Critical Thinking

I teach Anatomy and Physiology, a content heavy course that requires problem solving and critical thinking. Studying the material after each class and coming to class prepared is crucial to the students’ success.  My solution to this problem was to implement the use of learning journals. Learning journals have been used for a number of years by the physics faculty at our school and more recently the chemistry faculty have adopted them as well.  Last year, I used them for the first time with great success.

UPDATE:

Pre-post testing will be done using the FCI to look at student understanding of Newton's laws.  These will not be done for a grade as the assessment is written in common language so that it really probes student understanding.  A score above 60% is considered the threshold of Newtonian thinking.  A gain of 30% pre to post is considered a very good result from national studies done using this instrument.

Students in EDU 230 questioned the extent to which discrimination exists at EMCC. They unanimously suggested this should be investigated. The author facilitated the process which included: survey creation, research into discrimination on college campuses, applying for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (and receiving it), and applying for the Student Conference (coincidentally about a month from the start of the project) and being accepted. Students went through ethical research (CITI) training.