This presentation was given by Meredith Davis of the North Carolina Sate University at the project meeting “Fostering and assessing students' creativity and critical thinking in higher education” on 20 June 2016 in Paris, France

1. Improving students’ critical and creative thinking TH!NK
A five-year study of teaching and learning 2014-2019
Meredith Davis
Professor, Graphic and Industrial Design
College of Design / North Carolina State University

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North Carolina State University
34,000 students - 24,000 undergraduates - 2300 faculty
Research extensive, doctoral granting university
Science and technology focus - 12 colleges
Accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools

3. Improving students’ critical and creative thinking TH!NK
Fundamental change in contemporary problem solving
and the nature of work
Counting-and-measuring culture in US schools leaves
students unprepared as they enter college
University surveys: sophomores overly confident, seniors
grateful, alumni 3-5 years after graduation not so sure
Faculty: critical and creative thinking #1 priority
Faculty: across disciplines and begin with freshmen year
Faculty: most faculty are unprepared to teach these skills

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Charge to the faculty committee:
Improve undergraduate students’ higher-order
thinking competencies, including critical
evaluation, creative thinking, and reflection
on their own thinking.
Develop strategies for scaling this work across
disciplines in the university.

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Critical thinking is the active, persistent,
and careful consideration of a belief or form
of knowledge, the grounds that support it,
and the conclusions that follow. It involves
analyzing and evaluating one’s own thinking
and that of others.
• Raising vital questions and
problems and formulating
them clearly and precisely
• Gathering and assessing
relevant information
• Reaching well-reasoned
conclusions and testing them
against appropriate criteria
and standards
• Openly considering alternative
systems of thought or points
of view
• Effectively communicating
to others the analysis of
questions and/or proposal
for solutions to problems

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Creative thinking is generating new ideas
within or across domains of knowledge,
drawing upon or intentionally breaking with
established symbolic rules and procedures.
It involves bringing together existing ideas
into new configurations, developing new
properties or possibilities for something that
already exists, or discovering or imagining
something entirely new.
• Analyzing and evaluating
information/context in order
to frame the problem scope
• Synthesizing information and
generating multiple solutions
to the problem
• Exercising insight about
alternatives and choosing a
solution
• Evaluating the worth and
consequences of an
implemented solution
• Elaborating in convincing
modes of communication to
share ideas with others

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Phase 1: Freshmen in General Education
Beginning Biology
Beginning Chemistry
English Composition
First-year Inquiry
History
Introduction to Engineering
Introduction to Management
Literature
Sample: 2231 students
True freshmen entering the
university from 2014-2016

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Phase 2: Vertical curricular integration in
selected university majors
Accounting
Communication
Design Studies
Foreign Languages
Horticulture
Industrial Engineering
Microbiology
Science Education
Textile Engineering
Sample: Freshman through senior courses
2016-2019 cohorts

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Faculty-designed creative activity
using a common rubric
Student self-reflection that accompanies
the rubric activity
Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT)
developed by Tennessee Tech University
Scenario-based
Visual, verbal, and numerical
Faculty scored
Pre- and post-semester
Freshmen re-tested as seniors
Access to TTU research data and
training

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Faculty development:
One-week training program under the
instruction of a director and four faculty
fellows
Hands-on learning in strategies
Day-by-day faculty evaluations
Pre-semester meeting for peer-to-peer
review of faculty-authored activities
Participation in scoring the CAT
Participating faculty +
Paid for a weekend
Two-semester commitment by 76 faculty

11. TH!NK

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Construct an annotated bibliography describing why
you selected the sources, how credible/biased you think
they are, whether they conflict in opinion, and how you
resolved that conflict in your thinking about the project.
Choose an audience and a communication format from
the options provided. Justify your choice of format for
the audience you chose.
Construct a concept map that shows the relationships
among factors associated with the disease (biological,
historical, cultural, etc.)
Create communication that educates your audience
about the infectious disease and how it is transmitted.
Dr. Susan Carson
OUTBREAK!!!!
Freshman microbiology
assignment on an
infectious disease

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Student video on polio using fast-forward mode in iMovie
Creating concept maps inspired me
to consider every aspect of a particular
issue and to then transform that parts-­
thinking into system-­thinking, proving
to be extremely useful in a Life Cycle
Analysis class I am in.
Being presented with scenarios that
asked us to choose which action was
most important...sponsored critical
thinking about what decisions were
simultaneously ethically-, logically-­,
and economically-­sound and what
impact those decisions might have on
stakeholders. It also taught me to
deeply consider all angles of an
approach when tackling an issue.
Jacqueline Welles

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Findings to date:
Statistically significant improvement on the CAT by end of course
no longitudinal data yet - will compare single course cohorts with students
in vertical integration curricula who have repeated exposure
Greatest gains in large lecture classes
No faculty difficulties in using the rubric - archived sample activities
Student reflection proved valuable to the project and to faculty
Most faculty extended the use of strategies to courses not in the study
High demand for training from non-study faculty

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https://think.dasa.ncsu.edu
Sue Carson, Director
sdcarson@ncsu.edu