CCT at UWYO

The Backbone of a Liberal Education

This report examines the status of critical and creative thinking (CCT) in teaching and assessment at the University of Wyoming (UW) and across the nation. While CCT is deemed important, faculty members nationwide lack a common understanding and language for it. As UW re-envisions the current University Studies Program (USP) and the assessment of student learning, the report offers a foundation and recommendations for positioning CCT as the backbone of student learning outcomes, teaching, and assessment throughout the institution.

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THE VALUE OF CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

This one-page resource includes key talking points from the UW survey of critical and creative thinking instruction in higher education, "Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Wyoming: Do We Know It When We See It?"

  • Employing our graduates: Year after year, employers of college graduates rank critical thinking and problem-solving skills as their highest priority.
  • Maintaining our accreditation: UW's accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), requires the University to offer programs that engage students in collecting, analyzing, and communicating information; in mastering modes of intellectual inquiry or creative work; and in developing skills adaptable to changing environments.
  • Meeting student learning outcomes: Both UW and the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) identify critical and creative thinking amongst their essential student learning outcomes.
  • Preparing informed and engaged citizens: The backbone of a liberal education, CCT skills underpin a host of skills required for an engaged citizenry, including information literacy; digital and media literacy; intercultural competence; climate literacy; financial literacy; conscientiousness; personal responsibility; and character development.

Moreover...
Nationwide, higher education faculty place high value on CCT but lack language for discussing it, strategies for teaching it, and methods for assessing.
...Yet
"Most college faculty lack a substantive concept of critical thinking, do not (and cannot) use it as a central organizer in the design of instruction, and do not link it to the essential thinking that defines the content they teach" (the Foundation for Critical Thinking).

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CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING AT UW

University Studies Program (USP) 2015:

  • Six student learning outcomes (SLOs) related to critical and creative thinking contribute to USP's overarching objective: "to develop skills necessary for full participation in a technologically complicated world."
  • All Human Culture (H), Physical and Natural World (PN), and US and Wyoming Constitutions (V) courses must meet two of these objectives.

Beyond USP

  • Fifteen academic degree programs in five different colleges or schools identify CCT student learning outcomes.
  • At least ten other degree programs list SLOs that overlap significantly with CCT. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

"Changing colleges to embrace both methods and a culture of critical thinking does not require overhauling education, eliminating courses or even asking professors to sacrifice approaches they have developed and used successfully.  It simply involves adding new tools to their arsenal that allow them to accomplish what they already wholeheartedly support: helping students develop the skills needed to think critically about the world" (Jonathan Haber, March 2020).

The Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning: We're here to help.