WAC Bibliography
Welcome to the WAC Bibliography. The bibliography, developed and presented in collaboration with CompPile, was developed to support teachers across the disciplines who are interested in using writing and speaking in their courses; scholars who are interested in WAC theory and research; and program administrators, designers, and developers who have interests in the latest work in faculty outreach, program design, and assessment.
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Category: Critical Thinking
Your search found 43 citations.
1. Adams, Dennis M.; Mary Hamm. (1996). Cooperative learning: Critical thinking and collaboration across the curriculum. 2nd edition. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Keywords: critical-thinking, WAC, cooperative, pedagogy
2. Adams, Dennis M.; Mary Hamm. (1990). Cooperative learning: Critical thinking and collaboration across the curriculum. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Keywords: critical-thinking, WAC, cooperative, pedagogy
3. Adler-Kassner, Linda; Peggy O'Neill. (2010). Reframing writing assessment to improve teaching and learning. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
Annotation: Public discourse about writing instruction is currently driven by ideas of what instructors and programs 'need to do,' 'should do,' or 'are not doing,' and is based on poorly informed concepts of correctness and unfounded claims about a broad decline in educational quality. This discussion needs to be reframed, say Adler-Kassner and O'Neill, to help policymakers understand that the purpose of writing instruction is to help sstudents develop critical thinking, read, and writing strategies that will form the foundation for their future education, careers, and civic engagement [publishing blurb]
Keywords: assessment, evaluation, reconceptualization, pedagogy, learning-theory, accountability, accreditation, classical-rhetoric, school-preparation, curriculum, placement, large-scale, local, portfolio, objective, reliability, validity, WAC
4. Andrievskikh, Natalia. (2024). Student-Created Tabletop Foresight Games as Advocacy: Exploring Alternatives to the Op-Ed Genre in First-Year Writing Courses. Prompt 8.1, 28-37. https://doi.org/10.31719/pjaw.v8i1.169
Annotation: This assignment asks first-year writing students to collaboratively create a tabletop game design that would expose players to possible future developments of climate change. The multimodal component is accompanied by a series of writing, research, and communication assignments that are scaffolded to guide students through the iterative process of composing. As students explore alternative formats to make a persuasive argument, they gain a more nuanced understanding of their topic, hone critical thinking skills, and practice addressing different audiences. The final project includes a research paper and a formal project proposal. The author argues in favor of the affordances of game-based pedagogies in a writing and technical communication classroom.
Keywords: technical communication, advocacy, persuasive arguments, first-year writing, project-based learning, procedural rhetoric, game-based pedagogy, multimodal composition
5. Anonymous [Beaver College faculty]. ([1982?]). Inquire: Freshman seminar in problem solving and critical thinking: Faculty manual. Glenside, PA: Beaver College.
Keywords: teacher-manual, first-year, seminar, critical-thinking, problem-solving, teacher-strategy, WAC
6. Beyer, Catharine Hoffman; Gerald M. Gillmore; Andrew T. Fisher. (2007). Inside the undergraduate experience: The University of Washington's study of undergraduate learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Annotation: The University of Washington's Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL) tracked 304 entering freshmen and transfer students as they moved through their college experience from fall 1999 to spring 2003. Unparalleled in its scope, this longitudinal study focused on six areas of learning: writing, critical thinking/problem solving, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, understanding and appreciating diversity, and personal growth. This book provides faculty, staff, and administrators at two- and four-year institutions with a model of assessment that both captures the complexity of the undergraduate experience and offers practical information about how to improve teaching and learning. Data from surveys, open-ended email questions, interviews, focus groups, and portfolios make it possible for the authors to create case studies of individual learning paths over time, as well as to report the group s aggregate experience. Honoring the authenticity of student voices, this book illuminates the central roles played by the academic disciplines and by faculty in undergraduate learning, offering powerful evidence for the argument that assessment of student learning is most complete and most useful when conducted at the department level. [publisher's blurb]
Keywords: longitudinal, data, University of Washington, undergraduate, critical-thinking, problem-solving, quantitative reasoning, diversity, information literacy, personal growth, development, survey, focus group, case-study, portfolio, self-report, self-evaluation, argumentation, WAC, research-based, undergraduate
7. Blau, Sheridan. (2010). Academic writing as participation: Writing your way in. In Sullivan, Patrick; Tinberg, Howard; Blau, Sheridan (Eds.), What is “college-level” writing? Volume 2: Assignments, Readings and Student Writing Samples; Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English (pp. 29-56).
