written by David T. Brookes and Yuhfen Lin

There has been substantial attention paid to students' abilities to engage in a scientific discussion and think critically in a science class. But what constitutes critical thinking in physics? We will discuss a view that critical thinking involves participants (students) becoming increasingly involved in a specialized form of argument that has fixed epistemic rules, but whose rules are seldom made explicit within the physics community that uses them. We will then discuss one method of making the epistemic rules of physics explicit for students by using formative assessment rubrics. We will provide some examples of how these rubrics can be implemented in a physics class and how students were able to transfer critical thinking abilities beyond the physics classroom.

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Published August 24, 2010
Last Modified June 23, 2011

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