Learn about a new tool for both online and onsite classrooms that gets students collaborating and sharpening their critical-thinking skills in both writing and reviewing modes. This assessment tool can work at any level from college or even graduate-level work all the way down to K-12 and functions well in both online and onsite learning venues.

1. Critical Thinking and
Collaboration in the Classroom
Melinda Campbell
National University
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2. Learning through Collaboration and
Cooperation
Advantages of collaboration and teamwork:
• Commitment to shared goals,
interdependence.
• Community/group bonding.
• Collaboration & cooperation
elicits higher-order thinking.
• Student motivation and
satisfaction goes up.
(Barkley, Cross, & Major, 2005)
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3. Keys to Collaboration
1) Positive interdependence—boosts achievement.
2) Individual accountability—counteracts “slacker factor."
3) Interaction—promotes learning, opens new areas for self-definition and reflection.
4) Social skills—encourages communication, teamwork, good decision making, and
conflict resolution.
(Weidman & Bishop, 2009)
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4. In the Online Classroom:
From “Chat Lounge” to Work that Counts
• “Virtual chat lounge” intros counteract online isolation.
• Informal conversation platforms are transformed into rich & rigorous
learning tools.
• Online chat centers unite learners’ skills:
– Start with course learning objectives.
– Emphasize goals of knowledge acquisition and retention.
– Acknowledge value of working together.
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5. Forming Teams, Creating Critiques
Team research project:
• Jointly authored research
paper.
• Multi-media group
presentation.
• Original/free-form project.
Day 1: Outcome-aligned topics set:
• Students choose outcome-aligned topic.
• Basing teams around self-selected topics
results in interest-matched teams.
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6. Phase 1: Original Drafts
• Teams identified & assigned a private chat room or meeting area.
• Onsite: meeting times arranged. Online: chat tools, e-mail, and mobile
communication systems are put in play.
• Tasks are divided up and working on first draft begins.
• Instructor facilitates assigning of team roles and developing team
papers/projects using brainstorming, mind maps, outlines, etc.
• Draft is posted in a document-sharing online space open to the entire
class as well as the instructor.
• Everyone can now view and download all teams’ first drafts.
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7. Phase 2: Peer Critiques
• Each team is assigned the rough draft of a different team to review and
critique.
• Instructor facilitates by explaining form and function of a critique.
• Focuses on both reader and writer roles in critical thinking.
• Students appreciate seeing what their peers are doing in terms of original
thinking and writing; the greater the variety of work reviewed, the better!
• Students training to become educators will get a clear preview of several
essential tasks of teaching.
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8. Phase 2: Peer Critiques– cont.
• By the end of Phase 2, peer critiques are complete and made public.
• Instructor facilitates “critiquing the critiques”; provides samples of
marked-up papers or critiqued slide presentations.
• All critiqued team papers and projects will be on a public page, and
each team may review the critiques done by other teams.
• Develops critical thinking skills; students see how other teams have
conducted their critical evaluations and compare their own critiques
with other teams' critiques.
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9. Phase 3: Revisions
• Teams retrieve marked-up papers/critiqued presentations & decide on
appropriate revisions.
• Synchronous class chat is essential at this phase—everyone shares
experiences of working with others' projects & interacts in real time.
• Students can solicit additional feedback, solidify well-received ideas.
• After the teams are satisfied with the critiquing and revising process,
work on final drafts or projects begins.
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10. Phase 4: Instructor Review
• Instructor does a quick review of final papers/projects and sends them back to
teams for one more revision.
• Final team papers and projects should be graded and returned before the end of
the course, giving students another round of feedback prior to their submission
of final individual papers or projects.
• Having already worked on, completed, and received feedback on a research
paper or final project gives students a leg up on their individual assignments.
• The Team Critique should count for a significant portion of the course grade.
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12. Meeting Multiple Goals
Active peer collaboration and social interaction on specific
instructional tasks are significant factors in successful learning.
The Team Critique employs the ARCS model of motivational design:
 Attention: Students are required to be responsible & responsive to both their original &
peer-review teams.
Relevance: Initial topic selection aligns with both learning outcomes & student interests.
Confidence: Peer and instructor feedback & plenty of time for reflection & revision.
