WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
CIIA > SHOWCASE INDEX > SHOWCASE 2001
Center for Instructional
Innovation and Assessment

INNOVATIVE TEACHING SHOWCASE

2001
2002
June Dodd
Marc Geisler
Marc Richards
Goals Contents
GOALS
Stan Tag
Fairhaven College

Institutional Goals

Listed below are selected learning outcomes in the area 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 Mike tag's teaching strategies meet each of these student learning outcome goals.

Critical Thinking


Learning Outcomes Definition Course Outcomes
Identification Accurately identifies and interprets evidence. In collaboration, students identify the specific themes, events, or issues from the novel they will use as a basis for designing their performances.
Alternative Consideration Considers major alternative points of view. When developing each performance, students are asked to consider and incorporate diverse perspectives and viewpoints from the novel itself, from ways of interpreting the novel and its major themes, and within the actual performance design.
Accurate Conclusions Draws warranted, judicious, non-fallacious conclusions. The group performances themselves demonstrate powerful ways to interpret a novel, often using nonverbal methods such as music, dance, art, photography, and video to come to creative and suggestive conclusions.
Justification Justifies key results and procedures, and explains assumptions and reasons. Following the performances students write a reflective essay on the entire experience, explaining their individual roles in the group process, what they learned, and their responses to and evaluations of the class performances. Such reflection is a final necessary element of the critical and creative process of learning.

Source: Adapted from the California Academic Press's Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric (HCTSR).