Thinking as a (Marketable) Skill: Using the DQP to Define and Assess Critical Thinking

When discussing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 60X30 Strategic Plans goal that all programs in Texas public institutions of higher education have identifiable marketable skills with colleagues at my own and other institutions, I am often met with skepticism and discomfort. The idea often invokes images of universities and colleges becoming “trade schools” or “the commoditization of education.” But the goal that all faculty share – to encourage their students to become better “thinkers” or more specifically excellent critical thinkers - is not just crucial to their educational pathway. It is the foundation for a successful life. Critical thinking improves civic engagement, interpersonal relations, and lifelong learning. And it is a marketable skill that employees value highly and thus the cornerstone of a successful and engaging career.

Critical Thinking has many definitions. The Coordinating Board defines it as “creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information.”[1] LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) proposes that “critical thinking is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.”[2] Peter A. Facione, Carol A. Sánchez, Noreen C. Facione and Joanne Gainen offer that “baccalaureate education should produce graduates who are willing and able to use their powers of analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-monitoring meta-cognition to make purposeful judgements about what to believe or what to do.”[3] What they all share it the goal of cultivating both the disposition and the ability to make sound decisions based on multiple and valid perspectives to create, problem solve, and improve processes whether at work, home or the community.

Recent surveys of employers reveal that Critical Thinking is a highly-sought skill among employees. According to a poll of 318 employers with at least 25 employees commissioned by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2013, “Nearly all those surveyed (93%) agree, ‘a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.’” Furthermore, “More than three in four employers say they want colleges to place more emphasis on helping students develop five key learning outcomes, including: critical thinking, complex problem-solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings.”[4] The Department of Labor’s Occupational Network identifies cognitive skills for all bachelor’s level jobs to include “thinking creatively, processing and analyzing data or information, and making decisions and solving problems.”[5] The Department of Education’s Employability Skills Framework, defined as ““general skills that are necessary for success in the labor market at all employment levels and in all sectors” to include “Critical Thinking Skills” such as “thinks creatively, makes sound decisions, solves problems, and reasons.”[6] Problem solving, creative thinking, analyzing information are all important components of Critical Thinking that promote innovation. In an increasingly competitive economy, innovation is crucial.

The LEAP project challenges institutions of higher education to do several things when it comes to Critical Thinking. How do we as faculty design curriculum that not only promotes critical thinking, but increasingly challenges them to improve these skills over time? How do we encourage their appreciation for this disposition and the skills involved? How do we assess this in a way that has meaning and that can demonstrate that a student has developed these habits of mind? And most important, what can we do to help graduates communicate that they are good critical thinking who can make valuable contributions to their workplace and community? Ryan Craig, in a recent article in Forbes, argued that there is an “awareness gap.” College graduates are leaving institutions of higher education with “transcripts and resumes” but “employers aren’t able to see the skills they’ve developed through coursework and co-curricular activities.”[7]

The DQP and Critical Thinking

The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) is a framework developed by higher education faculty from across the nation under the umbrella of the Lumina Foundation. Its purpose is to provide “a baseline set of reference points for what students should know and be able to do for the award of associates, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees, regardless of their field of study”[8] (Adelman, et al 2014). Framed as a series of learning objectives for various postsecondary degrees across five learning categories, the DQP provides a way for faculty, students, and administrators to define and articulate what the attainment of a given degree means over and above content mastery. The DQP lays out what a student should be able to know and do for various levels of postsecondary study.

For the Texas Core, particularly the Critical Thinking Objective, the DQP is a helpful framework for designing curriculum, particular assignments, and assessment strategies, while communicating the importance of critical thinking to students.By showing learning outcomes at various degree levels (bachelors, associates) and across five categories, the DQP demonstrates that critical thinking is both an essential skill and, while containing vital core elements, can also have a broader understanding depending on the disciplinary context and degree level. Within its particular learning objectives, DQP gives language to faculty that can assist in designing curriculum and assignments. Since the objectives are aligned within particular learning categories and across degree levels, they show how critical thinking skills might be improved over time. The learning objectives are written in an active language that uses the student as a starting point. Thus, they can easily be shown to students in order to help them appreciate and articulate the sorts of skills they are developing. By using DQP learning objectives as the basis for program or course learning objectives, then breaking them down further into objectives for particular assignments, faculty can develop assignments that allow students to develop concrete examples of critical thinking. These examples also come with a particular vocabulary about what critical thinking is and does, which the student can then use to demonstrate their critical thinking ability to the wider community.

