Ideas

IDEA #4: Critical Thinking Audits

“[An Audit] is a brief pause [which] provides a brief snapshot of where [one] is in [one’s] thinking.”¹

Learning Intention

Audits can be used to help students identify their progress through an exercise, module, reading, or even the whole course. It focuses on helping assess how students are doing at looking for assumptions, judging validity, and analyzing evidence for assumptions.

Overview

At the end of a unit, reading, or assignment, or even at halfway or endpoints in the quarter, provide students the opportunity to reflect on the territory they have covered. You can use a mini-audit in isolation, or combine several mini-audits into a more thorough audit. These audits work well as lecture summary discussions, post-assignment reflections, or even as assessment tools.

Options

• Mini-Audit A (Stakes): Who is benefitting from this work? Who is being harmed by this work? How is power being exercised in this area?
• Mini-Audit B (Evidence): Where is further study needed? Which evidence is most open to question? Which assumptions could not be checked adequately?
• Mini-Audit C (Assumptions): What assumptions have been confirmed? What assumptions have been challenged? What new assumptions have been discovered?
• Mini-Audit D (Relevance): What evidence was most accessible? What evidence was most accurate? How did the learning "fit" the real world?
• Mini-Audit E (Perspectives): Whose voices are missing from this work? What different explanations or interpretations are possible for this work? What ethical questions are raised for you about the work?

Considerations

• Lecture Breaks: Set up an audit as a framework to use at various transition points during a lecture and model for students how the material you are covering helps (or fails to) address the questions in the audit.
• Activity Summary: At the conclusion of a lecture or learning activity, have students complete a different audit, or the same one on a different concept or source.
• Exit Tickets: Use a mini-audit, or even a single question, as an exit ticket to get quick feedback about how students are processing an idea or work.
• Make It Routine: providing several opportunities for students to use these audits will help them develop mental habits of thinking critically. Ask students to complete a mini-audit regularly; the more practice they have, the more they will use these questions naturally.

References