Date: Tuesday, June 2
Time: 9:00 a.m – 10:00 a.m.
Location: Mitchell Auditorium
Measuring and Enhancing Critical Thinking of Students from Summer Faculty Institute 2015
Slides from Kevin Harris keynote presentation (PDF format)
Introduction of guest speakers: Deborah Allen, Director of Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning
The CAT Instrument (Critical thinking Assessment Test) is a unique tool designed to assess and promote the improvement of critical thinking and real-world problem solving skills. The instrument is the product of extensive development, testing, and refinement with a broad range of institutions, faculty, and students across the country.
Come and learn about what our own UD faculty learned about how well diverse UD seniors from the class of 2015 scored on this instrument. Learn how any faculty from any discipline can more purposefully develop course activities that will require students to exercise their critical thinking skills.
Tennessee Technological University (TTU) has been engaged in an extended effort during the last 14 years to develop and refine an instrument to assess critical thinking that over-comes many of the weaknesses of other existing tools. Preeminent theoreticians and educators in the area of learning sciences and assessment participated in the project. Unlike many other available assessment tools, the Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) instrument uses short answer essay responses to assess critical thinking. The CAT instrument is unique in that it utilizes a campus’s own faculty to evaluate student responses. The National Science Foundation has provided support for many of these activities.
Kevin Harris is the Associate Director of the Center for Assessment and Improvement of Learning (CAIL) at Tennessee Tech University. In his role at CAIL, Dr. Harris leads regional training workshops to prepare institutions for the implementation of the Critical-thinking Assessment Test as a performance measure of student critical thinking and as a faculty development tool. Over the past two years, Kevin has helped develop a framework associated with using the CAT as a model for course based critical thinking assessments called CAT Apps. His academic interests include the effect of high impact practices on critical thinking, the use of the CAT as a faculty development tool, and the evaluation of alternative measures in the assessment of critical thinking.
Elizabeth Lisic is the Assistant Director of the Center for Assessment & Improvement of Learning (CAIL) at Tennessee Tech University. In her role at CAIL, Elizabeth provides support to institutions across the country in the implementation of the Critical-thinking Assessment Test (CAT) at multiple institutional levels. Elizabeth has extensive experience with CAT scoring sessions and helps lead training workshops throughout the country. Over the past two years, Elizabeth has helped develop the framework associated with using the CAT as a model for course-based critical thinking assessments called CAT Apps. She currently leads on-site workshops to help faculty develop and refine CAT Apps within their discipline. Elizabeth’s academic interests focus on the use of the CAT as a faculty development tool and the impact of CAT scoring as a catalyst for faculty change.