Unit 5 Teaching for Critical Thinking and Assessment

Overview

Critical thinking is helpfully defined by Richard Paul (1992):

“Thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better. Two things are crucial: 1. critical thinking is not just thinking, but thinking which entails self-improvement and 2. this improvement comes from skill in using standards by which one appropriately assesses thinking. To put it briefly, it is self-improvement (in thinking) through standards (that assess thinking).”

In this unit you will explore the significance of critical thinking in graduate studies, in adult learning and in life. With this foundational understanding of why it matters, you will then explore techniques for fostering critical thinking as an adult educator.

Topics

Critical Thinking in Graduate Studies
Critical Thinking in Adult Learning and Life
Techniques for Fostering Critical Thinking
Teaching for Assessment

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit you should be able to:

Define critical thinking.
Explain the significance of critical thinking in adult learning and in graduate studies.
Analyze and discern which methods foster critical thinking and lead learners to new perspectives and learning.
Describe the difference between formative and summative assessment.
Choose appropriate assessment methods for your learning activities.

Activity Checklist

Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.

Learning Activities

Go the Foundation of Critical Thinking website and read 3-4 of the 5 linked articles.
Read the article: Develop as rational persons: Viewing our development in stages and determine which stage you are at in your rational development.
Read Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. Chapter 2.
Watch videos on critical thinking.
Read Silberman & Biech (2015) chapters 11-15 and answer the focus questions listed in the activity.
Read Lindstrom, G., Taylor, L & Weleschuk, A. (2017). Guiding Principles for Assessment.
Review Silberman chapters 15 and 17 and review 50 CATS by Angelo and Cross: Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills.

Assessment

Unit 5 Discussion Post
Reading Response Assignment

Learning Cafe

Before you continue on to Unit 4, take a couple minutes to connect with other learners in the Learning Cafe. This week, use the following prompt to get a new conversation going: If you received $5,000 as a gift, how would you spend it?

Resources

Here are the resources you will need to complete this unit:

Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Silberman, M. L., & Biech, E. (2015). Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips. (4^th ed.) Wiley.
Other online resources will be provided in the unit, or can be accessed through the TWU Library.

5.1 Critical Thinking in Graduate Studies

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In graduate studies you are expected to think critically, analyze the assertions of others and propose your own ideas based on reasoned evidence and your phronesis. The currency of graduate level studies is peer reviewed journal publications. Citing journals is preferred to citing websites or newspapers. Your professors will be able to recommend the journals most prestigious and appropriate in their discipline. Peer reviewed journals:

are the principal means through which knowledge is advanced;
differ from articles published in newspapers and magazines and from chapters published in books;
are based on evidence and research (whereas articles in newspapers and magazines often express opinions – with generally meager rationale or evidence);
are sometimes difficult to read due to jargon; and
sometimes have weak implications for policy or practice which can limit the good that leaders can gain from reading journals.

Here are four good reasons to read journal articles (adapted from Chong, 2015):

At some point, students should have firsthand exposure to journal articles.
- Journals are where the vast majority of researchers report their procedures, findings and limitations.
- In order to understand where new ideas come from, and how fields advance or not, students, especially graduate level students must venture into scholarly journals.
- To encounter social science only through textbooks seems comparable to an English student learning about literature only by reading Coles or Cliff notes or by watching the movie.
Learning to evaluate journal articles can make you a better researcher.
- If you become a critical consumer of research, then you can find weaknesses in the existing literature. This is useful for interrogating one’s own work as well as the work of others. You can then pursue your projects with more confidence.
Learning to evaluate journal articles can be useful for a variety of careers.
- Do we want our doctors to stop learning the moment they leave medical school? No!
- We need to engage in continuous education and attempt to stay current on research that pertains to our jobs and responsibilities.
- Knowledge is power and also a responsibility. Servant leaders want the best for the people they lead.
Learning to evaluate journal articles might prove useful whenever you want greater insight into your life or the world around you.
- Reading the relevant literature can give you a much deeper and more nuanced perspective on social life compared to what is found in ordinary conversation.
- This can make you more intelligent and give you interesting things to contribute the next time the subject comes up.
- You will be able to provide a calmer and thoughtful voice with less judgment and more nuances.

How does a grad student use critical thinking with peer-reviewed journals? If they have been ‘approved’ and published, how can a person ‘critique’ them? Isn’t that intellectually presumptuous? These articles are written by experts in the field, but when you read them, know that:

Authors make decisions about what to include.
Authors contradict other authors.
Authors neglect to mention information.
There are differences in their theoretical orientations, definitions, measurement strategies, and findings.
Authors use information selectively and sometimes misleadingly.
Sometimes authors neglect to define terms.
Sometimes there are ambiguities in terms.
Sometimes articles define terms differently.
Sometimes authors implicitly define terms.

