Overall Description and Rationale for Thematic Transdisciplinary Cluster on Approaches to Critical Thinking

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1 I. Rationale Please provide a rationale for the course which explains how the course being proposed fits into this Cluster based on the Cluster's description. For your convenience, the overall description and rationale for this component are included below. Overall Description and Rationale for Thematic Transdisciplinary Cluster on Approaches to Critical Thinking "Approaches to Critical Thinking" offers students the opportunity to examine the many dimensions of Critical Thinking, one of UNCW's eight Learning Goals, and to map their cumulative achievement of the lower- and higher-order cognitive skills associated with Critical Thinking in the Cluster's culminating Capstone course. This Cluster presents students with the unique opportunity to demonstrate their deliberate progress toward mastering Critical Thinking abilities through the completion of a structured sequence of courses that includes the online Capstone course, which requires students to make explicit where and how in their previous coursework they practiced specific Critical Thinking abilities. At its most advanced levels, Critical Thinking involves grasping all relevant perspectives on a question or issue; analyzing, questioning, and synthesizing these views; interrogating all positions, including one's own; identifying and pursuing the implications of creative or unexpected ways to address issues; and, importantly, conducting critical post-mortems to understand what one has learned from one's entire approach to a question or topic. Given these dimensions, Critical Thinking abilities are best practiced and refined through transdisciplinary study. That is, through coursework from different disciplines focused on Critical Thinking, students recognize the different ways to approach topics and the productive benefits they can derive from considering these topics from a variety of perspectives. Further, this Cluster builds the selfreflection behaviors necessary to the refinement of Critical Thinking into the Capstone course, effectively positioning students to conduct a thorough self-evaluation of their own educational development. Brief Statement of Rationale for Course s Inclusion in Approaches to Critical Thinking Cluster 1

2 II. Common Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) Each course must address all of the Common Student Learning Outcomes for this Cluster and list these Common SLOs along with course-specific SLOs in the model course syllabus (to be attached). For each Common SLO, list the course SLOs that address the common SLO, describe the opportunities which will be provided for students to learn the outcome (readings, class discussion and/or activities, applied projects), and list the means of assessment (exams, papers, projects, quizzes, etc.) that will be used to determine the level of student understanding. This Cluster has a sequenced design wherein students will choose one course from the 100-/200- level, a second course from the 300-/400-level, and, with these pre-requisites complete, enroll in the online Capstone course, ATC490: Critical Thinking Capstone. The lower-level courses will introduce students to lower-order Critical Thinking abilities and will, thus, address SLO TTC1a and TTC1b: TTC1a: Students will describe issue or question through the inclusion of background information. Course SLO(s) to Address TTC1a 2

3 TTC1b: Students will locate and apply sources pertinent to the issue or question at hand. Course SLO(s) to Address TTC1b 3

4 The upper-level courses will build on the lower-order Critical Thinking abilities students have already gained to refine higher-order abilities and will, thus, address SLOs TTC2a and TTC2b: TTC2a: Students will critique evidence, perspectives, and outcomes in terms of relevance, credibility, and assumptions. Course SLO(s) to Address TTC2a 4

5 TTC2b: Students will generate and reflect upon their own responses to issue or question at hand. Course SLO(s) to Address TTC2b Submission instructions: Please submit cover form, all component forms, a model syllabus, and College/School s course action form (if needed) to your department chair. Department chairs should then submit these forms, syllabus, and course action form (if needed) in one message to universitystudies@uncw.edu from their UNCW address. 5