Transcript Designing Courses that Foster Critical Thinking

Professional Development Institution
January 8th, 2009
Presented by:
Shaun Beaty
Director of Course Design and Instructional Technology
The Institute for Learning and Teaching

Look at some components of course design that foster critical
thinking

Syllabus
▪ Expectations
▪ Time Management

Course Interaction
▪ Student to Instructor
▪ Student to Student
▪ Student to Content

Course Content
▪ Active Learning
▪ Activities

Learning Styles
▪ Three defined learning styles

Use of technology

Using Interactive Exercises made with Adobe Captivate

Question and Answer session
The foundations of the course are outlined within the course
syllabus

Establish High Expectations: An instructor who holds high
expectations will encourage high expectations from students.

Clearly state your expectations regarding
▪ quality and quantity of work
▪ depth of understanding the course content and concepts
▪ importance of critical thinking and analysis
▪ frequency of interaction during course discussions
▪ etiquette/netiquette
▪ response time for course-related communication

Content expectations
▪ statements of course goals
▪ grading and evaluation criteria (e.g., grading rubrics)
▪ examples of student work

Model high standards and quality through example

Emphasis of Time Management: Student learning takes
place through active engagement with course content and
concepts.
 Help students understand the importance of time on task
and time management
 Suggest an appropriate amount of time students should
budget for each activity
 Provide important due dates in a calendar or content
outline
 Syllabus example
There are three types of interaction that can foster critical
Thinking
•
•
•
Student to Instructor
Student to Student
Student to Content

Student – Instructor: Consistent and frequent student-faculty
interaction is one of the most important factors motivating students.
▪ Support multiple modes of contact
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Face to face (classroom, office hours)
Email
Phone
Chat/instant messaging (IM)
Collaboration tools (e.g., whiteboards, WebEX, Adobe Connect Pro,
Facebook, Google docs, YouTube, Flickr)
▪ Provide general messages to the whole class through
announcements, email, course web site, course blogs, wiki’s or
discussion forums.
▪ Try to get to know your students on an individual basis

Student – Instructor cont:
▪ Participate and/or facilitate class discussions
▪ Model appropriate participation in discussions
▪ Encourage student questions
▪ Encourage and support the expression of multiple points of view
▪ Foster respect for the expression of differences in perspectives,
backgrounds, and experiences
▪ Provide frequent and thorough feedback
▪ Identify and follow up with students who are not participating
▪ Conduct office hours for students to discuss their graded work,
student questions or provide guidance or clarification.
▪ Face to face, email, chat, phone, collaboration tools

Student – Student: Cooperative learning can engage students
more deeply in the process of learning, allowing them to deepen
their understanding of course content.
▪ Design activities that promote and support cooperation and
networking
▪ Group discussion forums
▪ Study groups
▪ Peer review activities
▪ Email lists
▪ Course blogs,
▪ Course Wikis,
▪ Other social networking features (MySpace, Facebook,
Second Life)

Student – Content: Students should engage with the course
content. They should discuss and write about it and when
possible, relate it to their personal experiences.


Some learning will be “passive”, i.e. reading and listening, however, to fully
integrate critical thinking, provide active learning situations.
Active Learning: Active learning takes place when students are
provided the chance to form an interactive relationship with the
subject matter, encouraging them to discover, process and apply
rather than simply receive the knowledge.

In an active learning environment, students learn in the classroom with the help
of the teacher and other students, rather than on their own. Teachers facilitate
and coach rather than dictate the students’ learning.

Active Learning cont: There may be some resistance to active
learning by students who are used to lectures, students who prefer
passive learning, or students in large classes. Thus, instructors should
prepare students.

Suggestions for successful active learning activities:

Explain teaching objectives and the benefits of the active learning techniques
explicitly to students.

Solicit feedback from students for improving the activity in the future.

Active learning techniques can occur in class or outside of class (e.g.,
computer simulations, internships, web assignments, class internet discussion
lists, independent study, research).

Active learning can be used with all levels of students from first year through
graduate students.

