I would be curious to hear of creative ways you have found to increase the likelihood students will engage in critical reasoning in your classes. Here is one I have used. I let the student choose his or her topic from a list. Each student is then assigned a “TASI/E path”

For example, suppose the Thesis is: “Pay is the greatest motivator of work performance” – Student A will write the thesis, Student B, having written her own thesis on another topic, will write the antithesis to “Pay…” [e.g. "Pay is not the greatest motivator of work performance"], Student C, having written her own thesis and antithesis on other subjects, will write the synthesis for “Pay…” and Student D, (similar to the others) will present the integration and evaluation of the previous three papers to the class. Each of the authors whose work is being mentioned in the presentation will be present in the class and can help facilitate class discussion. Each topic thus winds its way through the TASI/E process. It does work out, trust me, although it my initially seem confusing.

Thesis:  A concise statement of a position taken on a debatable subject, supported by logic, factual evidence and examples.

Antithesis:  A response to a thesis statement wherein the authors challenge point for point the position taken in the thesis.  The antithesis may range outside the coverage of the thesis to build a powerful contrarian position.

Synthesis:  A restatement of the thesis and antithesis in which the authors not only present in condensed form, what has been discussed in the previous two papers, but are also able to distill the best of each position into one of improved understanding of the original issue in the debate.

Integration and Evaluation:  Statements as to how the synthesis above can be reconciled (compared or contrasted) with other related syntheses.  Evaluation of issue as part of a subject one level above that previously discussed.

Do you have similar approaches to fostering critical thinking or reasoning in your classes? If so, share them with us.

Here is some preliminary data from the UT Compensation and Benefits Assessment:

Faculty salary percentage of the market median:

• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: 94 percent

• University of Tennessee Health Science Center: 87 percent

• University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture: 89 percent

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville/UT Space Institute: 84 percent

• University of Tennessee at Martin: 90 percent

• Total: 87 percent

Staff salary percentage of the market median

• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga: 78 percent

• University of Tennessee Health Science Center: 80 percent

• University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture: 81 percent

• UT Institute for Public Service: 86 percent

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville/UT Space Institute: 74 percent

• University of Tennessee at Martin: 77 percent

• University-wide administration: 82 percent

• Total: 78 percent

Source: University of Tennessee, Compensation and Benefits Market Assessment

I know a lot of people see Facebook as an enemy of serious academics or consistent effort in the workplace, but I suspect its greatest function is as a way to take a break from the faster pace of work brought on by computerization. Our productivity has gone up so much because of computers, I am guessing we can afford to spend a little time just mixing it up with our friends. Also, in a recent research study, college students say they use Facebook to connect with their peers to work collaboratively on assignments. I wonder how many faculty might do the same thing to connect with their colleagues at other universities to collaborate on research projects. Here is the link sent as part of the UT News Roundup on November 4, 2011:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-push-their-facebook-use-further-into-academics/33947

I know it is not the only way to think of learning, but Benjamin Bloom’s (actually he and a committee of others created it in the late 1940s and early 1950s and it was revised in 2000) taxonomy (summarized below), is probably the most widely accepted. As I look at it, I am struck with how the categories move the learner from knowledge vessel to knowledge evaluator and ultimately, generator. It does me good to occasionally ask myself how well I challenge students to move up the levels and not remain simply at the level of knowledge receiver.

Knowledge

Recalling memorized information. May involve remembering a wide range of material from specific facts to complete theories, but all that is required is the bringing to mind of the appropriate information. Represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain.

Learning objectives at this level: know common terms, know specific facts, know methods and procedures, know basic concepts, know principles.

Question verbs: Define, list, state, identify, label, name, who? when? where? what?

Comprehension

The ability to grasp the meaning of material. Translating material from one form to another (words to numbers), interpreting material (explaining or summarizing), estimating future trends (predicting consequences or effects). Goes one step beyond the simple remembering of material, and represent the lowest level of understanding.

Learning objectives at this level: understand facts and principles, interpret verbal material, interpret charts and graphs, translate verbal material to mathematical formulae, estimate the future consequences implied in data, justify methods and procedures.

Question verbs: Explain, predict, interpret, infer, summarize, convert, translate, give example, account for, paraphrase x?

Application

The ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations. Applying rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws, and theories. Learning outcomes in this area require a higher level of understanding than those under comprehension.

Learning objectives at this level: apply concepts and principles to new situations, apply laws and theories to practical situations, solve mathematical problems, construct graphs and charts, demonstrate the correct usage of a method or procedure.

Question verbs: How could x be used to y? How would you show, make use of, modify, demonstrate, solve, or apply x to conditions y?

Analysis

The ability to break down material into its component parts. Identifying parts, analysis of relationships between parts, recognition of the organizational principles involved. Learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application because they require an understanding of both the content and the structural form of the material.

