INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS ON THE CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGMENT
Answer packets due February 26. 2004 Time required: One class period First 5-10 minutes: Please distribute the assignment and answer sheet packet, and ask the students right away to put their names on the cover sheet and their Banner numbers on the answer page. Explain how the project fits in with your class and how you will grade individual students’ work. If students are interested in the way the Assessment Team will score the anonymous samples, look over the rubric with them. Please reassure students that they do not need to understand all the language in the rubric in order to be good critical thinkers. The work that they do on the assignment will demonstrate their critical thinking ability, regardless of how they feel about the rubric. Next 5-10 minutes: Pass out the source material (“Accidents” or “Lakes”). Explain that students should work on the topic identified by an arrow on the assignment sheet. With the material in hand, please read through the instructions and point out the four steps needed for the answers (A-D) Remind students that we need to see their thinking process. That’s why diagrams, outlines, and formulas are helpful. Remainder of class: Give students 60 minutes to study the material and respond to the assignment. Results Grades for your course: Grade the students in whatever way fits your course. Please do assign some course credit for the work in order to assure serious efforts from the students. If you return the papers for follow-up discussion, please make your comments only on the cover page with the student’s name, and/or on sticky notes on the answer sheets. In either case, the students should read and remove the cover page and all notes before returning the answer sheets to you during that same class. Scores for General Education assessment: Please check that all names or stray comments by you or the students are fully erased or obscured. Then put the answer packets in an envelope and get it to Evelyn Farbman by February 26. We’ll select samples randomly in equal portions from each section. We’ll prepare a report in time to share the anonymous aggregate results with your students before final exams. Wider consequences: We hope that, in addition to findings from the data we gather, several qualitative benefits will come of this: a) Students will think more explicitly about thinking; b) the rubric will provide language for discussions of critical thinking among participating teachers ; c) the experience will provide grounds for discussing how to approach unfamiliar tasks, opening discussion of discipline-specific study strategies. Please contact Evelyn Farbman with questions: efarbman@ccc.commnet.edu
Critical Thinking Rubric
“Critical thinking” can mean many things. For the upcoming Critical Thinking assignment, The CCC Assessment Team is interested in how you draw meaning from information. We’re looking for evidence that you can work effectively with each of the modes of thought listed as A-D below. Next to each mode you can see the scoring guide that we will use to assess each paper (4 is high and 1 is low). By the time these scores are assigned, your paper will be completely anonymous, so these scores cannot affect your grade or transcript in any way. Meanwhile, your teacher will explain how your work will be evaluated for your course.
4 A. GIVEN Observes and describes given information in relation to a question
3
2
1
Identifies appropriate main issue and describes it accurately, selects key component points, recognizes priorities among details in relation to given question, picks up unstated implications. 4 3
Identifies inappropriate main issue or none at all, describes issue inaccurately, fails to identify key component points, loses focus on given question.
2
1
B. WHEREAS Analyzes the given material and shows structure of an argument
Shows connections among key points with a visible structure (diagram, outline, etc.), indicates contradictions and continuities, shows cause & effect relationships, demonstrates sound logic leading toward a generalization. 4 3
Ignores key points or shows inability to manipulate them, shows confusion about relationships among key points, uses faulty logic, fails to create order from details. 2 1
C. THEREFORE Responds to question with conclusion or hypothesis. D. AND SO . . . Evaluates conclusion or hypothesis within relevant context.
Clearly states conclusion or hypothesis, shows how it emerges from the evidence, demonstrates its relationship to the given question. 4 3
Proposes no comprehensible conclusion or hypothesis, wanders from the given question. 2 1
Appropriately assesses conclusion or hypothesis in terms of reliability and further evidence needed, assesses external implications of the conclusion/hypothesis within a larger context.
Fails to assess conclusion, raises no additional questions, fails to place the argument within a relevant larger context.