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Integrating Critical Thinking
critical thinking rubric developed at Washington State University. The rubric was revised
in 2006 as “The Guide to Rating Critical and Integrative Thinking” and placed online.
Students made progress toward a variety of critical thinking goals, such as identifying the
main question, assessing supporting evidence, and considering other positions. Informally,
we have observed similar effects using the film Memento (Nolan, 2000).
A strong study by Hall and Seery (2006) reported a group activity to help students
evaluate media reports of psychological research. Students read about research in an online
newspaper and in a scholarly journal. They then responded to questions about what kinds
of information are most likely to be included in a media report of psychological research,
how newspaper headlines may be misleading, and why it is important to know about the
study itself. Compared to a group that did not engage in the group activity, the treatment
group’s scores on the three questions were much higher.
These audiovisual assignments illustrate how to integrate critical thinking and course
content. The assignments support learning because students must learn the name and
definition of a psychological construct and also must identify an example of the concept
in the media to evaluate the accuracy of the portrayal. Thus students engaged in critical
thinking at the same time they learned course content.
Internet Assignments
Several instructors have created critical thinking assignments that employ the Internet.
Sung, Lin, Lee, and Chang (2003) used the Internet for a peer critique program in an
experimental psychology course. Students submitted research proposals on the Web,
received peer feedback, and revised their proposals. Instructors familiar with course content
blindly rated the proposals before and after peer discussion. Ratings of proposals after peer
evaluation were higher than before evaluation.
Other assignments require students to critique information found on the Internet. For
example, Miserandino (2006) found that an Internet-based ice cream personality test
promoted student learning about the role of reliability and validity in test design. Similarly,
Connor-Greene and Greene (2002) developed an assignment in which students read an
Internet article about the dangers of aspartame and wrote individual reactions to it. The
students subsequently worked in groups to answer a series of questions regarding the nature
and quality of the evidence in the article. In contrast to their initial reactions as individuals,
the discussion groups noted and described multiple limitations of the article. These examples
illustrate ways to promote critical thinking about information on the Internet.
Course Case Studies in Integrating Critical
Thinking into Upper Level Courses
The previous section of the chapter described activities that promote critical thinking
while teaching course content. All the activities are discrete and represent ways to focus on
specific critical thinking objectives. However, some instructors may want to infuse critical