Public Administration Emergency Management Pedagogy: Cultivating the Habit of Critical Thinking

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There is a dearth of research focusing upon critical thinking skills of practicing local government emergency managers as well as the cultivation of critical thinking skills in public administration emergency management academic curricula. This exploratory research used the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form S (WGCTA-S) survey instrument to assess the critical thinking skills of 54 local government emergency managers. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare WGCTA-S scores of the local government emergency managers with a sample of 4,790 peer-level managers drawn from an archival WGCTA-S database. Recommendations are made regarding pedagogical approaches to cultivate the habit of critical thinking in public administration emergency management course curricula.