| Archives |
This issue focuses on the ways that critical thinking is being taught and assessed through writing across the curriculum. We invite you to adapt the rubrics printed here for student writing and critical thinking in your courses.
Writing Center Highlights! So far this academic year, the Writing Center has seen:
Kudos to Assistant WAC director, Susan Durham, School of Nursing, who received the College of Health and Human Services Habit of Excellence Award for 2008. In citing Prof. Durham’s many contributions to the college, the Dean noted how proud the college is to have one of their faculty holding “such an important leadership position in a truly excellent [WAC] program...[which] is among the top Writing in the Disciplines programs in the country.” Writing Center staff Anna Habib, Eiman Hajabassi, Alex Antram and Sarah Baker presented the newly launched website, “Valuing Written Accents,” at the 2008 annual Conference on College Composition and Communication in New Orleans. The website is an application of their three-year research project, under the direction of Terry Zawacki, on the experiences of non-native writers adapting to the U.S. academy. Click here to visit the newly launched website. Our WAC site is being redesigned! Help us do usability studies by going to http://wac.gmu.edu/wac_redesign/ and sending your comments to Robb St. Lawrence.
|
How Do You Know? Writing about Critical Thinking in Introductory Level Science Courses Last summer the Coalition of Women Scientists (C.o.W.S.), a team of faculty dedicated to teaching introductory science classes, was sponsored by the Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum initiative to develop a set of modules for improving critical thinking skills across the gen ed STEM disciplines— Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Our approach focuses on scientific inquiry to help students gain the ability to apply their knowledge to new and more complex problems, whether or not science will be their career. In the short written papers that follow each module, we want students to analyze the problem proposed by an assignment, explain the steps they undertook to carry out the assignment, synthesize and evaluate their results, and, finally, consider the limitations as well as other possible outcomes. more |
|
|
Teaching Warrants to Help Students Think Critically about Claims and Evidence by Ted Kinnaman, Chair, Philosophy In academic studies of critical thinking, much attention is given to the notion of a warrant. Teaching students to understand the use of warrants in writing, no matter what the field, is important for helping them to assess the evidence for the claims they make, and for the claims by others that they study. When someone makes a claim or assertion, we can ask them, ‘how did you get there?’ or ‘why do you believe this?’ To cite a warrant is to answer this sort of question. It is to offer some justification for the claim just made. But there are many different sorts of claims and many sorts of warrant as well. more Grammar Corner: Who’s in Charge here?: Active Constructions and Cohesion in Reader-Centered Writing News from the Center |
|
|
Critical Thinking and Writing in Dance: Important Analytical Moves in a Movement Art
by Buffy Price, Chair, and Susan Shields, Dance Department Most people would not associate critical thinking and writing with dance, a movement art. But both play a significant role in a successful dance program. Every dance class is focused on the mastery of skills and knowledge accompanied by self analysis and reflective thinking; journal writing is central to both of these critical thinking processes, especially in dance technique and composition classes. Students maintain a journal in each composition class, recording their methods as well as maintaining video footage of each step in their creative process. In their journals they describe what they are seeing, examine the choreographic devices they observe, analyze the elements that are successful, and make plans for editing and refining the material. They critique each assignment, judging its artistic merit. Finally, they learn to clarify and refine their aesthetic choices by critiquing in writing a variety of professional companies each semester. more |
Assessing Growth in Student Writers from Introductory Composition through Writing-Intensive Courses in the Majors
In 2000, Virginia’s higher education institutions were required by the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) to assess and report on written communication, as one of six core competencies. Mason proposed ongoing department-based, faculty-led assessment of representative samples of student writing in the major according to a discipline-specific rubric developed in a holistic scoring workshop. more |