Use your critical thinking as you’re reading and ask:

Are there some important concepts that they authors could have defined but didn’t?
Did the writer fail to include some research you’ve read about in another article in favour or highlighting research that supports their findings?
Can I find a quote where the authors tried to explicitly or implicitly define one or two key concepts?
Can I provide a concrete example that supports or contradicts the author’s definition of terms?
Are there ethical implications with respect to the methodology or findings?
Does the writer have a political agenda? (Who funded the study? What is the writer’s implicit or stated bias?)
Does the structure of the article support the thesis clearly and logically?
Does the article contain a section that outlines and reviews revious studies on this topic?
If the author explained procedures that were followed, are these lear enough that they could be repeated and get similar results?
How can I compare and contrast varying theoretical perspectives on he topic?
Is it possible to show how approaches to the topic have changed over time?
How does what I’m reading intersect with policies and procedures n my field?
Are there biases or stereotypes represented in what I’m reading?

In order to get a good sense of a topic, the following recommended process inspired by the work of Chong (2015) and Goodson (2013) may be helpful:

Do an initial search of recommended databases and find all the ‘hits’ from your key word searches. For example, go to the TWU Library Website
- Under ‘Research’ click on ‘Articles (Databases)’. You will see all the disciplines and databases available to TWU students. You will need to be logged in to the Library to access these as these are subscriptions that we have as a university. To do a key word search for example, choose a database and search for “Teaching in China”.
Read the abstracts of these hits and move the articles that have potential value to your research questions into a file on your computer.
Now narrow down those articles to the top 12-15 articles most relevant to your research.
Once you have about 12-15 good peer-reviewed articles, you are ready to read.
Read all the articles and highlight relevant information, make notes in the margins etc. Look for themes, contradictions, and interesting quotes.
Once you’ve read all the articles, you can make a rough outline or plan for your paper and then start writing your paper.
Be careful not to over-quote, paraphrase and use your own thinking and ideas about how what the writers are saying applies to your particular context. To decide whether or not to quote, consider: If the words are strikingly original or express your key concepts so compellingly that the quotation can frame an extended discussion; if the passage states a view that you disagree with, and to be fair you want to quote it exactly; if the words are from an authority who backs up your claims. This is critical thinking!
Remember, critical thinking means that when you are writing your papers you are not merely reporting the related literature. You are expected to evaluate, organize, synthesize what others have done and also to think about the implications for your practice, in your context.

You learn critical thinking through the practice of thinking critically. It is helpful to reflect on Brazilian philosopher, Rubem Alves (1979), who comments that everything is interpretation:

“Language functions as a mediation tool between humans and their world. As humans, we don’t contemplate reality face to face. Since birth, things in our world don’t come to us in their naked form, but always dressed up in the names our community has given them. This community has already defined how and what the world is like and, therefore, already knows it (the world). This knowledge of the world is crystallized in our language. Language, therefore, is not a copy of objects and facts. Language is always interpretation” (cited in Goodson 2013, p.47).

Eventually you will be able to engage in the demanding tasks of academic thinking and writing with less effortful analysis or deliberation. However, it is through the effort and struggle that you’ll improve so stay with it. Welcome to the academe!

Activity: Web Resource

Go the Foundation of Critical Thinking website

Read the introduction addressed to college and university students and then select 3-4 of the following articles to read:

These are aids to that you may wish to refer back to in your graduate studies journey. You may want to bookmark the page.

Activity: Read & Reflect

Read the article: Develop as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Development in Stages and determine which stage you are at in your rational development.

Figuring out which stage we are at can help us “to think less egocentrically and irrationally in our personal lives. If we can understand where we are in our own development, if we can envision a series of stages through which we can imagine ourselves moving, we will be more likely to develop along those lines. If we can more concretely and realistically conceptualize how to go about acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions which characterize highly developed critical thinkers, then, we will more effectively gain that knowledge and acquire those skills and dispositions.”

5.2 Critical Thinking in Adult Learning and Life

Brookfield discusses three parts to a typical critical thinking sequence:

Modeling
Scenario Analysis
Critical Conversation Protocol

In your reading of Brookfield’s Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults, pay particular attention to p. 37 and the “disorienting dilemma” or moving people beyond their “zone of proximal development.” The effective adult educator is meant to create these moments of dissonance to lead the learner to new perspectives and learning. Think about how you can do this in the adult learning design you will create for your Lesson Assignment.

In regards to modeling critical thinking, Brookfield speaks to the significance of “spatial difference:” the act, by the instructor, of speaking from a different perspective when situated in a different area of the room. Critical thinking encourages considering alternate perspectives than your own. When the instructor engages in spatial difference, he or she is modeling taking in and taking on a perspective other than their own.

