Because virtually all courses in the curriculum intend both to use techniques of critical thinking and to improve students' critical thinking abilities, the links on this page are intended for use by all faculty.

The primary purpose of these pages is to expand our repertoire of techniques of critical thinking instruction. Specifically, these pages concern themselves with the task of including critical thinking instruction as a component of any university course. Because students arrive in classes with varying degrees of preparation in critical thinking, the techniques of analysis and argumentation presented in these pages presuppose very little specific vocabulary or training. As is true of critical thinking generally, these materials deal with the identification of both successful and unsuccessful reasoning strategies.

The specific objectives one might have in working with these materials include:

1. developing usable critical thinking illustrations to enrich courses
2. incorporating critical thinking techniques in writing assignments to reduce workload by improving quality of submissions
3. challenging students to probe concepts more energetically in class discussions
4. testing critical thinking abilities in quizzes and examinations

Fundame ntal Critical Thinking Competencies

An alytical Writing Rubric

Sco ring sheet for Analytical Writing Rubric

Discus sion strategies that build critical thinking

Test question formats that target critical thinking

The case discussion method as critical thinking exercise

This document is maintained by: gtropea@csuchico.edu
Last Updated: 2003.09.17