CFCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan

1. CFCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan Critical Thinking: Lighting the Path to Lifelong Learning

2. What is the QEP? • A five-year plan to improve student learning in a meaningful way. • A vital part of the college’s reaffirmation of accreditation process. • An opportunity to build upon our tradition of quality instruction and service.

3. What is the Focus of the QEP? • Our QEP focuses on improving students’ critical thinking skills.

4. Why is Critical Thinking Important? “[The] failure to think critically produces a democracy in which people talk at one another but never have a genuine dialogue. In such an atmosphere bad arguments pass for good arguments, and prejudice can all too easily masquerade as reason.” Martha C. Nussbaum. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. 1997.

5. Why is Critical Thinking Important? "Broadly speaking, critical thinking is concerned with reason, intellectual honesty, and open-mindedness, as opposed to emotionalism, intellectual laziness, and closed-mindedness.” Kurland, Daniel J. I Know What It Says . . . What does it Mean? 1995.

8. CFCC’s Definition of Critical Thinking Critical Thinking is the deliberate process of questioning, evaluating, and responding to problems, scenarios, and arguments in order to reach sound solutions, decisions, and positions.

9. Critical Thinkers: • Ask pertinent questionsthat clarify and focus a problem, scenario, or argument; • Evaluatethe quantity, quality, and usefulness of information; • Articulatea sound solution, decision, or position based on appropriate standards of reasoning; and • Monitorand reflect upon the quality and fairness of their reasoning.

10. Basic Principles and Best Practices(from J. G. Kurfiss’s Critical Thinking: Theory, Research, Practice, and Possibilities, 1988, pp.88-89) • Critical thinking is a learnable skill; the instructor and peers are resources in developing critical thinking skills. • Problems, questions, or issues are the point of entry into the subject and a source of motivation for sustained inquiry. • Successful courses balance challenges to think critically with support tailored to students’ developmental needs.

11. Basic Principles and Best Practices(from J. G. Kurfiss’s Critical Thinking: Theory, Research, Practice, and Possibilities, 1988, pp.88-89) • Courses are assignment centered rather than text and lecture centered. Goals, methods, and evaluation emphasize using content rather than simply acquiring it. • Students are required to formulate and justify their ideas in writing or other appropriate modes. • Students collaborate to learn and to search their thinking, for example, in pair problem solving and small group work.

12. Remember: Question Evaluate Propose

13. What will be the outcomes of the QEP? • Measurable improvement of students’ critical thinking skills at the course, program, and curricular levels • Enhanced instructional practices that promote critical thinking and life-long learning • Improved strategies for assessing student learning outcomes • More effective professional development opportunities for faculty and support staff

14. How will these Outcomes be Achieved? Through: • A Professional Development Initiative • A Student Success Initiative • A General Education Initiative

15. The Professional DevelopmentInitiative will provide all faculty and staff with training opportunities and resources that enhance their abilities to improve students’ critical thinking skills. The Student SuccessInitiative will emphasize to students the application of critical thinking skills for college success. The General EducationInitiativewill facilitate, assess, and enhance critical thinking as a general education core competency. • Expected Outcomes: • Measurable improvement of students’ critical thinking skills at the course, program, and curricular levels • Enhanced instructional practices that promote critical thinking and life-long learning • Improved strategies for assessing student learning outcomes • More effective professional development opportunities for faculty and support staff

16. The Professional Development Initiative

17. “Provide all faculty and staff with training opportunities and resources that enhance their abilities to improve students’ critical thinking skills.”

18. Strategies for the Professional Development Initiative: • College Learning Communities (CLCs) • Self-paced Online Courses (SPOCs) • Face-to-face workshops • Campus-wide activities • Critical thinking resource centers

19. The Student SuccessInitiative

20. “Emphasize to students the application of critical thinking skills for college success.”

21. Strategies for the Student Success Initiative: • ACA: 111 course with an emphasis on critical thinking • Collaboration and team teaching among ACA 111 instructors • Develop a substantial LRC orientation for ACA 111 and as stand-alone workshop • Emphasize critical thinking in student success workshops

22. The General EducationInitiative

23. “Facilitate, assess, and enhance critical thinking as a general education core competency.”

24. Strategies for the General Education Initiative • Identify currently used strategies • Apply new instructional strategies • Institutional Portfolio model for assessing critical thinking • Develop and refine a critical thinking rubric

25. Important Questions

26. 1. How will the QEP improve Student Learning? Professional development activities will improve how we facilitate students’ critical thinking skills in and out of the classroom.

27. 1. How will the QEP improve Student Learning? Students will have opportunities to apply critical thinking skills to college success issues like time management, information literacy, critical reading, and study skills.

28. 1. How will the QEP improve Student Learning? Making critical thinking a general education core competency will encourage students to think critically across the curriculum.

29. 1. How will the QEP improve Student Learning? Applyingcritical thinking in different learning contexts will encourage our students’ transference and reinforcement of these skills.

