Frequently Asked Questions Ideas to Action is a project of the
University to strengthen our undergraduate students' abilities
to think critically and to apply what they are learning to
authentic problems, that is, ones that don't have single, known,
correct answers and are therefore like most of the problems we
encounter in life. It asks faculty members to be intentional
about teaching critical thinking skills in their courses. It
asks departments to design the curricula of their majors to
include progressive development of students' critical thinking
skills, leading to a Culminating Experience, which might be a
research project, an internship, a service learning project or
some other opportunity to bring together what they have learned
in solving an authentic problem. Faculty members are asked to
teach critical thinking skills in the process of teaching the
usual material of their courses. We are also asked to use the
Paul-Elder terminology when possible so that students can see
that the same skills are tran