Assignment Design

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Assignment Design Critical Thinking in
Writing-Intensive Freshman Classes

• Arlene Wilner
• Rider University
• Classroom-Inquiry Project
• sponsored by
• The Carnegie Academy
• for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• 2000-2001

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Assignment Design Critical Thinking in
Writing-Intensive Freshman Classes

• What do faculty expect of college students?
• How do entering students think?
• How can we design assignments to bridge the gap
  between where students are and where we would
  like them to be?

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Data From Faculty9 co-researchers/ 4 disciplines

• Syllabi with goals, objectives, criteria for
  evaluation, and daily assignments justification
  statement explaining the rationale behind the
  design of the syllabus
• Sequence of writing assignments for the semester
• Reflections on design of specific assignments
  that students also analyzed, as above
• Videotaped interviews with 2 English Dept.
  faculty - a doctoral candidate and a senior
  Professor
• Focus group discussion with 5 faculty (2 English,
  2 History, 1 Political Science) who teach
  writing-intensive classes

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Data From Students300 students in study group

• Pre- and Post- semester essays reflecting on
  learning experiences in high school and in
  college
• Reflections on at least two of their writing
  assignments from the second half of the term
• Comments regarding helpfulness of instructor
  feedback on papers and specific examples of
  helpful feedback from xeroxed papers
• A large sampling of students essays from my
  classes and numerous others (over the course of
  two years)
• Videotaped focus group discussion with 2 freshmen
  and 2 seniors
• Audiotaped interviews with 2 students who took my
  CMP 115 in fall 2000

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The Perry Paradigm

• Dualism
• Multiplicity
• Contextual Relativism
• Commitment within Relativism

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Well-Structured Problem

• Lends itself to a relatively algorithmic solution
• Parameters are finite
• Solution is unambiguous
• Resolution is testable

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Ill-Structured Problem

• Contingency permeates the task environment
• Solutions are always equivocal
• Idea of getting it right gives way to making
  it acceptable under the circumstances

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Abilities Associated with Ill-Structured
Problem-Solving

• Entertain uncertainty and contingency
• Imagine sympathetically, although not necessarily
  to embrace, a position or state of mind different
  from ones own
• Develop criteria for evaluating the
  persuasiveness or validity of a position (as
  opposed to an opinion)
• Seek the historical, social, and political
  contexts out of which ideas emerge
• Understand that different disciplines bring
  different sets of assumptions and ways of knowing
  to inquiry
• Construct an argument that incorporates an
  awareness of alternative positions and ones
  reasons for rejecting them

College teachers usually value habits of mind
very different from the ones cherished by recent
high school graduates.
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Video 1--four students
How can we tell what the author meant? Click
here for video 1
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Langers 1994 Study of High School Students
Writing Across Disciplines

• Students were rarely challenged to explain
  their interpretations or encouraged to examine
  the evidence on which they had based their
  conclusions. More typically, in all areas of the
  curriculum, they were asked to summarize
  information and points of view that had been
  presented to them by the teacher or the textbook.

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Pre-Semester Assessment Prompt

• Describe the course you consider to be the best
  in your education so far. Be as specific as
  possible in explaining why the course affected
  you as it did. Aspects you may wish to comment
  on include course content, class activities, the
  teachers methods and approaches, class
  atmosphere, and grading policies, among others.
  Please give as many details as you can to show
  why this particular class was so effective in
  your view.

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Preferences ofHigh School Students

• Fun/variety of activities
• Personal attention and sensitivity to
• individual personalities and styles of
• learning
• Either well-structured problems or non-
• problems (Craig Nelsons Baskin-
• Robbins stage of critical thinking)

