Office of Institutional Assessment

Student Learning Competencies

Critical Thinking

Committee Members

Assessment Proposals

Assessment Reports

Standards & Criteria

Critical thinking is a higher order thinking skill exhibited in contexts like writing, oral presentation and problem solving. At the college level, it is learned, developed and finds formal expression within contexts represented by academic disciplines. Nonetheless, because critical thinking is a transferable skill, there are core meanings of critical thinking that transcend disciplines.

A pilot critical thinking competency assessment was conducted in spring 2006 in synthesis courses, the upper division, final general education requirement for all Mason undergraduate students. Using a common rubric containing components of critical thinking that faculty identified as essential criteria by which critical thinking should be judged, fourteen trained faculty raters assessed presentations or written work in six courses representing six disciplines. In most categories, Mason students exhibited good critical thinking skills in both their oral presentations and written work, but there is room for improvement.

In fall 2006, the Critical Thinking Assessment Committee and the General Education Committee will consider the results and assessment will be repeated in the spring. In addition, the Provost has begun a new initiative entitled, "Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum" which will be based on the very successful "Writing Across the Curriculum" and will include an assessment component.