Westmont College - Student Learning Standards Critical-Interdisciplinary Thinking

PROGRAM REVIEW & IMPROVEMENT

Student Learning Standards: Critical-Interdisciplinary Thinking

Introduction

Students are versatile thinkers, able to use appropriately the tools provided by different disciplinary methodologies and to understand that each discipline implies a particular epistemological orientation. Critical interdisciplinary thinking requires students to combine a variety of discipline-specific reasoning abilities in attempts to solve problems or answer questions. It also requires them to have the ability to frame appropriate questions; to think abstractly; to test definitions of key terms and categories of analysis, and to examine one’s own assumptions.

Student Learning Outcomes

General Skills. Students are capable of exercising general critical thinking skills.

Range of Disciplines. Students are capable of critical thinking in a wide range of disciplines.

Complex Problem Solving. Students are capable of complex problem involving more than one form of critical thinking.

Collaborating. Students are capable of collaborating with people in other fields in order to solve problems and make decisions.

Limits. Students recognize the limits of critical thinking in the search for truth and wise behavior.

Appropriate Attitudes. Students are able to think critically with the appropriate attitudes (e.g., humility, charity).