Analysis and critical thinking active learning approaches that can be used in the classroom. Use the links below to see documents on how to implement each approach.
Active Learning
Analysis and Critical Thinking
Analysis and Critical Thinking activities assess students' skills at breaking down information, questions, or problems in order to understand them more fully and solve them more efficiently. Using these approaches, instructors can measure how well students are able to interpret or analyze information and arrive at an informed decision or judgment.
Approaches
| Approach |
Description |
Outcome |
| Analytic Memo |
Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a problem or issue. |
Analyzing assigned problems using discipline-specific methods. |
| Categorizing Grid |
Students sort subordinate terms into the correct categories on a grid. |
Determining whether, how, and to what extent students understand what information goes together with other information, revealing the implicit rules students are using to categorize information. |
| Content, Form, and Function |
Students analyze the what(content), how (form), and why(function) of a particular message. |
Separating and analyzing the informational message, form, and communicative function of a piece of course content. |
| Defining Features |
Students categorize concepts according to the presence of (+) or absence of (–) critical defining features. |
Developing skills in categorizing information based on a given set of critical defining features. |
| Pro and Con Grid |
Students follow a decision-making process by reviewing an issue, creating a list of pro and con arguments, and making a decision based on analysis of those points. |
Helping students move beyond their first reactions to an issue by looking at it from different perspectives and weighing the value of competing claims. |
Source/Citation
Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: a Handbook for College Teachers. Jossey-Bass, 1993. pp. 159-180.
