Designing Assignments for Critical Thinking

1. Designing Assignments for Critical Thinking Ann Alexander Grand Rapids Community College June 9, 2005

2. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. • William Butler Yeats

3. To enjoy to the full the conquests of daring, we must demand that it operate in a pitiless light. • Igor Stravinsky

4. Agenda • Background • Instructional Design • Critical Thinking • Examples of Activities • Discussion and Applications

5. Good practicein undergraduate education: • encourages contact between students and faculty, • develops reciprocity and cooperation among students, • encourages active learning, • gives prompt feedback, • emphasizes time on task, • communicates high expectations, and • respects diverse talents and ways of learning. - Chickering and Gamson

6. Instructional Design • Two interrelated parts: • Structures • WHAT do I teach? • Tactics • HOW do I teach it?

7. Structural Determinations • Your concept of the course • The general plan for implementing that concept • The requirements the students must meet • The grading policies in the course • Performance profiles

8. Tactical Determinations • Daily vs. Episodic • Complex vs. Simple

9. Critical Thinking • Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem – in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. • To analyze thinking: Identify its purpose, question, information, conclusions, assumptions, implications, main concepts, and point of view. • To assess thinking: Check it for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, logic, and fairness. • Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticlathinking.org

10. Relevant Tasks and Questions • Draw a diagram or other graphic display that organizes the information. • What additional information would you want before answering the question? • Explain why you selected a certain multiple-choice alternative. Which alternative is second best. Why? • State the problem in at least two ways.

11. Relevant Tasks and Questions • Which information is most important? Which information is least important? Why? • Categorize the findings in a meaningful way. • List two solutions for the problem. • What is wrong with an assertion that was made in the question?

12. Relevant Tasks and Questions • Present two reasons that support the conclusion and two reasons that do not support the conclusion. • Identify the type of persuasion that is used in the question. Is it valid, or is it designed to mislead the reader? Explain your answer. • What two actions would you take to improve the design of a study that was described?

13. Practice 1

14. Practice 2 • Consider one of your own student assignments or activities. • How does it encourage critical thinking? • How might you redesign it to further encourage critical thinking?

15. Plan of Action • Identify one way you will implement the ideas from this session in the next class you teach. Write it here:

16. Contact Information Ann Alexander aalexand@grcc.edu 616.234.4179 Thanks for attending!