Assessment
Although the Critical Thinking through Writing requirement does not officially take affect until fall 2009, the Undergraduate Assessment Committee has asked departments to begin reporting on preliminary findings. Most departments piloted their CTW courses in some capacity during the 2008/2009 academic year, and ambassadors from all departments are required to post an annual report for the 2008/2009 year. CTW annual reports are due May 29th and should be entered into the CTW content management system. For more information on the Content Management System, click here. For a list of review criteria the Undergraduate Assessment Committee will apply to the CTW reviews, click here.
While the university has not yet reviewed the Critical Thinking through Writing postings, below, you will find some of our current thoughts on the initiative and our plans for developing it as it continues at GSU.
Critical Thinking through Writing (CTW) Assessment Issues
Scholarly Community as the Context for CTW Courses:
At its core, the assessment of student learning in CTW courses is anchored in the scholarly communities of our university, our disciplines and departments, and our courses. The University defines critical thinking as "a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims; to discover and overcome personal prejudices; to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do." (Bassham, G., Irwin, W. Nordone, H., & Wallace, J., 2005. Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill, page 1.).
Our scholarly disciplines define for us the content which is used for critical thinking, the genre of critical thinking that is applied, and nature of the outcomes that are produced, e.g., scientific method, argumentation, thesis-driven research paper, a problem-solving analysis, reflective practice evaluation, etc. In each example, elements of the University's adopted definition would be employed, although with varying emphasis and application.
We develop, with our colleagues, a shared vision for what students should learn in our program and individual courses. From these multiple contexts we address the following assessment questions:
1. Can our students demonstrate the kind of critical thinking skills expected by our disciplines?
- What are the manifestations of critical thinking in my discipline?
- What are the writing tasks that would demonstrate critical thinking?
- Do my colleagues agree on what student work represents acceptable critical thinking and acceptable writing?
- Do we communicate our expectations to our students?
2. Are CTW courses improving the level of critical thinking and writing skills? How are we measuring the improvement? What data best exemplifies the improvement?
3. Are programs using the assessment results to improve student learning? What evidence can programs provide to illustrate changes in pedagogical techniques, assignments, rubrics, and/or other mechanisms for improvement based on their new understanding of student learning?
