Capacity For Critical Thinking Research Articles

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This article has an objective to develop the capacity of critical thinking in dealing with cyberbullying. It addresses a population composed of high school students (2nd grade) from a private school, taking into account the following case studies dimensions: analysis of information, inferences and implications, alternatives of solutions and position of argument. Through the application called “Critical thinking test” relevant information for the study can be collected. Furthermore, the intervention program involves the participation of affected students, aggressors and observers as well as parents, teachers and educational agents.

Critical thinking perspectives of undergraduate students: How they think about climate change impacts on global food security and hunger

Today’s learners need support in not only developing capacity for a global mindset, but also for thinking critically about the world. Employers are seeking graduates who can enter the workforce prepared to work within agriculture with the ability to understand its complexities. Higher education institutions have been called upon to provide this to students and faculty are often charged with this responsibility. However, faculty are often unprepared to provide this level of instruction and need support in order to foster this in the classroom. Student participants in this study were exposed to scenarios, which are a tool used to provide multiple perspectives and outcomes to real-life scenarios. Faculty used the scenarios to complement course instruction with respect to the impacts of climate change on food security and hunger. Using Facione’s (1990) framework for critical thinking skill, statements submitted by students both prior to the scenario and post were analyzed. It was found that while students demonstrated critical thinking in both the pre and post, the post statements were much richer, in-depth, and thoughtful in how critical thinking was demonstrated. This showed that faculty support, combined with innovative teaching methods, like scenarios, will encourage students’ building of capacity for critical thinking.

The Correlation between Metacognitive Skills and Critical Thinking Skills at the Implementation of Four Different Learning Strategies in Animal Physiology Lectures

<p style="text-align:justify">The empowerment of metacognitive skills has an important role in increasing the capacity of critical thinking and active control of students' cognitive processes in learning. Metacognitive skills can be enhanced through the implementation of learning strategies involving higher-order thinking. The RQA, ADI, RQA integrated with ADI are constructivistic learning strategies that can accommodate these skills. The researches specifically examining the correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills at the implementation of RQA, ADI, and RQA integrated with ADI learning strategies are still rarely found. This research is a correlational research, aiming at revealing the correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills. The data of metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills are collected by using a valid and reliable essay test. The samples of this research are the fourth semester (IV) biology education students programming Animal Physiology course in the 2016/2017 academic year consisting of 109 students. The results of this research show that (1) there was a significant correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills at the implementation of the four learning strategies, (2) the regression equations analyzed using Anova obtain regression lines (not coincide), and non parallel regression lines (intersected); meaning that there is a difference in the increase rate and magnitude of the critical thinking skills influenced by the four learning strategies. It is expected that the teachers and the lecturers always strive to improve the quality of the learning process through the implementation of active and constructive learning strategies.</p>

Supporting Twenty-First Century Competencies Using Robots and Digital Storytelling

Design thinking is a collaborative problem-solving approach that fosters innovation and communication by enhancing learners’ creative thinking abilities. This article discusses the use of domains identified by the Framework for 21st Century Learning (P21 Framework) to conduct a qualitative, exploratory case study to identify design thinking attributes perceived to be instrumental in building students’ capacity for communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity using robots and digital storytelling. The purpose of this study was to understand how students perceive the use of robots to help them build these 21st century competencies and to help identify practical implementation strategies for teachers interested in using robots to support 21st century skills. Sixteen students in a three-week summer camp were grouped and used Sphero Bot robots to design and build an interactive story using the robots as characters. Data collected included classroom observations, student reflections, and student-created artifacts. The P21 Framework recognizes three domains related to design thinking, identified as major contributors to authentic learning, adaptive critical thinking, and new media literacies. This case study addresses two domains relevant to using robotics and digital storytelling within this bounded case, (a) learning and innovation skills and (b) information, media, and technology literacy skills. Five student competencies within these two domains provided the conceptual framework used as a foundation to facilitate reliability of this research. The results of the current study indicate that using robots in this manner to build an interactive story sparked engagement in coding and digital storytelling, offered an authentic context applying design thinking to build 21st century competencies, and encouraged participants to further explore their newly developed skills.

