REACH and Ideas to Action: Fall 2009
Patricia Payette, PhD
Executive Director, i2a
Associate Director, Delphi Center
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Session Objectives
1. Familiarize REACH graduate students with UofL’s
Ideas to Action (i2a) initiative. .
2. Explore the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework
and participate in activities to deepen your
understanding of the framework
3. Provide participants with tools to use with students to
promote critical thinking
4. Explore the use of rubrics and the critical thinking
rubric as a teaching and assessment tool.
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Exercise: “essential” thinking skills
What changes in mindset (or “mental
models”) do you want to see your students
demonstrate at the end of your time with
them? Try to describe the skills or
thinking traits you want them to take away
after their work with you.
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Evidence for Critical Thinking
Research
• Paul, 1996
• 140 interviews of college faculty
• 89% indicate critical thinking is a primary
objective of their instruction
– 19% could give a clear explanation of critical
thinking
– 77% had difficulty describing how to balance
content coverage with fostering critical thinking
– 8-9% could articulate how to assess critical
thinking
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Ideas to Action: The Basics
 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 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.
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i2a: connecting classroom, campus
and community
Sharpen our
existing focus
on building
critical thinking
skills in the
general
education
program…
…..continuing
through
undergraduate
major courses
with an emphasis
on applying and
refining those
skills…
…resulting in a
culminating
experience, such
as a senior thesis,
research, service
learning project,
internship, or
capstone project
that fosters
engagement
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For more information on i2a:
Home Page:
http://louisville.edu/ideastoaction
Faculty Exemplars:
www.louisville.edu/ideastoaction/resources
Faculty Speak Video:
www.louisville.edu/ideastoaction/resources/media
Assessment
http://louisville.edu/ideastoaction/what/assessment
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Two Critical Thinking Definitions
Critical thinking is…
reasonable, reflective thinking that is
focused on deciding what to believe or do
(Ennis, 1996)
the intellectually disciplined process that
results in a guide to belief and action
(Scriven and Paul, 2003)
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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
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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 or learning
context with your students.
“In other words…”
• Give an example of how or when 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…”
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Teaching tool: SEE-I
S: State it
E: Elaborate
E: Exemplify
I: Illustrate
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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
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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.” (2009). p. 35.
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Examples of SEE-I in action
• Dr. Lynn Boyd
College of Business
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When to use a SEE-I
• 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?
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Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model
Intellectual Standards
Accuracy
Clarity
Relevance
Logical
Sufficiency
Precision
Depth
Significance
Fairness
Breadth
Which leads to deeper
Intellectual Traits
Humility
Autonomy
Fair-mindedness
Courage
Must be applied
to
Elements of Reasoning
Purpose
Question
Point of view
Information
Perseverance
Empathy
Integrity
Confidence in reasoning
Inferences
Concepts
Implications
Assumptions
to develop
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Miniature Guide, 2008, p. 3-6
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Using the Elements of Thought
• “Going around the wheel” means that we are
thinking things through (thinking critically) with
an explicitly reflective approach
• This process become a way to making critical
thinking visible for novice thinkers
• Using the Elements of Thought can be a tool for
routinely analyzing and assessing our own
thinking and the thinking of others
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The Logic of a Discipline/Course
• Thinking critically in a field, discipline, or
course :
• Means getting hold of the logic of that field
• Is one of the most important concepts in
learning to think critically
Learning to Think Things Through, 2009, p.98
Going around the wheel
• What is the logic of your discipline?
• Try filling in at least 4 parts of the
“wheel” with your discipline
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Using the Elements to make thinking
visible: Social Work practicum example
• Original critical thinking prompt:
Identify an ethical issue or high risk incident and analyze how you
responded to it this month.
• Revised critical thinking prompt:
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, how could you
have responded differently? Are there other points of view or
perspectives that did—or might have—influenced your decision?
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Analyzing a scholarly article:
Psychology 201 assignment
1. INTRODUCTION
What basic question is the Experimenter trying to answer? What is the general problem area?
2. METHODS
a)
What or who were the experimental subjects?
b)
What task did they perform, or what test(s) did they take, or what characteristic(s) were
measured?
c)
What was the design of the study? Was it experimental or correlational?
If experimental: Were there different groups of subjects or were the same subjects exposed to different
treatments at different times, or both? What independent variable or variables were
manipulated? What dependent variable or variables were measured?
If correlational: How many variables were measured, and what were they?
3. RESULTS
What were the results? Did groups di ffer in performance, or did subjects' performance differ
under as a result of treatment? If correlational, what were the relationships found among the
variables measured?
4. DISCUSSION
What are the implications of the study? What questions remain for further research? This is the
section to summarize the contribution of the study to research in the area of the study focus.
