TRAINING GUIDELINES FOR THE CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH WRITING (CTW) PROGRAM

Approved by the Joint CTW Subcommittee of the Committee on Academic Programs

and Admissions & Standards, July 2007

According to the motion approved by the University Senate (5/19/07) establishing a Critical Thinking Through Writing graduation requirement for all undergraduate students: “CTW training will be available to faculty, graduate students, and staff who are working in CTW courses. Departments must use university-wide CTW training or alternative training approved by the Gen Ed Subcommittee. “

The present document establishes general guidelines for university-wide CTW training. Departments that wish to opt out of university-wide training must propose, in writing, an alternate CTW training plan and receive approval for the plan from the Gen Ed Subcommittee (a subcommittee of the University Senate’s Committee on Academic Programs).

a. CTW Ambassadors

Each department (or, when appropriate, major) will identify one or more faculty member(s) to serve as its CTW Ambassador(s). All Ambassadors will go through University-level CTW training. These Ambassadors will then be responsible for the training of those faculty members within their respective areas who are to teach CTW courses. These Ambassadors also will serve as general liaisons between the CTW program and their departmental faculties. They will provide information and ideas to their departmental faculties about CTW, and they will provide feedback to the University about the practice of CTW within their home departments/majors. Ambassadors will be compensated for their service.

b. Ambassador training

Each year, CTW Ambassadors will be required to attend a training workshop. In this workshop, general concepts of critical thinking through writing will be explored, as well as specific techniques and practices for enhancing student learning and assessing student outcomes with regard to critical thinking through writing. Annual training workshops will be offered in each of approximately three broad disciplinary areas to allow for the efficient sharing of like approaches and practices among Ambassadors. This will also allow training sessions to be limited to 15 or so participants each. All training sessions will cover the basic issues of critical thinking through writing, and attendance at any one of the sessions will satisfy the annual training requirement for CTW Ambassadors.

Training workshops will be coordinated by a team of five faculty members, appointed by the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness in consultation with the deans and chairs. The training team will consist of two faculty members with specific expertise in critical thinking and writing, and three additional faculty members to represent the breadth of disciplines across the university.

c. Training of CTW Faculty at the Departmental/Major level

Each Ambassador will be responsible for coordinating CTW training for those faculty members within his or her home department/major who will teach CTW courses. While the nature and extent of such training will differ by discipline, each department/major will develop a plan that maps out the general parameters of CTW training for its faculty. This departmental/major plan must be submitted alongside proposals for CTW courses to the Gen Ed Assessment Subcommittee of the University Senate and must be approved by the subcommittee. All faculty members who teach CTW courses within the department/major must undergo training in conformity with the approved departmental/major plan.