CRTW 201 Hiner
Group Discussion: Applying the Elements
In groups of two or three, for class-participation credit, discuss and answer the following questions. Take brief notes of your responses so that you can share your answers with the entire class.
The Collegiate Learning Assessment is a state-of-the-art assessment tool used to measure critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem-solving, and writing skills in college students. The test consists of two written arguments and one performance task. Here is an example, taken from the text Academically Adrift, of a typical performance task:
“The ‘DynaTech’ performance task asks students to generate a memo advising an employer about the desirability of purchasing a type of airplane that has recently crashed. Students are informed: ‘You are the assistant to Pat Williams, the president of DynaTech, a company that makes precision electronic instruments and navigational equipment. Sally Evans, a member of DynaTech’s sales force, recommended that DynaTech buy a small private plane (a Swift-Air 235) that she and other members of the sales force could use to visit customers. Pat was about to approve the purchase when there was an accident involving a SwiftAir 235.’
Students are provided with the following set of documents: newspaper articles about the accident, a federal accident report on in-flight breakups in single engine planes, Pat Williams’s e-mail to her assistant and Sally Evans’s e-mail to P.Williams, charts of SwiftAir’s performance characteristics, an article from Amateur Pilot magazine comparing SwiftAir 235 to similar planes, and pictures and descriptions of SwiftAir models 180 and 235. Students are then instructed to ‘prepare a memo that addresses several questions, including what data support or refute the claim that the type of wing on the SwiftAir 235 leads to more in-flight breakups, what other factors might have contributed to the accident and should be taken into account, and your overall recommendation about whether or not DynaTech should purchase the plane” (Arum and Roksa 22).
1. Discuss and analyze what types of intellectual tasks would be necessary to answer this question (analysis, synthesis, argument, evaluation). Identify exactly where these tasks would be needed in answering the question. Discuss how an application of the elements and standards would or would not help a student in answering this question. How would you answer this question if you did not know about the elements and standards? How would you answer this question if you did know about the elements and standards? In your opinion, does this question require higher-order critical thinking in order to answer it sufficiently? Why or why not? Do you think most college students perform well on this test? Why or why not?
2. Describe how intellectual perseverance (or any of the other intellectual character traits) might help you in the academic tasks you are facing between now and the end of finals. Do you have a different sense of what it takes to succeed in life after considering the intellectual character traits? Why or why not?
3. Finally, brainstorm together to create and write:
a. One (1) one-system question
b. One (1) no-system question
c. Two (2) multiple-system questions
You may base these questions off of the information presented in Fukuyama or off of key information in your discipline.
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Print.