Thinking Critically about Critical

ThinkingJun 26, 20159:00 am – 2:30 pmUCEN-107

Special Guests: Julie Stein, CSU East Bay

Gregory Maximilian Aisemberg, COC Philosophy

Andy McCutcheonRebecca Eikey

Goals

What value do Institutional Learning Outcomes have?

Why develop measurements for the ILOs?

What is Critical Thinking?

What would a Critical Thinking Rubric for COC look like?

How do rubrics support student learning?

COC Mission

As an innovative institution of excellence, College of the Canyons offers an accessible, enriching education that provides students with essential academic skills and prepares students for transfer education, workforce-skills development, and the attainment of learning outcomes corresponding to their educational goals. To fulfill its mission, College of the Canyons embraces diversity, fosters technical competencies, supports the development of global responsibility, and engages students and the community in scholarly inquiry, creative partnerships, and the application of knowledge.

“A collaboration between educators,

students, policymakers, and

business and community leaders.”

How is the Workplace Changing?“Human work will increasingly shift toward two kinds of tasks:

• solving problems for which standard operating procedures do not currently exist,

• and working with new information—acquiring it, making sense of it, communicating it to others….” Frank Levy and Richard Murnane, “Dancing with Robots” (2013)

Learning Agility

The LEAP Initiative Promotes

• Essential Learning OutcomesA Guiding Vision and National Benchmarks for College Learning and Liberal Education in the 21st Century

• High Impact PracticesHelping Students Achieve the Essential Learning Outcomes

• Authentic Assessments of Student LearningProbing Whether Students Can APPLY Their Learning – to Complex Problems and Real-World Challenges

• Seven Principles of Excellence, including InclusivenessDiversity, Equity, Quality of Learning for All Groups of Students

Goal: Raise Quality of Education

Large-scale collaboration

Transformational change

Educational alignment

California State University system (2011)

Narrow Learning is Not Enough

Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural WorldFocused on engagement with big questions, enduring and contemporary

Intellectual and Practical SkillsPracticed extensively across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance

Personal and Social ResponsibilityAnchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges

Integrative and Applied LearningDemonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems

The Essential Learning Outcomes

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Overview of ILO Development at CSU East Bay

2010 2012

Development ofInstitutional

Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

2013 20142011

ILO Adoption

Blackboard Outcomes

Implementation

Campus-Wide

Assessment Critical

Thinking

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The California State University East Bay Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) express a shared, campus-wide articulation of expectations for all degree recipients. Graduates of CSUEB will be able to:

think critically and creatively and apply analytical and quantitative reasoning to address complex challenges and everyday problems;

communicate ideas, perspectives, and values clearly and persuasively while listening openly to others;

apply knowledge of diversity and multicultural competencies to promote equity and social justice in our communities;

work collaboratively and respectfully as members and leaders of diverse teams and communities;

act responsibly and sustainably at local, national, and global levels;

demonstrate expertise and integration of ideas, methods, theory and practice in a specialized discipline of study.

Overview of ILO Development at CSU East Bay

Outcomes Build Upon Each Other

Proposed Six ILOs1. Effective Communication2. Critical Thinking 3. Working with Others4. Information Literacy5. Quantitative Literacy6. Community Engagement

Institutional

Program, Degree,

Certificate

Course Outcomes

COC ILO Survey Results

In General - Average Response Rate for Email Surveys = 24.8%

 Response

s

Invited to Participat

e

Response Rate

Overall 122 844 15%

Adjunct Faculty 64 595 11%

Full-Time Faculty 37 179 21%

College Planning Team

6 22 27%

Division Deans 4 7 57%

Learning Resources

6 8 75%

Student Services 5 16 31%

COC ILO Survey Results

Survey Prompt ResponseFamiliar with proposed ILOs? 44% = yes

56% = not

Satisfaction with proposed ILOs? ~70% = satisfied or very satisfied

Agreement that ILOs reflect COC?

~80% = agree or strongly agree

Consider remaining categories? ~20% = yes

Areas missing in the ILOs? ~15% = yes

Activity: Ranking of ILOs

Working as individuals

Rank the proposed ILOs according to importance.

Where 1 = most important and 8 = least important.

ILO Activity – Definitions

Working in teams on definitions of ILO Each group will have a definition of a proposed ILO Edit/refine the definition and post into Discussion Board in

Bb Present to entire group

Debrief

Break

Break11:00 am -11:10 am

How Rubrics Measure Student Attainment of Outcomes

A rubric is a faculty-developed scoring guide for use in assessing student work along specific dimensions. It contains a set of criteria specifying the characteristics of a learning outcome (e.g. the ILO) and the levels of achievement for each characteristic.

