Category 1:    i2a and General Education (i2a GE)

Grant projects in this category must support the following i2a General Education Outcomes:

Students who satisfy this general education requirement will be able to communicate important ideas and to use critical thinking as a tool for learning by:

1.         Applying the Elements of Thought* in selected course assignments.

2.         Using the Universal Intellectual Standards** as criteria for quality in reasoning.

General Education Project Examples:

• Funding for a series of faculty retreats and ongoing training materials and discipline-specific resources to infuse the i2a General Education outcomes into several sections of a large Statistics course.
• Funding toward the release time for a faculty member to revise the curricula and assessment tools of a series of Humanities courses to reflect the i2a General Education outcomes.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration to assess students’ critical thinking abilities in the career decision making process.

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Category 2:    i2a and Undergraduate Major Courses (i2a UMC)

Grant projects in this category must support the following i2a Undergraduate Major Courses Outcomes:

Students completing courses within their identified major will be able to communicate important ideas and use critical thinking as a tool for learning by:

1.  Applying the Elements of Thought* in selected discipline-specific course assignments.

2.  Using the Universal Intellectual Standards** as criteria for assessing quality of discipline-specific reasoning.

3.  Demonstrating discipline-specific critical thinking skills using real world problems.

Undergraduate Major Courses Project Example:

• A team of faculty in Social Work might seek funding to develop a set of critical thinking prompts and assessment tools to be integrated into courses across the major to increase the integration of i2a and critical thinking outcomes in curriculum and field work practice; project might include payment toward course release for project leader.
• Revising an existing major course (syllabus, assignments and evaluation) to incorporate the Paul-Elder critical thinking model.
• Development of discipline-specific critical thinking examples using the Paul-Elder critical thinking model.
• Development of course–specific critical thinking application exercises that provide experiential learning.
• Evaluation research on strategies to enhance students’ critical thinking abilities.

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Category 3:    i2a and Culminating Experiences (i2a CE)

Grant projects in this category must support the following Culminating Experiences Outcomes:

Upon completion of the culminating experience students will demonstrate the ability to:

1.  Apply the Elements of Thought* when engaging in an i2a culminating experience project.

2.  Use the Universal Intellectual Standards** as criteria for assessing quality during the i2a culminating experience project.

3.  Demonstrate well-cultivated critical thinking skills when engaging in an i2a culminating experience project.

Culminating Experiences Project Examples:

• A project could provide funding to develop a new partnership and programming between Honors, English and Humanities and the Speed Art Museum to infuse object-based curricular and teaching methodologies to support original research projects for undergraduates that clearly demonstrate the critical thinking outcomes in this funding category.

• Develop a culminating experience (capstone, internship, senior theses, research project, service learning project, other credit-bearing experience) that incorporates the Paul-Elder critical thinking model (e.g., international study abroad).

• Revise a current culminating experience (capstone, internship, senior theses, research project, service learning project, other credit-bearing experience) to incorporate the Paul-Elder critical thinking model.

• Interdisciplinary collaboration between Fine Arts and Humanities students to create unique public exhibitions that combine text and images to a trigger word.

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Category 4:    i2a and Signature Partnership Initiative (i2a SP)

Grant projects in this category must support at least one of the i2a goals described above (GE, UMC, CE) and at least one of SPs program goals and objectives. SP’s overarching goal statement is “In collaboration with community partners, enhance quality of life for residents in West Louisville by improving the overall educational attainment levels to equal those of Metro Louisville in general, through the integrated enhancement of health, social and human services, and economic viability of the community.” Specific SP program goals and objectives can be accessed at http://louisville.edu/communityengagement/signature-partnership

SP Project Examples:

• Pilot an internship experience with an SP agency.

• Development of an interdisciplinary capstone project between Education, Engineering and Nursing students to redesign the playground at an SP elementary school.

• Consultation with SP agencies to develop discipline-specific case studies for use as practical application exercises in major courses.

• Development of a database to categorize culminating experiences that can then be used to match community needs.

• Action research to pilot an intervention with a community agency.

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Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model (www.criticalthinking.org):

 *Elements of Thought: Information, Purpose, Interpretation & Inference, Key Question, Assumptions, Essential Concepts, Implications & Consequences, Point of View

 **Universal Intellectual Standards: Clarity, Accuracy, Precision, Relevance, Depth, Breadth, Logic, Significance, Fairness, Completeness