The Independent Thinker: Assessing Student Outcomes In Tutorial Education

As part of an increased focus on accountability in higher education and the emergence of assessment as an integral practice in teaching, liberal arts colleges have been urged to assess qualitative student outcomes of their programs. A study of the Oxford tutorial found that independence/thinking for oneself in learning was a central outcome. Assessing a complex set of traits such as independent thinking is comparable to the diagnosis of personality traits and requires a process of construct validation. The independent thinker is first modeled as comprising a cluster of traits including: (1.0) becoming an independent thinker through co-teaching in an equitable relationship; (2.0) developing an inquiring mind; (3.0) writing to think for oneself; (4.0) engaging in interdependent/collaborative learning; (5.0) learning to self-assess; (6.0) acquiring a skeptical orientation; and, (7.0) arguing to learn. Trait dimensions were then assessed by a group of tutor-researchers to achieve a preliminary consensus on specific outcomes. Rubrics were created for selected traits. An action research study for validating traits was designed using a case method for collecting and reflecting upon an electronic portfolio of student work and rating scales. This paper is supported by a grant from the Teagle Foundation to a research project, “Researching Assessment Methods in Tutorial Education”, Robert J. Beck and William F. Skinner, Principal Investigators.