30th International Conference on Critical Thinking Concurrent Sessions

July 21, 2010 Berkeley, California

U of L faculty and staff teams were invited to present at the Critical Thinking Foundation's 30th International Conference on Critical Thinking  occurring July 19-22, 2010 in Berkeley, California. This site documents the concurrent session presentations and provides access to the documents and handouts from the sessions.

View videos with more information and listen to our faculty speak on the University of Louisville's Quality Enhancement Plan, Ideas to Action (i2a) on iTunes U or within our media resources.

Abstracts

Developing and sustaining a critical thinking initiative across your institution

Patricia Payette, Ph.D.
University of Louisville

Part I and Part II: 2 hours in length

Launching a critical thinking program across your institution, and fostering engagement with your teachers, staff or students, can present a number of challenges for administrators. This session will guide participants in engaging with an implementation model and growth strategy developed by the University of Louisville (UofL). Launched in 2007, the UofL Ideas to Action initiative has created lasting critical thinking programs and curricular structures across the disciplines and in the student affairs and student service arenas. The session facilitator will share lessons "learned" in fostering organizational change that places critical thinking as a common value and curricular framework; participants will consider how they might transfer these concepts to their own institutions. An interactive worksheet will guide attendees in applying the concepts to their work; bibliography and assessment tools to measure change readiness are included.

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Asking essential questions as design factors in the development of Culminating Undergraduate Experiences

Nisha Gupta, Ph.D.
University of Louisville

Drawing on the Thinker’s Guide The Art of Asking Essential Questions, this session is organized to generate successful methods for designing higher education curricula, specifically senior-level experiences that blend critical thinking concepts with focused reflection, integration, and application. Capstone courses offered at the culmination of undergraduate education are common structures for these activities. Participants will work closely through the three areas of questioning outlined in this guide: analytic questions, evaluative questions, and questions within academic disciplines, together with best practices on integrative and experiential learning to develop course components for genuine and authentic experiences. Exemplars and best practices from the literature and University of Louisville courses will be shared with participants to help generate creative and innovative approaches to integrating critical thinking.

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Strategies for teaching critical thinking in a large — enrollment freshman-level introductory psychology course.

Edna Ross, Ph.D.
University of Louisville

The purpose of this session is to share strategies and student outcomes for incorporating the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework into a large enrollment introductory psychology course.

This course was revised to explicitly focus on critical thinking skill building. This session will include information about, and sharing of, a redesigned core assignment that focuses on the "logic of an article." Other strategies build on the Paul-Elder framework of critical thinking and include the use of iClickers, YouTube and random number generators. This session will be interactive and participants will be given the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of these strategies for their own classroom use.

Download Presentation [PDF]


Thinking about our thinking: How the REACH learning resource center is working to promote and measure critical thinking

Julie Hohmann, M.Ed.
REACH Learning Resource Center, University of Louisville

This presenter will share strategies and learning outcomes for assessing critical thinking among students receiving tutoring in several different undergraduate courses at the University of Louisville. This session will include details regarding a rubric created based on the Paul-Elder framework and how tutors are working to develop critical thinking skills in their students. Results of data gathered in fall 09 will be shared in addition to tutors giving their feedback on their role as critical thinking advocates. The session will be interactive and discussion is encouraged.

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Making the case for critical thinking with your students and colleagues.

Harry Pickens
University of Louisville

This session will focus on strategies for communicating the practical benefits of critical thinking within academic, personal and professional domains. Participants will explore the power of critical thinking and the Paul/Elder framework for personal decision-making and practical problem-solving, as well as applications of the framework to catalyze "breakthrough" creativity and design innovative solutions. Participants will also envision a fair-minded critical society, review the intellectual traits necessary to create such a society, and practice a conversational model that communicates the relevance of critical thinking within the context of the greater good.

Download Handout [PDF]


Engaging in Socratic questioning to support student success

Nora Scobie, Ph.D.
Janet Spence, M.Ed.
Undergraduate Advising, University of Louisville

The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework provides academic advisors with tools for understanding how students make meaning of their academic experiences. Socratic questioning provides a vehicle for advisors to engage students in a reflective dialogue that probes student perceptions and uncovers factors that may help or inhibit student success. Professional academic advisors at the University of Louisville are involved in a pilot project that incorporates the concepts of the Paul-Elder framework, Socratic questioning, intrusive advising, basic counseling techniques, and the NACADA teaching/learning paradigm of academic advising into an innovative approach to advising students in academic peril. The purpose of this session is to share how the University of Louisville academic advisors are planning an intervention program to foster student engagement and success through the art of Socratic questioning.

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