CFCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan

1. CFCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan Critical Thinking: Lighting the Path to Lifelong Learning

2. What is the QEP? • A five-year plan to improve student learning in a meaningful way. • A vital part of the college’s reaffirmation of accreditation process. • An opportunity to build upon our tradition of quality instruction and service.

3. What is the Focus of the QEP? • Our QEP focuses on improving students’ critical thinking skills.

5. CFCC’s Definition of Critical Thinking • Critical Thinking is the deliberate process of questioning, evaluating, and responding to problems, scenarios, and arguments in order to reach sound solutions, decisions, and positions.

6. Based on this definition, students demonstrate critical thinking learning outcomes when they: • Ask pertinent questions that clarify and focus a problem, scenario, or argument; • Evaluate the quantity, quality, and usefulness of information; • Articulate a sound solution, decision, or position based on appropriate standards of reasoning; and • Monitor and reflect upon the quality and fairness of their reasoning.

7. What will be the outcomes of the QEP? • Measurable improvement of students’ critical thinking skills at the course, program, and curricular levels • Enhanced instructional practices that promote critical thinking and life-long learning • Improved strategies for assessing student learning outcomes • More effective professional development opportunities for faculty and support staff

8. How Will these Outcomes be Achieved? • The College Success Initiative will emphasize to students the application of critical thinking skills for college success. • The General Education Initiative will facilitate, assess, and enhance critical thinking as a general education core competency. • The Professional Development Initiative will provide all faculty and staff with training opportunities and resources that enhance their abilities to improve students’ critical thinking skills.

9. The College Success Initiative involves three objectives: • Encourage students to think critically about their strategies for college and professional success; • Enable students to maximize their learning potential using critical reading, effective communication, and information literacy skills; and • Introduce students to applied critical thinking in a variety of learning contexts.

10. Implementation Strategies for the College Success Initiative • Increase enrollment in ACA: 111 course with an emphasis on critical thinking; encourage new students to complete course • Use collaboration and team teaching among ACA 111 instructors to highlight how critical thinking is applied similarly and differently in various fields and disciplines • Develop a substantial LRC orientation for ACA 111 and as stand-alone workshop • Emphasize the importance of critical thinking in orientation and student success workshops • Offer more student workshops on foundational academic skills relating to critical thinking • Encourage faculty and support staff from diverse areas to conduct student success workshops

12. The General Education Initiative involves three objectives: • Identify, apply, and evaluate strategies that enhance students’ critical thinking skills in general education courses; • Improve how critical thinking skills are assessed as learning outcomes of general education courses; and • Use interdepartmental communication and cooperation to enhance students’ critical thinking skills in general education courses.

13. Implementation Strategies for the General Education Initiative • Identify currently used strategies through faculty surveys and workshops • Apply new instructional strategies and innovations in general education courses (pilot Paideia/Socratic seminar in ENG 111) • Adopt the Institutional Portfolio model for assessing critical thinking in general education courses • Develop and refine a critical thinking rubric for the Institutional Portfolio model

14. Implementation Strategies for the General Education Initiative (cont.) • Apply rubric to samples of student work from across the general education curriculum • Develop guidelines for assignments that produce assessable samples of student work • Interdisciplinary teams of general education and vocational/technical faculty will participate in the assessment process • Enhancement and assessment results will be shared and discussed with all faculty

16. The Professional Development Initiative involves five objectives: • Offer appropriate training to all faculty and staff involved with critical thinking-enhanced pilot courses. • Use professional development activities to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and refine the facilitation and assessment of critical thinking across the curriculum. • Develop and maintain critical thinking resources for faculty and staff. • Plan and conduct campus wide activities each semester that reinforce the college’s commitment to enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. • Collaborate with business and industry, public schools, universities, and other community colleges to enhance and assess students’ critical thinking skills.

17. Implementation Strategies for the Professional Development Initiative • Paideia/Socratic seminar training for ENG 111 instructors • College Success/Critical Thinking training for ACA instructors • Faculty and Support Staff Learning Communities (FLCs and SSLCs) will participate in Self-paced Online Courses (SPOCs) focusing on instructional and support services that encourage critical thinking • Face-to-face workshops will be developed to supplement the learning communities

18. Implementation Strategies for the Professional Development Initiative (continued) • Each semester the college will sponsor a campus wide activity, including guest speakers, workshop consultants, faculty forums, and student/faculty debate exhibitions • Establish a physical resource center on each campus to house books, journals, articles, lesson ideas, and handouts relating to improving students’ critical thinking skills across the curriculum • Establish an online collection of critical thinking resources for faculty, staff, and students that includes articles, lesson ideas, discussion boards, web links, and tips for students • Invite representatives from business and industry, public schools, universities, and other community colleges to campus forum and workshops

20. How Will We Measure Success?

21. First Outcome: Measurable improvement of students’ critical thinking skills at the course, program, and curricular levels • Measures of Success: • Student gains on pre and post objective tests of critical thinking skills will improve every year of this plan. • Student responses to CCSSE questions relating to critical thinking will indicate improvement with each administering (2008, 2011). • By 2011, 80% of students in randomly selected general education courses will demonstrate critical thinking at a competent level (assessment of student artifacts using CFCC’s critical thinking rubric). • Faculty, staff, senior institutions, and employer descriptions of students’ critical thinking skills will indicate continued improvement (ongoing assessment).

22. Second Outcome: Enhanced instructional practices that promote critical thinking and life-long learning Measures of Success: • Faculty participating in Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) will produce Instructional Enhancement Collections demonstrating improved instructional strategies (ongoing) • Faculty and support staff will contribute lesson ideas, activities, and samples of student work to physical and online resources collections (ongoing) • Faculty and support staff participating in onsite and offsite professional development activities will complete pre and post surveys describing the impact of the training on their abilities to improve students’ critical thinking skills (ongoing)

23. Third Outcome: Improved strategies for assessing student learning outcomes Measures of Success: • CFCC will refine its common critical thinking rubric and the Institutional Portfolio model of assessment (ongoing) • CFCC will revise its student, faculty, staff, and employer surveys to better assess gains in students’ critical thinking skills (ongoing)

24. Fourth Outcome: More effective professional development opportunities for faculty and support staff Measures of Success: • Faculty and support staff participation in professional development activities will increase (ongoing) • Faculty and support staff will report greater satisfaction with the professional development activities made available (ongoing) • Faculty and support staff participating in onsite and offsite professional development activities will complete pre and post surveys describing the impact of the training on their abilities to improve students’ critical thinking skills (ongoing)

25. Fall 2006 QEP Priorities • Increase campus-wide awareness and understanding of the QEP • Begin forming first faculty and support staff learning communities • Begin developing self-paced online courses • Begin developing physical and online critical thinking resources • Prepare for SACS Onsite Peer Review Visit (October 17-19)

26. Questions, Comments, (Exasperations)?

27. Thank You!