How do you measure Critical Thinking in your classroom?

Determine improvement in students’ critical thinking skills using the multiple measures.

●These include standardised instruments, authentic assessments, and indirect methods.

●Before we can measure Critical Thinking…

we need to understand what it looks like.

Didactic instruction where students are presented with factual information from a text book

●Assessment is primarily multiple choice items where students are expected to regurgitate factual information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITmxpe5wjJo

Interactive learning environment where students not only learn facts but the relationship between the facts and the application of that information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKnZc-MJbTE

●Authentic assessment where students are able to model the applications of the discipline through simulations, projects, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrK2mg9h7kE

●Authentic assessments serve dual purposes of

●encouraging students to think critically and

●providing assessment data for measuring improved student learning.

●These assessment techniques fall into three general categories:

●criterion-referenced rubrics,

●student reports (reflection or self-assessments), and

●student portfolios.

SPC developed a multi-measure model to assess critical thinking skills, which includes a critical thinking rubric.

●Assessment Rubric for Critical Thinking (ARC)

●A global rubric template developed to provide a snapshot view of how student learning is being affected by the critical thinking initiative.

Designed to be flexible enough to address a number of student project modalities including written and oral communications.

●Will evaluate the student’s use of critical thinking skills in the development of the paper as opposed to specifically evaluating the quality of student’s writing skills.