Transcript Critical Thinking Outcomes: Comm 370 Desktop Publishing

Introducing Critical Thinking to the
Gateway Course
IUPUI
March 4, 2011
Patricia Payette, PhD
Executive Director, i2a
Associate Director, Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning
University of Louisville
[email protected]
1
1
Session Objectives

Explore & apply core concepts: critical thinking & Elements of Thought,
central course question, and fundamental and powerful concepts

Review and discuss examples of course materials that reflect critical thinking
“infusion”

Practice, reflect and write as participants engage with these concepts and
tools

Introduce you to structures and strategies of how we at the University of
Louisville are infusing critical thinking intentionally into the classroom
2
2
Fostering the thinking you value most: 4 E’s
Make
explicit the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Outcomes,
Goals
Course description
Class activities,
Assignments,
Informal assessments
Hold students
responsible for
the thinking
they do
(evaluate)
Exams,
Homework,
Grading expectations
3
Focused Listing:
What is the thinking you want students to
engage in?
Think of a specific course that you teach, or a specific
learning context in which you teach and/or mentor
students to think critically.
Describe in a short list the changes in students’ mindset
(or “mental models”) you want to see in them at the end
of your time with them in the classroom, lab, etc. (e.g.
ask relevant questions).
Hint: try to dig deeper into concepts like ‘analysis’
4
Fostering the thinking you value most
Make
explicit the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Outcomes,
Goals
Course description
Class activities,
Assignments,
Informal assessments
Hold students
responsible
for the
thinking they
Exams,
do.
Where is this thinking explicitly indicated
as part of your course?
Homework,
Grading expectations
5
Critical
Thinking:
True or False?
Having a solid,
intuitive grasp of
critical thinking is
more important
than memorizing a
specific definition of
critical thinking.
6
One definition of critical thinking
Critical thinking is
the intellectually disciplined process
that results in
a guide to belief and action.
Understanding
Concepts
Appreciation
Decisions
Synthesize
Application
(Scriven and Paul, 2003)
7
Fostering the thinking you value most
Make
explicit the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Specific to
your
discipline
Hold students
responsible
for the
thinking they
do.
8
Expert vs. novice thinkers
9
University of Louisville
Mission: Kentucky’s premier,
nationally recognized metropolitan
research university










Established: 1798 in Louisville, KY
Total Student Headcount: 22,031 (Fall 2009)
Faculty: 2,125 and Staff: 3,961
Operating Budget (2007-2008): $946 million
• Academic Programs (Degrees offered):
– Undergraduate degrees, 78 programs (includes certificates, associate
degrees, baccalaureate degrees, and post-baccalaureate certificates)
– Graduate degrees, 106 programs (includes master’s degree, postmaster’s certificates, doctoral degrees)
– Professional degrees, 3 programs
Source: University of Louisville’s
“Just the Facts,” 2009-2010 (http://www.louisville.edu)
Ideas to Action at the University of Louisville

Ideas to Action (i2a): Using Critical Thinking to Foster
Student Learning and Community Engagement is our
Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

Part of our accreditation report to Commission on Colleges
of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
(SACS-COC) to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to
student learning

Our 10-year initiative we created to renew our focus on
critical thinking and community engagement and the
undergraduate experience.
11
Faculty, staff
and students
talking about,
working with,
promoting and
showing success
with critical
thinking
concepts.
12
For more information on i2a:
Home Page:
http://louisville.edu/ideastoaction
i2a Institute: May 23-25, 2011
Faculty Exemplars:
www.louisville.edu/ideastoaction/resources
Faculty Speak Video:
www.louisville.edu/ideastoaction/resources/media
Assessment
http://louisville.edu/ideastoaction/what/assessment
13
13
Structures







Core staff team
Learning communities
Small grants
Unit-wide goals
Faculty and staff liaisons
Large-scale training
Scholarly approach
Strategies
 Start small, do it well,
then expand
 Meet people where they
are (ask questions)
 Reflect, try out, share,
refine
 Learn as you go (assess!)
i2a Structures and Strategies
14
Critical Thinking Model Adopted for i2a
Richard Paul-Linda Elder framework

Agreed upon by all reviewers (virtually perfect interrater reliability)

Most comprehensive (many ‘models’ merely
narratives)

Discipline neutral terminology

Provides a common language/terminology for
discussing, modeling and measuring critical thinking
that can be readily applied to all disciplines

Has a wealth of discipline specific resource materials
15
http://www.criticalthinking.org
Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model
Intellectual Standards
Accuracy
Clarity
Relevance
Logical
Sufficiency
Precision
Depth
Significance
Fairness
Breadth
Which leads to deeper
Must be applied
to
Elements of Reasoning
Purpose
Question
Point of view
Information
Inferences
Concepts
Implications
Assumptions
Intellectual Traits
Humility
Autonomy
Fair-mindedness
Courage
Perseverance
Empathy
Integrity
Confidence in reasoning
to develop
16
Making critical thinking visible:
A Well-Cultivated Critical Thinker

Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly
and precisely

Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas
to interpret it effectively

Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them
against relevant criteria and standards

Thinks open mindedly within alternative systems of thought,
recognizing and assessing, as needs be, their assumptions,
implications, and practical consequences

Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions
to complex problems
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, 2008, page 2
17
17
How do you make critical thinking “visible”?




