Funded Projects
Ontario Ministry of Education (2011-2013)
$220,000
TC2 is developing a French-language resource document on critical thinking for social studies teachers from grades 1-6 based on TC2 documents, and translating and adapting four current TC2 publications into French-language versions.
Library of Parliament (2011)
Classroom Resource: Parliamentary Committee Simulations
$21,945
TC² is developing a Classroom Resource Package for teachers to recreate mock parliamentary committees with their students.
Community Historical Recognition Program (2010-2011)
$79,850
TC2 has partnered with the UBC Community Historical Recognition Program to produce two kinds of learning resources to support student examination of the digital collections: (1) lessons from building of the CPR/the nation, and (2) lessons in historical analysis.
Canadian First World War internment recognition fund (2011-15)
$239,751
TC2 is developing and implementing a five-year national plan to embed the topic of World War I internment into a diverse array of educational programs, resources and professional development opportunities. The goal is to promote widespread teacher and youth knowledge of and empathy for the treatment of various groups interned during World War I in Canada.
Learning Network Legacy Projects (2010 – 2012)
Teaching Archaeological Thinking
$45,100
TC2 developed a publication in the Tools for Critical Inquiry series on thinking about archaeological sites and heritage conservation. Building on the work done on historical and geographical thinking, the the resource focuses on exploring six portal concepts.
Collection of Inquiry Based Instruction Digital Strategies
$40,780
The Learning Network and TC2 are co-developing 60 modular inquiry strategies using interactive whiteboard technology that can be easily used to embed engaging critical thinking activities into many teaching situations and subject areas.
Focus on Critical Inquiry Videos
$48,600
TC2 is co-developing with The Learning Network a number of professional videos in a series called Focus on Critical Inquiry. The videos explore how teacher might make use of various teaching resources and explain various developments associated with learning in the 21st Century.
Take 2 Student Tutorials
$24,250
TC2 is co-developing 16 student tutorial videos in a series called Take 2. The videos, which are under 2 minutes in length, explain key critical tools in an engaging manner for students.
Montgomery County Public Schools and Promethean
Promoting critically thoughtful use of Promethean “Activeboards”
$151,450 (2008-2010)
This project explores the use of Activeboards in elementary, middle and high schools to transform teaching and learning, and to help close the gap between high and low achieving students. TC2 is helping teachers integrate Promethean’s Activeboards in their teaching to enhance student engagement with the curriculum.
Musem of Archaeology and Ethnology
Virtual Musem of Canada
$23,825 (2009-2010)
TC² developed the educational content for the Virtual Museum of Canada web project at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
BC Campus
$51,600 (2008/09)
TC² is developing eight self-contained, learning objects providing online instruction and guided practice in core critical thinking tools.
Burnaby School District
Engaging Learners Online
$18,000 (2008-10)
TC² is developing a prototype online course in high school social studies to support distributed learning.
Brantford Public Health
Drug Awareness Strategy: Student Peer Leadership
$15,821 (2009)
This project aims to support teachers from 23 Brantford-area schools to use resources and strategies that enable their students to think critically while participating in the Drug Awareness Initiative.
Canadian International Development Agency
#4: Developing Global Empathies: Learning Through Literature
$51,600 (2010-2011)
This is a project to develop print and online resources for use in social studies and language arts classrooms in Canada, and to support their use through professional development workshops. The multi-faceted teaching resource will increase students’ knowledge of and empathy for people in developing countries. The print resource will introduce a collection of interpretive strategies to teach elementary and middle students to read realistic literature that features development issues and projects on CIDA-related themes. Some of the themes addressed are: basic human needs, infrastructure services, human rights, democracy and good governance, environment, water/sanitation, HIV/AIDS, food/nutrition, basic education, child protection, health, economic development and quality of life, information and prevention programs, child labour, war-affected children, respect for and understanding of human rights, rights of women and children, help for developing countries to protect their environment, and gender equality.
#3: Developing a global perspective: learning through provocative images
$61,550 (2008-2009)
This project developed a print and online resource for use in elementary and secondary social studies classrooms across Canada and to support use of these materials through professional development workshops. The teaching resource, The World Through Pictures, provides a powerful way to build knowledge about and create empathy for people in developing countries. The resource will introduce a collection of powerful strategies to teach students to read and interpret photographs through featured Canadian development projects.
#2: Globalizing Connections: Canada and the Developing World
$50,080 (2005-07)
This project outlined a framework for analyzing the historical roots, contemporary challenges and Canadian responses to globalization in eight areas of human interaction – catastrophic diseases, water use food supply,human migration, communication, disaster relief, culture, and environmental protection. The resource includes both print and online formats to help increase students’ understanding of globalization and its many forms, opportunities and challenges; increase knowledge of key issues in a wide range of developmental themes; empower students to think more critically about these issues, and nurture in students the habits of mind that are central to a global perspective. The print resource is available for purchasing and the electronic resource are available for download from our site.