Critical Thinking as a Qualified Decision Making Tool

AbstractDecision making is a process that we unintentionally apply hundreds of times a day. While the decision-making process for important decisions requires more time-consuming thinking, it can take place instantaneously and spontaneously in situations that have already occurred or where the outcome is not significant. Since decisions are important in human life, it is obvious that the way to make better decisions is to think better and therefore individuals can benefit significantly from having critical thinking skills. In this study, the concepts of decision-making and critical thinking are examined separately to determine the bond and importance between them. The study has a qualitative research feature and a comprehensive literature review and examination have been made. The information obtained as a result of the study conducted within the scope of qualitative research showed that critical thinking is an important requirement for individuals to make better decisions, while various decision-making techniques also contribute positively to the quality of critical thinking of individuals. It is very important for individuals who want to make more successful decisions both in their personal and professional lives, in order to improve their critical thinking capacities and to benefit from decision techniques in making high importance decisions. For today's and tomorrow's executives who influence the lives of countless people with their decisions, developing critical thinking skills will be an approach that requires determination and commitment as an indication of their respect for their professions.

COMUNICAZIONE SCIENTIFICA IN UNA SOCIETÀ DEMOCRATICA: ASPETTI ETICI

Much of the communication and scientific dissemination is pedagogically ineffective, even that apparently most successful. Names like Hawking, Penrose and, more recently, Rovelli have achieved extraordinary public success. There have been many Science Festivals and Researcher's Nights. However, serious statistical surveys show that the increased level of scientific literacy produces contradictory and paradoxical effects. What really is missing is the capacity for critical thinking. The problem is not only scientific, sociological and psychological but also ethical. Many popularizers do not tell the truth or they do not say it all. When this happens, communication, conveying a distorted image of science, can become harmful. To remedy is not only important for science, it is important for democracy.

COMUNICAZIONE SCIENTIFICA IN UNA SOCIETÀ DEMOCRATICA: ASPETTI ETICI

Much of the communication and scientific dissemination is pedagogically ineffective, even that apparently most successful. Names like Hawking, Penrose and, more recently, Rovelli have achieved extraordinary public success. There have been many Science Festivals and Researcher's Nights. However, serious statistical surveys show that the increased level of scientific literacy produces contradictory and paradoxical effects. What really is missing is the capacity for critical thinking. The problem is not only scientific, sociological and psychological but also ethical. Many popularizers do not tell the truth or they do not say it all. When this happens, communication, conveying a distorted image of science, can become harmful. To remedy is not only important for science, it is important for democracy.

Ethics education in prison: a pilot study on an ethics programme for offenders

Education is a fundamental process of human life with ethics having an important place in all areas of our life. It is thus important to incorporate ethics into education as a subject (Gulcon Procedia-Social and Behavioural Science 174: 2622–2625, 2014). Reports have indicated in how “teaching philosophy can enhance people’s capacity for critical (rather than emotional) thinking, encourage critical engagements with ideas of self, and improve interpersonal skills, with these being important transferable skills that could help prisoners to prosper once released” (Reported by The University of Edinburg n.d.). This is in line with the South African prison system’s mandate, which is to maintain and promote a just, peaceful and safe society by correcting offending behaviour in a safe, secure and human environment, thus facilitating optimal rehabilitation and reduced repeat offending (Department of Correctional Services 2017). Therefore, for the system to fulfil some of its mandate; ethics education in prison for the purpose of rehabilitating offender’s moral thinking and reasoning in order to correct their behaviour before being released is vital. Ethics training was done at the Johannesburg Correctional Service, with a maximum of 40 voluntary participants (who self-selected themselves to take the training). Training was dived into three categories: 1. Tutorials. 2. Practical application of moral values of Ubuntu. 3. Discussion and debating another set of moral values as well as writing of assignments. Participants reported to have gained and learned to respect themselves as well as others (in their immediate community- prison and society at large), identify their faults (crimes they committed) and gained self-confidence. Application of this method in ethics education proved to be well received by the participants, as well as how ethics training in prison might be used as an effective tool for moral development and reasoning, thereby rehabilitation.

