This fall I invited students enrolled in EDUC-326 Foundations of Education to participate in a research project designed to measure the critical thinking levels of an assignment. Both sections (30 students each) were asked to write a Philosophy of Education. This assignment was followed by one section reworking and developing a Philosophy of Education and one section writing a Philosophy of Teaching. I am currently evaluating the results using a rubric on critical thinking. This semester I plan to repeat the study and compare my results.

Preliminary results reflect the teaching strategies used to create a Philosophy of Teaching have resulted in a higher level of critical thinking by the students as evidenced in their choice of words in the philosophy. I need one more semester of findings to make this generalization for these students.