The #EASyR Way to get Students

Thinking Critically

Kay Lehmann, EdDWith support from co-author Lisa Chamberlin

Twitter hashtag for this presentation - #EASyR & #aln85477

Unless otherwise noted

Lesson Planning

Is…Not sexy or

exciting!

Consider this scenario

• Paper submitted by student is plagiarized

• Whose fault is this? • A. The student’s of course• B. The professor’s fault• C. Both

What is EASyR• Original Bloom’s order (Anyone…?

Anyone?)• Audaciously we suggest it should

be:• Evaluate• Analyze• Synthesize• Review/Revise/Reflect

Evaluation became synonymouswith testing.

Bloom’s Original Hierarchy

Targeting Upper Levels

• Krathwohl et.al added Create

DefinitionsIn Our Order

• Evaluate

• Analyze

• Synthesize

• Review/Revise

The Aha! Moment

• Critical thinking process• What did we want

students to do and in what order

• SAE became EASy• Later it became EASyR

EASyR Example 1

• Nursing education to teach teamwork• Before – Teams drove remote

control cars• After – Teams analyzed medical

cases for breakdown by teams and what optimum teams would do

EASyR Example 2

• Business training to handle personal biases• Before – Watch a video and

reflect• After – Read, watch video,

discuss, take an inventory, create personal action plans for recognizing and dealing with bias, share plans with peers and revise

EASyR Example 3

• HTML training• Before – Handout with matching

exercise• After – Create a page using

HTML tags based on teacher’s design

EASyR Example 4

• Organizational change – Business education• Before - Discuss collaboration

and what makes it effective• After - Develop with peers list of

effective collaboration practices, collaboratively order the list, create an action plan to increase effective collaboration in an org

EASyR Example 5

• Literature – Analyzing a character - Hamlet • Evaluate - Discuss Hamlet’s

sanity using quotes from the lit and basic psychology diagnoses

• Analyze - Analyze Hamlet from 4 other char perspective

• Synthesize - Develop a treatment plan appropriate for the literary character

One last example… my favoriteObjectives (Old f2f plan)• Summarize the major plot elements in

chronological order.• Identify a character's heroic traits.• Describe a character's feelings in a

work of fiction.• Discuss the ways that racism

negatively impacts individuals.

Objectives (New eLearning plan)• Review specific violations to the

Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Evaluation)• Justify how a character’s actions

are similar to real life heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.  (Analysis)

• Defend their claim using specific evidence from credible sources. (Analysis)

• Create a civil rights complaint for the character that could be filed with the Office of Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. (Synthesis)

Does it work?

• Data is anecdotal• Student reflective

comments

The EASy Critical Thinking method -- I spent so much time on this, but learned so much at the same time. When I was done and writing the synopsis of things that changed from my old to new lesson plan, I realized how much more engaging it would be for students to participate in my new and improved lesson plan. I can see where it fosters so much more critical thinking when compared to my traditional lesson plan. It makes me want to change all my lessons.

- University Instructor

Examples from audience

• Discuss in groups• Share ideas • Ask questions

EASyR site: http://goo.gl/88PC51Presentation & handouts there

EASy and other tips are in Making the Move to eLearning: Putting your Course Online

Available now on Amazon.com and at Rowman Education (www.rowmaneducation.com)