Learning objectives at this level: recognize unstated assumptions, recognizes logical fallacies in reasoning, distinguish between facts and inferences, evaluate the relevancy of data, analyze the organizational structure of a work (art, music, writing).

Question verbs: Differentiate, compare / contrast, distinguish x from y, how does x affect or relate to y? why? how? What piece of x is missing / needed?

Synthesis

(By definition, synthesis cannot be assessed with multiple-choice questions. It appears here to complete Bloom’s taxonomy.)

The ability to put parts together to form a new whole. This may involve the production of a unique communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations (research proposal), or a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying information). Learning outcomes in this area stress creative behaviors, with major emphasis on the formulation of new patterns or structure.

Learning objectives at this level: write a well organized paper, give a well organized speech, write a creative short story (or poem or music), propose a plan for an experiment, integrate learning from different areas into a plan for solving a problem, formulate a new scheme for classifying objects (or events, or ideas).

Question verbs: Design, construct, develop, formulate, imagine, create, change, write a short story.

Evaluation

The ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel, poem, research report) for a given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite criteria, which may be internal (organization) or external (relevance to the purpose). The student may determine the criteria or be given them. Learning outcomes in this area are highest in the cognitive hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other categories, plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.

Learning objectives at this level: judge the logical consistency of written material, judge the adequacy with which conclusions are supported by data, judge the value of a work (art, music, writing) by the use of internal criteria, judge the value of a work (art, music, writing) by use of external standards of excellence.

Question verbs: Justify, appraise, evaluate, judge x according to given criteria. Which option would be better/preferable to party y?

Northeastern University, based in Boston, Massachusetts; is planning to start graduate programs across the United States. So much for their name, right? From corporate universities, to virtual campuses, to corporatized public and private universities; this is just another of the dizzying variety of ways higher education is changing.

Link to article found here on November 2, 2011

http://chronicle.com/article/Northeastern-U-Opens-the/129592/

As you probably know, all states are struggling with how to fund higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education had this article describing what three of those states are doing, along with treatment of the right of University Professors to collective bargaining in the state of Ohio.

• Colorado: Proposition 103 would raise the state’s personal and corporate income-tax rate from 4.63 percent to 5 percent, and its sales tax from 2.9 percent to 3 percent, for a period of five years, starting with the 2012 tax year. If approved, the increases are expected to generate about $500-million in new revenue to spend on public schools and higher education.

• Louisiana: Voters have already approved a proposal to dedicate a portion of the state’s tobacco-settlement money to a scholarship program, the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students. The program, known as TOPS, distributes several awards, including money to cover the average cost of tuition of a public college in the state.

• Texas: Proposition 3 would authorize the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to issue more bonds for a low-interest, fixed-rate student-loan program that has existed for decades. If passed, the board would be allowed to issue up to $1.8-billion in bonds for the state’s College Access Loan Program. The Texas Tea Party is adamantly opposed to this move.

• Ohio: Issue 2 would overturn Senate Bill 5, which limits collective-bargaining rights for public employees. The bill was approved by state Republican lawmakers and signed into law in March, but its enforcement was put on hold pending the results of next week’s referendum.

The linked article as found at this address on November 1, 2011:

http://chronicle.com/article/4-States-Put-Questions-Related/129590/

The governor is here for the actual board meeting which is getting started a few minutes late due to a photo op for the trustees; in fact he just walked by me on his way to the front of the room and I decided not to reach out my hand to get him to shake it, the way a bunch of others did.

Bill Carroll, trustee emeritus, is now talking about his memories of being a trustee, after hearing a flattering pronouncement in his honor.

Another former trustee, Andrea J. Loughry, is being pronounced as great and in fact, from Trenton Peabody HS. Her list of accomplishment/merit is quite long and impressive. She will make a few remarks once the list is read.

She is an engaging presence…well-worded remarks. Five things we need to take giant steps toward:

(1) reform our sunshine law to grant us opportunity for some HR executive session decision meetings

(2) outstanding UT alumni – should be eligible to serve as well

(3) efficiency and effectiveness become part of our system’s DNA at the staff level

(4) remember our charge is for stewardship for our entire state, not just locally

(5) each of you is held to a higher standard, should participate on a donor level, to ask other members to

Dr. DiPietro is now speaking to give the President’s report

He is giving us both a pictorial and verbal tour of his first year in office.

The lottery task force report is now his theme…I am not sure when the changes will occur, but in November we will know more about how much higher the requirements will be raised; one idea, he says 21 ACT and 3.0 GPA will likely be the new requirement

He is now chronicling how many anniversaries the system has seen this past year.

He also said people are 70% to 75% of our budget.

Compensation advisory board (the Simpson Company consulting), he says that we are at 78% of the market median for staff and 87% across faculty (I think he said) across the system.