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Students Characterization of Best Learning
Experience in High School
The Exception
In my many years of school I have had a number of
different classes. Many of these courses were
exciting or fun but they all seemed to be missing
something. I think what I am talking about is
content. Content is needed in a course to get me
interested. I would have to say that my favorite
course was World History. It was not the teacher
who made the course fun or any activities. One
of my biggest interests is ancient civilization .
. . In the end it is content which will attract
me to a course, not great teaching.
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Students Characterization of Best Learning
Experience in High School
To make everyone comfortable, he had a radio in
the back of the room that would be playing at all
times. He wore crazy shirts with periodic tables
and silly science-promoting slogans and sang
songs about filling atomic orbital levels.
(Junior Chemistry)
He got so involved with the class that he had a
feeling for each individuals needs and learning
style. (Senior AP Physics)
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Students Characterization of Best Learning
Experience in High School
She would kiss her students for class
participation and enthusiasm using chocolate
Hershey Kisses as rewards. (Honors English)
We had a journal in class. We wrote two entries a
week. When we handed them in, our teacher, and
only our teacher, would read them. There was
never a negative comment on them. Her comments
made you feel so good about yourself. (Senior
English)
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Students Characterization of Best Learning
Experience in High School
The class delved deep into the various
genocides such as the potato famine, the
Cambodian killing fields and perhaps the most
intriguing, the Holocaust. What made the class
interesting was the no right or wrong answer.
We didnt have a textbook. We all used our
knowledge and combined it with our teachers
immense knowledge and before we knew it we
conducted several intelligent talk forums during
class. (Holocaust/Genocide)
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Students Tendency to Assimilate
Literary Criticism
Toni Morrison, from Introduction to Huckleberry
Finn
Thesis
I was disturbed by Huckleberry Finn when I first
read it as a child. Now, as an adult, I
understand my complex and ambivalent attitudes
toward this classic work.
Students Version
Morrison dislikes Huckleberry Finn because it is
racist. (Race, Class, and Gender in the U.S.)
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Students Tendency to Assimilate
Media Studies
Ben Bagdikian, Dr. Brandreth Has Gone to Harvard
Thesis
Corporate interests strongly but surreptitiously
influence the content of supposedly
non-commercial programming and articles
Students Version
Advertising is sneaky in the way it tries to
influence us (e.g., the sexy girl in the car
commercial). (CMP 100)
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Students Tendency to Assimilate
Science
Ken Flieger, Aspirin A New Look at an Old
Drug, FDA Consumer Jan/Feb. 1994.
Thesis
While aspirin, administered in professionally
supervised doses, has been proven to reduce the
risk of heart attacks in patients with a history
of cardiovascular disease, its value as a
preventative substance for healthy people is less
clear because research results have been
inconsistent.
Students Version
Aspirin can help prevent heart attacks when taken
in low doses. (Technical Writing)
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Understanding DifficultiesMariolina Rizzi
Salvatori
While initial disorientation, as a response to
difficulties, is to be expected, I would suggest
that students', and teachers', consistent
circumventions of them, particularly in
entry-level courses, demonstrate the effects of
educational approaches that, by stream-lining and
providing answers for difficulties, nurture
continuous dependence on a hierarchy of experts
most of whom are unwilling or unable to share
with others the processes that enabled them to
acquire and amass their cultural capital.
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A Sampling of Course Objectives for Basic
Composition(first level of a three-semester
sequence)

• How to distinguish between a general claim and an
  illustration, an abstract idea and a concrete
  example
• How to summarize accurately the ideas in assigned
  readings
• How to identify the strengths and weaknesses of
  an argument
• How to compare and contrast different ideas on a
  topic of intellectual import
• How to recognize irony, shifts in persona, and
  other rhetorical strategies
• How to use ones understanding of the ideas of
  others to effectively advance a position in
  writing
• How to use textual evidence gracefully and
  persuasively to support a claim

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Characteristics of Assignments in Study

• Require close reading of challenging texts
• Require students to incorporate summary/
  paraphrase of ideas or plot elements in support
  of ideas or arguments
• Invite acknowledgment of ambiguity, uncertainty,
  and qualification
• Require explicit statement of a clear central
  idea (thesis) that is a non-obvious claim
• Often require integrating perspectives from two
  or more texts