Active Learning Tools: There are a variety of tools that can
foster critical thinking through active learning and implemented
into your course design
 Check for Understanding: pre-test/pop quiz, concept
discussion, review, assessment.
▪ Background Knowledge Probe: Prepare 2-5 open ended
questions, ask students to write 3-4 sentence answers.
Discuss answers and possibly adjust lectures.
 Discussions: Design class discussions that…
▪ Pose questions that encourage students to consider the
implications of issues raised in the course
▪ How did Mexico’s movement for independence from Spain impact people in
neighboring countries?
▪ Use open-ended questions to allow the expression of
multiple points of view
▪ The Amazon River impacts many regions in Brazil. How is its impact
different for those regions near the Atlantic coast and those in the central
part of Brazil?
▪ Allow time to reflect, respond and share opinions and
experiences.
 Activities:
▪ Activities should be structured in a sequence such that earlier
classes lay the foundation for complex and higher level learning
tasks in later classes.
▪ Develop activities that employ demonstrations, simulations, case
studies, scenarios, problem solving
▪ All active learning activities should provide goals/objectives for
each activity.
 Examples of activities:
▪ Think-Pair-Share
▪ Give students a task such as a question, concept or a problem to
solve. Have them work for 2-5 minutes alone (think). Then have
them discuss their ideas for 3-5 minutes with the student sitting
next to them (pair). Finally, ask or choose student pairs to share
their ideas with the whole class (share).
 Examples of activities cont:
▪ Collaborative learning groups
▪ These may be formal or informal, graded or not, short-term or long-term.
▪ Assign students to groups of 3-6 students and given a task to work on together. The
group produces a group answer, paper or project.
▪ Student-led review sessions
▪ Instead of the traditional instructor-led review session
▪ Games
▪ Games such as crossword puzzles and jeopardy can be adapted to course
material and used for review, assignment and exams.
▪ Analysis or reactions to videos
▪ Video’s offer an alternative presentation and should be relatively short (515 minutes).
▪ Have students create discussions or review questions
▪ Discuss or write a reaction journal entry or paper.
 Examples of activities cont:
▪ Student Debates
▪ These may be formal or informal, individual or group, graded or ungraded.
▪ Allow students to take a thesis or position, gather data and logic to critically support
view or opposing view.
▪ Student generated exam questions
▪ Used for review or actual exam. Help students actively process and review material, as
well as providing practice for exam or evaluation.
▪ Analyze case studies
▪ Students discuss and analyze cases, applying concepts, data and theory from the class.
▪ Journals or logs
▪ Require brief critical reflection or analysis of concepts, materials, lecture etc.
 Examples of activities cont:
▪ Write and produce a newsletter
▪ Groups of students produce a newsletter on a specific topic related to class.
▪ Share newsletter with students and faculty in related courses, major or
department.
▪ Quotations
▪ Provide a number of quotes taken from the text or person(s) being studied.
Students identify a quote, analyze it, establish their own opinions and then share
it with class members or instructor.
▪ Concept mapping
▪ Students create visual representation of models, ideas and relationships between
concepts.

For students to know if they are “getting it”, provide frequent and
immediate feedback.

“Immediate” refers to same class or the next class session.

Allows students to analyze and retain information, acting as a foundation for
relating it to new content.

Offer short and recurrent activities that provide immediate feedback (e.g., selfchecked or automatically graded quizzes/tests, simulations/demonstrations)

Use class period, announcements, email lists, discussion forums, or course blogs
to answer frequently asked questions

Return assignments and assessments, projects, etc. within a week

Regularly post grades or provide avenues for students to identify their grades

Supply a wrap-up announcement or review to discuss common findings and
results of content, assignments, projects, surveys etc.
There are three ways individuals can learn.
•
•
•
Auditory
Visual
Kinesthetic

Auditory Learners
 Benefit most from traditional
teaching techniques
 Succeed when directions are
read aloud, speeches are
required, or information is
presented and requested
verbally
 Lecture is geared primarily to
auditory learners.

Visual Learners
 Benefit most from diagrams, charts, pictures,
films and written directions
 Value to-do lists, handouts, and written notes
 Many techniques that benefit visual learners also
benefit kinesthetic learners.

Kinesthetic Learners
 Touching, feeling, experiencing the material at
hand are all highly desirable by these types of
learners
 Learners are most successful when engaged with
the learning activity.
 Retain information quickly by participating.
To encourage critical thinking opportunities,
respect diverse talents and ways of learning…
 Provide a variety of methods for learning to support different
learning goals and learning styles (auditory, visual and
kinesthetic).
 Design more than one method of learning for students
 Recognize, respect, and reward creativity
 Be sensitive to cultural differences
 Allow students to choose from different modes of project
presentation
 Understand and allow for different pacing
Use technology that helps accomplish course goals, meet
student needs and allows for students to engage with the
content presented by the technology.
Effective Use of Technology:

The technology should:
 Motivate: Students want to discover the outcome
 Guide: Students should have some way of knowing
what they should do next, based on discovery, analysis,
personal results
 Scaffold: keeps students on task, checks for
understanding
 Feedback: Student should have some way of knowing
whether the activity was successful or appropriate.

Use Technology that is appropriate for the task and
pedagogical purpose
There are a variety of softwares available to create and
distribute interactive exercises.

Adobe Captivate: “Show How” and “Do Now”
 Is a software that can create demonstrations, interactive
simulations, branched scenarios and problem solving
activities (Soft Skills)
 Create interactive quizzing features (immediate
feedback), mastery learning
 Example: http://learning.colostate.edu/courses/twt/

What questions can I answer?

Discussed some components of course design to help foster critical thinking

Syllabus
 Expectations
 Time Management

Interaction
▪ Student to Student
▪ Student to Instructor
▪ Student to Content

Course Content
▪ Active Learning
▪ Examples

Learning Styles
▪ Three defined learning styles

Effective use of technology

Using interactive exercises made with Adobe Captivate

Question and answer session