Annotation: Blau describes and models his methodology and classroom practice of a genre-specific approach that purports to enable the transition of high school, community college and first-year college students into the university academic discourse community. Blau bases his claims of efficacy on anecdotal reports, observations done in New York City community colleges and high school classrooms as well as the application of research and theory. Blau suggests that students ought to write share and discuss literary commentary so they can concretely enact the formation of genuine academic discursive practices. These student commentaries are used for longer papers where students read, respond to and cite each other’s work. Blau contends that this 'genre-creating program' promotes the 'critical thinking' that is essential to the reading and writing involved in 'college-level discourse' because it lends students academic authority, in that they are originators and evaluators of a shared classroom disciplinary textual [Rachel E. H. Edwards, Alignments and Alliences: Smoothing Students' Transitions from High School English to First-Year College Writing, WPA-CompPile Bibliographies, No. 20]
Keywords: school-college, two-year, research-method, New York City, discourse-community, genre-specific, disciplinary, convention, WAC, critical-thinking, research-practice, theory-practice, discursive, praxis
8. Carpenter, J. Harrison. & Krest, Margie. (2001). It's About the Science: Students Writing and Thinking about Data in a Scientific Writing Course. Language and Learning Across the Disciplines, 5(2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.37514/LLD-J.2001.5.2.04
Annotation: The problem for the teaching of discipline-specific writing is that disciplinary standards of style and form often trump writing teachers' concerns for fostering critical thinking; as a result, teachers overemphasize correctness and format. Our approach is based on the belief that a generative view of genre can be the basis for students learning how to think critically about science.
Keywords: WAC, WID, writing across the curriculum, conventions, science, critical thinking, writing to learn, genre, data-interpretation
9. Charbonneau, G. (1986). Writing in the social sciences: Fostering critical thinking and values formation through micro-theme. In O'Dowd, Kathleen; Earnest I. Nolan (Eds.), Learning to write/writing to learn; Livonia, MI: Madonna College, Humanities Writing Program (pp. 57-63).
Keywords: WAC, social-science-course, critical-thinking, value, microtheme, social
10. Clarke, John H.; Arthur W. Biddle (Eds.). (1993). Teaching critical thinking: Reports from across the curriculum. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Keywords: critical-thinking, pedagogy, WAC, data-analysis, theory-making, hypothesis-testing, data-collection
11. Cohen, Samuel. (2002). Tinkering Toward WAC Utopia. Journal of Basic Writing, 21(2), 56-72. https://doi.org/10.37514/JBW-J.2002.21.2.05
Annotation: This article suggests that WAC can be used to foster critical thinking even in very simple writing exercises, and gives examples of some useful exercises. Cohen says teachers are obligated to help all students think critically, in this age of globalization. [WAC Clearinghouse]
Keywords: curriculum, WAC, critical thinking
12. Condon, William; Diane Kelly-Riley. (2004). Assessing and teaching what we value: The relationship between college-level writing and critical thinking abilities. Assessing Writing 09.1, 56-75.
Keywords: Washington State University, assessment, placement, rising-junior, Critical Thinking Project, critical-thinking, WAC, test-design, learning-outcomes, data
13. Cross, Geoffrey A. & Wills, Katherine V. (2005). Bridging Disciplinary Divides in Writing Across the Curriculum. Across the Disciplines, 2(2), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2005.2.2.07
Annotation: Geoffrey Cross and Katherine Wills report the results of a longitudinal study that assessed whether faculty writing workshops could facilitate writing in heterogeneous disciplines by linking specific, workaday writing activities (Tschudi, 1986) with Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives (1974). Results show that participating faculty reported increases in reflective pedagogical practice, more critical selection of writing activities, and decreased time required to construct writing strategies to achieve discipline-related instructional goals. (Published June 26, 2005) [WAC Clearinghouse]
Keywords: data, faculty development, WAC, WID, pedagogy, pedagogy, reflection, Bloom's taxonomy
14. Durst, Russel K. (1994). Coming to Grips with Theory: College Students' Use of Theoretical Explanation in Writing About History. Language and Learning Across the Disciplines, 1(1), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.37514/LLD-J.1994.1.1.05
Annotation: This study looks at how college history students wrestle with and sometimes work around issues of theory, specifically theories of the causes of the Civil War. Using analysis of think-aloud protocol, the author investigates how students theoretical writing about the Civil War and how they use the theoretical material to take a position in writing about these same issues. The main purpose of this article is to examine the cognitive moves students make, their ways of thinking, when working with theory, an activity which many educators today are touting as particularly important in developing students' critical thinking abilities. [WAC Clearinghouse]
Keywords: historiography, theorizing, text-analysis, student-writing, history-course, WAC, data, think-aloud, protocol-analysis
15. Gabriel, Susan L.; M. L. Hirsch, Jr. (1992). Critical thinking and communication skills: Integration and implementation issues. Journal of Accounting Education 05, 127-137.
