes as well as mastery of content.

RWCT is featured by the International Bureau of Education (IBE), which is an international center for the content of education (the first intergovernmental organization in the field of education), as one of 25 recommended practices for crisis prevention and peace building drawn from around the world.

Philosophy

The teachers in the RWCT project believe that opportunities for preparing students for citizenship in open societies are more likely to be found in the how of education than in the what. That is, the means to democratic citizenship resides less in studying the content of subjects like civics or political science than in the daily conduct of classroom instruction the opportunities that are provided for cooperative work, decision making, critical thinking, opinion formation, and debate (Brophy, Temple, and Meredith, 2004). These practices can be employed as we teach virtually any subject, from basic reading and writing to literature, social studies, science, and mathematics.

Overview of the RWCT Delivery Model

RWCT is based on a train-the-trainer model. A cadre of international educators delivers a series of workshops to specially selected local teachers and teacher trainers. After 12-18 months of using RWCT methodologies in their own classrooms using their own materials, these local educators begin to train other leader teachers. To increase the efficiency of dissemination, RWCT leadership in each country is developing curricula for higher education that can be used in centers for pre-service and in-service teacher training.

Reading and Writing for RWCT Project Delivery Model Features

It is based in classrooms.
The project does not require that students attend extra activities, or that teachers or others take on new tasks.
It is being applied at all levels of schooling, in most disciplines.
The project is simultaneously being carried out in primary and secondary classrooms, in pedagogical high schools, in university classrooms, across many disciplines.
It focuses on staff development in planning and teaching strategies.
The project is easily adaptable to local circumstances: teachers can begin using the strategies immediately after attending a workshop; no new subjects have to be added, no curricular changes need be planned and approved, and no new materials need to be purchased.

Read more about RWCT philosophy from the "What is Critical Thinking?" article, written by David Klooster, Associate Professor of American Literature, Hope College, Holland, MI

Our History

Charles Temple, Jeannie Steele, Kurt Meredith, and Scott Walter founded the Reading & Writing for Critical Thinking Project (RWCT) in the spring of 1997 to help teachers in Central Europe and Central Asia bring into their classrooms concepts and methods of teaching for active learning and critical thinking. We had support and direction from the Open Society Institute in New York, and coordination from the International Development Division of the International Reading Association. The RWCT project has now sent more than seventy volunteer teacher educators into thirty-eight countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and North, Central and South America to help teachers of the elementary and secondary schools and in universities use methods that foster active learning and critical thinking.

Using a train-the-trainer model with quality controls, the project is now promoted by more than 600 trainers world-wide, and they have reached more than 50,000 teachers around the world, in Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Guatemala, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosova, Kirghizstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan. New projects are in development in several parts of the world.

For more info on RWCT history see the full article: The Reading & Writing for Critical Thinking Project: 1997-2004

The Open Society Institute is funded by the philanthropist George Soros, who supports national institutions - complete with buildings, staffs, and governing boards - in 30 former Communist countries for the purpose of aiding public education, the judicial system, journalism, and public health as they are reformulated in open and participatory ways.