Critical Thinking and COSE (Assessment and the Expanded Text) Siobhán Holland and Aidan Arrowsmith

Our Aims We wanted students To develop effective strategies for tackling assessment projects and for independent study. To gain confidence in using theoretical ideas in their own work. To start to think of themselves as critics.

Initial Assumptions We worried that we might Encourage Uniformity of Student Response Create a Right Answer Culture Foster Dependent Rather than Independent Learning Replicate Seminars (see the report at assessingenglish/case_studies.htm for our response to these issues.

Possible Benefits COSE provided us with A means to offer support to students ‘at the point of need’ in their independent study time. A clear pedagogy which encouraged us to organise materials so that they provided support for learning and not just for teaching.

The COSE Pedagogy: Projects, Activities and Tasks

Projects Projects involve multiple levels of learning and a variety of skills e.g. research, analysis, writing, redrafting, constructing an argument, time management.

Activities Activities ask the student to work on one element of the project. Students use basic ideas and information and apply them. Activities therefore resemble problem-based learning activities.

Tasks Tasks ask the student to manipulate information and they encourage basic learning. Other resources … all stages of this process can be supplemented with advice pages and/or external resources.

The Student Experience The students work down from project level and then back up. They have the chance to practise the use of ideas in a structured independent study environment. This is what their vista might look like:

A Student’s Response ‘That’s one thing I find, that we learn things but we don’t really know how to put them in our essays. Like, literally, how do you get words like ideology [in]; Things like that I struggle with a lot. It is really good to have to actually do it. […] It’s not necessarily all to do with COSE, […] but I would definitely say that the COSE activity helped.’

A Lecturer’s Response ‘One of the strengths of the VLE seems predicated upon how it may enable students to think carefully, and then to practise raising and applying the kinds of questions (critical and methodological) needed to help them to argue effectively around concepts and categories.’

Bibliography A case study is available and downloadable at /case_studies.htm For further information on COSE’s pedagogy visit

Contact Details Dr Aidan Arrowsmith Staffordshire University Dr Siobhán Holland English Subject Centre