Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to use information, ideas, and arguments from relevant perspectives to make sense of complex issues and solve problems. Degree graduates will locate, evaluate, interpret, and combine information to reach well-reasoned conclusions or solutions.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Discriminate among degrees of credibility, accuracy, and reliability of inferences drawn from given data
• Recognize parallels, assumptions, or presuppositions in any given source of information
• Evaluate the strengths and relevance of arguments on a particular question or issue
• Weigh evidence and decide if generalizations or conclusions based on the given data are warranted
• Determine whether certain conclusions or consequences are supported by the information provided
• Use problem solving skills

Sample: Students who are considered prospective graduates. This group includes students enrolled in a degree program, who have earned 40 or more credits and are enrolled in ENG 112, HIS 121, HIS 122, HUM 220, MTH 155 and/or MTH 245. Assignments for these students will be collected regardless of instructional modality (online, hybrid, in-person).

Measures:

Direct- Critical thinking will be assessed utilizing course-embedded assignments. The course-embedded assignments will be collected from the following general education courses: ENG 112, HIS 121, HIS 122, HUM 220, MTH 155 and/or MTH 245. Student work will be evaluated with a rubric using the Association of American College & Universities open source Critical Thinking Value rubric as a template.

Indirect- Camp’s Graduate Survey and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)

Target: 80% of students will score a (3) or higher, on direct assessment, which demonstrates proficiency.

Findings: In AY 2020-21, there were 61 students total who were enrolled in the designated courses that meet the criteria set out in Camp’s Assessment Plan. Of these 66, 41 pieces of student work was collected. Student work was not collected from students for a number of reasons including withdrawal from the course, work was not submitted by the student, or work was flagged for plagiarism. Of the work that was reviewed only 7% of students met or exceeded the target score. Weakness for those student work that scored below 2.0 were specific to organization of the thesis, ability to synthesize what was research and the student perspective, and the ability to cite work.

Graduate Survey Results

% Moderate and Great Extent

The CCSSE was administered in Spring 2023, results will be updated in Fall 2023.

Action Plan: In 2020-21 ENG 111 was one of the primary courses used in the assessment of critical thinking. Incorporating ENG 112 and removing ENG 111 will address the specified weakness of formulating and organizing a thesis and the ability to cite work.