Understanding critical thinking practices in Iranian healthcare managers: Qualitative insights

The South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Technology stipulates that Technology should provide learners with the opportunity to solve authentic problems that are embedded in real-life experiences. Solving these authentic technological problems requires learners to use critical thinking skills and teachers are expected to support learners in this regard. Questions around teachers’ perspectives of what constitutes critical thinking and their ability to support the development of critical thinking skills in Technology classrooms are rarely asked. It is in this regard that this study sought to explore Grade 9 Technology teachers’ understanding of critical thinking and how they develop critical thinking skills in their classrooms through the use of a mini-Practical Assessment Tasks. The study applied a multiple case study design, in which a literal replication strategy was used to identify consistent patterns of description of the six participants’ understanding and enactment of critical thinking in practice. Facione’s framework for critical thinking was used to guide the analysis of interview and classroom observational data for various stages of the design process. The participants’ understanding of the notion critical thinking brought about four conceptions of critical thinking skills, namely interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference. The results of the study show that there is a huge discrepancy between what Technology teachers say and what they do in reality, highlighting the difficulty of translating and employing critical thinking skills in the classroom setting.

Critical thinking is essential for success in the 21st century, particularly in language learning. This study explores pre-service English language teachers’ (ELTs) perceptions and practices regarding critical thinking instruction in Indonesia. Through a qualitative case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with two pre-service ELTs from a private university in Yogyakarta. Thematic analysis revealed a rich tapestry of insights into the participants’ understanding of critical thinking, their perceived importance in language learning, and their willingness to integrate critical thinking into their teaching practices. The findings highlight the significance of critical thinking in language acquisition, as it empowers students to analyze complex information, evaluate diverse perspectives, and form informed judgments. Participants emphasized the need for incorporating critical thinking strategies into language teaching to enhance students’ cognitive abilities and facilitate deeper understanding. Nevertheless, the study also identified potential challenges, including the uneven distribution of critical thinking practices across the education system and the need for specialized teacher training to implement critical thinking instruction effectively. The study contributes to understanding pre-service ELTs’ perceptions and practices of critical thinking in Indonesia. It also provides valuable insights for teacher training programs, curriculum development, and future research investigating critical thinking instruction in English language teaching.

UK educators often express concerns that students from some cultural backgrounds frequently seem unwilling or are unable to apply critical thinking skills within their academic programmes. This may be due not to a lack of ability or confidence but rather to the way they have been previously taught and assessed. Often, the design of UK courses implicitly requires critical thinking skills, but the design of the use of these skills in courses may not have taken into account the conceptualization of critical thinking across a diverse global group of students. This paper reports on the results of a study of Master's engineering students from two universities in the UK to assess their conceptualization of critical thinking. The findings provide evidence that international engineering students' understanding of critical thinking is not well developed, although they may, without being aware of it, have a critical thinking mindset, and often display these skills.

This article aims to present the interaction between understanding of critical thinking and teaching and learning of critical thinking skills in higher education in Lithuania. Representative quantitative research was implemented, and 152 teachers and 1512 students took part in the survey. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors – the rigidity and elasticity of the conception of critical thinking – that have an impact on teaching and learning of critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking skills in midwifery practice: Development of a self-assessment tool for students

Although research has ascribed a number of virtues to critical thinking, what critical thinking means is itself open to debate. This paper, as a part of a larger qualitative study on critical thinking practice in a Vietnamese EFL context, presents the findings about how Vietnamese EFL teachers and students in a university interpreted critical thinking. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight teachers and 22 students in a Vietnamese tertiary EFL context to seek their understandings of critical thinking. A majority of the interviews (28) were conducted in Vietnamese, then transcribed in their entirety, and translated into English. Thematic analysis was used to make sense of the data. The participating teachers and students defined critical thinking as involving cognitive skills (e.g., analysing, synthesising, evaluating) and affective dispositions (e.g., inquisitiveness, open-mindedness). Their understandings were found to be limited to the first two domains of criticality in Barnett’s (1997) framework. That is, they understood critical thinking mainly within the domains of “knowledge”, less in “self”, barely at all in the domain of the “world”. The findings further revealed three characteristics distinctive in the participants’ conceptions of critical thinking: (i) expressing personal opinions as an indication of critical thinking, (ii) right/wrong dichotomy as the aim of critical thinking, and (iii) others’ rather than one’s own opinions or arguments as the subject of criticism. The findings imply that the participating teachers and students appeared to have quite a rudimentary grasp of critical thinking and that their understandings were influenced to some extent by the Vietnamese culture of teaching and learning, which has some implications for the application of critical thinking in an EFL context.