The Texas Core Objective of Critical Thinking is defined as “Creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information.” It’s important to decide if this definition offers multiple versions of critical thinking or one, very comprehensive version. That is, does evidence of critical thinking need to show creative thinking AND innovation AND inquiry, or can it show creative thinking OR innovation OR inquiry?

I recommend viewing the definition as offering multiple ways that critical thinking can be displayed, but constructing assignments and learning objectives that let those ways overlap and aiming for those that allow students to showcase multiple aspects of the definition, i.e. an assignment that calls for analysis, evaluation, and synthesis in order to do some creative thinking.

The DQP provides a model for this in its learning outcomes. The table below takes the various objectives of the DQP at the associates and bachelors level that are applicable to critical thinking, maintains their original categorization within the DQP, then adds categorization according to the variety of critical thinking skills offered by the Core Objective. Thus, one DQP learning objective from the bachelor’s degree level in the intellectual skills category may also allow students to demonstrate creative thinking, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.

Table Key

  • “Learning objective” refers to the specific learning objectives from the Degree Qualifications Profile. Just like on the DQP, Associate’s level objectives are shaded in blue, while bachelor’s objectives are shaded in green.
  • DQP Category is the broad category under which each objective already falls within the DQP. They are abbreviated as follows:
  • SK = Specialized Knowledge
  • BI = Broad and Integrative Knowledge
  • IS = Intellectual Skills. The particular skill is then listed.
  • AC = Applied and Collaborative Learning
  • CG = Civic and Global Learning
  • The final three columns are elements of the Texas Core Objective’s definition of critical thinking. As noted above, I think the definition works best when seen as disjunctive: critical thinking is creative thinking OR Inquiry OR analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Each learning objective has been keyed to one or more of the elements of the definition using the following understandings of those elements. In all cases, where matching language appears in the learning objective and the definitional element, the objective was keyed to that element. (If the learning objective contains the phrase “evaluation of evidence” then that objective was keyed to Analysis, Evaluation, and Synthesis).
  • Creative Thinking refers to the student’s creation of something new, either a new object (a creative or artistic work), new knowledge, or a novel solution to a problem.
  • Inquiry refers to the student’s investigation into a complex or “fuzzy” problem on their own, where they are called upon to frame the problem for themselves.
  • Analysis, Evaluation, and Synthesis refers to a thorough examination if existing information or data, making a judgment about the accuracy, veracity, or purpose of that information, and bringing that information together with other information that is not obviously or immediately related.

