Critical Thinking in Every Classroom

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Critical Thinking in Every Classroom

• Vocabulary Across the Curriculum

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Background The QEP
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• Enhance critical thinking skills in all courses
  and programs

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Why?
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• In 2005, LFCC benchmark scores were lower than
  those of VCCS counterparts for questions on the
  CCSSE related to critical thinking. In addition,
  in 2006, LFCC students scored below VCCS peers
  for critical thinking on the CCTST.

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A Closer Look at the CCSSE
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• Analyzing the basic elements of an idea,
  experience, or theory
• Synthesizing and organizing ideas, information,
  or experiences in new ways
• Making judgments about the value of soundness of
  information, arguments, or methods
• Applying theories or concepts to practical
  problems or in new situations
• Using information you have read or heard to
  perform a new skill

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Student Responses
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• Students responding Some or Very little
• Analyzing 40
• Synthesizing/organizing 47
• Making judgments 53
• Applying theories 53
• Using information to perform a new skill
• 47

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A Conundrum
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• Nearly 50 of our students report that they are
  NOT doing critical thinking activities much in
  their classes.
• Faculty, however, report that they are indeed
  doing these sorts of critical thinking exercises!

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Whats Going On?
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• This was a sampling issue
• These students werent paying attention to the
  question
• These students just dont get it
• These students didnt understand the questions
• These students didnt match what was asked in the
  question with what they have experienced in the
  classroom because they didnt know the vocabulary
  in the questions

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CT Talk Vocabulary of CT
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• Take a look at the key words derived from the
  CCSSE questions, the LFCC definition of CT, and
  the VCCS critical thinking learning outcomes.
• How would you describe this vocabulary set?
• Do your students regularly use this vocabulary or
  part of it? Explain.
• Are there words on this list which your students
  probably dont know or dont use? Which ones?

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A Proposal
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Vocabulary Across the Curriculum What would
happen if a. Teachers in all disciplines used
CT vocabulary in their course outcomes and
syllabi? b. Teachers in all disciplines
regularly connected content, discussion, and
activities to CT vocabulary? c. Teachers created
a context for students to use CT vocabulary as
part of their courses? d. Students were given
feedback explicitly related to their use of
academic vocabulary?
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Possible Answers?

• CCSSE scores might improve?
• Overall language ability might improve?
• Why? (The Academic Word List http//language.mass
  ey.ac.nz/staff/awl/sublists.shtml)
• Critical thinking itself might improve?

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Sample Activity

• Analytical Summaries
• Require SAYING statement (i.e., say that a
  complete sentence which captures the thesis or
  main ideas of a text)
• Require DOING statements (CT words such as
  evaluate, justify, analyze, compare, apply, etc.)

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Example
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• In the essay Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian,
  by Laura Fraser, she discusses how she was a
  vegetarian and animal rights activists for
  fifteen years, until the one day that she decided
  to try a roasted chicken with a friend. Fraser
  discussed how she looked at being a vegetarian
  meant that she was going to be skinner and have
  better cholesterol, but it didnt work out that
  way for her. Another flaw that she ran into was
  the animal rights part and the fact that she
  didnt exactly agree with a good portion of it,
  she would talk her way around eating something
  that was an animal by product or even eating
  fish. After trying to follow this for fifteen
  years, she decided to try some chicken with a
  friend making her realize all that she had been
  missing out on with eating meat and also how rude
  she was to people when they tried to serve her
  meat at a party or gathering Fraser saw what a
  huge incontinence she was to so many people
  particularly her friends

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Successful summary
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• In her essay, Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian,
  Laura Fraser explains why she abandoned
  vegetarianism after 15 years. Fraser says that
  her initial reasons for adopting a meat-free diet
  were cost and the need for a recognizable social
  identity, and she implies that neither reason was
  sufficient for maintaining the diet. Fraser next
  summarizes three key arguments for vegetarianism
  (health, animal rights, and the environment), and
  she evaluates each one in light of her own
  experience to determine that none is valid for
  her. Finally, Fraser argues that humans are
  designed for meat, that meat tastes good, and
  that a vegetarian lifestyle may lead to
  anti-social behavior.

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Extending the Vocabulary
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• In peer review, students summarize essays written
  by their peers.
• In follow-up exercises, students summarize their
  own essays.
• Students list what must be done to answer a test
  question successfully.
• Students explain why some papers were successful
  and others werent, using CT vocabulary.

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Other Suggestions?
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• How do you use learning outcome statements in
  your classes, beyond including them in the
  syllabus?
• What are ways you model CT vocabulary for your
  students?
• What are ways you provide a context for students
  to use CT vocabulary?

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Key Thoughts
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• So critical thinking is valuable, rare, and hard
  to teach (Van Gelder, 2001).
• How can I know what I think till I see what I
  say? (E. M Forster).
• But if thought corrupts language, language can
  also corrupt thought (Orwell).

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Acquiring CT Vocabulary
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So what?
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• When we think, whatever else were doing, were
  constructing a future.
• (IBM Website)
• Miriam Moore
• Associate Professor of English/ESL
• Middletown 126G
• 540-868-7173
• mmoore2_at_lfcc.edu

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Lord Fairfax Community College Your Future. Our
Focus.