Facilitating Critical Thinking in Large Lecture Classes
Kathrin Stanger-Hall

Learning without thought is labor lost, thought without learning is perilious.
- Confucius

Many of our students enter the University with excellent memorization skills, but struggle to make the transition to critical thinking and problem solving.

In contrast to memorization, which is based on more or less passive consumption of the class material, critical thinking requires active processing of information, and includes thinking skills such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These thinking skills not only help our students succeed in College, but are also considered life-long learning skills that inform educated decisions.

This inter-disciplinary Faculty Learning Community will identify and develop teaching techniques and class-room activities that will get our students minds working in the lecture hall and aid them in making the transition to critical thinking.

Based on the individual and collective goals of the participants, we will work towards outcomes such as:

• becoming familiar with the literature on student learning
• identifying and developing techniques that facilitate active learning in the  classroom
• applying these techniques in our classrooms
• assessing their effectiveness on student learning

The facilitator, Dr. Kathrin Stanger-Hall, has 12 years experience teaching large lecture classes, and has led workshops on active learning for both students and faculty. Any questions? Please ask: ksh@uga.edu.

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This page last updated on February 22, 2008.