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			SCHEDULE OF research ACTIVITIES

Interviews

Schedule of Yearly Activities

Year One (2006-07)

Assemble two working groups of Ohio5 faculty, one devoted to studying research on assessing critical thinking, the other to studying research on assessing creative thinking. Group members spent the summer reading established scholarly studies on both topics and subsequently created pilot rubrics based on assignments in their classrooms. Several members also created and implements surveys to accompany the rubrics.
Develop Surveys to collect information on perceptions of critical and creative thinking in the liberal arts. Pilot surveys, approved by our human subjects review boards, were administered to randomly selected first-year students, seniors, and faculty from the four colleges in April 2007. The finalized survey will be administered to members of the class of 2011 in the fall of 2007. Members of this class will be tracked during their tenure at their respective college and the survey then administered to them their senior year to determine if the liberal arts curricula has changed their perceptions of critical and creative thinking.
Create Web Site.
Recruit Additional Faculty, approximately 15 from each school, to test the pilot rubrics or variations of them in their classes during 2007-08.

Year Two (2007-08)

Hold Workshops at Each Institution to explain the project to new participants and to instruct them in the use of PTA and the pilot critical and creative thinking rubrics. Participants receive a $300 stipend for attending the workshop and agreeing to use and/design a new critical/creative thinking rubric for at least one of their assignments during the first semester of the 2007-08 academic year.
Collect Data from the test rubrics.
Administer Survey to the class of 2011.
Identity non-Ohio5 institutions to administer surveys for comparative analysis.
Analyze Data from the rubric applications and the survey results.
Identify Set of Best Rubrics to administer for data collection in 2008-09.
Identify Faculty from years one and two to administer these and aggregate results in year three.
Present Findings. The project leaders will begin to report their findings at appropriate higher education conferences.
Develop Longitudinal Study Instrument suitable for each campus. For example, The College of Wooster will make use of the surveys and rubrics to assess Junior and Senior Independent Study. Denison University may elect to use the instruments to further assessment of their general education program, and Kenyon College may use them to assess their senior capstone program.

Year Three (2008-09)

Administer Rubrics; Collect and Analyze Data.
Report Results through conference presentations and book proposals.
Implement Longitudinal Study. Some schools may elect to begin the longitudinal study this year or the next.

Year Four (2009-10)