Working with Critical Assessment

Critical Assessment

One aspect of critical assessment is application of concepts to situations. To assess this we need to ask direct questions about it and develop rubrics and activities that inform students whether or not they have effectively applied concepts and to what level.

This assessment must be clear to the student. The student must realize that this is an activity expected of him/her, that it can be mastered, and it can be mastered at differing levels of competence. In other words we have to make the concept of applying concepts as important work clear to the students. They must internalize that they can and do apply concepts.

This same logic should be used with the other aspects of critical thinking that we feel should be emphasized.

I think that this approach can also end much of the Why Do I Have To Take This Course line of questioning. If the course is taught in a way such that the critical thinking as outlined above is a central part of the course, then at any point the relevant answer is To Increase Critical Thinking skills. When the inevitable retort of Yes, but I will never have to use this in my field appears, the answer is two fold—critical thinking at its highest levels is manifested by the ability to think critically in any field and is intensified by practice in many fields.