30. 2. Who is helping implement the QEP? • The College Council will oversee, advise upon, and review for approval the QEP Committee’s recommendations and actions • The QEP Committee will coordinate the activities of individuals, departments, and other committeesto achieve the goals of the QEP

31. 2. Who is helping implement the QEP? • The Professional Development Committee will assist the administration, faculty and staff in identifying, developing and budgeting for professional development opportunities with an emphasis in the area of critical thinking • The Student Success Committeefacilitate student success activities, particularly those outlined in the Student Success Initiative that foster students’ achievement of college success and development as critical thinkers

32. 2. Who is helping implement the QEP? • The General Education Committee will monitor the general education core competencies, the methods of assessment, the list of courses being assessed, and the data resulting from the assessment instruments, thus creating a more unified process of evaluating student learning outcomes in the core general education curriculum

33. 2. Who is helping implement the QEP? Everyone can help!

34. 3. How will we will measure the success of the QEP? • Student demonstrations of critical thinking in regular course work (Institutional Portfolio Assessment) • Student performance on standardized critical thinking test (Cornell CT Test) • Student response to Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) • Indirect evidence: new assignments and activities, faculty surveys, employer surveys, graduate surveys, etc.

35. Other Questions?

36. Fall 2006 QEP Priorities • Increase campus-wide awareness and understanding of the QEP • Begin forming first college learning communities (CLCs) • Begin developing self-paced online courses (SPOCs) • Begin developing physical and online critical thinking resources • Prepare for SACS Onsite Peer Review Visit (October 17-19)

37. We WantYoutoGet Involved! • Come to the afternoon workshops • Participate in a College Learning Community (CLC) • Talk to your students about critical thinking and the QEP • Contribute articles, lesson plans, activities, etc., to our critical thinking resource centers • Visit the QEP website: cfcc.edu/SACS/QEP

38. Thank You! QEP TEAM AND CONTRIBUTORS

39. Thank You! College Success Team Vilma Legendre, Team Leader (Counselor) Catherine Ballard (Allied Health/Pharmacy Tech) Chris Bingham (SGA Senator) Jenna Call (English) Jim Dishaw (Bus/Hotel & Restaurant Mngt.) Deanna Lewis (LRC) Debbie Michaels (LRC) Patrick Pittman (Director, Career and Testing Services) Marsha Proctor (LRC)

40. Thank You! English Composition Team John Metzger, Team Leader (English) Marie Bergh-Cook (Early Childhood Education) Gary Hurley (English) Ann McCray (English) Anita Phillips (Allied Health/Radiography) Jill Wall (Student Ambassador) Duncan Trout (English)

41. Thank You! General Education Team Thomas Massey, Team Leader (History) Jerry Duncan (Public Services/Criminal Justice Tech) Mandi Lee (Communication/Speech) Valerie Maley (Math)  Meredith Merrill (English)

42. Thank You! Professional Development Team Margaret Harris, Team Co-leader (Business Adm.) Mark Miller, Team Co-Leader (Marine Tech) Nicole Bennett (Institutional Researcher) Ben Bowie (Engineering/Machining Tech) George Isham (Philosophy/Religion) Joe Justice (Industrial Systems Tech) Jennifer McBride (English) Subi Rajendra (Coordinator, Learning Lab)

43. Thank You! The Summer Assessment Team Alicia Alexander (English Instructor) Stephanie Andersen (English Instructor) Christian Beer (Economics Instructor) Glenn Davis (Architectural Technology Instructor) Meredith Merrill (English Instructor) Omar Noor Al-Deen (Computer Information Systems Instructor)

44. Thank You! The Summer Assessment Team Melissa Reynolds (Communications Instructor) John Schulte (Psychology Instructor) Joy Smoots (Biology Instructor) Diane Withrow (Lead Instructor, Hotel/Restaurant Management)

45. Thank You! College Council/Leadership Dr. McKeithan, President Carl Brown, VP of Institutional Services June Caulder, Executive Administrative Assistant Chazz Clevinger, Student Government Association President Carol Cullum, VP of Student Development Orangel Daniels, Dean of Arts & Sciences David Hardin, Public Information Officer Dan Hickman, Executive Vice President Kim Lawing, VP of Institutional Effectiveness

46. Thank You! College Council/Leadership Catherine Lee, Director of LRC Bob Philpott, Dean of Vocational/Technical Education Camellia Rice, VP of Business Services Margaret Robinson, Executive Director of CFCC Foundation David Seeger, North Campus Provost Clarence Smith, Dean of Continuing Education John Upton, Personnel Director John Ward, Faculty Association President Rick Zigler, VP of Instruction

47. Thank You! Additional Contributors Deborah Basket (Sociology) Monica DeTure (Assistant Vice President for Instructional Operations) Michelle Jenkins (Student Ambassador) Patsy Lackey (Administrative Assistant to VP of IE) Cindy Parker (Engineering/Interior Design) Gerry Shaver (VP of Institutional Development, ret.) Holly Tucker (Basic Skills)

48. Thank You! Additional Contributors Faculty Association General Education Assessment Committee IT Services Printing Services Student Government Association

49. Thank You!