<p>What are some schools that have a consistent approach to teaching critical thinking/writing across the curriculum?</p>
<p>I think back to my undergrad years and we were required to write a fair amount, both on exams and papers. But, the instruction we received on how to attack and analyze problems was totally lacking. Feedback from most faculty on papers and exams was worthless. There was never really any guidance and structure to the critical thinking/writing process. So, I am not looking for schools that just require lots of writing because this is no good without consistent and quality instruction on how to do it.</p>
<p>I didn’t learn this in college – I learned it in high school. I went to a rigorous private prep school where everyone had 3-4 hours of homework a night, starting in 7th grade. (Or maybe it just took me that long to do it…) </p>
<p>Every class seemed to require writing an essay every week. And teachers would call on you in class and you were expected to have read the material and have an opinion about it. I don’t think D got this training at her school. I know she didn’t have to write as much as I did, and I don’t think she learned critical thinking there.</p>
<p>I have heard other parents say that their kids who went to the same public high school as D have found that the private school kids are just so far ahead in terms of analyzing information, making comparisons, bringing in other disciplines (so if it’s a history class, they can bring in something they learned in economics). I don’t mean that every private school is better prepared than every public school kid – I’m just relaying my experience and that of my child.</p>
<p>One of the threads here mentions Hamilton as requiring quite a bit of writing…</p>
<p>There is an approach called Writing Across the Curriculum that addresses the issues you are describing. Here’s how they describe it at the University of Richmond:</p>
<p>The idea was developed by a Swarthmore grad who went to Brown as a Dean after getting her PhD (with an interim stop at Carleton). She started Brown’s program out of the Dean’s office in 1982. She stayed in consistant contact with one of her English professors at Swarthmore, who concurrently developed a similar program scaled for a small liberal arts college. These two programs became the model for today’s programs.</p>
<p>The two key element of the idea are:</p>
<p>a) using trained student peers to review student papers with them in a review and revise round. The idea is that student peers, assuming proper training, are actually more effective than most professors in helping students think through the logic of a well-written paper.</p>
<p>b) A mechanism where this process is not only available on a walk-in basis (at a writing center), but where it is formally incorporated as a requirement for designated courses.</p>
<hr>
<p>This is the model that most schools try to follow to some extent, to varying degrees of commitment, funding, and success. I am most familiar with Swarthmore’s program and it is sets a very high standard, so these elesment are pretty much the ideal:</p>
<p>a) the program is run by a full-time tenured professor who does NOTHING but run and teach the [Swarthmore</a> Writing Associates Program](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/writing.xml]Swarthmore”>Writing Associates Program :: Swarthmore College). Lower cost options used by many top schools are part-time responsibilities by a Professor with other teaching responsibilities or post-doc hires to run the writing program.</p>
<p>b) Swarthmore’s student peer writing mentors are nominated (by professors) after freshman year. They take [a</a> full credit writing theory and instuction seminar](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/academics/writing/English%201C%202010.pdf]a”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/academics/writing/English%201C%202010.pdf) during first semester of sophmore year, taught by the Prof. who runs the writing program. This is at the level of a grad school writing course. I know of no other program that goes to this extreme to prepare the student peers (and it is a terrific course for the peers who will spend their careers being better prepared to assist peers in better communication!). Most schools offer a day or two or maybe series of sessions to prepare peer reviewers.</p>
<p>c) Writing peer reviewers are paid at Swarthmore at the highest of the three tiers of student work study.</p>
<p>d) Any student can drop in to the Writing center and get any paper reviewed. It is encouraged and widespread. My daughter told me that she got the majority of her papers reviewed during her four years at Swarthmore, because it resulted in much better papers! Students who are struggling with writing can also get an individual writing mentor assigned (more of the remedial approach that used to be the model for student writing assistance).</p>
<p>e) The real ground-breaking aspect of these programs is incorporating the review and revise round into courses across all areas of the curriculum. Swarthmore designates these as WRITING courses, all with specific revise and review rounds for papers, either done by the Professor or by Student Writing Associates assigned to that course. Swarthmore has [19</a> courses with student Writing Associates assigned](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x10210.xml]19”>Course WA Assignments :: Writing Associates Program :: Swarthmore College) for mandatory review. One of the most innovative is the use of these assigned WAs to review all lab reports in the Intro Bio course. This was the subject of a paper by the head of Swarthmore’s writing program:</p>
<p>One of the goals of an effective program is to make the professors active participants in studying and teach effective writing.</p>
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<p>You probably won’t find many schools that commit this level of resources, but these are at least elements to look for when you read up on the writing programs at various schools. The next trend, and I know Swarthmore is beginning to move in this direction, is to apply the same kind of approaches to formalize the instruction in oral classroom presentations.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of programs that are involved in the national orgranization of academics for these types of programs so you can get an idea of the range:</p>
<p>“The real ground-breaking aspect of these programs is incorporating the review and revise round into courses across all areas of the curriculum”</p>
<p>From what I have seen, few, if any research universities do this but I keep looking. If they do it, it is implemented inconsistently across the university, a class here and there.</p>
<p>My son’s public high school does it also but no where near the level that is required to adequately analyze a scholarly article or siginficant public policy issue.</p>
<p>My school - large research university - has a required freshman writing class. After that, there is a writing intensive requirement. Some of these courses must be in the student’s major.</p>
