eCoaching Tip 27 A Guide for Analyzing Critical Thinking

November 4 2006 (Lightly revised July 6, 2012; checked Oct 17 2019 )

eCoaching Tip 27: A Guide for Analyzing Critical Thinking

An earlier tip (eCoaching Tip 26 Discussion Posts that Invite Reflection and Response) suggested strategies for creating discussion posts that invite reflection and responses to other’s ideas. In particular Tip 26 encouraged the use of open-ended questions and problems. It also encouraged providing choices so that learners can customize their learning.

Let’s assume that you have been successful and have developed a number of wonderfully effective discussion activities. Students are responding thoughtfully and expansively.

Now you realize that your current rubric for evaluating the discussion posts might not be as robust as you would like it to be. This tip provides ideas and resources on how to develop or refine a rubric that encourages the development of critical thinking skills.

A guide to support critical thinking

Critical thinking is a highly desirable transferable skill. It is often cited as one of the top priority end goals of higher education programs and courses. As with most skills, it takes time and coaching to develop. Also, as with most skills, we are in need of more focused strategies and tools for developing this skill.

The guide described in this tip, the Guide to Rating Critical and Integrative Thinking, is the result of a multiyear (2001-2006) research project at Washington State University.

The guide identifies seven (7) dimensions of critical thinking, and provides examples for evaluating a learner’s progress in developing skills in each of these seven dimensions of critical thinking skills. The guide provides examples of “emerging” and “mastered” dimensions of critical thinking. These examples are a rich resource of examples and models that you can use in developing rubrics for your students.

The Critical Thinking Guide

Here are the seven dimensions of critical thinking identified and described in the study. A learner who is a critical thinker can do the following:

Identify, summarize the problem, question, or issue
Identify and present their own hypothesis, perspective and position as it is important to the analysis of the issue
Identify and consider other salient perspectives and positions that are important to the analysis
Identify and assess the key assumptions
Identify and assess the quality of supporting data/evidence and provide additional data/evidence related to the issue
Identify and consider the influence of the context * on the issue
Identify and assess conclusions, implications and consequences.

Examples of Criteria for “Emerging” and “Mastering” Critical Thinking Dimensions

As mentioned above, the project provides “emerging” and “mastering” criteria for measuring a student’s progress on seven dimensions of critical thinking.

Here are the “emerging” and “mastering” examples for Criteria 4, Identifying and assessing the key assumptions. Be sure to use the reference (Kelly-Riley et all, pp. 9-10) to see the full set of examples for the seven dimensions.

· Criteria 4 Identifying and assessing the key assumptions – Examples

“Emerging” Critical Thinking – Does not identify the assumptions and ethical issues that underlie the issue, or does so only superficially.
“Mastering” Critical Thinking- Identifies and questions the validity of the assumptions and addresses the ethical dimensions that underlie the issue

Examples of Critical Thinking Rubrics Based on these Criteria

Here are some links to rubrics developed with this set of seven dimensions of critical thinking. First of all, you may want to see examples from the faculty at Washington State University. Here is the link to the table of contents. There are rubrics from these content faculty: Art, Education, Physics,Crops and Soils

Another rubric using these seven criteria – General Education Critical Thinking Rubric– is in use at Northeastern Illinois University. This rubric provides four levels of development for each of the seven criteria. For example, here are the four levels for Criteria 1 – Identify, summarize the problem, question, or issue

No/Limited Proficiency-Fails to identify, summarize, or explain the main problem or question. Represents the issues inaccurately or inappropriately.
Some Proficiency- Identifies main issues but does not summarize or explain them clearly or sufficiently
Proficiency-Successfully identifies and summarizes the main issues, but does not explain why/how they are problems or create questions
High Proficiency-Clearly identifies main issues and successfully explains why/how they are problems or questions; and identifies embedded or implicit issues, addressing their relationships to each other.

These critical thinking skills for learners and are independent of any particular discipline or course of study. You can use some or all of these criteria and examples to develop rubrics and instructions for assignments.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would be remiss not to mention a center dedicated to critical thinking that I hope you will also explore. It is the Foundation for Critical Thinking (www.criticalthinking.org). This site is supported by a cross-disciplinary group that promotes excellence in thinking and provides resources to help educators improve their instruction in critical thinking. A reference that is a good starting point is the article by Richard Paul and Linda Elder on the analysis and assessment of thinking. This is now a subscription site, however.

References

Kelly-Riley, D., Brown, G., Condon, B., & Law, R. (2001). Washington State University Critical Thinking Project. https://www.stockton.edu/elo/documents/rubrics/CriticalThinkingResourceGuide-WSU.pdf

Northeastern Illinois University (2006) General Education Critical Thinking Rubric. https://web.uri.edu/assessment/files/CriticalThinkingRubric_NEIU.pdf

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2008).The analysis and assessment of thinking. www.criticalthinking.org

Note: These eCoaching tips were initially developed for faculty in the School of Leadership & Professional Advancement at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. This library of tips has been organized, expanded and updated in the second edition of the book, The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips (2016) coauthored with Rita Marie Conrad. Judith can be reached judith followed by designingforlearning.org.