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Division of Academic and Student Affairs 
DASA Assessment

Critical and Creative Thinking at NC State

Expectation

The Pack Proficiencies (General Education Competencies), including Critical and Creative Thinking, develop through multiple and sustained experiences across the General Education Program (GEP). The GEP provides a foundation for Critical and Creative Thinking and other Pack Proficiencies (General Education Competencies). It is expected that each degree program provide additional support to build upon that foundation throughout the major.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the active, persistent and careful consideration of a belief or form of knowledge. It includes analysis and judgements about the ideas and conditions that support beliefs and conclusions that follow. Critical thinking involves analyzing and evaluating one’s own thinking and that of others, and is subject to intellectual standards including clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, significance, depth, breadth, logic, and fairness.

Outcomes

  • A generally educated NC State student will raise questions, formulate problems and identify appropriate information when solving a problem.
  • A generally educated NC State student will evaluate and interpret information presented when solving a problem.
  • A generally educated NC State student will generate, judge and synthesize appropriate solutions for a problem.
  • A generally educated NC State student will organize and communicate their thinking effectively in written form.

Creative Thinking

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is the generation of new ideas within or across disciplines. It draws upon or breaks rules and procedures in those disciplines and actively engages students in bringing together existing ideas into new configuration; developing new properties or possibilities for something that already exists; and discovering or imagining something entirely new. Standards for judging creative thinking include originality, appropriateness, flexibility, and contribution to the domain.

Students use a 3d Makerbot printer at the College of Education library at Poe Hall. Photo by Marc Hall

Outcomes

  • A generally educated NC State student will apply creative thinking skills to explore alternatives, convey unique or novel ideas, create new knowledge, and adapt to new context and information.
  • A generally educated NC State student will apply creative thinking skills to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of ideas, recommend appropriate solutions and take risks in proposing approaches or directions.

Assessment of Critical and Creative Thinking

Additional Links

Findings