critical thinking faculty development workshop (feb 2014)

CT Course Faculty Development WorkshopFebruary 22, 2014

Center for Teaching and Learning

•what’s your 60-second pitch?

With regard to your upcoming CT course . . .

Introductions

What our students see . . . When they hear the words public health, psychology, math, history

What we see in our mind’s eye. . .

So how do we help our students getfrom HERE to HERE?

•recall


important concepts, course topics, ideas, facts, theories, arguments

•use


post-it notes and personal “white board” to test conceptual framework

•explain


conceptual framework to someone else

•analyze


partner’s map for inconsistency b/w explanation & representation

•assess


how effectively the map represents & integrates course content

•integrate


a visual metaphor that clarifies & amplifies the overall structure of knowledge in the course

But why?

Students who become cognizant of the

conceptual structure of their courses are more

likely to employ appropriate discipline-specific

learning strategies. (Saroyen, Amundsen, &

Donald, 2004)

Neo and Co. in the Matrix

Neo outsideof the Matrix

Epiphany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdkdQtlF-RU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdkdQtlF-RU

BREAK TIME

Purpose of Core I

• We all teach and encourage critical thinking in some form or another. So what’s new about CT courses?– Connections: Helping our students situate critical

thinking within a discipline, especially in lower division courses, so they can make connections to other disciplines

– Early Immersion: Capitalizing on opportunities to practice critical thinking through active rather than passive learning, where students have opportunities to DO as well as to OBSERVE

For our students

expertise often means

to study

which equals a way of KNOWING

For professionals in the field


to study

which equals a way of KNOWING

BUT . . .

AND . . .



to cultivate a certain habit of mind

which equals a way of SEEING

AND . . .



to acquire a certain set of practices

which equals a way of DOING

Seeing . . .

the discipline as a structure of knowledge

then backing up further to see

the deep structures of inquiry

that connect the disciplines

Salvador Dali, 1976Gala looking at the Mediterranean Sea which at a distance of 20 meters is transformed into the portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko)

The Meta View of General Education

• Peruse the maps of your colleagues

• Look for deep structures of inquiry and

knowledge making that may link or

permeate more than one concept

map

• Jot down your observations

Teaching Habits of Mind

using . . .

discipline-specific concept maps

& integrative inquiry maps

– Instructional strategies? TLA = T + L + A


using . . .

objects as themselves

& objects as metaphor

Changing contexts of “production”

1998, anthology1981, pamphlet1981, toilet paper

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/sands/sands81.jpg

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/sands/sands81.jpg

Changing contexts of

“production”

JUXTAPOSITION of form and content

• A literary “narrative” is not real.

(It’s fiction!)

• A literary narrative is not unreal.

(It’s material--made of ink, glue,

paper.)


using . . .

objects as themselves

atoms, books, photons, words, children,

terrain, cells, geological formations,

shards, families, kidneys, ideas.



using . . .

objects as metaphors


Doing. . .

the work of the discipline as a “professional”

then backing up further to see

where the skills in a gen ed discipline

connect to the major

Doing. . .

The Big Secret

Teaching a Set of Practices

What discipline-specific performance

tasks do professionals in your field

regularly engage in?


using . . .

performance tasks in the classroom

• CLA in the Classroom

• Problem Based Learning

• Case Based Learning

• Gaming

• Service Learning


using . . .

instructor modeling

student doing

Reading Like a Literary Scholar:Secondary TextsArmstrong, Nancy. Fiction in the Age of Photography: The Legacy of British Realism. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1999.

The Difference That Realism Makes

That Oliver Twist does not refer to a world in which truth takes a visual form is apparent in the protagonist’s

first view of the city:

A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy; and the air was impregnated with

filthy odours. There were a good many small shops; but the only stock in trade appeared to be heaps of children, who, even at

that time of night, were crawling in and out at the doors, or screaming from the inside. The sole places that seemed to prosper,

amid the general blight of the place, were the public-houses; and in them the lowest orders of Irish were wrangling with might and

main. Covered ways and yards, which here and there diverged from the main street, disclosed little knots of houses, where

drunken men and women were positively wallowing in the filth; and from several of the doorways, great ill-looking fellows were

cautiously emerging: bound, to all appearance, on no very well-disposed or harmless errands. (49)

Everything in this city is identical to its type. Indeed, it is by means of the continuity ensured by

repetition of the type that things and people come to have identity as such, as Dickens here compresses the

kind of information available in treatises on the moral condition of the working classes for his reader’s

benefit. This passage offers as much auditory and olfactory information as visual description, as if one kind

of information (“filthy odours”) can do as well as any other (“heaps of children . . . crawling in and out at

the doors, or screaming from the inside”). This description is not, in other words, particularly visual.

