Creating a Critical Thinking Rubric

This past week in our QEP workshop, we started winding up our discussion on critical thinking.  One of our final tasks on this subject is to identify ways to evaluate the level of critical thinking in our students.  We have decided to create a Critical Thinking Rubric.  

When you look up “Critical Thinking Rubric” on Google, you get thousands of examples.  It seems like we may be re-inventing the wheel here.  So, you may wonder why are we wanting to create our own.   However, I believe one reason may be that there is no “one size fits all.”  We can take inspiration from the examples out there and craft a rubric that fits our faculty needs.  There also seems to be a hidden lesson in all this - we are learning to think critically about evaluating critical thinking.  May the force be with us on our quest! :-)  

Are Students Thinking Critically or Playing the Game?

This week in our QEP workshops, we were further challenged in our quest for defining critical thinking. The professors were given a JITT (Just in Time Teaching) exercise in which they had to prioritize the different components that make up the definition of “critical thinking” as reached by the group in the Delphi Report.  It was interesting to note the different priorities that were given by each professor based upon his/her discipline.  So, the question is - should the definition of critical thinking be different for every field or can we all agree on one generic definition in the classrooms??

We were also shown a Doonesbury cartoon in which a college professor is lecturing to his class about Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights.  The students are copiously taking notes, but are not engaging with the professor and analyzing what he is saying.  The professor goes off on a tear of nonsense, just trying to get their attention, but they keep writing everything down.  Finally, the professor collapses on his podium and exclaims, “Teaching is Dead!”

One thought brought out from the group is the fact that students are accustomed to the method of taking notes and taking the professor’s word as “law.”  Most of us were brought up the same way. You learn what the teacher expects from you in the classroom and in your graded projects, and you deliver.  You learn quickly in school what is needed to make the “A.”  I call this “playing the game.”  What can we do to encourage both??

The professors were given the task of creating a JITT exercise about Thomas Jefferson and the Bill of Rights that would have helped the class become active participants in the lecture, and really exercise their critical thinking skills.

Some examples that really make you think outside the box:

If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, what would he think about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy?

If you were part of a group writing the Bill of Rights today, what would you add or remove from the original?  Why?

 

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10rW7XWCVneT4KraDtEL9K9mWqpurlL7AUCXqyILeA-w

Defining "Critical Thinking"

One of the five literacies that our QEP team is addressing is the need to encourage critical thinking skills in our students.   In our workshop this week, we were given the task of defining the term "critical thinking."  You would think that would be easy to do.  However, everyone in the room had a different definition.  This started a great conversation and debate among us.  It was interesting to see how the definition tended to be biased towards the professor's field of expertise.I believe that the main commonality among us though was that critical thinking involves some set of logic. 

I know there are many different aspects of critical thinking.  However, in a nutshell,  I would define critical thinking as any endeavor that includes relying upon your knowledge and past experiences to determine a logical solution or to predict the outcome of a given situation.   This criteria can be met regardless of if you are performing a scientific experiment or determining the actions of characters in a story that you are writing. 

At our next workshop we are supposed to TRY to create a definition that everyone can agree upon.  I look forward to that debate! :-)  

And we're off....

Fall semester is off and running.  And, whew!  Have we been running!!!  It's such an exciting time right now in our QEP department.   Porsha, my fellow Writing Specialist, and I have made class visits to 10 out of 11 of this year's cohorts.  Pretty much everyone has their class wiki in place.  Now, the students are starting to trickle into the labs to work on their assignments.

It is such a joy to work with our faculty and students.  So far, everyone seems to be enjoying their QEP experience.  Just this morning, I showed four students how to use Google docs to collaborate on a group project.  They were amazed at the chat feature built in.  Now, they don't have to meet in person to work on their report.  You would have thought I'd shown them how to go to the moon, they were so excited! haha!

Just a simple exercise using Gdocs to write a collaborative research paper has allowed them to learn how to "connect" in ways they never imagined.   Seeing the students' excitement made my day.  Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceburg.  It's going to be an exciting semester!

Learning Methods

I was reading a blog post by Keith Hamon today: http://sites.google.com/site/albanystateqep/qep-blog-1

The section "Turn Students into Expert Learners" caught my attention, making me realize how my personal methods of studying/learning have evolved over the years.  I may as well admit that through K-12, I was primarily a "studier" in most subjects.  Learn it for the test and forget it!   A sad percentage of that followed through to my college years.  Since my Bachelor's is in education, I did have to learn to "apply" some skills.

However, in my prior position to working here at ASU, my job required me to attend technical workshops to learn new software and hardware and come back to train my colleagues.  Because my coworkers where depending on me, I had to learn to shift from being a passive learner to being an engaged learner.   I paid more attention, took more detailed notes, asked more questions, and made sure I knew that software in and out before I trained my co-workers.  Knowing that I was going to be the local authority on that software made me a better student. 