Teaching Note—Taking Social Work Undergraduates Inside: The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program

ABSTRACTThe Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an experiential learning program that involves teaching college courses inside correctional facilitates to classes that include incarcerated and nonincarcerated students. This teaching note describes the program and argues that its congruence with social work values makes it a valuable tool for preparing students to take on social justice work. The impact of the program’s pedagogy and structure on students’ and faculty’s capacity for critical thinking and self-reflection is described. Logistical issues to consider in developing programs are discussed.

The Appraisal of the Teacher’s Talk to Enhance Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through Narrative Text in Design Thinking Pedagogy

Design thinking has become a new trend at schools in different countries. There are many educators who are eager to adopt Design thinking as an effective strategy for helping their students to learn through solving real-world problems. For Indonesian context, Design Thinking provides a new innovative ground of teaching English in EFL setting. Teachers engage the students in collaborative problem solving, creative challenge, and foster social –emotional balance and stability. The paper portrays how the teacher conducts learning activities in the Empathy stage of Design Thinking to build students’ critical literacy from the start. The attitude domain of the appraisal theory is used to disclose the way of the teacher to guide the students to express their emotional reaction toward the story, to assess the behavior of the characters and construe the value of things in the text.The classroom discourse analysis shows that the teacher’s talk by employing the attitude resources plays important role in supporting the students to develop their critical thinking capacity and build their narrative’s content knowledge.The result of the study is expected to enrich the reference of appraisal discourse analysis theory and provide the example of the teaching practice for enhancing students’ critical thinking capacity in Narrative learning through Design Thinking pedagogy.

The Politics of Repressed Guilt: The Tragedy of Austrian Silence by Claudia Leeb

Reviewed by: The Politics of Repressed Guilt: The Tragedy of Austrian Silence by Claudia Leeb Catrina Hoppes Claudia Leeb, The Politics of Repressed Guilt: The Tragedy of Austrian Silence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2018. 248 pp. What form of guilt for the crimes of the Third Reich concerns Austria? Can political guilt be passed down through the generations? How should Austrians engage productively with collective and individual feelings of guilt? These and other questions have been a main focus of political discourse in Austria in the last decades. With the rise of the far right in both Europe and the United States, addressing these concerns has become all the more pressing. While many recent contributions to this ongoing memory debate perhaps all too optimistically highlight Austria's increased willingness to question its official historical narrative, Claudia Leeb sets out to define the means by which Austria's relationship to the past continues to be characterized by "immense repression" (9). Drawing mainly on early Frankfurt School critical theory and psychoanalytic theory, Leeb argues for the importance of what she terms "embodied reflective judgment." This form of judgment, which requires both critical thinking and intuitive feelings, works to negate the artificial dichotomy often drawn between the mind and the body. It is a useful corrective against defense [End Page 122] mechanisms used by guilty nations and past scholarship that devalues the role of emotions in making critical judgments. Recognizing thinking and feeling as deeply connected, Leeb claims, is essential for an authentic (and long overdue) engagement with Austria's past collusion with the Hitler regime. She demonstrates this claim convincingly in comprehensive analyses of a wide variety of sources that demonstrate that the suppression of feelings of guilt leads to a reduced capacity for critical thinking. Leeb lays the groundwork for her discussion of history, memory, and emotions with a critical analysis of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. By putting Arendt into conversation with Theodor Adorno, Leeb highlights the central differences in their conceptualizations of individual and collective guilt. In so doing, she successfully situates her notion of embodied reflective judgment within a broader theoretical context. Leeb engages more sympathetically with Adorno, finding Arendt guilty of a "one-sided focus on thinking and rationality at the expense of feeling and emotion" (2). Drawing on Adorno's concept of non-identity, Leeb introduces the "moment of the limit," a concept she previously developed in her Power and Feminist Agency in Capitalism (2017). Through the moment of the limit, or the moment agency becomes possible, Leeb insists that resistance to totalitarianism is an option. Leeb substantiates her theoretical framework with two disturbing case studies of actual Austrian Nazi perpetrators: the case of Dr. Franz Niedermoser, a psychiatrist who "euthanized" countless patients in a Klagenfurt hospital, and Dr. Wilhelm Beiglböck, a professor at the University of Vienna, who tortured and murdered Roma and Sinti inmates in the Dachau concentration camp. Leeb identifies and dismantles the defense mechanisms used by not only perpetrators in the courtroom but also lawyers and court "experts" who, in their continued use of racist constructions and Nazi euphemisms (for instance, Umsiedlungsaktion to refer to forced deportation), further obscured the extent of Austria's responsibility for the crimes of the Holocaust. Such defense mechanisms, she argues, are the result of both a lack of feeling and an inability to think critically. Perhaps most compelling in these chapters was the exploration of the highly educated classes' frequent use of defense mechanisms that rely on the presumed divide between the body and the mind. This challenges the recurring claim that it's primarily working-class individuals who are most susceptible to authoritarianism. In the final two chapters, Leeb moves beyond her discussion of individual guilt and examines the defense mechanisms that contemporary Austrians [End Page 123] make use of to avoid collective feelings of guilt. She boldly intervenes in the continuing heated (and frequently violent) debates around the staging of Thomas Bernhard's drama Heldenplatz. Challenging recent contributions to the current Heldenplatz debate that claim Austrians have successfully come to terms with their history, Leeb insists that Austria's judgments continue to be flawed and paranoid when it comes to the Nazi past...

