Implementing Critical Thinking in the Classroom

1. Implementing Critical Thinking in the Classroom Faculty of LCOB Presented by Robin McCutcheon

2. Getting Started • First: My deepest appreciation to all who offered idea donations to this CT Guide • We wish to acknowledge our Divisional and Dean’s Office Staff – without whose assistance this CT Guide would not exist: Teresa Marcum, Suzann Workman, Sharon Jenkins, Molly Robertson, and Sandy Hutchison.

3. Yes, I am the Masochist who Volunteered • My job was to ask for and coordinate all the donations to our CT Guide • Each person, in each discipline, has their own unique was of teaching critical thinking • The biggest hurdle: taking the critical thinking from a discipline and putting it in common language • The scary part: being criticized by exposing how I teach

4. Doing the Asking • It’s like ‘cold calling’ – no one wants to do it • But curiosity got the better of me • How do other professors teach students how to think critically? • The biggest hurdle for me –asking questions in a manner that the other person can understand. • The biggest hurdle for my fellow academicians: putting critical thinking in common language, ex: • From Accounting or Business Strategies verbiage into common English

5. “I didn’t know that’s all you wanted!” • Taking our classroom lingo and putting it into common every-day English • It’s easier & harder than we make it out to be • To get at the heart of teaching critical thinking, we have to ask, “in your class, what is the fundamental idea you want your students to remember?” • It almost always turns out to be a form of thinking critically • Ex: David Spudich & Business Strategy, page 32 in CT Guide • Turns out, Business Strategy is a form of critical thinking • Once the person explains to me what critical thinking means to them, I ask, “what examples do you use in class to teach that?” • What examples do you use in class to teach that process of step-by-step thinking? • Ex: Richard Agesa, page 25 in CT Guide • The final question, “how do you test your students to see if they got it?” • Now that you’ve taught the step-by-step process, how do you test your students? • Ex: Anil Gurung, page 33 in CT Guide • My request of each person, “would you put what we talked about in a brief paragraph, please, and email it to me?” • “That’s all it is?! That’s all you wanted? That was easy!”

6. CT Guide v2.0, Moving forward • Please take a quick moment and jot down your own CT idea (on your 3x5 card) you’ve gotten from today’s presentation • Pass it to Robin, who will make sure it gets into the CT Guide • Pass to Robin your 3x5 card (w/ your name on it) if you’d like her to contact you personally for your contribution • This CT Guide is OURS!