Keywords: WAC, accounting-course, critical-thinking, response, revising, implementation, integrated
16. Giroux, Henry A. (1978). Writing and critical thinking in the social studies. Curriculum Inquiry 08, 291-310.
Keywords: WAC, social-studies-course, critical-thinking, write-to-learn, materials, social
17. Green, C. S., III; H. G. Klug. (1990). Teaching critical thinking and writing through debates: An experimental evaluation. Teaching Sociology 18.4, 462-471.
Annotation: Action research that addresses the issue of providing high quality instruction and feedback in large introductory level classes. Green and Klug explore several methods to find one by which students improve writing and critical thinking abilities, increase class participation and interest, and better learn the course content. Additionally, Green and Klug sought a method that avoided making ""the grading load...simply too high"" (462). They investigated classroom debate as a way to achieve their goals. Students in the experimental groups participated in debates regarding course material and the control group received instruction by lecture with some class discussion. Those in the control groups were randomly assigned their debate topics, including whether they would take the pro or con side to the issues. Results were measured through various means for each of their goals. The experimental groups showed significant improvement in student performance on multiple choice exams covering course material, rate of enthusiastic class participation, and students’ positive evaluations of instructors, as well as modest gains in writing and critical thinking skills. Students wrote papers collaboratively with their debate teams, creating only a small number of essays to grade rather than 50 - 75 individual papers. Green and Klug end by citing their study's limitations which include issues of sample size and randomness, and also address ethical issues of teaching critical thinking. They call for larger studies to better determine the effects of debate as a pedagogical tool in large introductory courses. (June W. Hurt)
Keywords: WAC, sociology-course, critical-thinking, debate, gain, data, experimental
18. Griffin, C. W. (1983). A process of critical thinking: Using writing to teach many disciplines. Improving College and University teaching 31.3, 121-128.
Keywords: WAC, write-to-learn, theory, assignment, revising, pedagogy, evaluation
19. Grinols, Anne Bradstreet (Ed.). (1984). Critical thinking: Reading across the curriculum. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Keywords: critical-thinking, WAC, reading, pedagogy
20. Grisdale, Ernie. (1992). Critical thinking through writing in chemistry. In Penney, Nancy (Ed.); Lord Fairfax Community College; Thinking through writing: Lord Fairfax Community College, 1990-1992; ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 353 016 (pp. 15-23).
Keywords: write-to-learn, critical-thinking, WAC, two-year, chemistry-course
21. Heaslip, Penny. (1992). Creating the thinking practitioner: Critical thinking in clinical practice. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 354 822.
Keywords: WAC, nursing, medical, critical-thinking, write-to-learn, exercise, pedagogy
22. Hobson, Eric H.; K. W. Schafermeyer. (1994). Writing and critical thinking: Writing-to-learn in large classes. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 58, 423-427.
Keywords: WAC, write-to-learn, critical-thinking, class-size, pharmacy-course, large-class
23. Hobson, Eric H.; Kenneth W. Schafermeyer. (1994). Writing and critical thinking: Writing-to-learn in large classes. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 58.4, 423-427.
Keywords: write-to-learn, WAC, critical-thinking, pharmacy-course, large-class, lecture, exercise, self-evaluation, peer-evaluation, commenting
24. Kalfus, Richard. (1992). Critical thinking activities. In Mahony, Elizabeth M. (Ed.); Saint Louis Community College at Meramec [Missouri]; Building community from diversity: Connecting students to their learning environments. An anthology of classroom projects undertaken for the Kellogg Beacon Grant: Final report; ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 349 064 (pp. 99-104).
Keywords: critical-thinking, WAC, pedagogy, two-year
25. Kiedaisch, Jean; Sue Dinitz. (1995). Using collaborative groups to teach critical thinking. In Stay, Byron L.; Christina Murphy; Eric Hobson (Eds.), Writing center perspectives; Emmitsburg, MD: National Writing Centers Association Press (pp. 179-186).
Keywords: wcenter, group, collaborative, critical-thinking, tutoring, art history, art-course, WAC, pre-writing
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