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Video 2--Michele Haughey

• Students responses to an ill-structured problem
• Click here for Video 2

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An Ineffective Ill-Structured Problem
This assignment will give you an opportunity to
agree or disagree with one or both of the authors
weve recently readStephen Nilsson and/or George
Kleiman. Requirements Adequate first paragraph
that includes name of article or lectures, name
of author, and approximate date of publication. .
. AND A GOOD THESIS that states your judgment of
the authors ideas about a particular issue for
example, Kleiman writes about schools,
technology, and the media, so you should limit
your thesis to one of these. Body paragraphs
that support your claims with quotations or
paraphrases from the handouts, text, or lecture.
Be sure that you know what topic or issue each
paragraph addresses. A conclusion that invites
the reader to think further about the
issue. Correctly punctuated sentences no
fragments or run-ons. 2-3 pages.
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A More Effective Ill-Structured Problem
TOPIC Confining your discussion to the course
texts listed below, COMPARE the cultural
ideology(ies) closest to your beliefs with the
one(s) most foreign. REFLECT on what your
discussion tells you about your culture and your
place in it. TEXTS Gunn Allen,
"Grandmother Achebe, "Chi" Bulfinch, Greek
myth African Myth Michelangelo, Creation of
Adam Nihongi Sartre, "The Wall Popul Vuh
Sartre, "Existentialism" Miwok myth Hawking,
Our Picture of the Universe Genesis
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A More EffectiveIll-Structured Problem
PRE-WRITING 1. List the texts in order of
decreasing congruence with your own cultural
beliefs. 2. Take the one (or two) texts most
congruent with your own beliefs and the one
(or two) least congruent. List as many points
of likeness and difference as you can. 3. Sort
your points logically and decide on an order of
presentation. 4. Add or refine points as
additional thoughts occur during this
brainstorming stage. LENGTH AND FORMAT About
three pages, word-processed, double-spaced. Docume
nt citations from the course texts informally
using parenthetical references within the body
of your text. For example, Sartre's narrator
says, " . . . " (SR 49) Michelangelo depicts a
creator who . . . handout). CRITERIA FOR
EVALUATION 1. Demonstrated understanding of
texts
2. Intelligence of argument

3. Clarity of argument
4.
Correctness and effectiveness of prose style
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Freshman Students Responses
This assignment is different in the sense that
we were given a topic in a sense, but no two
papers will look anything like each other.
Overall, my high school classes were more about
memorization than contemplation.
The most difficult part of this assignment was
trying to tackle an idea such as creation without
contradicting myself. It is not an easy
assignment, let alone to do in only 3-4 pages.
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Freshman Students Responses
Dealing with creation, this paper has forced me
to review my own beliefs. Questions have arisen
to which I have no answers, but thats just a
process of life. I have also been introduced to
ideas that have sparked interest/debate.
Most challenging about this assignment was
taking my personal views and structuring them
into something someone else could comprehend.
I looked at my own beliefs in a more skeptical
way than I have before. When you have a
collection of different theories, where most of
them seem absurd, its hard not to question your
own theory.
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Video 3--Anne Osborne and Kathy Hoff
Truth, History, Fiction--sophisticated
disciplinary epistemologies The challenges
of being thrown into Multiplicity
willy-nilly Click here for Video 3
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Video 4--Anne Osborne and Michele Haughey
How can belief inhibit knowledge? Where
does my voice fit in? Click here for video 4
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Balancing Guidance and Freedom
BHP 150 Great Ideas II Spring 2001 Profs.
Rusciano and Wilner In The Prince (1513),
Machiavelli gives advice on how a political
leader should conduct himself to maintain order
as well as his own position. He says he wants to
write something useful and that he wished to
follow the real truth of things rather than an
imaginary view of them (44). Write a paper of
3-4 pages in which you consider how Machiavellis
philosophy, as set forth in the excerpt you read
from The Prince, is an implicit response to
Platos ideas of proper governance as set forth
in Allegory of the Cave. Ideas to consider
(not a set of questions to be answered
independently as if for an exam) What do the two
theories say about how individuals can, and
should, perceive reality? What is the obligation
of a leader to the people regarding their
understanding of reality? Why is Machiavelli
often considered anti-Platonic in his views of
politics and knowledge? Be sure to cite textual
evidence to support your assertions, including
the page number(s) in parentheses following the
quotation or citation.
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Video 5--Frank Rusciano and Anne Salvatore
The difficulty for faculty of determining
what is self-evident Click here for Video 5
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Suspicions andSpeculations Confirmed
1. The rich get richer, and the poor, poorer
Being placed in an enriched, honor, or AP class
is not a guarantee that critical thinking
(ill-structured problem-solving skills) will be
taught, but not being placed in such classes
seems to guarantee that they will not be. Since
many college classes depend on the kinds of
high-level skills fostered by our assignments
(analysis, synthesis, reasoned and evidence-based
critique), it is imperative that ALL of our
students be given the opportunity to practice
them early and often.
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Moving Up the Perry Scale