Wang (2017) outlines how learning is socially constructed which corresponds beautifully with Silberman and the many methods suggested for adults to learn in collaboration. In the MA Lead we have a Community of Practice whereby all alum and current students are invited to a learning event three times a year with the intention of sharing practice, learning from each other and building relationships. Because all participants have communal understandings gathered from their participation in the program, they have shared stories and practices and a similar way of viewing the world within a social context. An important concept is that learning “is not merely influenced by social context… but shaped by the extent of participant engagement in practice” (Wang, 2017, p. 120).

Activity: Read & Reflect

Read Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. Chapter 2.

Focus on the parts of a critical thinking sequence, the importance of a “disorienting dilemma” and some of the strategies Brookfield recommends. Take note of any ideas that you could use in your learning design assignment.

Activity: Video Resources

View a video of Brookfield giving a one hour lecture on critical thinking. Pay attention to the reasons for the importance of critical thinking he introduces as well as the strategies you might engage in your context. Take note of these.

Watch: Stephen Brookfield on Creative & Critical Thinking

Next, watch two short videos about critical thinking in life and work contexts:

Video of author, professional speaker and entrepreneur Mark Sanborn (2 minutes).

Watch: The Importance of Critical Thinking

Video of author, professional speaker, executive coach and consultant Mark Sikora (2 minutes).

Watch: Thinking Like a Leader: Critical Thinking Skills and Decision Making for Leaders

Note what resonates for you.

5.3 Techniques for Fostering Critical Thinking

If we as adult educators are going to help adults learn, we need to acknowledge that life itself is the main learning event (Wang, p. 127). In order to foster learning, we need to establish a sort of cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Vygotsky, 1991) by employing techniques that make our thinking visible to our learners and also help make their thinking visible to us. Creating interactive learning environments including observational and collaborative methods is key to effective adult learning and enhancement of self-efficacy.

The design of this course is predicated on the following beliefs about adult learning that place a primary emphasis on the role of critical thinking. I hope you too will appropriate these principles for your own practice (Brookfield, 2013; Knowles, 1970; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999; Schon, 1983; Vygotsky, 1978):

Adults are self-directed and self-motivated. This does not mean that adults learn in isolation but that they are in charge of their own learning and held accountable.
Adults have prior experiences that are rich resources for learning. The adult learner integrates new learning into what they already know.
Adults appreciate the application of theory ‘in the real world’.
Adults are responsible for their own learning and exhibit behaviors of an individual ready and wanting to learn.
As an expert in the field, the instructor is a facilitator of learning – not a ‘sage on the stage’ but a ‘guide on the side’.
Assignments are designed to challenge the learner, build upon concepts and encourage reflection on experience.
Adults collaborate and support one another in their learning rather than compete. Everyone is capable of doing well.
Self-reflection, dialogue, writing and collaborative small group work are essential in sense-making and learning. Rote memory and lecture are deemphasized.

Silberman and Biech (2015) outline many helpful adult learning methods. As Silberman says, “Preparation is one of the most important ingredients for success” (p. 207). He goes on to explain how to gain credibility as a trainer by setting group norms, eliminating time wasters, being able to getting the group’s attention, winning over wary participants and managing difficult behaviors (p. 208). More details and specific strategies are recommended in chapters 11-15.

Activity: Read & Reflect

Read Silberman & Biech (2015) chapters 11-15 and focus your attention on the following key questions for each chapter:

Chapter 11 – What are the four ways to establish rapport with participants and get training off to a good start?
Chapter 12 – How can you foster group norms and facilitate effectively?
Chapter 13 – What impact do your facilitation behaviors make?
Chapter 14 – How can you motivate participants and get buy in?
Chapter 15 – How can you best review content and wrap up sessions?

5.4 Teaching for Assessment

Adults are self-directed and self-motivated. This does not mean that adults learn in isolation but that they are in charge of their own learning and held accountable.
Adults have prior experiences that are rich resources for learning. The adult learner integrates new learning into what they already know.
Adults appreciate the application of theory ‘in the real world’.
Adults are responsible for their own learning and exhibit behaviors of an individual ready and wanting to learn.
As an expert in the field, the instructor is a facilitator of learning – not a ‘sage on the stage’ but a ‘guide on the side’.
Assignments are designed to challenge the learner, build upon concepts and encourage reflection on experience.
Adults collaborate and support one another in their learning rather than compete. Everyone is capable of doing well.
Self-reflection, dialogue, writing and collaborative small group work are essential in sense-making and learning. Rote memory and lecture are deemphasized.

Assessment is the systematic collection of information about students’ abilities, characteristics, skills, understanding and knowledge.

Since the purpose of teaching is to help others learn, assessment helps to determine if that is happening. In order to check if students are learning and, by implication, if our teaching methods are effective, we need to use various methods of assessment. Sometimes assessment is also used as an evaluation tool to check if students are able to do the actions, or skills stated in the learning outcomes.

