The Professor Magda Vasillov General Education and Assessment Committee

Rubrics for LunchNovember 19, 2009

Gina Cicco, Ed.D.

Introduction• Why use critical thinking rubrics?

Our Rubric• Bloom’s Taxonomy

Putting the Rubric to Work• Examples for practice• Group activity

Discussion Conclusion

• Questions & comments

Primary objective of a college education• Defining critical thinking• Measuring critical thinking ability• Promote thinking and learning

Help students reflect on and improve their thinking and writing abilities (metacognition)

Help teachers teach and evaluate, instructional tools

Provides a more global assessment of performance than the checklist-based method

Clarify expectations and learning objectives for various types of assignments

Allows for faculty and peer assessment and an ongoing exchange of feedback

First three categories are hierarchical

Basic knowledge: memorizing facts, figures, and basic processes

Secondary comprehension: understanding and illustrating the facts

Application: generalizing the facts to other contexts and situations

Last three categories are not hierarchical, require knowledge and comprehension of content, and are considered higher-order skills

Analysis: understanding why the facts are the way they are; breaking problems down

Synthesis: making connections between different elements on one’s own

Evaluation: critically using one’s knowledge to ascertain the quality of information

Hostos Draft http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/oaa/pdf/C

ritical%20Thinking.pdf

AAC&U Value Rubric http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/oaa/pdf/

aacus09_criticalthinkingrubric.pdf

Easy to use and to explain Make teachers’ expectations very clear Provide students with informative

feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement

Support learning Support the development of skills Support the development of

understanding Support higher-order thinking

Please read the assignment…

Use the rubric to score the sample assignment…

What feedback/comments would you provide this student?

Discuss in small groups…

Discussion

Questions

Comments

Suggestions

Thank you… please provide your feedback so we can improve the rubrics!!!