PENERAPAN PENDEKATAN CTL UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KAPASITAS BERPIKIR KRITIS MATEMATIK PESERTADIDIK DI TINGKAT SMP

The research objective is to examine the achievement of mathematical critical thinking capacity of students applying the CTL approach with a comparison of students applying ordinary learning and examining the extent to which the increasing capacity of critical thinking in mathematics students apply the CTL approach to the comparison of students who apply ordinary learning. The study population was all junior high schools in West Bandung regency, were chosen arbitrarily and were selected by Darul Hikmah Junior High School. The sample is taken by any selected class of class 7-A as a research class, and class 7-B as a review class. The research class is given a learning model with the CTL approach, and the review class is given an ordinary learning model. The research instruments used in mathematical critical thinking capacity tests take the form of descriptions. Data processing increases the capacity of critical thinking mathematically by applying tests that distinguish two means using IBM SPSS 23 software. Data from the analysis showed that the achievement and improvement of the critical thinking capacity of the mathematics of the participants who were given the learning method using the CTL approach was better than those of the participants who were given the usual learning method.

Degree subject and orientations to civic responsibility: a comparative study of Business and Sociology students

ABSTRACT Building on existing critiques of contemporary arrangements in higher education, this paper focuses on the claim that the human capital model undermines the civic or public role of universities, restricts student engagement with learning and damages the capacity for critical thinking and empathy. Interviews with students studying either Business or Sociology at universities in Britain and Singapore reveal very different orientations to higher education, personal success and civic responsibility. Those studying Sociology emphasised the importance of developing empathy and critical thinking, and were more able to identify civic and non-economic benefits of their time at university, compared to those studying Business, who focussed on gaining individual competitive advantage and enhancing their job prospects. The paper concludes by considering the significance of these differences to argue that appealing more broadly to a fuller range of student motivations is necessary to counter wider trends of instrumentalism and individualism.

