The Pathways articles to date were intended to engage faculty in teaching, learning, and assessment, especially
in large enrollment courses. The challenge for many faculty who have changed their courses is to determine if the innovations actually improve student learning. This leads some faculty towards research models that require empirical evidence based on student assessment data. Here we describe a framework for research on scientific teaching.

As teachers undergo systematic study of their own practice and student learning, they develop greater insight into potential problems. Undoubtedly, many of the issues that arise are connected with motivating students to think critically and inspiring them to take ownership and initiative for their own learning. Using an example from [Walters et al., attached], we outline a general framework for moving beyond instruction to investigating a research question. In this case, we examine students’ ability to demonstrate critical thinking about ill-structured problems (ie those that cannot be described with a high degree of completeness or solved with a high degree of certainty; eg overpopulation),
in contrast to well-structured problems, (ie those with a high degree of completeness, certainty, and correctness; eg a puzzle; King and Kitchner 1994).