1 REACH and Ideas to Action: Fall 2009 Patricia Payette, PhD Executive Director, i2a Associate Director, Delphi Center 1.

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REACH and Ideas to Action: Fall 2009

Patricia Payette, PhDExecutive 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 ThinkingResearch

• Paul, 1996• 140 interviews of college faculty• indicate critical thinking is a primary objective

of their instruction– could give a clear explanation of critical

thinking– had difficulty describing how to balance

content coverage with fostering critical thinking– could articulate how to assess critical

thinking

89%

19%

77%

8-9%

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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

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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 disciplinedintellectually 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 10

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

SS: State it

EE: Elaborate

EE: Exemplify

II: 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.”

14Nosich, G. “Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum.” (2009). p. 35.

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

Elements of Reasoning

Intellectual Traits

Must be appliedto

to develop

AccuracyClarityRelevanceLogicalSufficiency

PrecisionDepthSignificanceFairnessBreadth

Which leads to deeper

PurposeQuestionPoint of viewInformation

InferencesConceptsImplicationsAssumptions

HumilityAutonomyFair-mindednessCourage

PerseveranceEmpathyIntegrityConfidence in reasoning

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Miniature Guide, 2008, p. 3-6 18

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. INTRODUCTIONWhat 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.

BEFOREBEFORE 23

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?)

AFTERAFTER

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

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•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?

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 27

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”

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Engage students in

the thinking you want

Model & make explicit the

thinking you want

Hold students responsible for the thinking they do

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:

S ta nd a rd s o f E xce lle n ce C rite ria In d ica to rs

R u b ric

Rubric

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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).

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

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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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