A SoTL Collaboration on

Teaching the Habits of Critical

Inquiry

Rachel Nisselson, Nancy Chick,Lily Claiborne, Andrea Hearn, &

Catesby Yant

Vanderbilt University

www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp

Who Are We?

Initially, 6 members

Commonalities: pre-major Academic Advisors, instructors of First-Year Writing Seminars

Differences: academic departments, content of courses

Later: Nancy Chick, Center for Teaching

SoTL Commons Conference

March 27-29, 2013 Savannah, GA

Our project allowed us to reflect on a cross-disciplinary question:

What are the important habits of mind that are necessary for academic inquiry?

think / pair / share

Habits of Academic Inquiry

disciplinary: working within the standards of a formal discipline

communal: engaging with shared problems or ideas

evidentiary: appealing to evidence for argumentative claims

knowledge-based: aiming to contribute to collective understanding

critical: maintaining a critical perspective

imaginative: attempting to imagine new ways of approaching problems

Before the study, our group came up with the following:

The Study DesignThree iterations of the lesson

First-Year Writing Seminarsin Anthropology, Philosophy, & Geology

15 students in each class

Third week of classes

Several observers in each classroom to record classroom events

Learning Goals of the Lesson

Students begin to understand AI as a concept/habit

Students recognize elements of AI

Students begin to conceptualize effective vs. ineffective AI

Long term: Students start to see our classroom tasks as AI and see themselves (and authors of everything they read) as academic inquirers

The Lesson

Pre-Class HomeworkYou have been assigned two texts for class. Read them not just for the content of the articles (What are they about?) but also for their discursive strategies and effects (What and how [well] do they argue?).

Use the two questions below to guide your reading and annotate them in the article:

At what moments in the article are you convinced?

What moments in the article are unconvincing?

In-Class ActivitiesInstructor introduces lesson on “academic inquiry.”

For small groups, assign roles: note-taker, time keeper, reporter, task-master.

Small Group Meeting 1Students each share one moment and why.Group chooses one moment to share with large group.

In-Class ActivitiesLarge Group Discussion 1

Each group shares chosen moment.Class and instructor create list of elements of academic inquiry.

In-Class ActivitiesIndividual re-annotation

Small Group Meeting 2Each student shares one moment with group.

Do all of the moments your group discusses in this second article fit within the terms of academic inquiry on the board or have you found something new or different?If it is new or different, consider: what is happening in this passage? What’s effective or ineffective about it?  What would you call it?

Choose one moment to share with large group.

Large Group Discussion 2Class and instructor add to list of elements of academic inquiry.

Homework

Write a one- to two-page take-home reflection that addresses these questions:• Based on today’s

class, how would you define or explain academic inquiry?

• Which of the two texts do you find a stronger example of academic inquiry and why?

Data CollectedClassroom observations (small and large group)

Lists of elements of academic inquiry from board

Annotated articles

Homework reflection papers

How We Met GoalsPedagogical Goals (Anthropology)

Using Disney films as a lens to analyze American constructions of family, race, gender

Develop writing skills and habits

Why This Worked

Students engaged with ideas, rather than merely reading for content

Began to realize that evidence can be interpreted differently

Students returned to the A.I. terms throughout semester

How We Met GoalsPedagogical Goals (Philosophy)

Show philosophers engaged in problem solving, and invite students to become philosophical problem solvers.

Introduce students to philosophy as a historical, social, and embodied discipline.

Learn some basic trans-disciplinary writing and thinking skills that they will need to be successful college students.

Why This Worked (not an exhaustive list)

Helped students see themselves as participants in academic inquiry: they saw parallels between the moves the authors made in inquiry and their own inquiry into the texts.

Identified students’ preconceptions about philosophy as a form of academic inquiry, allowing me to address these preconceptions in future classes.

How We Met GoalsPedagogical Goals (Geology)

Understand scientific process and think critically about science

Develop writing skills and habits

Why This Worked

Recognized difference in opinion and idea backed up by evidence

Identified and evaluated efficacy of tools for writing

Empowered to think critically when reading science

Metacognition

“Creating curricula that help students to develop an awareness of their inquiry process and an ability to reflect on it could enable students to improve their learning expertise while also acquiring subject matter expertise.”

(White & Frederiksen, 1998, p. 4)

Resnick, 1987

Collins & Ferguson, 1993

White & Frederiksen, 1998

Pintrich, 2002

Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000

Tanner, 2012

et al.

Looking at Data

Looking at the student quotes, consider the following question:

• What are some of the teaching & learning issues that emerge from your analysis of these student responses to the lesson about AI?

FFT: What kinds of comments would students make in other disciplines?

Questions?

Thank you!