SLOAC COMMITTEE Fall 2014 CWLG assessment: Critical Thinking Recommendations Recommendations (based on our 3/3/15 "closing-­‐the-­‐loop" meeting, on the 3/24/15 meeting of Mathematical Minds, and on participants’ feedback) fall into three broad categories: 1) transparency; 2) pedagogical and curricular changes; 3) improvement of the CWLG assessment process. 1) NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY 1.1. Communicate CLOs to students: • Instructors could opt to include their CLOs in their syllabus. • SLOs could be posted on the discipline website: PLOs under the discipline, and CLOs under each course. • CLOs and PLOs will be available to all when the SLO module of Curricunet is operational. • At the very least, instructors should talk about CLOs on the first day of class, and remind students of the course goals throughout the semester. 1.2. Clearly communicate the CLO assessment goals to students: • Give detailed assessment rubrics to students so they know how their work will be assessed. • Post or give students examples of "A" work so they know that this type of work is possible. 2) PEGAGOGICAL AND CURRICULAR RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1. Increase students’ proficiency in skills essential to critical thinking work:
• Assess students’ English proficiency as we assess CWLGs. • Help students transition from English Basic Skills courses to ENGL 1A by providing them with increased lab hours and additional tutors • Add Basic Skills classes as needed. • Increase lab hours in Communication as needed. • Request tutors and learning assistants as needed. 2.2. Emphasize Critical Thinking in class: • Add assignments on Critical Thinking. • Emphasize methods and concepts. •
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Give students tools/hints/tricks on best practices (ways to tackle a problem efficiently, for example). Involve students in a discussion about assessment goals. Give all students more opportunities to participate in classroom discussion. Use a collaborative approach: v Give students the opportunity to work in groups. Randomly assign students to groups. v Ask students who have finished a group assignment to function as “learning assistants”. 3) RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO IMPROVE THE CWLG ASSESSMENT PROCESS 3.1. Modification to form: • “Number of students” should be modified to “Number of students at time of assessment”. • Modify “Course” to “Course and section number/s”. • Include a menu that includes all CWLGs. • Include a question about Basic Skills level. 3.2. Clarify the scoring rubrics: • What does 0 mean? What is the difference between 0 and 1? 0: Student was present at the time of assessment, but did not answer the question, or provided an answer that is inaccurate. 1: Answer is incomplete; contained minimal, though accurate information. Submitted by Mireille Giovanola 5-­‐24-­‐15