Incorporating Critical Thinking and Writing Effectively in Your Course: Methods, Measurements, and Managing resistance to critical thinking

FDC Workshop Thursday, January 22, 2015

Teaching Critical Thinking Methodology (TCTM)

Jacobus BoersSenior Lecturer

Institute of International Business

Context

Critical Thinking– What

• Contemporary Pedagogical Practice– Significant Learning Experiences

• Social Media• Guided Activity• Peer Review

THE USE OF GUIDED SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENABLE CRITICAL THINKING

Jacobus Boers

Institute of International BusinessRobinson College of Business

Subhashish Samaddar

Department of Managerial SciencesRobinson College of Business

Somnath Mukhopadhyay

Department of Information and Decision Sciences

College of Business Administration

Presented at:

Literature

Why Critical Thinking?Motivation:

“… the ability to make meaning in more complex ways is directly related to one’s developmental stage. At higher levels of meaning-making, leaders become more effective. When leaders are more effective, organizations perform better.”

Flores, Matkin and Burbach (2012) examining the implications on leadership of students graduating with deficient critical thinking skills

Divergent-Convergent Thinking

Nickerson 2012 Olin's Approach and Experience with Critical Thinking

March 2011 AACSB Curriculum Development Symposium

Literature

Teaching Critical ThinkingReal-world or simulated real-world experiences appear to enhance the acquisition of thinking skills (Staib 2003)

– important is that learners have the opportunity to engage in discussion of the challenges in these real-world or simulated scenarios

Four-part model for teaching critical thinking skills: (Halpern 1998)

a) modeling critical thinking and actively engaging in thoughtful responses b) an instructional module on critical thinking skills followed by practice c) course activities that facilitate the use of the skills across different contextsd) discussion of the process of thinking by students

Core Challenge

Applying above four approaches in unstructured learning environment that involves ambiguous contexts rich with nuances and diverse actors1. Development of systematic and generalizable

approaches that enhance critical thinking skills2. Collection of evidence and validate that critical

thinking skills actually improve

Propose a Teaching Critical Thinking Methodology (TCTM) that helps with these challenges…

TCTM

Fusion of:– In-class instructions – Social media support:• Divergent exploration of ideas • Convergence in solution forming process

– Peer Review & Feedback• Student reflection on evidence of CT

Objective: to effectuate and instill critical thinking ability in students

Teaching Critical Thinking Methodology (TCTM)

• Instructional Modules on critical thinking– Elements of Critical Thinking– Toulmin Model of Argument– Library Information Literacy

• Series of focused, structured and repeated practice opportunities to develop necessary skills– Social media offers rich, real-world examples and cases– CTW Assignment Draft & Review Process– Peer Review

• Draft 2 & 3 of CTW paper• D2L (BrightSpace) Discussions

• Combined with the student-instructor interaction needed to develop critical thinking skills

• Describe and discuss the thinking processes in class

Evolution

Fall 2014 Semester

Fall 2013 Semester

Social Media

Social Media

CT Module Rubric

CT Module RubricPre-Test

Post-Test

Series of Focused Opportunities

Series of Focused Opportunities

Reflection on CT Process

Reflection on CT Process

Peer ReviewCT Module Rubric

Rubric

Results so far…

Questions and Comments?

Boers, Samadar, Mukhopadhyay Guided Social Media To Enable Critical Thinking

Significant Learning Processes

Learning processes need to be:• Engaging and • Involve high energy levels

– In order to Result in:• Significant and lasting change • Potential of high value in the life beyond the course

Creating Significant Learning Experiences Fink (2003)

Social media activity of many students:• Engaging and • Involve high energy levels

Question: How to use the engagement and high energy in social media activity to (a) create significant learning experiences and (b) how to accurately assess the learning outcomes

Social Media

Offers capabilities to enable critical analyses and deliberation during a problem solving process:• Limitless, unstructured and sometimes chaotic idea

generation thereby stimulating thought divergence• Facilities for systematic recording and iteration,

commenting and collaboration• Facilities for obtaining feedbacks, acceptance or

rejection of ideas, and a process of convergence to a solution

Assessing Student Learning

Essential element of the teaching task• Traditional assessment – Emphasizes the testing of student learning with

significant emphasis on grades• Classroom assessment– Emphasizes learner-centered, teacher-directed

activity that is mutually beneficial, formative, context-specific, ongoing and rooted in good practice

Angelo & Cross, 1993

Rubrics

• Change in assessment – Norm-referenced to criterion-referenced William Campbell &

Karl Smith 1997

• Assessment becomes a part of learning – Students receive feedback that guides them in their learning

• Rubrics in the Assessment of Critical Thinking– Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT)

• number of institutions and disciplines and validated Stein & Haynes 2011

– Assess critical thinking skills of science students using articles from the popular press Terry 2012

• Critical Thinking Analytic Rubric (CTAR) can be used by raters to score student work in a consistent manner

Saxton, Belanger & Becker 2012