What if instead of teaching my co-workers in small groups, I called in one person and told them in advance that they were going to be responsible for teaching the others.  At the end of her lesson, I call in another colleague, and the first trainee has to train the second?  Then, the second has to train the third, and so forth.  Finally, the last student would be required to demonstrate the lesson to me.  Would she be able to do it as well as the first person I trained?

I wonder how our students' attitudes would change if we told them before class that they would have to teach this lesson to their classmates (or others...)  Would they pay more attention?  Would the students have a better grasp than if they were just sitting passively by in my class??  I would hope so. 


This is an experiment I wouldn't mind pursuing one day to see how it works out.

Thoughts on Intellectual Property

I was in a discussion with one of the professors the other day about students and plagiarism.   This led to a very interesting conversation.   Basically, he believes the premise that there is “nothing new under the sun.”  How do we really distinguish our thoughts from the influence of those around us?

I can see that with the advent of connectivist learning that the sharing of ideas could dramatically influence our personal thoughts and theories.  How does or will that affect our claims to intellectual property?   I think it’s going to be hard to draw a line in the sand for that one. 

Finding evidence for the Rhizome metaphor...

The web is full of information.  However, some is trash and some is treasure. It is vital that educators are able to discern the differences in legitimate resources and sources that may not be accurate and accountable.  They also need to teach their students to think for themselves so they can do their own "assimilating and disseminating." 

For giggles, I decided to look up the definitions to "assimilate" and "disseminate."  If you read them carefully, can you see the Rhizome metaphor in this or am I thinking too much?? lol

assimilate [əˈsɪmɪˌleɪt]vb

1. (tr) to learn (information, a procedure, etc.) and understand it thoroughly

2. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Physiology) (tr) to absorb (food) and incorporate it into the body tissues

3. (intr) to become absorbed, incorporated, or learned and understood

4. (usually foll by into or with) to bring or come into harmony; adjust or become adjusted the new immigrants assimilated easily

5. (usually foll by to or with) to become or cause to become similar

6. (Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) (usually foll by to) Phonetics to change (a consonant) or (of a consonant) to be changed into another under the influence of one adjacent to it (n) often assimilates to (ŋ) before (k), as in ``include''

dis·sem·i·nate  (d-sm-nt)

v. dis·sem·i·nat·ed, dis·sem·i·nat·ing, dis·sem·i·nates

v.tr.

1. To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.

2. To spread abroad; promulgate: disseminate information.

v.intr.

To become diffused; spread.

---

[Latin dissminre, dissmint- : dis-, dis- + sminre, to sow (from smen, smin-, seed; see s- in Indo-European roots).]

A Brainstorm...

I had a brainstorm yesterday.  For those who may not know, amongst my other talents here at ASU as a Writing Specialist, I also have a background as a librarian.   There is a quote that has stuck with me.  I don't remember it verbatim, but the gist is something to the effect of,  "The role of the Librarian is assimilating information and disseminating it to others."  I was also taught that it is okay not to know everything, you just need to know where to find the answer.

It struck me that these statements could also be applied to the connectivism theory and creating our own personal learning network. 

Food for thought and comments:  As a member or "node" on the network, are we responsible for the accuracy of the knowledge that we share with others?  Also, how do we discern the accuracy of our sources??

Reflections on Connectivism

 
This is my response to reading the article:

Connectivism:
A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

George Siemens

http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm


Before the digital age, pretty much any knowledge that we obtained was done in the traditional classroom setting.  The teacher stood in front of a class of students and lectured for half an hour or more.   We had boring textbooks to read.  Subjects like history, usually gave us only the dry facts.   The only output of our knowledge was taking tests or writing compositions.  What we learned in those twelve years of school, our college years, etc. were expected to get us sufficiently though the rest of our life.  If we wanted to learn anything outside of the realm of the classroom, we were pretty much limited to looking in library reference books: encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. 


With the advent of technological sources, our world has opened wide-up!  We are finding the information in an online format...web sites, journals, communicating with experts online, etc.  This is all done pretty much instantaneously.  Now instead of just reading one page about the Revolutionary War, we can go online and find all sorts of "behind the scenes" information available in all sorts of formats.


For me personally, I am pushing the Connectivism Theory for educational use, because it makes the students more aware of what all the Internet can provide for them now and later on in life.  They need to know that learning a subject doesn't stop the day you finish a class or the day you graduate.  Students should be aware of the resources they have at their fingertips to keep expanding their knowledge.  We need to teach the students how to be life-long learners.

For example: I am not able to retain everything I've ever read or learned in the classroom or had the time to learn things I want to know or need to know.  But, as long as I KNOW WHERE TO FIND IT....if someone in my network is able to help me out...it is a resource of learning or refreshing my knowledge, then I can use that info to reach out to others.

The ASU QEP Experience

I am currently employed by Albany State University in the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) department as a Writing Specialist.  This basically entails running a QEP Writing Lab (tutoring students in writing essays, research papers, etc.)  I also assist the QEP Coordinators in assisting professors who are being trained to use Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.  We heavily believe in and encourage the use of Connectivism and Rhizomatic theories of education in the classroom.

This blog will document my experiences in this position.