The purpose of this article is to present the author's anecdotal findings from using a grade defense assignment as a supplemental aspect of an ePortfolio assignment. This is not a full research study, but the author did a few semesters of testing with the assignment before implementing the grade defense in all sections of the University Seminar…

Promoting critical thinking (CT) skills has largely attracted the concern of numerous relevant stakeholders, including teachers, students, and policymakers, with the assumption that CT is a vitally learned skill needed by graduates. This study explores the extent of classroom-based assessment strategies used to promote the CT ability of…

This article presents a reflection tool--created by The New Teacher Project (TNTP) and Learning Forward--for shifting the cognitive load to students from teachers so that students are actively engaged, use critical thinking, and demonstrate understanding. Coaches, teacher leaders, and other professional learning leaders can use this tool in…

This three-article dissertation explores Learning by Evaluating (LbE), an educational approach that enhances student learning through the process of assessing and providing feedback on peer work. Leveraging principles of comparative judgement, students evaluate pairs of exemplars side-by-side to determine which is better and provide a rational for…

Diversity, cultural competency, and global awareness are three broad and mutually reinforcing conceptual themes in the literature of American public affairs education that are rarely implicitly interconnected. A primary challenge has concerned how to teach these themes, either separately or in unison, when designing courses and curricula to…

Cultivating interdisciplinary connections between freshman and capstone students epitomizes a novel pedagogical approach to deepen student understanding of the learning process in a Community College environment. Within such a context, this article focuses on the outcomes of a two-semester collaborative effort that aims to establish and strengthen…

In this note, I argue for and discuss my experiences with explicitly incorporating principles of critical and creative thinking in a transitions course which serves mathematics, mathematics education, and statistics majors. I describe several specific assignments and classroom tasks designed to enhance critical and creative thinking. I also…

Reflective practice supports critical thinking and assessment skills through analyzing one's own life experiences, and the role of reflection in learning has been long recognized. However, drawbacks of many reflective practice assignments are their broad scope and lengthy written requirements. I propose that the reflection process is robust enough…

In addition to learning more about a topic, online discussion activities may be used to develop skills in reflective practice, critical evaluation, and leadership. Faculty members often spend a great amount of time and energy developing discussion assignments that will improve these skills and align with course learning outcomes. Students may feel…

This essay describes innovations made and lessons learned while teaching introduction to management courses during a 25-year career. The essay describes how teaching two approaches to management increases students' critical and ethical thinking, and reverses the tendency for business students to become increasingly materialistic and…

Critical reflection is a highly valued and widely applied learning approach in higher education. There are many benefits associated with engaging in critical reflection, and it is often integrated into the design of graduate level courses on university teaching as a life-long learning strategy to help ensure that learners build their capacity as…

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper is to describe visual literacy and an adapted version of Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) and its value to enhance students' inferential thinking. (Methodology) An example of a middle school VTS, art-integrated lesson is described as well as reflections of a middle school language arts teacher about what she…

This article explores how critical thinking activities and assignments can function to enhance students' ethical awareness and sense of civic responsibility. Employing Levinas's Other-centered theory of ethics, Burke's notion of "the paradox of substance", and Murray's concept of "a rhetoric of disruption", this article…

This article describes a graduate-level qualitative research course informed by transformational learning theory. It presents strategies an interdisciplinary team of instructors used to engage and support students as they entered and moved through the course. The strategies focused on creating a safe, supportive, learner-centered environment,…

The importance of critical reflection in higher education highlights the importance of creating rich learning opportunities for students. Expressive arts (e.g., poetry, drama) ignites such opportunity drawing from more than students' logical-cognitive understandings to include students' creative, multi-modal and experiential capacities. This paper…