<p>According to Allegheny College: “During the first two years, every Allegheny student participates in three seminars that focus on written and oral communication as well as academic and career advising.”</p>
<p>dietz - The Catholic HS in our area fail horribly at this. Lots of writing, but focused on research and grammar, not critical thinking. </p>
<p>Nothing against COW or other writing intense LACs, but I think what Haystack is really seeking is how well do these writing intense schools teach critical analysis. And how can this be measured so we as the prospective student/parent can find these schools? </p>
<p>COW may be doing a great job, but how do we as “consumers” quantify? </p>
<p>Allegheny is able to point out the major/minor in something outside the major requirement and go on to highlight specific student projects which show this (usually projects which combined the major/minor).</p>
<p>I’d love to hear more schools and how they are “showing” that they are doing this.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>This is a major focus of the Chicago core curriculum. The Humanities courses have an explicit writing program attached, with writing fellows that take students through multiple drafts of their papers for the course. Every student does that for at least two, and often three, quarters of their first year. In terms of content, both the Humanities and the Social Science core courses are designed to provoke/require critical thinking; that, as much or more than the works on the syllabus, is the major content of the courses.</p></li>
<li><p>For about 25 years, SUNY at Buffalo had a freestanding elective course called Methods of Inquiry that was designed as a course in critical thinking, and included focused instruction not only in analytical writing, but also in things like note-taking and asking questions. At its height, I think it was handling 300+ students/semester, and there was considerable evidence that students who took the course significantly improved their GPAs in subsequent courses and their likelihood of graduating. I believe it fell victim to the last round of budget cuts, however, and is no longer offered.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In theory, critical thinking should be taught in almost all courses in all majors and subjects at a university. (Of course, there are different modes of thinking that can apply to different subjects, such as qualitative/humanistic versus quantitative/logical.)</p>
<p>I can only speak about the College of Wooster. My cousin is currently working on his senior i.s. and is an English major. His critical thinking and writing skills are exceptional. He went in as a shy 18 year old with potential and has blossomed into this amazing, well spoken and written man. He is so smart!</p>
<p>Established in 1935, Plan II is a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. Plan II differs from most honors programs in that its core curriculum is itself a major. Over a third of the courses required for a Plan II degree are limited to Plan II students. Plan II students also have access to other honors-level courses at the University. The remaining classes are chosen from the extensive list of the University’s departmental offerings. Many of these classes will be as challenging as honors courses.</p>
<p>A year-long freshman course in world literature from the ancients to the present</p>
<p>three semesters of interdisciplinary tutorials and seminars which develop and refine students’ analytic and synthesizing capacities</p>
<p>a year-long philosophy course for sophomores</p>
<p>A semester of honors social science</p>
<p>two semesters of non-US history</p>
<p>a four-semester honors sequence in modes of reasoning, theoretical math or calculus, life sciences, and physical sciences</p>
<p>A senior thesis, a major independent research and writing project, which is the culmination of a student’s academic program in Plan II</p>
<p>In addition, students must satisfy University and College requirements with courses in both US government and history, a fine arts/humanities sequence, foreign language proficiency, and additional math or science.The elective hours incorporated into the Plan II curriculum provide flexibility if Plan II students choose to complete the equivalent of a second major in a particular subject area. For instance, a student might take electives in English in preparation for English graduate school. Someone wanting a career in banking might concentrate elective hours in economics, or even the Business Foundations certificate program. Many students complete the premed curriculum or a pre-law concentration in conjunction with their Plan II major and go on to medical school or law school. Often, Plan II students take an additional year and simultaneously earn a second degree––in business, engineering, or architecture, for example. Hence, it is possible through the electives to achieve some degree of specialization in tandem with the broad-based Plan II curriculum.</p>
<p>Some of the avenues Bates uses to bolster its students’ writing skills are:</p>
<p>The First-Year Seminar
(“The two most fundamental elements for life long learning are writing well and thinking clearly. At Bates, youll develop both from the start. Our First-Year Seminar (FYS) is a small class focused on improving your writing and critical thinking skills. Developing these skills early will help you in your transition to college-level academic work while also introducing you to your academic advisor.”)</p>
<p>Free writing seminars</p>
<p>Writing specialists who work with both students and faculty
(“Three professional staff, each with a doctorate and much experience teaching writing, meet with students by appointment to discuss class assignments, senior theses, grant proposals, and other writing tasks.”)</p>
<p>A drop-in peer writing center
(“In 2010-11 writing assistants conducted more than 2,900 one-to-one conferences and met with more than 850 different Bates students. As students themselves, peer writing assistants communicate on students terms and in their language, bringing student-oriented perspectives, insights, and local knowledge to the conversation. One group of writing assistants staffs the Peer Writing Center in Ladd Library. The Center is open to students on a drop-in basis, Sundays through Fridays, with daytime and evening hours. Conferences typically last between thirty and fifty minutes.”)</p>
<p>Course-based writing assistants who help with writing help for a specific course and also provide feedback to professors on writing assignments.</p>
<p>The Senior Thesis
(“The emphasis and exigency of our senior thesis program sets us apart from other undergraduate programs. Here, youre expected to undertake independent research on a topic of considerable complexity. Beyond demanding an understanding of the subject area, its theoretical underpinnings, and its research methodology, you must also draw on prior course work and research experience, as well as your creativity, self-discipline and time management skills.”)
This is one of those places where faculty student ratio has a big impact. Faculty meet with their thesis advisees on a regular basis and provide feedback on the writing to date.</p>