The Audacity of EASy

Lisa Chamberlin and Kay LehmannTwitter hashtag for this presentation - #easy2010

Unless otherwise noted

Consider this scenario

• Paper submitted by student is plagiarized

• Whose fault is this? • A. The student’s of course• B. The professor’s fault• C. Both

What is EASy• Original Bloom’s order (Anyone…?

Anyone?)• Audaciously we suggest it should

be:• Evaluate• Analyze• Synthesize

Cognitive Domain Hierarchy

Bloom’s original hierarchy

Evaluation became synonymous with testing.

Targeting Upper Levels

• Krathwohl et.al added Create

DefinitionsBloom’s

• Synthesize

• Analyze

• Evaluate

Our Order

• Evaluate

• Analyze

• Synthesize

The Aha! Moment

• Critical thinking process• What did we want

students to do and in what order

• SAE became EASy

EASy Examples• Nursing education to teach teamwork

• Before – Teams drove remote control cars• After – Teams analyzed medical cases for breakdown

by teams and what optimum teams would do

• Business training to handle personal biases• Before – Watch a video and reflect• After – Read, watch video, discuss, take an inventory,

create personal action plans for recognizing and dealing with bias, share plans with peers and revise

• HTML training• Before – Handout with matching exercise• After – Create a page using HTML tags based on

teacher’s design

More EASy Examples• Social Studies – Native American cultures

• Before – Discuss characteristics of dif. tribes• After – Create an advertising campaign highlighting tribal

char. invite Europeans to join their culture.

• Organizational change – Business education• Before - Discuss collaboration and what makes it effective• After - Develop with peers list of effective collaboration

practices, collaboratively order the list, create an action plan to increase effective collaboration in an org

• Literature – Analyzing a character - Hamlet • Evaluate - Discuss Hamlet’s sanity using quotes from the lit

and basic psychology diagnoses• Analyze - Analyze Hamlet from 4 other char perspective• Synthesize - Develop a treatment plan appropriate for the

literary character

Does it work?

• Data is anecdotal• Student reflective

commentsI am glad that I had to go through the steps. It seems obvious that in order for a student to be able to synthesize that there are steps before that. But I know that I and many other educators ask students to do this without the necessary and preparatory information they need. To see this on paper, in plain sight, was helpful. It was also a bit daunting because I know there are other areas of this course that I need to revise in the same way.

– Graduate Education Student

The EASy Critical Thinking method -- I spent so much time on this, but learned so much at the same time. I probably elaborated more than I needed to on my new lesson plan, but somehow I could not help myself. When I was done and writing the synopsis of things that changed from my old to new lesson plan, I realized how much more engaging it would be for students to participate in my new and improved lesson plan. I can see where it fosters so much more critical thinking when compared to my traditional lesson plan. It makes me want to change all my lessons.

- University Instructor

Examples from audience

• Discuss in groups• Share ideas • Ask questions

Printable Takeaway - http://tw0.us/Dje

EASy Website: http://tw0.us/Djc

EASy and other tips are in Making the Move to eLearning: Putting your Course Online

Available now on Amazon.com and at Rowman Education (www.rowmaneducation.com)