Critical Evaluation Toolkit

Questions to ask when assessing students' work

Has the student, when analysing:

• identified the component parts of the task (whether concrete or abstract) and disaggregated them for close examination?
• reconstructed them into a coherent whole based on underlying principles (whether concrete or abstract)? and
• examined the component parts in terms of their inter-relationships and their relationship with the whole (whether concrete or abstract)?

Has the student, when arguing:

• formulated a valid proposition and premises?
• constructed a cogent argument using a logical process of some kind?
• identified and justified any underlying assumptions and biases?
• remained open to other perspectives?
• challenged or contested these perspectives? and
• used relevant and reliable evidence to support their own claims or propositions?

Making judgements on students' assignments

"...we can say that the information we collect on students' capacity to think critically and make judgements is of high quality when it allows us to decide whether the students' thinking processes were justified."

Te Wiata, I. (1996). Thinking critically and making judgments. In Nightingale, P., Te Wiata, I., Toohey, S., Ryan, G., Hughes, C., & Magin, D. Assessing Learning in Universities. Sydney: University, p.