• Kathy (honors) I discovered that understanding
  the theme is really only the beginning of really
  knowing what the writer is trying to show. P.S. I
  used quotes from Sartre and Plato as well as
  other works that we read in order to prove points
  in my Psychology papers. Things we discussed in
  class stayed in my mind throughout all the
  discussions I had in my other classes.
• Jane (honors) I think that I question things
  differently now. For example, I found that the
  essay Discovering Columbus made me think more
  about the way information is presented and
  whether or not it should be taken as fact. I
  applied this idea to readings in my other
  classes.

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Moving Up the Perry Scale, contd.

• Karla (honors) I have always been open to the
  points of view of other individuals and when I
  would hear, say, about rituals (not necessarily
  religion-based) that were done in other countries
  that to many people would seem crazy or
  terrible, I would think, well, somehow it makes
  sense to them. However, Things Fall Apart gave me
  a depthful sic insight into the views of other
  people and their rituals and helped me to
  understand how these ideas and rituals could make
  sense to them.
• Craig (honors) Basically, I learned in this
  class the importance of learning more than just
  the facts and also the importance of
  discussion.

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Moving Up the Perry Scale, contd.

• Peter (developmental) The readings that we have
  discussed, especially Plato and Machiavelli, have
  opened my eyes to the kind of world we live in.
  Although there was plenty of work involved, I
  felt that the challenge brought out something in
  me, that I never knew I had--the ability to gain
  knowledge and apply it to different aspects of my
  life.
• Susan (standard course) Reading a story, essay,
  or series of letters has always been a way to
  learn what a teacher thinks of them. I then would
  have to be able to spit back to that teacher how
  they felt about that piece of literature. Now,
  within this course, I have been able to freely
  think for myself . . . . Then, finding out I
  could support my ideas and feelings with evidence
  taught me how to be able to stand up for my
  viewpoints and feelings on various topics.

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Suspicions andSpeculations Confirmed

• 2. While we hope that critical thinking skills
  are generic in that they are transferable
  across disciplines (to varying degrees, depending
  on whether the domains share an emphasis on well-
  or ill-structured problem solving), the skills
  themselves cannot be taught generically.

• Curricula and assignments are tied to particular
  content and require manipulation of that content
  in particular ways over which we instructors have
  control. Imagining one or more of several
  possible solutions to the problems we pose is an
  act of intellect, creativity, and ethics--for
  ourselves, and for our students.

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ONGOING HYPOTHESES

• Faculty need to balance attention to affective
  domain (students sense that teachers care about
  them as individuals and are alert to their
  current ways of thinking and feeling) with
  strategies that foster accountability to
  discipline-grounded criteria and modes of
  inquiry.
• There are no formulas, but it is possible to
  cultivate a sense of better and worse practices
  within a spectrum of choices. Assignments
  designed as ill-structured problems appear to
  nurture the sorts of engagement with ideas
  generally associated with critical thinking
  (especially when combined with constructive
  feedback in the form of conversation).
• Since faculty can benefit from learning
  communities just as students do, common readings
  across sections can enable productive workshops
  on assignment design.

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Video 6--Michele Haughey and Kathy Hoff
The value of collaborative faculty
development Click here for Video 6
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Video7--Are you sure the cameras are off?
What can we know, and how can we know it?
Discuss! Click here for Video 7