Choose one critical thinking skill/behavior from the list
of the “well-cultivated” critical thinker that you teach (or
mentor) students to do well.
Paraphrase it in your own words and elaborate on that
behavior as it relates to a specific teaching context.
“In other words…”
Give an example of how you teach this skill or an
assignment that helps students master this skill.
“For example….”
Try to describe the teaching/learning dynamic in terms of a
metaphor, an illustration, a concept , or a diagram.
“It’s like…”
18
For your teaching toolbox: SEE-I
S: State it
E: Elaborate
E: Exemplify
I: Illustrate
19
Why use SEE-I?

Using a SEE-I prompt requires you to clarify
your thinking about an idea, concept or problem

Communicating about your ideas or thinking
using the SEE-I can be a tool for checking the
accuracy of your thinking
20
Gerald Nosich on the SEE-I
“If you can accurately S,E,E,
then I a concept or principle in a
course, it means you almost
certainly have a good grasp of
it, that you understand it to a
much greater degree than if you
are merely able to state it.”
Nosich, G. “Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking
Across the Curriculum.” (2011). p. 32.
21




As a prompt for courses or other learning contexts when
teaching a new concept or when checking for
understanding
As a prompt for going deeper during a discussion: “Can
you elaborate on that?” “Does someone have an example
of this?”
As a homework assignment /exam review/exam question
Other?
When to use a SEE-I
22
Example of SEE-I from:
Nancy Evans
Lecturer / Coordinator of CIT First Year
Experience, CIT10600, CIT11200 /
CITIDOE Director
Department of Computer Information and
Leadership Technology
23
Fundamental and Powerful (F&P) Concepts

explain or help us think about a huge body of questions,
problems, information, and situations.

are attached to a course theme

are to be contrasted with individual bits of information, or
with less general concepts.

reflect the primary and essential thinking trait(s) you want
students to achieve at the end of an assignment/course.

Bottom Line: What you are aiming for is to make those
f&p concepts part of the way students think in your field or
discipline.
24
Faculty Examples of F&P Concepts




English: Texts construct culture; cultures are
complex sites of contest.
Finance: Almost all decisions that corporations make
have to be made under conditions of uncertainty.
Psychology: Human thought and behavior can be
studied scientifically.
Engineering analysis: Use the principles of
mathematics and science to obtain analytical
solutions to engineering problems.
25
F&P Concepts for a course:
Internship in Postsecondary Education

Higher Education Administration
◦ (skills, attitudes, behaviors, concepts of the field)

Career Fit
◦ (goals, interests, abilities, values, experiences)

