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Using Essay Assignments to Assess and Develop Critical Thinking Skills
with Susan K. Wolcott
Virtually all college programs state that critical thinking is a desired learning outcome. Yet, educators often struggle to identify ways to reliably assess critical thinking outcomes and to “close the assessment loop” — i.e., use assessment results to improve student critical thinking skills.
This workshop provides a practical, hands-on introduction to the use of classroom essay assignments to assess critical thinking skills. Participants will:
- Clarify their desired learning outcomes for critical thinking
- Briefly learn about the relationship between stages of cognitive development and students’ critical thinking performance
- Practice using a rubric to assess the critical thinking skills demonstrated in student responses to an essay assignment
- Design essay assignments to increase assessment reliability and develop students’ critical thinking skills
- Explore ways to close the assessment loop by using assessment results for course and program planning
The workshop will introduce two Steps for Better Thinking rubrics (Lynch & Wolcott). One rubric is designed primarily for providing feedback to students. The other rubric supports greater assessment reliability, but is too complex for student feedback. Both assessment rubrics are developmental forms of Primary Trait Analysis (Walvoord & Anderson). The levels of performance in the rubrics are grounded in the reflective judgment model of cognitive development (King & Kitchener) and dynamic skill theory (Fischer). Assessments automatically identify both strengths and weaknesses in student critical thinking skills, enabling educators to readily use assessment results to help students develop desired skills.
The workshop is of interest to individual professors as well as individuals responsible for program or institutional assessment.
The minimum amount of time required for this workshop is 1.5 hours; longer workshops will allow greater participation and opportunities for participants to practice assessing student essays and to design appropriate assignments for assessment.
