Adventures in Critical Thinking: Using UofL Student-Created Comic Books in Your Teaching

Critical Thinking · Active Learning

This session will showcase the new critical thinking comic book series called Adventures in Critical Thinking and guide you in thinking through how these digital resources can be used effectively with students to develop and hone their critical thinking skills in situations both inside and outside the classroom. The series of six comic books were written and illustrated by UofL students, under the guidance of faculty member Brian Barnes as part of an i2a SUN Grant, who were trained in using the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework. Each of the comics depicts a beginning critical thinker, Paul Elder, as he makes his way through undergraduate life on Belknap Campus. Paul faces opportunities and situations in his everyday life that can benefit from new ways of thinking and applying the concepts of critical thinking.

As a result of attending this session, you will be able to:

  • Explore, with the facilitators, the content and structure of the new critical thinking comic book series and the guidelines for using the books;
  • Glean ideas and strategies for accessing and using the comic books in or outside the classroom with students in order to foster critical thinking and/or integrate into course content; and
  • Practice using the comic books to read, reflect, analyze and reflect on the content and generate ideas for leveraging the tools with students and applying the concepts to their everyday lives.

Session Date

Presenter Bios

Edna Ross, Ph.D., has been with the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences since 1984. She is associate professor and co-course director for the department’s Introduction to Psychology course and teaches this popular course with enrollments of several hundred students. Dr. Ross has been nominated as a Faculty Favorite and received the A&S; Outstanding Faculty Award. She holds a joint appointment with the Delphi Center and serves as the i2a specialist for critical thinking.

Brian Barnes, Ph.D., has been a visiting scholar at The Foundation for Critical Thinking, developers of the Paul-Elder Framework, since 2012. Barnes is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, where he has taught applied ethics and classes in reasoning skills since 2004. Barnes’s dissertation developed critical thinking methods for teaching Business Ethics, and he has published a textbook that applies the Paul-Elder framework to that discipline, as well as having created a series of comic books for undergraduates that inculcate critical thinking skills. Barnes is Director of UofL’s EcoReps Sustainability Education Program, and he presents widely on critical thinking and sustainability topics.

^ Top of Page