 Satisfaction: Multiple-stage process over the length of a course creates a greater sense
of commitment & engagement, significant factors for student satisfaction.
(Keller, 1987; discussed in Hirumi, 2004 and in ChanLin, 2009)
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13. Why the Team Critique Works
Learning Outcomes
Teams Topics
• Interaction begins on Day 1: Topic selection both effects & affects team
creation.
• Topics highlight Learning Outcomes.
• Camaraderie begins with team formation; student engagement is prompted
from the very first step on Day 1 of class.
• Strategic breakdown of a complex writing or research project into meaningful
elements.
• Being on a team makes the task less daunting, more inviting, and more fun!
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14. Statistics, Learning, & Human Nature
Not this
again!
• Students grow weary of the same activity week after week.
Varying activities and assignments has two sure benefits:
– Boredom is alleviated.
– Different learning styles are engaged.
• Emphasis on collaboration and team effort places traditional
activities in a new light.
Ascough (2002)
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15. Statistics, Learning, & Human Nature
• Statistics show:
– People are likely to remember only 10% of what they read,
– 70% of what they discuss with others,
– 80% of what they experience personally, and
– 95% of what they teach to others!
• The Team Critique gives students the chance to:
– Discuss their own work within their teams and with other teams.
– Experience both evaluating and being evaluated by others.
Ascough (2002)
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16. Learning, Teaching & Knowing
through a Community of Inquiry
• Being charged with evaluating one's peers moves in the direction of teaching others.
• The critique phase is a graded assignment, so students feel a greater responsibility in
making judgments & evaluations.
• Finding mistakes, obscurity, or a lack of substance in peers' work forces students to
become aware of similar problems in their own work.
• The Team Critique places students at the center of the educational process, uniting
them in the learning experience through teamwork.
• The Team Critique enables students to construct knowledge for themselves while
operating in a community of inquiry; they solve problems together & promote self-discovery.
(Saulnier et al., 2008)
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Melinda Campbell

17. Ethics in Education: Topics for Research Project
1. What is the appropriate stance regarding lecturing on morally sensitive or controversial topics? Should educators
draw a line somewhere, and if so, where?
2. What is the best way for teachers to handle a student's academic dishonesty? Does it depend on the situation, or
should full penalties always apply?
3. Do full-time faculty members have an obligation to support adjunct and part-time faculty rights at their
institution?
4. How much, if any, weight should be given to student evaluations of teaching on personnel and promotion
decisions affecting teachers?
5. Should educators share their own political and/or religious views with their students?
6. Student-teacher relationships: how close is too close? Are emails and texts not strictly related to classwork ever
appropriate? Should teachers ever be friends with their students?
7. When should educators report unethical behavior on the part of close colleagues? What is the line between
proper and improper intervention in the professional lives of colleagues?
8. If a teacher is asked to write a letter of recommendation for an average or below-average student, should she (a)
accept the request and write an honest letter that may hurt the student's chances, (b) accept the request and write
a complimentary letter that suppresses the truth, (c) decline to write the letter.
9. Issues related to classroom policies (or "netiquette" for online classes) in the 21st century: What is the proper
line between personal freedom of expression and social decorum?
10. What is the right balance between leniency and strict adherence to class and school policies on the part of
educators? When does enforcement of rigor become overly harsh?
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18. Ethics in Education: Topics for Research Project
Your assignment:
Pick a topic from the list provided (once three people have selected a topic, it will close).
1. What is your answer to the question posed in the topic or prompt?
2. What kind of research paper or project would best inform others about this issue?
3. What are the ethical concerns here, especially for educators and students? [Consult the NEA Code
of Ethics for benchmarks.] Personal experience may be relevant, but look for other sources.
4. Be sure to consider multiple perspectives.
5. Your first step is to come up with a specific and significant thesis; next, outline the claims that
support it, including any general principles or warrants grounding those claims.
6. Complete a rough draft of the paper or project.
7. Pass your first draft to another team and review and critique their rough draft.
8. Retrieve your critiqued draft and make appropriate changes, refining, editing, adding information
and sources, etc.
9. Prepare final draft of the paper/project for instructor review.
10. Make changes per instructor feedback & submit assignment.
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19. Q & A
Melinda Campbell
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