Critical and Creative Thinking
All UCORE courses require students to demonstrate designator learning outcomes that advance WSU’s Critical & Creative Thinking Learning Goal, totaling a minimum of 34 credit hours in UCORE-designated courses that include instruction and/or engagement with Critical Thinking and a minimum of three credit hours in UCORE-designated courses that include instruction and/or engagement with Creative Thinking (see the UCORE Curriculum Map (PDF) and UCORE Curriculum webpages). At the first-year level, the first-year experience course [ROOT] and foundational requirements advance Critical Thinking. At the senior-level, the senior capstone experience course [CAPS] advances Critical & Creative Thinking. Students also complete ways of knowing requirements, which advance Critical Thinking, during the UCORE curriculum (note: [ARTS] courses require students to demonstrate Critical Thinking and may require students to demonstrate Creative Thinking as appropriate to the course and discipline).
Note: Announced in May 2022, revised designator learning outcomes were approved by the UCORE Committee to help clarify what students, regardless of major, should be able to know and do upon the successful completion of a course in that designator. Additionally, effective Fall 2023, UCORE added the [EQJS] designator to the “Ways of Knowing” component of the curriculum, with the requirement that students complete courses in at least six of the seven Ways of Knowing designators.
Current Evidence of Student Learning Related to Critical and Creative Thinking
Click on the headings for current evidence of student learning from key assessments associated with Critical and Creative Thinking in the context of the UCORE curriculum:
- Student Learning at the Senior-level: AY 2021-22 [CAPS] Assessment Results As reported in the AY 2021-22 [CAPS] Assessment Reporting Summary of Key Evidence for UCORE (PDF), assessment results indicated that 85% of students met or exceeded expectations at the graduating undergraduate level for Critical & Creative Thinking. Additionally, 83% of students met or exceeded expectations for Written Communication. In courses where faculty members found enough elements to evaluate student learning on […]
- Information Literacy, Integrative Learning, and Critical Thinking Achievement at the First-Year Level: AY 2020-21 Roots of Contemporary Issues [ROOT] Final Papers Assessment Results As reported in the AY 2020-21 [ROOT] Final Papers Assessment Summary of Key Evidence for UCORE (PDF), assessment results indicated that, on average, 78% of first-year students met or exceeded expectations at the first-year undergraduate level at the end of their UCORE first-year experience [ROOT] course on rubric outcomes related to Information Literacy. Additionally, 88% […]
- Student Learning at the First-year and Senior Level: 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Results As reported in the 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement Summary of Key Evidence for UCORE (PDF), results from the 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) indicate that most WSU seniors (93%) have considerable confidence in their ability to complete tasks requiring critical thinking and analysis of arguments and information. In addition to Critical and Creative Thinking, results from the […]