Compensation has been a major focus so far

Engagement survey will happen next month

Future: budget hearing on Nov 15, 2011, with governor Haslam. He guesses we will have a lean to tight year again, so we will have to deal with that. Our building problems will need to be dealt with.

CCTA outcomes will be used to justify building completion over coming years.

We hope to be able to give a multi-year perspective to our students on what they can expect to pay during their time on our campus.

He is on facebook and on tweeter. He can be followed at UT President on twitter and on FB. He said he started by emailing tweets to Hank Dye, until Hank finally started to tweet.

It is a privilege and a joy to be your President

We need to be proud of our public service and outreach, this is an important part of what we do.

He is committed to advancing the University.

Cheek is introducing the new athletics director, Dave Hart, twenty years as ECU and FSU. Visionary and true leader, nationally.

Athletics are not the most important, just the most visible part of a university

He has been here only five weeks. He has spent time sitting one on one

People are our best commodity

Keith Carver is now updating us on the ongoing Strategic-Planning efforts.

When then heard from the new AD.

We also had approval of the new VP for Development who has a salary of $290,000 per year and a few other perqs.

We are now working through a group of resolutions pertaining to the budget, capital outlays.

We did that a little while and then adjourned. This was certainly a shorter meeting than the one in June past.

I arrived six minutes late to the meeting because 30 minutes before it was to start, I received a text in my hotel room saying the meeting would be starting 15 minutes early.

The first thing I heard they were discussing was the procedure for promotion to Full Professor at UTK.  India Lane talked for maybe three minutes and the motion to approve came with a second and the motion carried.

The next thing I heard them talking about was a statement of commitment to graduate medical education at UTHSI.  My main thought is: what is the reason for having to make this statement? Has there been evidence of a lack of commitment?  Clearly, I do not know the history too well.

Next was establishing a UTC honors college, moving from being merely a program. We heard from the Chancellor of UTC (Roger Brown) on this. It is interesting that I am now beginning to know a lot of these people by sight, maybe not always by their name.

As he talks about the proposed college, he is saying they have 10,000 UG students now with only 1 % of them being honors students, so the others are the 99%.

If I may remark on the facilities in which we are meeting, the room is cavernous, and the board members can seem even more inscrutable because they sit far from one another at black-clothed tables, far enough that it is tough to look anyone in the eye.

Chattanooga is apparently planning on turning the 1% into the 10%. They need to grow their endowment from 6 million to 21 million dollars. One graphic said they hope to be “exceptionally unique”, which was pointed out by a board member as redundant (or at least, I presume, unnecessarily repetitious). They will have a number of honors programs within the college, to include such things as environmental sustainability, global business and so on.

The creation of this new College is considered a necessary item on the BOT agenda because of new structure. Is this the first honors college, was asked by Trustee Murphy and apparently it will be the first in the US.

Much discussion ensued. It sounds like a good idea to me, especially the idea of having a Dean to advocate for the “college”.

Next was the Haslam Scholars program established in 2007, funded by former Mayor and current Governor, Bill Haslam and his family; and will graduate its inaugural seven students this year. First students came in 2008, only fifteen students are admitted in this program each year.

They get $4000 to travel abroad, a laptop computer worth $1500, research support of $5500 and the cost of being a UTK student of $17,300. Inspired by similar programs at Boston College, Virginia, UNC and others. They had over 5000 applicants and selected 15. The data of those selected is impressive to say the least, 34.4 ACT average, for example. They are also diverse.  If they are arrogant, no one should be surprised, but in my experience, true greatness has a way of breeding humility. Aeron Glover has a website called: howstheliving.com

Richard Bayer spoke on the subject of admission at UTK, including recruitment.

Recruitment of diverse students, students from West Tennessee, transfer students and excellent students from in and out of state. Ninety percent of students at UTK are from Tennessee. This seems somewhat surprising to me, surprisingly high percent of in-state. I suspect Chapel Hill or Ann Arbor would see a good many more from out of state.

They get 14000 applications, 9500 or so are admitted, and 4200 actually enroll. That is called the yield.

Myth, don’t apply to UTK unless you have an ACT of 27.

My computer needs to be plugged in now, so I will let it charge a while.

The Board of Trustees, of which the faculty-senate presidents are ex-officio members, meets tomorrow afternoon. In the morning I will meet with the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee of the Trustees. If anything noteworthy happens, I will be sure to bring it to this blog, no doubt after I get back home, on Saturday.

There is a new link on the UTM homepage that allows a prospective student to calculate his or her financial aid and estimate how much attending UTM will cost. This is a federally-mandated link for all public Universities. It appears to be a great step forward for helping families in the planning process. Here is the link:

http://www.utm.edu/departments/finaid/calculator.php