I just thought of another good contact: try Daniel Loxton, too. Daniel's been appointed to the JREF 'eduction' task force, and he and I have noodled about this critical thinking vs skepticism vs scientific thinking discrepancy for a few years now, so he's pretty well versed in the different curricula.
Try Daniel here:
juniorskeptic@skeptic.com
Well blutoski, just to muddy the waters a bit we also have to factor in "creative thinking" talked about in creativity, innovation, and problem solving for a 'grand theory.'
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hyphothesizing, and critquing.
Creative Thinking
Creative thinking involves creating something new or original. It involves the skills of flexibility, originality, fluency, elaboration, brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical thinking, forced relationships.
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm
The group (as I see it) with the closest grand theory is the very influential Partnership for 21st Century Skills
http://www.p21.org/
Microsoft, Apple, Dell, AOL Time Warner, Oracle, Ford, Hewlett Packard, Lenova, Verizon, Intel, Lego, and other major US companies, along with the U.S. Department of Education and the National Education Association have teamed up in
the Partnership for 21st Century Skills to advance a program of teaching critical thinking (and other 21st century skills) in the schools.
The Partnership sorts this 21st century education into five areas, one of which is “learning and innovation skills.” These core 21st century skills are listed as critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and innovation. These are also known in educational research as higher-order thinking (HOT) skills. Whew. Now there's a grand theory.