Beginning in the late 80’s and early 90’s, researchers have called for more explicit training of classroom teachers in the areas of classroom assessment. Assessment has changed dramatically in the schoolhouse. In adult education, there is also less emphasis on summative testing and more emphasis on formative assessment to assess knowledge and skill. Certainly in grad studies we don’t normally have exams for example, but design inquiry-based opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning.

Assessment can be used:

for learning,
to improve instruction
to allow learners to control their own learning
to mirror real world expectations

Formative assessment is very effective in both pedagogy and andragogy. While the traditional purpose of classroom assessment has long been summative - reporting on what has occurred after the teaching and learning process, the educator also needs to be interested in formative assessment - gathering data while teaching and learning are occurring. Formative assessment fosters learners who are self-directed and must be relevant, frequent and motivating to learners.

Formative Assessment provides information to learners during instruction, before instruction has been completed. It allows learners to judge their own ongoing learning and progress, monitor, control, and improve their own learning. By using formative assessment methods instructors are able to gather information to modify their instruction, change course, or alter strategy while learning is still taking place. Formative instruction is not about grades, it’s about learning. An example of assessment as learning is the peer review process. By critically engaging with another’s work and giving substantive feedback, learners have the opportunity to respond from a learning stance. The intellectual humility this takes is focused on process and improvement – the growth of people. In this way, peer review is aligned to the principles of servant and transformational learning.

Here, you will explore various assessment techniques applicable for the adult education setting. Keep your final assignment in mind as you read and view the assigned material. Which techniques might be applicable for your adult learning design and context?

Activity: Reading about assessment principles

Read Lindstrom, G., Taylor, L & Weleschuk, A. (2017). Guiding Principles for Assessment. University of Calgary Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning.

As you read this, pay particular attention to the sections: Enhancing teaching and learning culture and Enhancing formative assessment. Take down some notes that you want to follow up on in your own practice and with your learning design assignment for this course.

Activity: Reading about assessment strategies

Review Silberman chapters 15 and 17 and review 50 CATS by Angelo and Cross: Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills.

Which activities would be good for your adult learning design assignment? Be sure to take note of assessment strategies you may want to use in the future as you teach or train others. These may also help you in your assessments in other courses.

Another excellent resource you may find helpful is A Guide to Formative and Summative Assessment and Rubric Development.

Assessment

Unit5 Discussion

Write a discussion post: Consider Brookfield and Silberman and discuss how you can build adult education learning experiences that would assist participants to think deeply through a question, issue or problem. Keeping in mind Wang’s assertion that learning “is not merely influenced by social context… but shaped by the extent of participant engagement in practice” (p. 120), be more practical than theoretical in your response; include illustrative examples of adult learning techniques representing 3 of the 8 principles of adult learning listed in this unit.

Reading Response Assignment

Based on the assigned reading, this Reading Response is meant to encourage careful reading and thinking about the course material. These are questions requiring clearly targeted and succinct paragraph answers. Accuracy and composition will be evaluated. This reading response is related to the final assignment for 627. Answer the questions referring to the learning design assignment.

Reading Response Questions

Thinking about your context and the learning design for your assignment, which of the ways to conclude an active training program (Silberman chapter 15) would most appeal or be most suitable? Why? (1 page double spaced)
Thinking about your context and the learning design for your assignment, how do you plan to measure results according to objective identified (Silberman chapter 17)? (.5-1 page double spaced)
Describe in your own words three assessment techniques most useful to your context. Choose from Silberman chapters 15/17 and the Angelo and Cross document of CATS. (1.5 pages double spaced)
How could you use the elements of critical thinking in the assessment for your learning design?

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Submit your response in the Reading Response tab.

Checking your Learning

Use the learning outcomes for this unit as a checklist of understanding before you move to the next unit.

Can you define critical thinking?
Can you explain the significance of critical thinking in graduate studies?
Can you explain the significance of critical thinking in adult learning?
Can you analyze and discern which methods foster critical thinking and lead learners to new perspectives and learning?
Can you describe the difference between formative and summative assessment?
Can you choose the appropriate assessment methods for your learning activities?

Resources

Chong Ho Song, P. (2015). How to Read Journal Articles in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Brookfield, S. and Preskill, S. (2016). The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Brookfield, S. (2013). Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Goodson, P. (2013). Becoming an Academic Writer. Los Angeles: Sage.
Silberman, M. L., & Biech, E. (2015). Active Training: A Handbook of Techniques, Designs, Case Examples, and Tips (4^th ed.). Wiley. Chapters 11-15.
Wang, C. X. (2017). Theory and Practice of Adult and Higher Education. Information Age Publishing Inc.