| Universities claim that improved critical thinking ability is an educational outcome for their graduates, but they seldom create a path for students to achieve that outcome. In this practitioner action research study, the author created a job aid, entitled "Critical Thinking as a Differentiator for Distinguished Performance", to help higher education practitioners integrate critical thinking prompts into online course rubrics and provide explicit criteria to help students build expertise in critical thinking. Thinking performances described in the job aid (examining assumptions, acknowledging uncertainty, fairly considering alternative perspectives, identifying evaluation criteria, and evaluating evidence) are characteristic of an advanced developmental stage of thinking and provide opportunities for explicit critical self-reflection. Instructional designers and assessment specialists who tested the job aid in the creation of online university courses reported that it is a practical and efficient tool and that its use resulted in improved integration of critical thinking into courses. |
