Enhancing Writing and Critical Thinking Through Paired Courses Rebecca Damron, Karen High

1. Based on universal intellectual values: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, and breadth Enhancing Writing and Critical Thinking Through Paired CoursesRebecca Damron, Karen High Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information fairnesshttp://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define_critical_thinking.cfm Results Discussion Paired Courses Rating the Writing Scores on the writing and critical thinking indicated trend toward higher scores across the board for the paired students. These scores were also higher than our 2006 study with the exception of CT#2--change of assignment effect (High and Damron, 2007). • The Writing Rubric used the following three criteria: • 1. Content • 2. Organization • Style and Mechanics • Documentation • The Critical Thinking Rubric uses the following seven characteristics: • 1 – 4: Essential Characteristics • 1. Identification and/or summary of the problem/question at issue • 2. Presentation of the STUDENT’S OWN perspective and position as it is important to the analysis of the issue. • 3. Assessment and appropriate use of supporting data/evidence. • 4. Discussion of conclusions, implications and consequences. • 5-7: Optional Characteristics (evaluate where appropriate) • 5. Consideration of OTHER salient perspectives and positions that are important to the analysis of the issue. • 6. Assessment of the key assumptions and the validity of the supporting/background information. • 7. Consideration of the influence of the context on the issue (including where appropriate, cultural, social, economic, technological, ethical, political, or personal context) • The papers are ranked on a 1 to 5 scale for each with 1=low and 5 = high on each of the criteria. Engineering & English ENTREPRENEUR N=22 The paired group had higher scores for the written and critical thinking components, with a statistically significant difference for the 1st critical thinking criterion “Identification or summary of the problem at hand”. (Based on non-parametric Mann Whitney Analysis) Engineering & English WOMEN Eng=15, Arch=5 Non-Paired Course Engineering CHEM Engineers N=19 Cohorts LW=Women English only EE=Entrepreneur-Non-Paired EW=Women-Non-Paired EC=Chemical-Non-Paired PW=Women-Paired PE=Entrepreneurs-Paired PFEAS*--Items with significant difference between paired and non-paired 3. The advantages of studying engineering outweigh the disadvantages 16. My parent(s) are making me study engineering 30. how confident you are of your abilities in the subject or skill: Physics * Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey These results are puzzling. Further analysis will be done to determine importance of these items. The Entrepreneurs seem to have a more positive attitude towards Engineering PFEAS Engineering Perception PFEAS Number of positive responses by cohort Perceptual Surveys The paired course students were significantly different in their ratings of themselves as writers vs. non-paired students. The difference was significantly higher: the paired students’ view of their writing improved significantly from beginning to end of semester. EEW-Writing Perception How would you have rated yourself as a writer before the semester started? How would you rated yourself as a writer now? EEW Writing Perception Of the paired course students, all were positive about their experiences, with the Entrepreneurs showing a very positive experience.