Learning Objective / DQP Category / Creative Thinking / Inquiry / A, E, & S
Investigates a familiar but complex problem in the field of study by assembling, arranging and reformulating ideas, concepts, designs and techniques. / SK / X / X
Frames, clarifies and evaluates a complex challenge that bridges the field of study and one other field, using theories, tools, methods and scholarship from those fields to produce independently or collaboratively an investigative, creative or practical work illuminating that challenge. / SK / X / X / X
Uses recognized methods of each core field studied, including the gathering and evaluation of evidence, in the execution of analytical, practical or creative tasks. / BI / X / X / X
Describes and evaluates the ways in which at least two fields of study define, address and interpret the importance for society of a problem in science, the arts, society, human services, economic life or technology / BI / X / X
Describes and evaluates the ways in which at least two fields of study define, address and interpret the importance for society of a problem in science, the arts, society, human services, economic life or technology. Explains how the methods of inquiry in these fields can address the challenge and proposes an approach to the problem that draws on these fields. / BI / X / X / X
Produces an investigative, creative or practical work that draws on specific theories, tools and methods from at least two core fields of study / BI / X / X / X
Defines and frames a problem important to the major field of study, justifies the significance of the challenge or problem in a wider societal context, explains how methods from the primary field of study and one or more core fields of study can be used to address the problem, and develops an approach that draws on both the major and core fields / BI / X / X
Identifies and frames a problem or question in selected areas of study and distinguishes among elements of ideas, concepts, theories or practical approaches to the problem or question / IS: Analytic Inquiry / X / X
Differentiates and evaluates theories and approaches to selected complex problems within the chosen field of study and at least one other field. / IS: Analytic Inquiry / X
Identifies, categorizes, evaluates and cites multiple information resources so as to create projects, papers or performances in either a specialized field of study or with respect to a general theme within the arts and sciences. / IS: Use of information resources / X
Describes, explains and evaluates the sources of his/her own perspective on selected issues in culture, society, politics, the arts or global relations and compares that perspective with other views. / IS: Engaging diverse perspectives / X
Creates and explains graphs or other visual depictions of trends, relationships or changes in status. / IS: Quantitative Fluency / X / X
Locates, evaluates, incorporates and properly cites multiple information resources in different media or different languages in projects, papers or performances / IS: Use of information resources / X / X
Generates information through independent or collaborative inquiry and uses that information in a project, paper or performance. / IS: Use of information resources / X / X
Constructs a written project, laboratory report, exhibit, performance or community service design expressing an alternate cultural, political or technological vision and explains how this vision differs from current realities. / IS: Engaging diverse perspectives / X / X
Frames a controversy or problem within the field of study in terms of at least two political, cultural, historical or technological forces, explores and evaluates competing perspectives on the controversy or problem, and presents a reasoned analysis of the issue, either orally or in writing, that demonstrates consideration of the competing views / IS: Engaging diverse perspectives / X / X
Analyzes competing claims from a recent discovery, scientific contention or technical practice with respect to benefits and harms to those affected, articulates the ethical dilemmas inherent in the tension of benefits and harms, and either (a) arrives at a clearly expressed reconciliation of that tension that is informed by ethical principles or (b) explains why such a reconciliation cannot be accomplished / IS: Ethical reasoning / X
Identifies and elaborates key ethical issues present in at least one prominent social or cultural problem, articulates the ways in which at least two differing ethical perspectives influence decision making concerning those problems, and develops and defends an approach to address the ethical issue productively / IS: Ethical reasoning / X / X
Translates verbal problems into mathematical algorithms so as to construct valid arguments using the accepted symbolic system of mathematical reasoning and presents the resulting calculations, estimates, risk analyses or quantitative evaluations of public information in papers, projects or multimedia presentations. / IS: Quantitative fluency / X / X
Conducts an inquiry concerning information, conditions, technologies or practices in the field of study that makes substantive use of non-English-language sources / IS: Communication / X
Describes in writing at least one case in which knowledge and skills acquired in academic settings may be applied to a field-based challenge, and evaluates the learning gained from the application / AC / X
Analyzes at least one significant concept or method in the field of study in light of learning outside the classroom. / AC / X
Locates, gathers and organizes evidence regarding a question in a field-based venue beyond formal academic study and offers alternate approaches to answering it / AC / X
Prepares and presents a project, paper, exhibit, performance or other appropriate demonstration linking knowledge or skills acquired in work, community or research activities with knowledge acquired in one or more fields of study, explains how those elements are structured, and employs appropriate citations to demonstrate the relationship of the product to literature in the field / AC / X / X
Writes a design, review or illustrative application for an analysis or case study in a scientific, technical, economic, business, health, education or communications context. / AC / X / X
Completes a substantial project that evaluates a significant question in the student’s field of study, including an analytic narrative of the effects of learning outside the classroom on the research or practical skills employed in executing the project. / AC / X / X / X
Identifies an economic, environmental or public health challenge spanning countries, continents or cultures, presents evidence for the challenge, and takes a position on it. / CG / X / X
Explains diverse positions, including those representing different cultural, economic and geographic interests, on a contested public issue, and evaluates the issue in light of both those interests and evidence drawn from journalism and scholarship. / CG / X
Develops and justifies a position on a public issue and relates this position to alternate views held by the public or within the policy environment / CG / X / X
Collaborates with others in developing and implementing an approach to a civic issue, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the process, and, where applicable, describes the result. / CG / X / X / X
Identifies a significant issue affecting countries, continents or cultures, presents quantitative evidence of that challenge through tables and graphs, and evaluates the activities of either non-governmental organizations or cooperative inter-governmental initiatives in addressing that issue / CG / X / X

[1]See “Elements of the Texas Core Curriculum,”at

[2]See “Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric” at

[3]See Peter A. Facione, Carol A. Sánchez, Noreen C. Facione and Joanne Gainen, “The Disposition Toward Critical Thinking,” The Journal of General Education, Vol. 44, No. 1 (1995), p 2-3.

[4]See “IT TAKES MORE THAN A MAJOR: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success: An Online Survey Among Employers Conducted on Behalf Of: The Association Of American Colleges And Universities By Hart Research Associates April 10, 2013” at

[5]See Erica Groshen, “Building Data on Marketable Skills,” at and O*Net on line at

[6] See “Employability Skills Framework: Critical Thinking Skills” at

[7]Ryan Craig, “The Skills Gap Is Actually An Awareness Gap -- And It's Easier To Fix,” Forbes, March 17, 2017 (

[8]See “New to the DQP?” at The current version of the DQP was authored by Cliff Adelman, Peter Ewell, Paul Gaston, and Carol Geary Scheider. It was released in 2014.