Summary. The article is devoted to the consideration of ideological transformations of worldview knowledge, directly related to the functioning of the public imagination and the formation of both group and individual identity. The comprehension of socio-cultural dynamics related to the situation of post-truth and the implementation of guidelines, strategies, techniques, practices and methodologies of critical thinking in the field of education are also considered. The aim of the article is to consider the phenomenon of post-truth in the modern information field in relation to the concept of critical thinking and their explications in the social institution of education. The main attention is paid to the philosophical understanding of these phenomena in the context of philosophical and anthropological measurement of trends in the socio-communicative sphere of human existence. Methodological principles are the philosophy of information, the development of the paradigm of transhumanism, the search for modern world theory and practice, social philosophy. The article considers the essential preconditions and consequences for the humanitarian sphere in general and education in particular the current state of affairs with insufficient philosophical articulation of the concepts of post-truth and critical thinking. Scientific novelty. The article proves the ambivalent nature of the correlation between the phenomenon of post-truth and the concept of critical thinking on the occasion of the social institution of education and the sphere of social imagination. Conclusions. Critical thinking, based solely on skepticism, has been found to function as a precondition and a meaning-destroying element of post-truth as a theoretical construct and cognitive mechanism. The threat of dehumanization of the problem field of modern humanities outside the actualization of symbolic and axiological bases of human identity, which is relevant for both scientific discourse and education, is emphasized. Emphasis is placed on the need for a humanistic reinterpretation of critical human thinking, expressed in its social activity, identity acquisition and self-actualization.

The cultivation of critical thinking in undergraduates is crucial for teaching in higher education. Although scholars have defined critical thinking in various ways, limited study about critical thinking from the learner’s perspective. In this phenomenographic research, we collect essays written by 80 Chinese undergraduates with multiple disciplinary backgrounds to reveal their understandings of critical thinking. Four conceptions of critical thinking were found, namely critical thinking as query and reflection on the irrationality of things (Conception 1); an objective and comprehensive understanding of things (Conception 2); independent thinking with innovation (Conception 3), as well as a willingness and attitude (Conception 4). Further analysis in the light of the referential-structural framework helps to construct a hierarchical relationship between different conceptions, with Conception 1 the least complex and Conception 3 the most complex. While Conceptions 1–3 are skill-oriented, Conception 4 is deposition-oriented, and there is no hierarchical relationship between the two groups of conceptions. They deal with different dimensions of critical thinking. University lecturers can use these findings to help equip undergraduates with deepened conceptions of critical thinking in their daily routine teaching.