Professionalism
◦ (leadership, interacting with others, choices, expectations)
26
“A fundamental and powerful concept is one that can
be used to explain or think out a huge body of
questions, problems, information, and situations. All
fields have f&p concepts, but there are a relatively
small number of them in any particular area. They
are the most central and useful ideas in the
discipline. They are to be contrasted with individual
bits of information, or with less general concepts.”
Nosich, Learning to Think Things Through (2005)
Fundamental and Powerful Concepts
Try writing one or more f&p concepts from your
field/discipline that are essential to a course you are
teaching.
Remember that f&p concepts are used in your
thinking about every important question or problem
in the course…..
…yet they also allow you to begin to think
through questions that lie beyond the scope of the
and are central to the discipline
28
Worksheet Application:
reflect on this concept of a F&P
concept and come up with two
ways you might explicitly
underscore the centrality of this
concept in your course design
or teaching.
Try to Apply
29
Fostering the thinking you value most
Make
explicit the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Outcomes,
Goals
Course description
Class activities,
Assignments,
Informal assessments
Hold students
responsible
for the
thinking they
do.
Reflect: where does your course allow
students to practice working with F&P
concept(s) explicitly?
Exams,
Homework,
Grading expectations
30
Central Course Question:
•provides the structure through which everything else
is understood and all components of the course are
connected.
•serves to unify your vision of the course and the
field.
•is an open-ended but specific question that is ripe
for exploration from a number of angles and has no
easy, central “answer.”
•functions like a “mission statement” for your course
31
Faculty Examples of Central Course Questions
English: In what ways and why did England change in the
transition from medieval to early modern, and what was the role
of texts in that change?
Criminal Justice: How does reading, understanding, and
critiquing scholarly research publications in the field of criminal
justice system develop a consumerism for criminal justice
research?
32
Central Course Questions and F&P Concepts
Almost all decisions that corporations make have to be
made under conditions of uncertainty.
Central Course Questions from Finance:
1. What are the major sources of uncertainty in doing business at
home and abroad?
2. How is the required reward affected by the level and sources of
uncertainty?
3. What are the compounding and mitigating sources of
uncertainty on the multinational level?
4. How do multinational enterprises adapt their activities to
manage uncertainty on the multinational level?
33
Central Course Questions and F&P Concepts
Biology:
An individual human's survival depends on homeostasis: the maintenance of
relatively constant internal body conditions which are favorable for survival and
function of many specialized cell types.
Central Course Questions:
How do the forms of human body structures support their function?
How do the form and function of human body structures contribute to
the maintenance of homeostasis?
How can we monitor the function of such structures in order to
1) understand their response to challenges
and 2) determine whether they are working well enough to maintain homeostasis?
34
Your central course question
Try writing the central course question of one
of your courses. Write four versions of it.
Consider: Which one seems to capture the most
central question of your course?
35
Your central course question
Question: How can you use your central course question
to foster and illuminate the critical thinking you want your
students to practice?
How can you use your central course question to foster to
foster and illuminate the critical thinking you want your
students to practice?
Try this at home:
Writing an answer to that question in a few paragraphs
and consider how your course currently responds and
reflects your answer.
36
Core Concepts: teaching critical thinking
Model the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Hold students
responsible
for the
thinking they
do.
Revisit your central course question
again and again as you introduce new content.
37
Intellectually Disciplined Process
Critical thinking is
the intellectually disciplined process
that results in
a guide to belief and action.
(Scriven and Paul, 2003)
38
p. 3-6
“Becoming a critical thinker means becoming adept at using
the elements explicitly and reflectively in your thinking.”
G. Nosich
Going around the wheel with your and others’ thinking
allows you to analyze, break apart, and understand the logic
of an issue.
It allows you to think through any topic, question or
problem in a thorough way.
Why go around the wheel?
Dental Hygiene Case Study for Critical
Thinking
Interpretation &
Conclusions:
What are the judgments that
will allow me to know if I’ve
been successful?
Point of View:
Key Question:
Implications &
Consequences:
Information:
Whose
point of view is important to
consider?
What are
the implications of my proposed
solution?
Assumptions: What am I
taking for granted?
What
problem am I addressing?
What
information do I need?
Essential Concepts:
What concepts do I need to
apply to correct the problem?
How does having this structure help students grapple with
the challenge of patient case studies? How does it help the instructor ?
41
Disciplinary thinking:
Fields and disciplines embody distinctive ways
of looking at the world.
Practitioners know the concepts that structure
information and content.
How parts of a discipline fit together creates “the
logic of a discipline”
“Go around the wheel” with the
Elements of Thought
42
Example of before and after:
Social Work
BEFORE: Identify an
ethical issue or high risk
incident and analyze how
you responded to it this
month.
Elements of Thought
43
AFTER:
“Briefly describe an ethical problem or high risk incident that
you responded to this past month. How did you conclude this is
a high risk incident? Provide at least two examples of evidence
or pieces of information that informed your response or
reaction. What were possible solutions, what were the
consequences, and what did you decide to do? Based on your
reflection [point of view], how could you have responded
differently? Are there other points of view or perspectives that
did—or might have—influenced your decision?”
Consider the before and after: how do the second set of questions
help make disciplinary thinking “visible”?
44
Making Expert Thinking Visible
Engineering Analysis III












What exactly is this problem asking me to find?
What information is given to me in the problem?
Is all of the information relevant, is some information more relevant than others?
Does this problem have any point of view that might help me develop a solution (or rule out a
solution path)?
What elements of my prior knowledge might help me find an answer? (Let students answer, and
write them all down. Then eliminate any that are not relevant by asking again).
Is there now enough information to answer the question?
If not, what assumptions can I make that will simplify the problem?
Now can I solve the problem? No, go back.
State how I will solve this problem. Ok, so now we will find the gradient of f and the gradient
of g, then find their cross product, and then use this to find the equation of the line normal to the
curves at P.
Now I will do what I said, and not stop until I get to the end.
Does this answer the question?
Does it make sense, is it logical?
Is there anything I can add (such as units) that will make this more precise?
What benefit is this “think aloud protocol” for students?
Instructor?
45
•“Go around the wheel” with your central course question in
mind using the single worksheet.
•Which Elements represent the thinking you value most
in your course?
•How can you explicitly engage students in these thinking
skills & assess their ability to master these skills?
What are the Elements students
need to master?
46
Core Concepts: teaching critical thinking
Model the
thinking
you want.
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want.
Hold students
responsible
for the
thinking they
do.
Infuse the Elements of Thought in your course assignments
& hold students accountable for mastering that thinking.
47
“I think that for decades I have given my
students many opportunities to engage in
critical thinking, and I have modeled critical
thinking in class discussions. But I don’t think
I can claim ever to have taught critical
thinking in a systematic way. The model gives
me a way to share a critical thinking
vocabulary with students and to chart their
progress. I know and can tell my students
exactly what I am looking for.”
Spring 2008 Pilot Program Participant, Department of
English
Faculty Perspective
48
Let’s generate 10 ideas,
insights, strategies or new
concepts you are taking
away from today’s session.
Let’s share 10 Insights
49