Teaching, Training and Learning Tools

Teaching, Training and Learning Tools includes practical strategies and tools that have proven valuable in training excellence in reasoning. Highlights include sample critical thinking questions, free thinking rubrics and training techniques.

Sample Thinking Skills Questions

The sample skills test questions on this page are intended to illustrate the types of questions which might appear on a generic adult level reasoning skills test. However, the topics, reading levels, and degree of difficulty of the questions used on actual tests match the educational level and / or professional interests of the population for which a given test is designed. Many of these tests include a greater proportion of items which call for numeracy, as illustrated by Sample Item #6. To view a specific test, qualified purchasers should purchase the preview pack for the test most appropriate for…

7 Critical Thinking Habits of Mind (Mindset)

Sample Items for Measuring Thinking Attributes

The sample “agree-disagree” style items on this page illustrate the types of statements that could appear on a college or adult level measure of critical thinking habits of mind. The topics and reading levels of statements used on attribute assessments intended for use with children or with professional groups are aligned with the common interests and the educational levels of those populations. Sample Items for Measuring Thinking Attributes Consider the following statements about beliefs, opinions, values, and preferences. Decide whether you agree or disagree with each one. Remember that since you are being asked about your own beliefs, opinions, values,…

Students seated around a table, discussing a college project

Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric (HCTSR)

The “Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric,” (HCTSR) is a tool for assigning a qualitative rating to the critical thinking demonstrated in speeches, reports, essays, projects, performances, discussions, presentations, portfolios, and other events or performances. It combines attention to the skills dimension and the mindset dimension of critical thinking. It enables an informed, holistic, qualitative judgment. The HCTSR provides a means for assigning a qualitative ratings to events or performances. The HCTSR facilitates informed conversations by providing accurate everyday language for discussing critical thinking.The HCTSR raises awareness of how various critical thinking skills and mindset attributes are manifested behaviorally.The HCTSR supplies operational…

hand pointing at a button saying RESOURCES

USAF Performance Assessment Rubric

There are vital learning outcomes in the professions which are taught and reinforced through academic course work in conjunction with well-planned student development programming and supervised training experiences. This is true for management, health care, law, social work, education, military leadership, and many other fields of study offered at today’s colleges and universities. At the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, for example, the capacity to respond to ill-defined problems of many different kinds is an outcome that is expected of all cadets. There are manifestations of those capacities in the military leadership training that cadets receive, as well…

Evaluating Written Argumentation (REWA)

Evaluating Written Argumentation (REWA) is designed to provide detailed feedback on written material intended to argue persuasively on behalf of a given claim, opinion, or recommendation. REWA addresses eight different aspects of sound and effective writing: Purpose and Focus, Depth of Thought, Thesis, Reasoning, Organization, Voice, Grammar and Vocabulary, and Mechanics of Presentation. REWA presents the criteria for effective written communication. ‘Highly Developed’ writing (leftmost column) describes the desired performance in each area and ‘Developed’ writing describes a minimal standard for effective communications. Lesser ratings detail degrees of error or shortcoming.

Techniques for Trainers of Reasoning Skills and Decision Making PDF

Techniques for Trainers of Reasoning Skills and Decision Making – Use these techniques to strengthen the training strategies you currently use to improve thinking skills and mindset in your trainee and student groups. Apply these strategies to all training exercises where the goal is to improve thoughtful problem identification and reflective decision making. Reflecting periodically on these three directives will offer you insights about your current best training practices and help you to focus your training efforts on critical thinking across content domains and educational contexts.

Reflective Log

The Reflective Log – Critical thinking is vital to your success in life and work. It’s worth developing strong thinking skills. This critical thinking tool is intended to give structure and focus to journaling by students or trainees to integrate their insights about their thinking and decision making. Metacognition is trained through reflective writing. This version of the exercise, aimed at the undergraduate or novice professional, is easily adapted for use in other populations. Use the Reflective Log to coach trainee self-monitoring and self-correction skills.

Mapping Decisions and Arguments

Published in INQUIRY, SUMMER 2015, VOL. 30, NO. 2, this paper by Peter A. Facione, Measured Reasons, and Carol Ann Gittens, Santa Clara University, describes a powerful new tool for examining decision making. Whether in business, government, healthcare, education, or daily life, group and individual decision making determines financial, military, policy, legal, healthcare, learning, and personal outcomes. But too often the decision making which impacts our lives and our businesses so heavily can seem opaque. Diagramming as presented in this paper holds the potential of making human decision making, particularly in contexts of risk and uncertainty, much more transparent. Diagramming…

Long straight road approaching a green highway sign that shows four arrows, each labelled Learning

Participant Course Evaluation Form

The “Participant Course Evaluation Form” is a five-factor tool that can be used either for formative evaluation to assist with mid-course corrections, or as a summative instrument after the course is completed. Participants are able to complete the evaluation in just a few minutes. The results can quickly be summed and reviewed because the form conveniently divides information into separate areas of concern.

