How are you helping to implement the EKU Quality Enhancement Plan?
I came on board during the summer of 2008 as the Coordinator of Foundations for Learning, GSD 101. This course is an alternative to the 1-credit-hour orientation courses offered on campus and is steeped in the Paul & Elder Model of Critical Thinking. Last fall, around 400 first-time freshmen enrolled in GSD 101 voluntarily. This fall, we’ve increased our number of sections and around 500 first-time freshmen are enrolled. We’ve had buy in from several departments on campus, including Psychology, English, Correctional & Juvenile Justice, and Criminal Justice & Police Studies. Next fall we are looking to add Safety, Security & Emergency Management to that list and any other departments that are interested in introducing their students to the common critical thinking language being used at Eastern.

How can this transform and enrich the educational experience of our students?
Orientation courses provide our students with an introduction to EKU and our expectations of them. When they are handed “The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking” in GSD 101 and told that this little booklet will empower them to become critical thinkers, we often get sighs and eye-rolling. Instructors hear about how students were taught critical thinking in high school, that they already know how to think critically, or worse, they don’t need critical thinking. By the end of the semester, we begin hearing how SEEI has improved their writing in other classes or that they’ve been able to apply the Elements and Standards to assigned readings in their major courses. We show students how critical thinking is not something done on campus and forgotten as soon as they leave, but a tool that can serve them in their careers and personal decisions. It is a true transformation over the period of 16 weeks.

How have you changed the way you teach?
When I taught in the English Department last year, I began incorporating the Paul & Elder Model into peer review and self review. I used SEEI to fully explain concepts and to demonstrate how students can be more clear in their writing. In the GSD 101 classroom this fall, I find that I’m excited to introduce students to ideas, concepts, and a common vocabulary that will serve them well, not only during their four years on our campus, but throughout their lives.

What changes are you seeing in student performance because of an emphasis on critical thinking and/or communication skills in your classroom?
It started out as a constant tug-o-war between myself and my students. Students are resistant to thinking, as it’s hard work and wasn’t always required from them in high school. They simply want to know what they will need to memorize to do well on the test. Memorization on its own does not serve a student well in GSD 101. Sure, my students are expected to memorize the elements and standards as part of a common vocabulary, but they are then asked to apply those elements and standards to Progress articles, video clips, their textbook, real life scenarios and their own writing. This requires the student to really dig in and analyze and evaluate information and not just retain it for the final exam.

How has the approach benefited you?
It’s taken the onus of always having the answers off of me and placed it on the students. I no longer feel I have to do all the thinking for them. Instead, I can play the role of facilitator. It has also improved the quality of students’ work. There is now an expectation that their work incorporate SEEI, the elements and/or standards or critical thinking and show they’ve put thought into the issue or assignment, the result being more thorough and thought-out assignments.

If you could offer one suggestion to your colleagues related to integrating our QEP theme, what would that be?
My suggestion is that individuals across campus apply to teach GSD 101/Foundations for Learning during the fall 2010 semester, encourage their advisees to take the course, or talk to their chairs about encouraging declared incoming freshmen from their major to enroll. More information about becoming a member of the instructor team can be found at www.orientationcourses.eku.edu/instructors/howto. I’ve heard countless times that teaching GSD 101 has changed the way our instructors approach classes in their discipline and generated a renewed enthusiasm toward teaching. Through on-going professional development for the instructor team, GSD 101 instructors work together to develop assignments, lesson plans, learning activities, and test questions that incorporate critical thinking, specifically the Paul & Elder Model.