Level of achievement

Criteria

How Rubrics Measure Student Attainment of Outcomes

Articulates what learning faculty want their students to achieve actually looks like

Helps clarify “fuzzy” outcomes: e.g. “demonstrate effective critical thinking”

Can measure virtually any student work (e.g. paper, e-portfolio, project, audio or video presentation, performance, blog, etc.)

Helps students: clear expectations, specific feedback, better potential future performance

The Difference Between Course Grading, PLO Assessment and ILO Assessment

SLO PLO ILOWho designs the assessment(s)?

What is purpose?

Assessment affects student grade?

What happens with the results?

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The Development of the

Critical Thinking Rubric at CSU East Bay

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The Development of the Critical Thinking Rubric at CSU East Bay

Results and Faculty Response

Improved student learning when students were provided with a rubric

Recognition of the value of involving faculty in all steps of the process

Reinforcement of the importance of designing well-crafted, meaningful assignments with clear, carefully crafted prompts

Concern about the applicability of one rubric across disciplines

“During the course of the critical thinking rubric project, the quality of work submitted by the students was much higher than in quarters past. I also feel that the rubric helped me to grade the papers more consistently and helped me to hold the students to a higher standard, which helps them to reach higher levels of achievement in their future courses.”

Hospitality, Recreation, & Tourism faculty

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

As part of its VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) project, AAC&U worked with faculty and other academic and student affairs professionals in an exhaustive process of gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and drafting institutional-level rubrics for the Essential Learning Outcomes.

32,729 individuals participated in consortia approach

5661 institutions use the VALUE rubrics

VALUE Rubrics

• Contain the most common and broadly shared criteria or core characteristics considered critical for judging the quality of student work in that outcome area.

• Reflect faculty expectations for essential learning across the nation regardless of type of institution, mission, size or location.

Faculty Activity & Debrief

Goal:

Develop a Critical Thinking Rubric using AAC&U’s as a staring point.

Write changes on CT Rubric Posters.

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How Rubrics Support Assignments and Help Deepen Student Learning

At what levels can rubrics be used?

To evaluate student work demonstrating a particular student learning outcome (SLO) = individual faculty member use in grading

To assess selected student work demonstrating a particular program learning outcome (PLO)=program faculty use for curriculum improvement

To assess selected student work demonstrating a particular institutional learning outcome (ILO)=university faculty committee use for institution-wide assessment

How Rubrics Support Assignments and Help Deepen Student Learning

For faculty, rubrics: Can be developed and measure virtually any student work (e.g. paper,

project, audio or video presentation, performance, e-portfolio, blog, etc.) Provide a clearer picture of strengths and weaknesses across a class Can make faculty life easier and grading more consistent, accurate, and

unbiased Reduce the time spent grading by referring to substantive quality

descriptors, without writing long comments

For students, rubrics: help to better understand faculty expectations and standards; this can

result in reduced anxiety and improved learning Monitor progress as they work towards clearly indicated goals Use instructor feedback to improve their performance Discourage arguments about grading practices

Activity: Critical Thinking Assignments

Peer-Review & Sharing Working with a partner share your example of a Critical

Thinking Assignment. Explain to your partner why you chose this assignment as

an example of Critical Thinking. How does this assignment demonstrate Critical Thinking? Identify two specific terms from the VALUE Rubric that this

assignment addresses. Would you change any elements of the assignment or the

value Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric?

Report out

Signature Assignment Update

How might Signature Assignments help strengthen connections between course level SLOs and ILOs?

For those who have used Signature Assignments, How has it gone? Best advice to share? Did you use your own rubric? Would you consider modifying a VALUE Rubric? Plans for the future?

Signature Assignment Examples

Pan’s Labyrinth https://pathbrite.com/portfolio/PbqH9cPV49/4-multimodal-project

eMolecule http://morphinemadness.weebly.com/ or http://jinlutchmanemoleculeproject.weebly.com/ or

Identify some golden nuggets you have learned today.Share with a neighbor and then we will report out.

Questions?

Next Steps

Revision of ILO descriptions

Revision of ILO Rubrics

Additional feedback Survey Disciplinary experts

Use of ePortfolioshttp://facultyeportfolioresource.weebly.com/eportfolio-examples-to-show-your-students.html