Group up students sitting at table studying together

Critical Thinking Exam Questions and Study Guides for High Content Courses

Dr. Carol A. Gittens, former Director of Assessment at Santa Clara University, shows how to design exam questions which evoke critical thinking in content heavy courses. See how “Why Correct?” and “Why Wrong?” formats convert standard content-based multiple choice items into explanations. Success on exams built using these formats demands much more of students than simple response option triggered content memory recall.

Course Evaluation Design Discussion Questions

A participant course evaluation form, if well-conceived and designed, can reinforce educational goals, shape expectations, and assist faculty to improve their courses and their teaching in many ways. The assessment research team at Insight Assessment offers this set of guiding questions to faculty and academic leaders seeking an effective and integrated approach to course evaluations.

Critical Thinking Requirement Evaluation Guidelines

A set of guidelines for evaluating the position of critical thinking as an educational requirement in an institution’s general education or degree program learning outcomes. These guidelines, developed by Measured Reasons LLC, may be applied by academic leaders to gauge whether an institution’s commitment to teaching for critical thinking is superior, strong, positive, marginal, weak or deficient.

Strategies to Avoid Locking in Decisions Prematurely

Strategies to Avoid Locking In Decisions Prematurely PDF In decision making we move, more or less quickly, through a process that includes sorting through options. We discard the implausible ones, identify one or more promising options, evaluate it or them on the basis of our decision-critical criteria, and select the option we come to judge to be superior. The challenge is always how to avoid locking-in prematurely. Strategies to Avoid Locking in Decisions Prematurely offers sixteen practical strategies to improve the decision making process and outcomes. This resource is designed to assist in the training of personnel and agency leaders responsible…

Training and Development Key on computer keyboard

Training Session Feedback Form

Training Session Feedback Form – This tool is intended to function as both a self-evaluation tool for the trainee and as an evaluation of the training program itself for its ability to engage the learner as intended. Completing the feedback form guides trainees to reflect specifically on their thinking experience related to the learning opportunity. Responses for each of the individual items are informative, and as a collection they serve as a subjective report of the trainee’s engagement in the embedded training exercises aimed at improving thinking skills and mindset. This is not a direct measure of the objective quality…

Strong Critical Thinking in Groups

Strong Critical Thinking in Groups is designed to trigger and augment the benefits of strong critical thinking that occurs in groups during projects, discussions or presentations. This one page tool guides evaluation of the quality of the thinking and decision making demonstrated by the group process. When used as a rating tool by someone evaluating the group process (perhaps as a leadership exercise), the rater is asked to explain the basis for his or her ratings of the group’s work in framing and analyzing the problem, and formulating solutions. When used as a self-evaluation, this tool assists group participants to…

The Culture of Thinking in Your Organization

The Culture of Thinking in your Organization – Use this tool to assess the culture of thinking and decision-making that is characteristic of your organization. Consider how prevalent these manifestations of strength in thinking and decision making can be found in various working groups and in overall expectations. These characteristics can be difficult to achieve, but they are the hallmark of strong thinking organizations both in the leadership and in the membership. These ideas apply to all types of organizations: business, health sciences, education, defense, security, commerce.

Designing A Study of Workplace Productivity

Designing A Study of Workplace Productivity – Use this tool to infuse strong reasoning and decision making into studies of workplace conditions or as an example of how strong thinking and decision skills are embedded in each step of an a well- designed investigation. Well-designed studies provide trustable information, poorly designed studies do not. This example examines factors that are believed to impact productivity. The same process could be used to study the variables that influence innovation.

Training Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning

The following best practices essays are excerpted from “Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in the Health Sciences.” Each essay provides an example of training reasoning skills and thinking mindset described by international experts in training clinical reasoning. Contributors were asked to describe their favorite lesson, but one that could be generalized to other disciplines, and to provide evidence of its effectiveness.Although the specific example lessons described by these authors focus on the content knowledge of their respective practice disciplines, the educational approaches and techniques are highly transferable to all types of training programs and educational projects. Download these essays with our…

Books by Insight Assessment Researchers

The work of our senior researchers focuses on the vital linkage between critical thinking, problem solving and decision making in contexts of risk and uncertainty.

Select Tools For Teaching and Training Critical Thinking

“Education is nothing more, nor less, than learning to think.” Peter FacioneWhen we refer to someone as ‘well educated’ we are often focusing on their display of relevant content knowledge. Yet owning content knowledge is a trivial pursuit if one cannot retrieve appropriate knowledge in the context of well analyzed problems or use it to draw critical inferences in emergency situations.Everyone can learn to think better. Training someone to attend to their own thinking process, and teaching them about how they evaluate information, draw inferences, and avoid thinking errors, is a lifelong gift.On this page we have included a number…