Critical Thinking Performance Tasks
Real-World Readiness Starts Here
The situations students are presented with in CAE’s Critical Thinking Skills Program performance tasks mirror the kinds of decisions they’ll make in the workplace and civic life.
These real-world scenarios give students the chance to practice skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication in contexts that feel relevant and meaningful, preparing them for their future careers and lives.
Embedded Instruction, Real-World Application
CAE’s approach empowers faculty to intentionally embed critical thinking into their existing coursework. Using performance tasks, instructors can reinforce essential skills like problem solving, argumentation, and evidence-based decision-making within their own disciplines.
Whether in business, STEM, the humanities, or social sciences, CAE’s performance tasks immerse students in real-world challenges, and provide them with opportunities to analyze conflicting evidence, weigh competing priorities, and make informed recommendations.
Performance Tasks That Power Deliberate Practice
CAE’s performance tasks are powerful learning tools. We offer ready-to-use performance tasks or we can help you develop performance task scenarios specifically aligned to your courses and institutional goals. Each task is designed to:
- Reinforce critical thinking skills and vocabulary (using CAE’s Seven Step Critical Thinking Framework)
- Allow students to practice their critical thinking skills in a real-life scenario embedded in course content
- Provide opportunities for written and oral communication
- Support collaboration and group-based problem solving
Sample Performance Task
Community Service
You are a student member of the Abington Public Schools Board of Education, which has been asked to consider the following proposal:
Abington Public Schools should enact the requirement that school students perform unpaid community service as a high school graduation requirement.
The Board agreed to study and vote on the proposal, with the understanding that if it is approved, Abington Public School leaders will develop a program that specifies how students will meet the community service graduation requirement. To help with your decision, you have been provided with a set of research documents to help you better understand the pros and cons of the proposal. Review these documents and decide whether you would argue in favor of or against the proposal.
Your task is to decide whether to vote for or against this proposal and write a memo with an explanation for your decision. You will need to use the evidence from the documents to support and refute your decision.
Bring Real-World Critical Thinking Into the Classroom
Ready to equip your students with the skills they need to thrive in a complex, fast-changing world? Let’s talk about CAE’s Critical Thinking Skills Program can help your institution deliver on its promise of student success.