The exercise of critical thinking necessitates the utilisation of sophisticated cognitive abilities by educators. Educators hold the belief that they impart critical thinking skills to their students through intellectual stimulation, yet their pedagogical approach primarily emphasises rote memorisation and note-taking within the confines of the classroom. It is noteworthy that the conduct exhibited by educators in the classroom may be impacted by the critical thinking abilities of their students. Consequently, it is imperative to augment teachers’ understanding of critical thinking in order to enable them to proficiently instruct students in the art of critical thinking within the context of university education. Data for the study was obtained via an online questionnaire that was based on Google Form. The qualitative data was analysed using topic order. A collective of 43 educators affiliated with university institutions provided their responses. Based on our findings, it is recommended that students acquire higher-order cognitive skills through a reassessment of pedagogical approaches. Additionally, it is suggested that The exercise of critical thinking necessitates the utilisation of sophisticated cognitive abilities by educators. Educators hold the belief that they impart critical thinking skills to their students through intellectual stimulation, yet their pedagogical approach primarily emphasises rote memorisation and note-taking within the confines of the classroom. It is noteworthy that the conduct exhibited by educators in the classroom may be impacted by the critical thinking abilities of their students. Consequently, it is imperative to augment teachers’ understanding of critical thinking in order to enable them to proficiently instruct students in the art of critical thinking within the context of university education. Data for the study was obtained via an online questionnaire that was based on Google Form. The qualitative data was analysed using topic order. A collective of 43 educators affiliated with university institutions provided their responses. Based on our findings, it is recommended that students acquire higher-order cognitive skills through a reassessment of pedagogical approaches. Additionally, it is suggested thatThe exercise of critical thinking necessitates the utilisation of sophisticated cognitive abilities by educators. Educators hold the belief that they impart critical thinking skills to their students through intellectual stimulation, yet their pedagogical approach primarily emphasises rote memorisation and note-taking within the confines of the classroom. It is noteworthy that the conduct exhibited by educators in the classroom may be impacted by the critical thinking abilities of their students. Consequently, it is imperative to augment teachers’ understanding of critical thinking in order to enable them to proficiently instruct students in the art of critical thinking within the context of university education. Data for the study was obtained via an online questionnaire that was based on Google Form. The qualitative data was analysed using topic order. A collective of 43 educators affiliated with university institutions provided their responses. Based on our findings, it is recommended that students acquire higher-order cognitive skills through a reassessment of pedagogical approaches. Additionally, it is suggested that higher education curricula be updated to incorporate activities, whether within or outside of the curriculum, that focus on the development of critical thinking skills. Failure to grasp fundamental learning concepts such as analysis, synthesis, creativity and thinking may have implications for a student’s future endeavours.

Development and psychometric testing of the Carter Assessment of Critical Thinking in Midwifery (Preceptor/Mentor version)

Nurturing critical thinking skills in the classroom is considered an important educational activity. It is believed that critical thinking skills are transferable and that they can be applied in practice when appraising, evaluating and implementing research. That more nurses than ever before have been judged academically knowledgeable in research has not guaranteed the transfer of such knowledge to practice. This paper discusses some of the reasons for the failure to narrow the gap between research and practice. In particular we argue that, if nurses are encouraged to develop creative and generative thinking alongside their critical thinking skills, then the art of nursing will have fuller representation in education, research and practice. The successful development of critical thinking skills for academic purposes does not necessarily mean that these skills are used in practice in relation either to research or clinical decision-making. This suggests that the transferability of critical thinking skills is less than straightforward. Indeed, there has been little narrowing of the research-practice gap since students started to learn critical thinking for academic purposes. However, we propose that thinking skills can be encouraged in the context of practice and that regular educational events, such as journal clubs, can contribute to developing critical thinking in the practice environment. The research-practice gap will reduce only if research becomes part of practitioners' ideology, which includes the art and science of nursing. Critical and creative thinking are prerequisites to narrowing the disjuncture between research and practice, and we suggest that educators and practitioners explore structured ways of meeting together to appraise literature as a possible means of making use of their thinking and knowledge in clinical practice.

Critical thinking has received much attention among educators yet remains largely undeveloped in traditional teacher-centered classrooms. A study was conducted to: (1) obtain a sense of what secondary school teachers believe critical thinking entails; (2) compare and contrast British Columbia (BC), Canada, and Japanese secondary teachers' conceptions of critical thinking; (3) investigate the nature of BC and Japanese secondary teachers' conceptions of critical thinking with respect to gender, age, teaching experience, and subject taught; and (4) determine whether critical thinking is a significant part of BC and Japanese teaching and the curriculum at the secondary level. Over 150 teachers from BC and Japan were asked to: (1) sort through 50 potential definers denoting possible attributes of critical thinking; (2) rank the 10 most significant; and (3) answer a questionnaire about the nature of critical thinking. Quantitative data, reduced through factor analysis, yielded a 5-factor solution: Scientific Reasoning, Cognitive Strategizing, Conscientious Judgments, Relevance, and Intellectual Engagement. From a synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data from teachers surveyed as well as expert opinion, critical thinking was found to be a process in which an individual is actively engaged in analyzing, reasoning, questioning, and searching for alternatives to solve a problem or to make a decision or judgment. While over half the teachers indicated critical thinking was part of their curriculum and teaching, many were unable to articulate how to teach it effectively, and there were significant differences in their conceptions of critical thinking. (Contains 7 figures, 11 tables, and 83 references. Teacher questionnaires in English and Japanese, critical thinking definers spreadsheet, and related component matrix of 50 definers are appended.) (Author/BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF CRITICAL THINKING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND JAPAN: A Comparative Study

