Phoenix College

Communication, Reading, and American Sign Language

Assessment: Critical Thinking

Term: Spring 2013

Introduction:

A new process for campus-wide assessment of general education outcomes began in 2011-2012. Departments were asked to select one or more general education outcomes to assess during the year. In 2012-2013, the department selected the Critical Thinking outcome.

The PC Critical Thinking Rubric has fivecategories of outcome measures.

  • Assumptions and context

  • Conclusions & implications
  • Information or evidence

  • Key question, problem, or issue

  • Perspectives, plausible solutions

Methodology:

Faculty members were asked to evaluate an assignment in their class using the PC Critical Thinking Rubric. Scores were entered into the PC assessment database by course and student.

Limitations: no inter-rater reliability was established, faculty scored their own students, not all students were scored on all categories, and assignment picked by faculty may not have been appropriate for this rubric. This report includes information on only three sections of CRE.

Descriptive Statistics:

During Spring 2013instructors in three CRE sections assessed standard classroom assignments with the PC Critical ThinkingRubric. The data reflected in this report was a convenience sample of courses and assignments selected by the individual instructors.

66Number of artifacts evaluated

3Number of sections evaluated

1Number of prefixes: CRE

The overall average score for Critical Thinking for this department is2.85 on a scale of 1-4 where 1 is low and 4 is high. Using the same scale, below are the overall scores by category for this outcome measure.

2.80 / Assumptions and context
2.82 / Conclusions & implications
2.92 / Information or evidence
2.95 / Key question, problem, or issue
2.77 / Perspectives, plausible solutions

The sample was notrepresentative of the college student population in terms of ethnicity or age. For example, 20% of the students in the sample were Black while only 9% were White compared to 14% and 30% in the total student population. Additionally, students in this sample tended to be younger than the general student body. For example, 36% of the students in the sample were between 15 – 19 compared to 128% of the student population and 44% of the sample was between 20 – 24 compared to 28% of the student population.

By Age GroupBy Ethnicity

Further Analysis:

The correlation between the students Critical Thinking score and term GPA is moderate, (r = 49). In general, there were moderate correlations between the Critical Thinking category scores and term GPA. There were no correlations between the Critical Thinking scores and the number of AGEC Literacy credits that a student had completed. This could be due to the limits of the sample.

Critical Thinking / Term GPA / Literacy Credits
Subcategory / M / SD / r / r
Assumptions and context / 2.80 / 0.90 / 0.51 / 0.14
Conclusions & implications / 2.82 / 0.88 / 0.53 / 0.14
Information or evidence / 2.92 / 0.87 / 0.42 / 0.14
Key question, problem, or issue / 2.95 / 0.85 / 0.45 / 0.13
Perspectives, plausible solutions / 2.77 / 0.89 / 0.50 / 0.15

Recommendations:

To be determined by the Critical Thinking Assessment Committee.

Action Taken:

To be determined by faculty.