Although he easily conjures up a picture, Dickens feels no inclination to supply colors, textures, or shades

of light and dark.

• A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy; and the air was impregnated with filthy odours. There were a good many small shops; but the only stock in trade appeared to be heaps of children, who, even at that time of night, were crawling in and out at the doors, or screaming from the inside. The sole places that seemed to prosper, amid the general blight of the place, were the public-houses; and in them the lowest orders of Irish were wrangling with might and main. Covered ways and yards, which here and there diverged from the main street, disclosed little knots of houses, where drunken men and women were positively wallowing in the filth; and from several of the doorways, great ill-looking fellows were cautiously emerging: bound, to all appearance, on no very well-disposed or harmless errands. (49)

Reading Like a Literary Scholar:Primary Texts


using . . .

performance tasks

instructor modeling & student doing

• Instructional strategies? TLA = T + L + A

The Unbearable Lightness of “CT”-ness

• Integration of Gen Ed (connections)

• University Learning Outcomes

(authentic immersion)

Integration of Gen Ed: Core II

• Math

• Composition

• Communication

• Science

• Social Science

• Humanities

• Fine Arts

Integration of Gen Ed: Core II

• Introduce your students to the Core

Curriculum and situate your CT course

in the context of different disciplines

• Further developments/thoughts on

concept mapping?

• Other ideas?

University Learning Outcomes

• Communication Fluency

• Creative Thinking

• Ethical and Civic Thinking

• Information Literacy

• Inquiry Based Thinking

• Integrative Thinking

• Intercultural Thinking

• Metacognitive Thinking

• Quantitative Thinking

•recall

know

•use

apply

•explain

understand

•analyze

analyze

•assess

evaluate• integrate

create

University Learning Outcomes

Run a learning outcomes diagnostic

• the connections activities (anatomy

of the disciplines)

• the immersion activities (teacher-modeling and student-doing)

The Rubik’s Cube of Course Design

New in Box

Learning Outcomes

Teaching & Learning Activities

Assessments

Manipulating the Cube

Learning Outcomes


Assessments

• Basic knowledge of GIS terminology

• Skill in mapping local topography

• Exam: multiple ch. & simulation question• Lecture

• Discussion

Move #1: First Look

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion

Move #1: Second Look

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion

Move #1: Third Look

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion

Move #2

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion

Move #3: Yay!! We’ve solved

it!

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion

Move #4

Learning Outcomes


Assessments




• Discussion• Field work• Hands-on

programming

Move #4: Second Look

Learning Outcomes


Assessments



• Exam: multiple ch. & simulation question

• Computer file of a GIS map

• Lecture• Discussion• Field work• Hands-on

programming

D. Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, 2003.

From technique to strategy

Think globally about your course. How might you package and present these learning activities strategically?

– Over time?

– In a certain sequence?

– More than once?

Strategic goals:

– to demystify your discipline (knowing, seeing, doing)

– to help your students make connections between disciplines

Syllabus P’s and Q’s

The course title should be written like so:

SOC 200: Introduction to Sociology (CT)

The course description should indicate that this course is a critical thinking course and that it meets a Core I “CT” requirement. (If it meets a Core II requirement too, note that as well.)

Include a list of discipline-specific learning outcomes that you may already have, plus the CORE Learning Outcomes selected for your course.

Use the Master Syllabus Template.

“Completion” of the workshop

• Minor: Submission of draft syllabus

• Major: Submission of course

architecture (the invisible overlay that

drives the decisions you make about

outcomes, TLA’s, assessments, and the

order in which you proceed). See

emailed questionnaire.