#1: Critical Thinking a Global Perspective
$26,600 (2003-04)
This CIDA-funded project developed a resource that enables elementary and secondary teachers to foster understanding of the rights of young persons around the world and the role of Canadian non-governmental groups in furthering these rights. Caring for Young Peoples’™ Rights was published in 2004.
Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training
Social Studies Kindergarten to Grade 12: Scope and Sequence of Core Content and Skills
$17,800 (2008)
This project developed and articulated a scope and sequence of social studies skills for Grades K-12. These skills were derived from the dimensions of thinking associated with six social studies conceptual strands, critical thinking and critical inquiry and dialectical thinking related to social studies.
Central Okanagan School District & The Learning Centre
Critically Thoughtful iLearning
$23,550 (2007-08)
The Central Okanagan School District developed this program to articulate use of contemporary technologies with meeting district goals such as improving literacy, numeracy and social responsibility. TC² assisted in all three phases of the project by providing professional development support to help teachers use laptop technology to meet district goals and by conducting research into the changes in teachers practice throughout the project.
Southern Alberta Professional Development Consortium
The Partners Network
$138,840 (2006-2008)
The Partners Network was developed by SAPDC for the purpose of sustaining communities of practice in Alberta as a means of assisting local teachers with implementation of the new social studies program. TC² assisted in organizing and providing the professional support to groups of urban and rural teachers who participated in face-to-face and online networks of professional development and collaborative inquiry. Concurrently, TC² conducted research on the effects of electronic learning technologies in nurturing these professional communities.
Canadian Studies Program
Tools for Historical Understanding
$15,975 (2005-2006)
This project developed curriculum resources to support the use of source documents and to foster understanding of historical thinking among teachers of Canadian history.
Inukshuk Wireless Partnership
$66,477 (2007-2008)
The Inukshuk Project is focused on addressing the need to provide a distributed learning science curriculum that is innovative, engaging and effective. TC² partnered with COOL Schools and The Central Okanagan School District to develop twelve Grade 7 science lessons designed to bring together TC²’s method of embedding critical thinking with COOL Schools innovative technical and instructional design expertise and organizational aspect of online learning. Lessons are presented in the form of critical challenges to help students learn and use elements of five categories of intellectual tools.
Royal Canadian Geographic Society
Teaching About Geographical Thinking
$19,500 (2008)
TC² produced a new publication, Teaching About Geographical Thinking, that articulates six central concepts in thinking critically in geography.
Ontario History and Social Studies Teachers’™ Association
Ontario History, Humanities and Social Sciences Consultants Association
The History Education Network/ Histoire et Éducation en Réseau
Exemplars in Historical Thinking: 20th Century Canada
$16,800 (2008)
TC² produced a new publication, Exemplars in Historical Thinking: 20th Century Canada, providing model lessons illustrating six concepts in thinking critically about history.
Library and Archives Canada
Prime Minister’s Kit
$9,760 (2008/09)
TC² developed eight critical thinking lessons and extensions for the new educational resource First Among Equals: The Prime Minister in Canadian Life and Politics.
Statistics Canada
Census 2006 Learning Activities
$12,640 (2008)
TC² developed eight learning activities based on the Census 2006 results to encourage the use of Statistics Canada census data, technology and critical thinking.
Alberta Education
On-line Teaching Resources for Social Studies
TC² validated the Grades 6, 9, and 12 French materials for the Social Studies Online Guide to Implementation.
Phase III/IV $280,000 (2005-08)
Phase I/II: $115,000 (2004-05)
TC² worked with Alberta Education to develop hundreds of online critical thinking activities and support materials for the new social studies curriculum in Alberta.
Alberta Heritage
Historic Places Curriculum Project
$36,000 (2010)
TC² led the development of learning and teaching resources that raised the profile of Alberta’s historic places and heritage conservation and complemented the existing Alberta curriculum.
Canada Heritage, Government of Canada
Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
$38,100 (2005-06)
In collaboration with the University of Victoria, TC² produce a growing collection of ˜Mystery Quests, fascinating critical challenges for intermediate and high school students. The quests accompany the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, intriguing and historically accurate stories from across Canada. The rigorous critical challenges develop students skills in working with the primary documents. More information about the project can be viewed here.
Ministry of Education, British Columbia and Vancouver Foundation
Networks for Teacher Development in Social Studies
$386,000 (2000-03) and $110,000 (2000-03) respectively
TC² worked with 23 teams of teachers to develop, publish and disseminate curriculum resources to embed critical thinking into the teaching of social studies in British Columbia.
