We are pleased to announce new programs to teach critical thinking!

• The Critical Thinking Tutorial
• Critical Thinking Case Studies... And More

The critical thinking tutorial teaches the basics of critical thinking to your students. Designed and written by Linda Caputi in collaboration with Kathleen Walsh-Free, this program takes an organized approach to teaching all aspects of critical thinking. It breaks critical thinking down into 28 skills and strategies; defines the skills and strategies giving clear, helpful examples for each. It includes practice items to sharpen the skills and a test bank to help you evaluate your students. Like all College of DuPage products, this program is reliable, simple to use and looks great. It is an elegant media using audio, video, graphics and animation.

The critical thinking tutorial lays the groundwork for our new series: critical thinking case studies...and more.

This new series of case studies was conceived by three dynamic professors from Kettering College of Medical Arts: Joan Ulloth, Marsha Purtee and Susan Ash and designed by Linda Caputi of College of DuPage. They can be used alone or as an adjunct to the Critical Thinking Tutorial. The case study guides students through a case, asking them questions and giving them options that require them to use the critical thinking skills they have learned. Mastery learning is built into the case. Students receive immediate feedback about the effectiveness of their answer, and correct thinking is reinforced before they are given the next question. These case studies can be used by individual students or by you to facilitate group learning in your classroom.

Individualized instruction: in this modality, your students work at a computer, alone or with a partner. In addition to taking them through cases, challenging and building their critical thinking skills, the program allows you to give them the option of keeping "thinking notes." Students are asked to write why they chose a particular course of action regarding the case and the program prints these responses. These notes become the basis for you to help students improve their thinking and critical judgment. There is also an "information tutor" that serves as a resource of information that the students can access to help in answering questions. A "critical thinking adviser" is included to serve as a guide on how to apply critical thinking in answering questions.

Classroom instruction: this modality allows you, the instructor, to use multimedia presentations of the software in class to support your instruction. Graphics, audio and type fonts are all specially scaled for clear projection in the classroom. To make it even more attractive, the operations of the programs are simplified to work better in the classroom setting allowing you to work with students more effectively.

Classroom testing: as an added bonus each case study comes with an instructor's manual that includes 10 to 15 new questions not seen by students using the program. Use these high-quality critical thinking questions on your classroom tests to evaluate student outcomes regarding both content and critical thinking.

Currently there are eight case studies available:

Hardware and Software Specifications

• IBM compatible computer
• Windows 95 or higher
• CD-ROM drive
• 420 MB of hard disk space for the individualized instruction version
• Monitor Resolution: 800 X 600 or higher
• 486 Processor or higher
• 32 MEG Ram or higher
• Mouse
• Printer (preferred)