Developing Minds 2025

Laura D'Amico and Kevin O'Neill 

Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Education

Dr. D’Amico investigates systems to support educational improvement and reform, including: assessment infrastructures; learning technologies; professional development systems for teachers, principals and university faculty; and relationships between researchers and practitioners.

Dr. O’Neill‘s eclectic career spans 30 years, and includes organizing online mentoring between students and adults, studying how students of different ages understand why historical accounts differ from one another, and investigating how students choose which courses to take online and which ones to take in-person.

Nicolas Fillion 

Simon Fraser University, Department of Philosophy

Dr. Fillion has been at SFU since 2013, shortly after completing his PhD in philosophy at Western University. His main research contributions are in the philosophy of science and applied mathematics. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Nic has also been involved with various outreach, regulation, and curricular initiatives to promote the teaching of philosophy and critical thinking in BC high schools.

Sizing your tin foil hat: Clear thinking about Conspiracies
Is the world controlled by the Illuminati? Was 9/11 an inside job? Is Justin Trudeau the son of Fidel Castro? In this session we will look at examples of true conspiracy theories, some false ones, and we will talk about how to use critical thinking to adjust our beliefs in conspiracy theories in a rational way. We will further discuss what attitude members of healthy democratic societies should have with respect to conspiracy theories.

Susan Gardner

Capilano University, Department of Philosophy

Dr. Gardner is a philosopher. Her main research focuses on critical thinking and Philosophy for Children (P4C). According to Gardner, a necessary condition of a well-lived life is that one learn how to think well.

Education and Miseducation in the Name of Reason

Since the welfare of their country depends on it, educators are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that young citizens are smart. Being smart, however, as Pierce and Popper have argued, is anchored in the ability to engage those with opposing viewpoints in dialogue: there is no other way to distinguish bias from truth, i.e., learning to be smart requires learning in “smart spaces.” “Smart spaces,” however, are going the way of the dodo due to, on the one hand, the use of AI that is decimating students’ ability to enter the “smart spaces” of reading and writing, and on the other, the proliferation of “critical thinking courses” and “inquiry education” that nudge students to adopt a kind certainty that vaporizes “smart spaces.”

For young people to become adept in developing the sensitivity to foster “smart spaces,” it will be argued that educators need to offer their charges extensive experience in such spaces, a solid foundational understanding of their structure, as well as why such spaces are vital for both individual and social welfare. Educators must also beware of engaging in educational practices that promote the paradoxical habit of seeking “the status of being smart” while ensuring its opposite.

Mark Leier

Simon Fraser University, Department of History

Dr. Leier was born in Ladner, BC, and worked for several years at a number of jobs, including bridge tender, short order cook, dishwasher, construction labourer, printer, folk singer, and first aid attendant before going to university. He served as a shop steward and a contract negotiator with the Glaziers union, and has been a member of the Carpenters union, CUPE, and the TSSU. He received his PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1992, and signed on with SFU in 1994.

Building Resistance, Not Resilience: Roleplays for Critical Thinking and Action
Critical thinking is not just learning how to assess media and apply rules of logic. It is about thinking critically about our society. Such critical thinking is more important now than ever. But we’re told that students now lack resilience, have short attention spans, and increasingly require accommodations for deadlines, exams, essays, and class participation. How do we teach critical thinking to students who have been infantilized? 

This session will suggest one cause of “infantilization” is authoritarianism in public education, from K to 12 to graduate school. We’ll outline how we can combine radical content with radical pedagogy through dynamic roleplays that engage students, help them understand the world, and develop the skills they need to change it. We’ll participate in one such roleplay and workshop it for your own classroom.

Olivia New

Director of Academic Preograms, Vancouver Premier College

Dr. New holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Nottingham University (UK) and BSc from the University College London (UK). Dr. New has extensive post-secondary education experience in the BC public system as a Chemist and faculty member at the University of British Columbia in addition to possessing significant executive administration and board governance experience gained through her establishment and management of three BC Education Quality Assurance-Oriented Enterprises and Collaboratives focused on improving local and international student learning and academic performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.