Center for Instructional
Innovation and Assessment
INNOVATIVE TEACHING SHOWCASE
1999
2000
Institutional Goals
Listed below are selected learning outcomes in the areas of critical thinking that Western Washington University is actively integrating into its curriculum. Each learning outcome is listed with its definition, along with a description of how Professor Gynan's course meets each of these student learning outcome goals.
Critical Thinking
| Learning Outcomes | Definition | Course Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Accurately identifies and interprets evidence. | Throughout the lecture, the Professor identified key areas in which the speaker was inaccurate. By doing this, he led the students to discuss their own perceptions of the inaccuracies of Rush Limbaugh's radio program on Ebonics. |
| Alternative Consideration | Considers major alternative points of view. | Students were encouraged to provide alternative explanations at the end of the lecture for some of the positions taken by the professor and by Limbaugh's radio program. |
| Accurate Conclusions | Draws warranted, judicious, non-fallacious conclusions. | The professor engaged the students in a discourse about the conclusions drawn by Limbaugh. He also presented alternative points of view by bringing in other media such as editorial cartoons. He drew the students' attention to the various ways that the radio program attempted to manipulate them, both intellectually and emotionally. At the end of the lecture, therefore, the students were more able to see through this kind of argument and draw their own, more accurate conclusions about the ebonics controversy. |
| Justification | Justifies key results and procedures, and explains assumptions and reasons. | Each sound clip of the Rush Limbaugh radio program was presented and then commented upon by Professor Gynan. The assumptions underlying each of Limbaugh's statements were carefully examined, and in the ensuing discussion the students were encouraged to justify their own arguments using evidence from their own experience and background. |
Source: Adapted from the California Academic Press's Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric (HCTSR).
ISSN: 2374-9415
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