Challenges Assessing the Impact of Project-Based Learning on Critical Thinking Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Issues in Assessment Development and Practice in Public School Classrooms

Abstract

This study assesses the efficacy of an innovative university initiative designed to promote critical thinking through project-based learning. Over 400 students responded to critical thinking items from both a widely-used inventory, as well as a new assessment designed to assess critical thinking in a more practical and authentic fashion. This novel assessment breaks down critical thinking into construction and critique components, with results indicating that critique is more challenging for students. Both assessments indicate a paucity of critical thought in general, suggesting multiple challenges for both the teaching and assessment of critical thinking skills. These important challenges are highlighted through a detailed analysis of the development of our new critical thinking assessment and the student responses it elicited.

Authors

• J. Bryan Henderson, Arizona State University

• Kevin Close, Arizona State University

• Stephanie Sowl, Iowa State University

• Scott C. Marley, Arizona State University

• Natalie Nailor, Arizona State University

• M Jeanne Wilcox, Arizona State University