COSEE-OS Support of Critical Thinking
The COSEE program was born out of a workshop report (McManus et al., 2000), which recommended that the NSF play a leadership role in forming a mechanism through which exemplary practices in ocean sciences education be organized into distributed centers. A subsequent NSF-appointed COSEE Implementation Steering Committee reviewed the workshop report and recommended that NSF and other funding agencies proceed with establishing COSEE (Walker et al., 2001). They noted that, “The overarching goal is to increase and enhance collaboration and communications among ocean scientists, educators, and the general public.” From these initial steps, a national Network of 10 COSEE Centers and a Central Coordinating Office were funded.
In fall 2005, Ocean Systems joined the COSEE Network with the objective of fostering substantive dialogue between scientists, educators, and the public through concept mapping. COSEE-OS developed, tested and iterated models of applied collaborative concept mapping and a related suite of interactive multimedia tools that focus on ocean and climate core concepts. These online tools are designed to graphically display how scientists see relationships among the concepts in their field.
Through its workshops and webinars, COSEE-OS has developed innovative methods to help scientists break down their research into core components and use creative thinking to make new connections for nonscientist audiences (deCharon et al., 2009; Bailin, 2002; Ennis, 1985; Paul & Elder, 2006). Having trained over 275 faculty- and graduate-level scientists, COSEE-OS has also supported several other types of critical thinking as defined by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST; Insight Assessment, 2013) including analysis, evaluation and explanation. Facione (2000) designed the CCTST as a general test of critical thinking rather than one embedded within the context of a specific domain. Yet in 1990, he also noted the importance of domain-specific knowledge in the application of critical thinking skills and abilities. By focusing on concept mapping of ocean and climate sciences, COSEE-OS is able to test how domain-specific knowledge is translated into explanations, evaluations and evidence, providing some examples of the value of background knowledge to critical thinking (Ennis, 1985; McPeck, 1990; Bailin et al., 1999). Participant feedback shows that COSEE-OS applications of concept mapping are effective methods to help scientists work collaboratively with others to analyze their collective understanding of relationships among concepts. As a result, their concept maps have been used successfully to both evaluate and explain how these scientists’ research is related to broader domains.