Over the past years, fostering critical thinking abilities has become one of the priorities in education in China. So far, much research has been conducted to explore how to resort to Western critical thinking methods to cultivate critical thinking abilities among Chinese students. Meanwhile, among much research in incorporating Confucian educational thought into current English teaching in China, little research has been done to explore the possibility of rendering Confucian conception of critical thinking to this endeavor. This paper argues that Confucian conception of critical thinking possesses similar complementary components to those of the Western conception of critical thinking. Through literature review and text analysis, this paper reviews the Confucian conception of critical thinking and the socio-cultural background that impact its development. Reflection on a case study and field observation shows that Confucian “enlightening approach” works effectively in today’s effort in critical thinking cultivation in English teaching; Confucius’ description of five-phase comprehensive learning process could be materialized in English teaching to progress from lower level learning (knowledge, comprehension, application) towards higher level learning (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation); Confucian conception of critical thinking, described as “contextual critique’ by some Western scholar, could complement Western critical thinking in a positive way. The paper suggests in-depth research in constructing the theoretical framework for the Confucian conception of critical thinking, investigation of other approaches to foster critical thinking abilities besides the “enlightening approach,” and thorough studies of current empirical research on critical thinking in TEFL in China so as to see how they can be applied in materializing Confucian conception of critical thinking.

Originally a philosophical preoccupation intensively practiced since classical antiquity, critical thinking is now a fundamental aim of formal education and the exploration of its connections with information literacy represents today a well established topic of research in educational sciences. This paper briefly contrasts the philosophical with the educational understanding of critical thinking, provides an overview of the social context which gave prominence to critical thinking in the sphere of education and describes the competencies associated with information literacy. The main features of the concept of critical thinking are established by conducting a comparative analysis of various definitions for critical thinking elaborated by renowned authors, including John Dewey’s account of reflective thinking and Benjamin S. Bloom’s description of analysis, synthesis and evaluation as educational goals, as well as of opinions on critical thinking held by academics belonging to different fields of study. Also, the online search in an educational environment is discussed from the perspective of the so called “pathologies of information”, whose most severe forms are depicted, and a set of criteria for conducting high quality online search for educational purposes is presented. The interplay between the resulting definition of critical thinking and excellence in online search as an educational instrument is explored and suggestions for using critical thinking in this area are advanced. The paper concludes that critical thinking significantly contributes to conducting high quality online search in educational contexts and also that, at a more general level, proficiency in critical thinking is indispensable for acquiring the competences pertaining to information literacy.

Critical thinking (CT) is widely recognised as a key competency in education for sustainable development (ESD). However, international research shows that many teachers feel unprepared to teach CT, especially within the ESD context. Despite its importance, few studies have explored how CT is actually practiced in ESD, particularly in primary and secondary education. This article presents a systematic literature review of 43 qualitative studies published between 1990 and 2021, following the PRISMA guidelines. This review aimed to (1) synthesise research on teachers’ understanding of CT in ESD and (2) identify teaching practices where CT is integrated into ESD. The findings reveal that the concept of CT is frequently used but is not clearly understood in the context of ESD. Most studies focused on critical rationality (skills), with fewer addressing critical character (dispositions), critical actions, critical virtue, critical consciousness, or critical pedagogy. This review highlights a need for broader engagement with these dimensions in order to foster ethically aware and responsible citizens. We argue for teaching approaches that involve students in interdisciplinary, real-world problems requiring not only critical reasoning but also action, reflection, and ethical judgment.