Bringing it Home: Critical Thinking at the Institutional Level

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32nd International Conference on Critical ThinkingJuly 26, 2012

Rush Cosgrovecosgrove@criticalthinking.org

Patty Payette, Ph.D.patty.payette@louisville.edu

Session Goals

• Deepen our understanding of long-term continuing professional development centered around the ‘learning community.’

• Develop a plan for improving teaching and learning for critical thinking at your home site.

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Our Operating Assumptions

• Scale and scope of working with critical thinking concepts is variable among participants.

• Concepts, ideas and principles shared can be applied flexibly across contexts.

• Participants will pick and choose which ideas fit for their professional contexts.

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How did we get here?Rush:

• Seven years as professional workshop coordinator• Historian of Critical Thinking• Small-scale research at university and high school level• Larger scope for current and planned research• Growing emphasis on communities of learning

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How did we get here?Patty:

• Faculty developer with 11 years of working professionally with faculty across disciplines on teaching and learning, including establishing and facilitating learning communities

• Leading a long-term professional development effort at the University of Louisville (UofL) called Ideas to Action (i2a)

• Associate director of the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning at UofL

• Working with Paul-Elder critical thinking concepts since September 2007

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Ideas to Action, or i2a

• Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) as part of reaccreditation process with SACS-COC

• QEP focus on critical thinking across the curriculum and community engagement

• Data gathered for improvement suggested students craved skills and knowledge that are relevant to real-world contexts

• Global outcomes: “Students will be able to think critically.”“Students will develop the ability to address community issues.”

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Critical Thinking & Faculty• Paul, 1996• 140 randomly sampled California 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%

http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-testing-and-assessment/594

Activity: Consider your context To what extent are the realities discussed so far

reflected at your home base? To what extent are your colleagues aware of these

problems? To what extent are they ready to learn to teach

critical thinking more explicitly, systematically, socratically?

What are some of your key questions you are bringing to this session?

What do you hope to accomplish or better understand?

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Consider: Implicit model of professional development

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Professional Development as Learning Cycle

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(Chism, 2004)

Key Concept: Learning Community• AKA community of practice, faculty or professional learning

community

• Common features:• Shared mission • Commitment to inquiry & learning• Ongoing structure and facilitation • Collaboration, sharing, and mutual support• Balance theory and practice• Explicit reflection & assessment• Climate of trust & safet

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Faculty Learning Community on Critical Thinking at UofL• Included 12-13 faculty from across disciplines• Met regularly during semester while devising & applying critical

thinking innovations based on • Background reading, homework, and sharing of new work• Individual consultation required• Library of artifacts submitted• Employed best practices in course design, assessment and critical

thinking• Tri-level reflection: learning community, critical thinking, their own teaching growth• Participants expected to serve as advocates upon completion

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Other learning community formats• Committees or workgroups• E-learning communities across institutions• Professional learning communities (PLC)• Faculty reading circles• Learning communities centered around cohorts (e.g. pre-

service teachers; early career faculty; first-year student staff)

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Learning Community: fundamental and powerful conceptsMission and Purpose:Begin with backward design: “What is your desired result, no matter what else happens?”Curriculum/structureConsider common text as starting pointBuild structure & accountability throughoutScholarly ProcessFocus on knowledge, application, sharingBuild Community:•Expect a learning curve•Build group identity: a name, a symbol/catch phrase, Enablers and Rewards: Create incentives that make sense (Cox, 2004)

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Activity: plan your own learning community

• What is the purpose and focus of your learning community?• What kind of tone do you want to set and how will you do that?• Who will facilitate? (choose resources, answer questions)• Who should be involved? How will they be recruited?• When will you meet? For how long? Structure of sessions?• How will peer feedback, observations or input be included?• Will ‘homework’ be involved? What kind? How often?• Where is a neutral or comfortable location to meet?• What resources, including people, can you draw upon to assist you?

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Break!

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Features of Effective Professional Development• Effective continuing professional development is:• Long-term• Volunteer-based• On-site• Cooperative (involving constructive critique as well as support

and advice)• Is taken seriously, and personally, by administrators and key

teachers • Includes opportunities for both learning and applying theory• CT Theory must be substantive• Harnesses local expertise 17

i2a professional development

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Learning Communities

www.louisville.edu/ideastoaction

Principles of i2a PDScaffolded Goals and assessment tightly alignedSensitive to discipline-specific realitiesConnected to existing assessment or programmatic structuresTransparent about where we are/what we know & don’t knowSupported by administrative & opinion leadersBegins ‘where they are’ and not where we want them to beHands-on, practical applicationSupport through learning curveModel the use of P-E critical thinking framework Know the answer to “What’s in it for me?”“Resource-full”

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Activity: Plan your own PDBegin to plan a professional development program for your home base• Which aspects that we have introduced seem most important?• Which are most immediately feasible? Which more long-term?• Who will be an early supporter?• Who will be an agent of change? • Which intellectual, financial, physical, or other resources can be harnessed? •Who are your main stakeholders? Can you describe a vision of the benefits of PD for each of your “audiences”?•What are the existing structures, groups, programs, or people you could leverage or “piggyback on” for your efforts?•What are your next steps? •What are the speedbumps you anticipate? 20

Q&A with Rush and Patty• Questions• Clarifications• Concerns• Suggestions

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Wrap up: Ten “takeaways” from this session

Insights Ideas “Ah ha” moments Concepts Strategies

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