Outcomes-based assessment. The key to teaching critical thinking.
What is critical thinking?
Teaching students to think critically and solve problems is a widely pursued goal in higher education. Definitions of critical thinking vary but basically come down to having students examine an ill-defined or messy problem and carefully apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired during the instructional process to analyze the problem and suggest a solution.
To learn to think critically and solve problems, students must take an active role in constructing and defending their knowledge. The best way for students to demonstrate critical thinking is to attempt one or more outcomes-based assessments.
Outcomes-based learning and assessments
What will my students do “out there”—in the real world of family, work, and community—as a result of what we do “in here”—in my classroom? 1
This question presents a useful way to think of student learning outcomes and enables us to envision a broad, overall view of course content and goals. Sometimes this is termed “backward design” or “designing down,” referring to a process of defining intended outcomes first, and only then defining the content and designing the instruction.
Defining the desired outcomes first is relatively easy for information technology courses. It is not difficult to envision what IT students will do “out there,” because of the discipline’s relatedness to employability skills. We have always been comfortable with helping students bridge classroom and real-life experiences.
Once intended outcomes for a course or unit of instruction are determined, a student engages in observation, practice, and other learning activities to demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills associated with the course content. A student is then prepared to engage in an outcomes-based assessment, actively engaging the student in learning to think critically and solve problems by making judgments and taking appropriate actions that are observed and evaluated, simulating what occurs in real life.
Skill development
Discussions and evidence of critical thinking determined from outcomes-based assessments typically include the differentiation between novice and expert work. Authors such as Willingham and Riener2 and McTighe and Ferrara3 look at the progress of the students in terms of moving from novice to expert. Think of student performance as a continuum of competency; for example, the varying belt colors one can earn while studying martial arts.
Students develop critical-thinking skills by observing excellent work and engaging in learning activities to obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve the outcome. Student skills eventually become routine compared to the beginning of their learning when careful thought was required.
For example, you can relate the learning process to how individuals learn to play a video game. They watch a friend, the expert, play a game and then gradually, with practice, learn the game mechanics. Additional practice leading to mastery moves them from novice to expert to eventually being able to strategize the game play and become an expert.
Assessment of critical thinking
An outcomes-based assessment is also referred to as an authentic assessment in the sense that the assessment is realistic. An authentic assessment engages students to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired during the instruction in ways that reflect problems they would encounter in the real world. Such an assessment has no right or wrong answer but rather reflects the thinking of an expert in the field.
The outcomes-based assessment provides the opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills to ill-defined problems like those in real life. Doing so requires integrating the discipline-based knowledge and skills they have acquired with completing various learning activities. Students learn to think critically by attempting an outcomes-based assessment that is representative of a current problem an expert in the discipline would encounter.
Both the student and the instructor apply an analytic rubric to the result, discuss the results, and based on the instructor’s feedback, the student may attempt the outcomes-based assessment again until the work is of professional quality as determined by the rubric. When students attempt outcomes-based assessments, they are likely to be more effective as professionals.
How to develop an assessment for critical thinking
As instructors, we know that developing and grading an assessment that has no right or wrong answers can be time-consuming. Fortunately, there is abundant research and examples of how to do this, and many Pearson textbooks include outcomes-based assessments. For example, the GO! Series for Microsoft Office 365 uses an outcomes-based framework, and each unit of instruction includes numerous critical-thinking assessments and accompanying rubrics. Each instructional project includes a critical-thinking quiz so the student can immediately review the project and identify the purpose and benefit of creating the information.
To develop an assessment for critical thinking, one useful device is the GRASPS model developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe and detailed in Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects.4 The acronym GRASPS stands for:
G—a realistic goal
R—the role of the student
A—the audience
S—the real-world situation
P—the product or performance the student will demonstrate
S—the criteria for judging success
For example, in a class where you are teaching Microsoft Excel, you could use the GRASPS model to develop an assessment for critical thinking as follows:
You are an assistant in the Supply Chain and Logistics department of an online vitamin company (role). Your manager asks you to create an inventory status report (real-world situation) to present to the Chief Financial Officer (audience) of the company so the company can estimate warehouse costs for new products (goal). Based on inventory data, you develop an Excel workbook (product) that presents the inventory information in a way that makes it easy for the Chief Financial Officer to visualize warehouse needs (criteria for success).
How to grade an assessment
Students learn to think critically by attempting outcomes-based assessments that are representative of a current problem an expert in the discipline would encounter. Multiple exposures to outcomes-based assessments provide students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to ill-defined problems like those in real life. To do so, students must integrate the discipline-based knowledge and skills they acquired during the instructional process.
