SOURCES SOUGHT
U -- Critical Thinking Course of Instruction
- Notice Date
- 9/26/2007
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 611710
— Educational Support Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, United States Air Force Europe, 423rd CONS - Alconbury, RAF Alconbury PSC 47, Unit 5720, RAF Alconbury, UK, 09470-5720, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- CriticalThinkingCourseofInstruction
- Response Due
- 10/1/2007
- Archive Date
- 10/16/2007
- Point of Contact
- Lindsay Thomas, Contract Specialist, Phone 44 1480823045, Fax 44 1480823169, - Chad Obermiller, Contract Specialist, Phone 44 1480823124, Fax 44 1480823169
- E-Mail Address
-
lindsay.thomas@alconbury.af.mil, Chad.Obermiller@alconbury.af.mil
- Description
- THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. REQUESTS FOR A SOLICITATION WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE. The 423rd Contracting Flight is conducting market research to determine the existence of potential business sources to develop and deliver a critical thinking course of instruction using argument mapping as a teaching method. Foundation Thoughts: - Innovation in all-source analysis can work along many vectors. Information technology, organizational structure, socio-cultural dynamics, ergonomics, and various forms of cognitive enhancement can all compel profound and observable improvements in the process and quality of analytical content. - Often times, a return to fundamentals can provide insight and value. Critical Thinking is a necessary, critical, core skill which should be understood and, ideally, mastered before any intelligence-specific analytical toolset is approached. - The definition of ?Critical Thinking? is lacking in consensus, but at the minimum a definition would reflect the following actions: o Creating. Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. o Evaluating. Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging. o Analyzing. Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships. Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding. o Applying. Using information in another familiar situation. Implementing, carrying out, using, executing. - Recent scholarship has demonstrated that Argument Mapping, as a pedagogical technique, has driven improvement in critical thinking skills (as measured with the California Critical Thinking Skills Test.). - All intelligence assessments have a bottom line. Every bottom line is a judgment. Every judgment is the conclusion. These conclusions drive belief or action. Facility in argument will improve facility in analysis. - This COI is intended to focus intensively on Argument Mapping as a technique to teach Critical Thinking, and then to use student comments, lessons learned, and best practices from the course to decide whether there is sufficient value added to sustain. Actions/Course Objectives: - Introduce Argument Mapping as a practical and useable method to improve critical thinking skills and produce better intelligence analysis. - Develop mastery in the basic Argument Mapping lexicon, tools, and techniques - Introduce advanced Argument Mapping techniques and provide resources and trajectory for follow-on study - Provide classroom instruction and practical exercises to ensure mastery of argument construction (aggregation) and graphic display [core competency] - Provide classroom instruction and practical exercises to ensure mastery of argument deconstruction (disaggregation) and graphic display - Provide classroom instruction and practical exercises to ensure mastery of specified formal and informal logical fallacy identification. Critical fallacies to focus upon will be determined at a later date. - Inspire students to continue practice and application of Argument Mapping in their work. - 35 contact hours delivered to 12-15 students Compulsory Vendor Attributes: - Staffed by PhD-level philosophers with specific background in formal and symbolic logic, Philosophy/History of Science, Epistemology, and Argument Mapping theory and practice (to include IT-enablement) - Able to provide examples of past performance through testimonial, quantitative metrics, or references. - Has high fidelity understanding of all-source intelligence analysis and exposure to multiple interpretations of the Intelligence Cycle. - Has experience in teaching, consulting, writing, and research on the application of Enterprise 2.0 culture and enabling technologies on all-source intelligence knowledge generation. - Familiarity with the overall state of Critical Thinking scholarship The Government requests interested parties to submit a brief statement of current capability to perform these services and a letter of interest. Interested and qualified sources should provide the following information: (1) company name, point of contact, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers, type of business and size; (2) a list of your most recent and relevant DoD or commercial contracts (not to exceed five) to include brief description, names, POCs, phone numbers, value & type of contract, and period of performance (if applicable); and (3) information about your company and why you think you can perform this service. Please limit your submissions to ten pages. Send responses to the 423rd Contracting Flight, Attention: Lindsay Thomas, lindsay.thomas@us.af.mil or via facsimile at 01480 843 100 in PDF or Microsoft Word Format. In order to be considered in this market survey, please reply by 4:00 pm GMT Monday, 1 October 2007. AFFARS 5352.201-9101 OMBUDSMAN (AUG 2005). (a) An ombudsman has been appointed to hear and facilitate the resolution of concerns from offerors, potential offerors, and others for this acquisition. When requested, the ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The existence of the ombudsman does not affect the authority of the program manager, contracting officer, or source selection official. Further, the ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals, the source selection process, or the adjudication of protests or formal contract disputes. The ombudsman may refer the party to another official who can resolve the concern. (b) Before consulting with an ombudsman, interested parties must first address their concerns, issues, disagreements, and/or recommendations to the contracting officer for resolution. Consulting an ombudsman does not alter or postpone the timelines for any other processes (e.g., agency level bid protests, GAO bid protests, requests for debriefings, employee-employer actions, contests of OMB Circular A-76 competition performance decisions). (c) The ombudsman has no authority to render a decision that binds the agency. (d) Do not contact the ombudsman to request copies of the solicitation, verify offer due date, or clarify technical requirements. Such inquiries shall be directed to the Contracting Officer.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Joint Analysis Center, RAF Molesworth
- Zip Code: PE28 0QB
- Country: UNITED KINGDOM
- Zip Code: PE28 0QB
- Record
- SN01421663-W 20070928/070926224115 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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