Critical Thinking Now by Burkhalter Nancy;

Author:Burkhalter, Nancy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Unlimited Model

Chapter 4

Assessing Critical Thinking

Consider this question: Should testing methods dictate how you teach? Seems a bit backward, doesn’t it? This approach sounds like Procrustes, the mythological Greek blacksmith, who either stretched people or cut off their legs to make them fit the iron bed he’d created. When it comes to testing, it seems more logical and sensible to use effective teaching methods and then devise ways to measure learning. Better yet, why not have testing serve a dual purpose—to both measure and enhance critical thinking? And it’s not even hard to do.

To accomplish these two goals, you need to create a transparent, focused, easy-to-use, performance-based exercise and an instrument showing whether students have learned the material, where they need to improve, and what they need to do to get a better grade. Below are some items to think about when it comes to assessment to be expanded upon later:

• When to assess: At the beginning, middle, or end of instruction,

• Which format: Oral, written, or online,

• Who assesses: Teacher or student, together or alone,

• Which instruments: Rubric, holistic scoring, self-assessment, and

• What to assess: Essay, presentation, debate performance, play, mock trial, class or group participation, poem, outline of a paper—whatever needs to be checked for understanding or proficiency.

When it comes to critical thinking, true–false and multiple-choice tests may serve to generate numbers for your gradebook, but they don’t reflect deep understanding because they measure only the lowest-level cognitive activities of remembering and possibly comprehending. Moreover, they take time away from real learning. It doesn’t matter whether a student knows that the Civil War lasted four years or can identify South Sudan as the newest country. It doesn’t mean anything.

So, let’s see how learning and testing can be fast friends when it comes to critical thinking. This chapter unpacks that alliance by discussing how, when, and why you should test, and finally, how these practices contribute to critical thinking. First, though, is a brief discussion of the two different ways of testing.

Formative versus Summative Testing

Simply put, formative assessments occur throughout the instructional period, whereas summative tests look back at what a student has accomplished by the end of the course or unit.

Formative assessments can consist of:

• Short pop quizzes,

• Journals,

• Impromptu responses to your questions,

• Drafts and revisions of writing,

• Class discussion about a reading or theory, and

• Reflections.

Summative tests include:

• Standardized placement and achievement tests (ACT, SAT, TOEFL, LSAT, MCAT, GRE),

• Final exams,

• Presentations, and

• Final papers.

Summative tests generate scores that reveal little about the test takers’ understanding of the material and provide no chance to challenge or clarify an answer. Whereas summative tests are a snapshot of a student’s knowledge base, formative assessments are a video, whose script can be edited before finalizing production. Both kinds measure learning, but formative assessments have these important advantages:

• You see how they are doing before instruction ends so you can tweak the lesson if they don’t understand something.

• They see how they are doing and can retool their thinking and performance.

What’s more, in terms of critical thinking, formative assessment helps learners reflect, question, analyze, evaluate, make connections, and summarize information.

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