Blog

On September 1, 2023, the CU Denver News published an interview with ThinqStudio Director, Dennis DeBay . In addition to explaining Thinq's goals and work, Dennis shared his limitless enthusiasm for teaching and learning, as well as his dedication to equity in classrooms everywhere. In that light, he encourages his...

Provost’s Award for Best Practices Related to Instructional, Research and Clinical Faculty

The significance and relevance of global learning are not always obvious. This is especially true at public universities, where students often have other priorities than things like “seeing the world” or “learning about a new culture” due to time constraints and limited resources. The pandemic that disrupted study abroad and...

So, this is awkward. In my last blog post ( ThinqStudio as Tabula Rasa) I wrote about ThinqStudio being ineffable and difficult to define. Now, here I am attempting to define what ThinqStudio is. I’ve been called foolish before; this is just another example. But I find playful joy in...

Some of the greatest things in life are ineffable and impervious to formal definitions. For example, love, beauty, and play cannot be easily defined but are important and powerful forces which we seek. The harder you try to define play, for example, the more elusive it becomes. The more you...

October 24 th , 2022, in O’ahu So… I am here. I have accomplished about nine interviews in the span of four days and have another seven on deck before I leave. Maybe more. In my research preparing for this visit, I have read up on the preservation of Hawaiian...

My Thinq Fellowship has afforded me the privilege to explore what pedagogy means to me and how it can be culturally sustaining. Thanks to a grant from CU Denver's Office of Research Services and my Thinq course buyout this year, I have the time and means to explore culturally sustaining...

How do we get students to think? How do we get students to Thinq? It is so hard to remember not knowing all that we know. As a course progresses and builds on previous knowledge, it is hard early in the semester to remember that most of the students have not been exposed to much of the information and concepts yet. All that information that we have swirling in our brains. We have been making connections between these topics for years. That is why we can teach because we understand what is important and what is not important. But students don’t have this knowledge or experience yet. And my struggle is with how we get them there. How do we balance the information component with the understanding and thinking component?

I first joined ThinqStudio in 2019 as a Faculty Fellow. When I applied, I didn’t understand how profound of an impact Thinq would end up having on me. To be honest, at the time, I wasn’t even very clear about what Thinq was or stood for. I had applied because I was angry at higher education and hated how I felt pretending to exist within it. But, something within me told me to pursue an opportunity with ThinqStudio.

The higher education literature abounds with buzzwords. … I suggest a commonly overlooked and underutilized strategy to better achieve our aspirational objectives in academia: assuming a playful pedagogy.