Niyazov's Ideology and its Symbolism: The Cult of the Leader, Nationalism and its Suppression of Critical Thinking

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the construction of Niyazov's regime, its ideology and symbolism. It is argued that Turkmenistan's strong emphasis on symbolism is correlated with the high degree of authoritarian rule in this state. Moreover, symbolism has been vital in the reconstruction of the two main metanarratives in Turkmenistan: Turkmen nationalism, and the cult of the leader—the Turkmenbashi. Domestically, the metanarrative of nationalism is further broken down within the tribal hierarchical division of Turkmen society, in which Turkmenbashi presents a particular tribe as the leading one. Several myths accompany the construction of the new Turkmenbashi ideology. The historical myth of Turkmen national superiority, summarized in Niyazov's code of conduct ‘Rukhnama’, features specifically. This article also suggests that a manipulative approach of absurdism was implemented in Turkmenistan by Niyazov's regime to secure acceptance of these new metanarratives and myths. Much like Orwell's ‘1984’, the regime's efforts to distort reality and history suppressed the population's capacity for critical thinking and action. As a result, people became intellectually confused and more inclined to accept the line of dictatorship and its directives. The closed foreign policy of Turkmenistan under Niyazov further contributed to the significantly deteriorated sociopolitical standing of this ex-Soviet Central Asian state.

Test of simple effect of work process-oriented theory nursing ward round on critical thinking capacity of nursing undergraduates

Objective Toexplore work process-oriented theory nursing ward round, research work process-oriented theory nursing ward round on critical thinking capacity of nursing undergraduates. Methods Totally 80 Elective nursing ward round courses of nursing undergraduates were divided into the experimental A group and the experimental b group with 40 cases in each group. The experimental A group select the beginning of 9 weeks on Until, the experimental B group select the after of 9 weeks on Until. The nursing undergraduates were assessed by CTDI-CV on first, ninth, eighteenth weeks to evaluate the effect of the two groups. Results Main effect of group factor and time factor of CTDI-CV had statistical significance (P<0.05) . There were significant interaction in the scores of CTDI-CV. Simple effect analysis demonstrated the scores of CTDI-CV in the experimental A group were higher than those of the experimental b group after the intervention (P<0.05) . Two groups of on first, ninth, eighteenth weeks measured values compared the effect of amount of FB<FA, the experimental group A intervention effect was better than in the experimental group B intervention. Conclusions For nursing undergraduates guided based on the working process of the curriculum of nursing ward round the critical thinking ability had good practice guidance, and on the start time to choose university grade three semester two on 9 weeks before commencement of nursing undergraduates promotes higher critical thinking ability. Key words: Work process-oriented; Nursing ward round; Critical thinking capacity; Nursing undergraduates

A Joint Construction Practice in an Academic Writing Course in an Indonesian University Context

This research aims to explore the students’ writing and critical thinking capacity in a joint construction practice in an academic writing course. The course applied a genre-based approach in teaching academic writing and critical thinking to first-year English as a Foreign Language students of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. A combination of explicit teaching, group discussion, and online review sessions was employed in the joint construction practice for three meetings. The source for the data collection was a jointly constructed text. The text was selected from thirty-six students who worked in groups. Every group consisted of low achievers, medium achievers, and high achievers in writing. The text was analyzed using functional grammar. The analysis shows that the students had gained a good control of the exposition genre with its linguistic features. Thematic progression and logical connectors at the text level and circumstances (adverbs) at the clause level had realized critical thinking skills and dispositions. Several grammatical mistakes and improper lexical choices were identified but did not interfere with the purpose of the text. The findings suggest that having more classroom meetings will make explicit teaching and group discussion work effectively before the students begin to write independently. Moreover, online review sessions can support the students' learning but with limitations.

Clinical simulation with dramatization: gains perceived by students and health professionals.

ABSTRACTObjective:to identify in the literature the gains health students and professionals perceive when using clinical simulation with dramatization resources. Method:integrative literature review, using the method proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). A search was undertaken in the following databases: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Web of Science, National Library of Medicine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Scientific Electronic Library Online. Results:53 studies were analyzed, which complied with the established inclusion criteria. Among the different gains obtained, satisfaction, self-confidence, knowledge, empathy, realism, reduced level of anxiety, comfort, communication, motivation, capacity for reflection and critical thinking and teamwork stand out. Conclusion:the evidence demonstrates the great possibilities to use dramatization in the context of clinical simulation, with gains in the different health areas, as well as interprofessional gains.