An analytic rubric distinguishes novice work from expert work. On completion of an outcomes-based assessment, both the student and the instructor apply an analytic rubric to the result and discuss the results. Based on the instructor’s feedback, the student attempts the outcomes-based assessment again until the work is of professional quality as determined by the rubric.
An analytic rubric divides a product or performance into distinct traits or dimensions. As the instructor, you can judge and score each trait separately. The rubric is known ahead of time by both the student and the instructor. The analytic rubric gathers evidence of the student’s performance against a set of pre-determined standards. By applying the rubric, both you and the student can place the performance on a qualitative continuum.
For teaching productivity software, here is an example of an analytic rubric that can be applied to any critical-thinking assessment such as the GRASPS example above:
| Your completed project is of Professional Quality if you: | Your completed project is Approaching Professional Quality if you: | Your completed project Needs Quality Improvements if you: | |
| 1-Software Mastery | Choose and apply the most appropriate skills, tools, and features and identify efficient methods to solve the problem. | Choose and apply some appropriate skills, tools, and features, but not in the most efficient manner. | Choose inappropriate skills, tools, or features, or are inefficient in solving the problem. |
| 2-Content | Construct a solution that is clear and well organized, contains content that is accurate, appropriate to the audience and purpose, and is complete. Provide a solution that contains no errors of spelling, grammar, or style. | Construct a solution in which some components are unclear, poorly organized, inconsistent, or incomplete. Misjudge the needs of the audience. Have some errors in spelling, grammar, or style, but the errors do not detract from comprehension. | Construct a solution that is unclear, incomplete, or poorly organized, contains some inaccurate or inappropriate content, and contains many errors of spelling, grammar, or style. Do not solve the problem. |
| 3-Format and Layout | Format and arrange all elements to communicate information and ideas, clarify function, illustrate relationships, and indicate relative importance. | Apply appropriate format and layout features to some elements, but not others. Overuse features, causing minor distraction. | Apply format and layout that does not communicate information or ideas clearly. Do not use format and layout features to clarify function, illustrate relationships, or indicate relative importance. Use available features excessively, causing distraction. |
| 4-Process | Use an organized approach that integrates planning, development, self-assessment, revision, and reflection. | Demonstrate an organized approach in some areas, but not others; or, use an insufficient process of organization throughout. | Do not use an organized approach to solve the problem. |
An analytic rubric does not change. According to Huba and Freed in Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses,5 “if rubrics are based on the criteria that distinguish expert and novice work in a discipline, then they should not change as students’ progress.”
Critical-thinking challenges for your IT classes
Outcomes-based assessments are cumulative and happen at the end of a unit of instruction. Your students will develop critical-thinking skills if you implement outcomes-based assessments regularly throughout your course. The assessment should be based on a significant learning task, such as a project, a portfolio, a presentation, or a demonstration, that simulates a real-life problem for which there is no defined answer.6 Each opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and to apply the knowledge and skills gained as they would in the world outside of college builds their critical thinking skills.
Hear more about this topic in our on-demand webinar Teaching Students to Think Critically in Our Information Technology Courses featuring Shelley Gaskin.
Sources
1. Stiehl, R., & Lewchuk, L., The Outcomes Primer. (Corvallis: The Learning Organization, 2008).
2. Willingham, D. T., & Riener, C., Cognition: The Thinking Animal. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
3. McTighe, J., & Ferrara, S., Assessing Student Learning by Design: Principles for Teachers and School Leaders. (New York: Teachers College Press, 2021).
4. McTighe, J., Doubet, K. J., & Carbaugh, E. M., Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects. (Alexandria: ASCD, 2020).
5. Huba, M. E., & Freed, J. E., Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses. (Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon, 2000).
6. Fink, L. D., Creating Significant Learning Experiences. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003).
Recommended reading
Stobaugh, R., 50 Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagement. (Bloomington: Solution Tree Press, 2019).
Willingham, D. T., The Reading Mind. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017).
Willingham, D. T., Why Students Don't Like School. (Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2021).
About the author
Shelley Gaskin, Ed.D, Pasadena City College
Dr. Shelley Gaskin is the creator and Series Editor of, and an author for, the Pearson GO! Series for Microsoft Office 365. She is a professor in the Business Division at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Robert Morris College (Pennsylvania), a master’s degree in Business from Northern Illinois University, and a doctorate in Adult and Community Education from Ball State University (Indiana). Before joining Pasadena City College, she spent 12 years in the computer industry, where she was a systems analyst, sales representative, and director of Customer Education with Unisys Corporation. She also worked for Ernst & Young on the development of large systems applications for their clients. She has written and developed training materials for custom systems applications in both the public and private sector and has also written and edited numerous computer application textbooks.