BEFORE
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Analyzing a scholarly article:
Psychology 201 assignment
1. What is the main purpose of this article?
(State as accurately as possible the author’s purpose for writing the article or for doing the research.)
2. What is (are) the important question(s) the author of this article is trying to address?
(Figure out the key question(s) in the mind of the author when s/he wrote the article about the research that was conducted.)
3. What kind of study was done? (Case study, survey, etc.)
3a. Justify your answer as to why it is what you say it is.
3b. What are the independent and dependent variables?
3c. Who are the subjects?
4. What facts, data, evidence or experiences does the author use to address the important question of the article?
5. What are the main inferences/conclusions in this article?
(Identify the key conclusions the author comes to and presents in the article)
6. Do the author’s conclusions follow from the data/evidence presented? Why or why not?
7a. What are the implications if we take the author’s line of reasoning seriously? (What consequences are likely to follow if
people take the author's line of reasoning seriously?)
7b. What are the implications if we fail to take the author’s line of reasoning seriously?
(What consequences are likely to follow if people ignore the author's reasoning?)
AFTER
Teaching tool: Analyzing the Logic of
an Article
 Consider the “before” Psychology 201 assignment
as compared to the “after” assignment.
 Can you sum up the difference between them?
 How does this “after” version help the faculty to
promote the critical thinking she values most?
 How does this “after” version help students?
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Teaching tool: Analyzing the Logic of an
Article
•How might you use this template to help your
students use the language of critical thinking?
•“Analyzing the Logic…” (Guide To Critical
Thinking, p. 35-39)
•How might you adapt or use these templates in
your work with students and to promote
disciplinary thinking?
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Universal Intellectual Standards
for Thinking
CLARITY
Could you elaborate?
Could you illustrate what you mean?
Could you give me an example?
ACCURACY
How could we check on that?
How could we find out if that is true?
How could we verify or test that?
PRECISION
Could you be more specific?
Could you give me more details?
Could you be more exact?
RELEVANCE
How does that relate to the problem?
How does that bear on the question?
How does that help us with the issue?
DEPTH
What factors make this difficult?
What are some of the complexities of this question?
What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with?
BREADTH
Do we need to look at this from another perspective?
Do we need to consider another point of view?
Do we need to look at this in other ways?
LOGIC
Does all of this make sense together?
Does your first paragraph fit in with your last one?
Does what you say follow from the evidence?
SIGNIFICANCE
Is this the most important problem to consider?
Is this the central idea to focus on?
Which of these facts are most important?
FAIRNESS
Is my thinking justifiable in context?
Am I taking into account the thinking of others?
Is my purpose fair given the situation?
Am I using my concepts in keeping with educated usage,
or am I distorting them to get what I want?
COMPLETENESS
How complete are the facts related to the issue?
How complete is the description?
Is the description of each perspective complete?
Miniature Guide pages 8-10
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Students and Standards
• What are the
Intellectual
Standards that
students struggle to
bring to their
thinking?
• What are the
Intellectual
Standards that are
most important in
your disciplinary
work with students?
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Core Concepts: teaching critical
thinking and making it “visible”
Model & make
explicit the
thinking you
want
Engage
students in
the thinking
you want
Hold students
responsible for the
thinking they do
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Bringing Elements and Standards
Together
• New rubric for Critical Reading
• What is a rubric?
• How could I use this rubric for teaching
and learning with my students?
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What is a rubric?
•
•
•
•
•
A rubric is a lesson in quality.
A public declaration of expectations.
A communication tool.
A self-assessment tool for learners.
A gauge for examining performance.
Designing Rubrics: Revising Instruction and Improving Performance. Christiana
Baggio. www.edutech.org.br
The parts of a rubric:
Rubric
Standards of Excellence
Criteria
Indicators
Rubric
The parts of the rubric call attention to parts of my
assignment so I can revise (improve) it.
Rubric comes from the Latin: Rubrica, which means:
highlight in red, used to call attention to something (not to
mark errors).
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Making excellence visible:
how is it measured?
• Degrees of quality
• Even number
• Language or numbers
Standards and criteria that for
evaluation: What are we looking for?
•
•
•
•
•
The specific areas for assessment.
Focus areas for instruction.
Clear and relevant.
Developmentally appropriate
Form and function represented.
Indicators
• Descriptors of level of performance for
the criteria.
• Clear, observable language.
• Clear to the learner.
• Examples for learners.
• Provides guidance on strengths and
areas for improvement
10 Insights from Today’s Session
Let’s generate a list of 10 ideas, insights,
or action items you are taking away from
today’s session on critical thinking.
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