Case and Wright (1997) argue that many activities can be made into critical thinking activities, if a few criteria are met. Below, their criteria are put into a brief rubric that can be used to determine if your course activities are truly those that pull for critical thinking or not. If not, use the rubric to adjust your activity to encourage critical thinking. (Keep in mind that not
all
course activities or questions need to encourage critical thinking, but that it is good for
some
to do so.)
The rubric assesses 4 key elements:
- Does the task require reasoned judgment?
- Is the challenge meaningful to students?
- Is the task sufficiently focused?
- During instruction, is sufficient support provided?
Check out a PDF of the full rubric with notes and examples created by CTE faculty fellow Alison Barton on the
CTE Resource Center
.