Scoping the meaning of ‘critical’ in mathematical thinking for Initial Teacher Education

Current strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy in New Zealand educational policy, as elsewhere, reverberates in different ways in institutions charged with children’s and adults’ learning. A common response is to locate literacy and numeracy centrally in programmes aimed at preparing children for and enhancing adult participation in 21st century life and work. These agendas overlap in preservice teacher education. Preservice teachers enter Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes as adult learners engaged in building literacy and numeracy capability for teaching across the curriculum, working with student achievement data and administrative tasks, aspects of which may also be useful in their wider lives. These activities involve making judgements that require critical thinking, another key policy focus in New Zealand and internationally for children’s and adults’ learning. This article explores meanings of ‘critical’ in the context of mathematical thinking in ITE programmes. Given that mathematically based arguments can have both helpful and harmful consequences for humanity, we propose that development in preservice teachers’ capacity for critical mathematical thinking is crucial. In these times of significant global change we advocate for development of the kind of critical mathematical thinking that facilitates teachers working actively in pursuit of a socially just and sustainable world.

EXPLORING THE TERTIARY EFL STUDENTS' ACADEMIC WRITING COMPETENCIES

For tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, academic writing is not an easy task. It requires knowledge of the academic writing genres with their particular linguistic features. Moreover, academic writing demands good critical thinking. This research aims to explore the students' academic writing competencies that also focus on critical thinking. The research involved thirty-six first-year tertiary EFL students from a regular class of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The source for data collection was the students’ texts. Three texts were selected and the students were categorized into low, medium, and high levels of writing achievement. The text analysis utilized functional grammar rooted in systemic functional linguistics (Emilia, 2014). The analysis shows that the students, regardless of their levels of writing achievement, have little control over the schematic structure and linguistic features of an argumentative writing. The text analysis also shows that the students’ texts have some limitations as regards their critical thinking capacity. Still, a few examples of academic language were detected in the texts. The findings suggest that the lecturer should incorporate explicit teaching and cooperative learning activities to alleviate the students' difficulties and develop their academic writing and critical thinking capacity.

Nursing students' clinical competencies: a survey on clinical education objectives.

Developing clearly defined competencies and identifying strategies for their measurement remain unfortunately a critical aspect of nursing training. In the current international context, which continues to be characterised by deep economic crisis, universities have a fundamental role to play in redefining the educational goals to respond to the expectations of certain geographical areas of interest, as underscored in the Bologna Process (Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of Education Convened in Bologna 19 June 1999). The aim of this observational study was to examine the clinical learning context of nursing students using a tool developed by a team of teachers for the analysis of clinical learning. Redefinition of the clinical learning objectives with reference to the competencies set out in the questionnaire validated by Venturini et al. (2012) and the subsequent use of the tool created by the team of teachers for students in the first, second and third-year courses of the 2013/14 academic year, covering all the internships called for in those years. All nursing students enrolled in the first, second and third year of the nursing undergraduate degree program at the University of Pavia (no. 471) participated in this survey. A total of 1,758 clinical internships were carried out: 461 for the first year, 471 for the second year and 826 for the third year. Setting objectives, beginning with the educational offerings in the several clinical contexts, represents a strong point for this process. The results highlight a level of heterogeneity and complexity intrinsic to the University of Pavia educational system, characterized by clinical settings with different clinical levels (Research hospital and other traditional hospitals) that offering different levels of training. The use of the self-evaluation form for clinical learning made it possible to perform real-time observations of the training activities of the entire student body. An educational model structured in this way allows the student to develop their capacity for critical thinking. For educational activities, such a self-evaluation form represents an ideal instrument for identifying areas in need of improvement. This explorative study, carried out by means of a self-evaluation form, is the first-step toward the development of an educational programme that is more uniform and easily traceable within the academic system.