Capacity For Critical Thinking Research Articles

Gendered citizenship and the individualization of environmental responsibility: evaluating a campus common reading program

Campus common reading programs are intended to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue across disciplines yet scarce evidence exists to evaluate the success of such programs. We assess the extent to which engagement in an environmentally-themed common reading program is related to (1) concern for waste-related issues, (2) beliefs that addressing waste is an individual responsibility, and (3) individual behaviors intended to reduce personal waste. Results are drawn from a sample of undergraduate students (n = 398) with varying levels of engagement in the common reading program. Students who participated in the common reading program have higher levels of concern for waste than those who did not, are more likely to locate responsibility for addressing the problem of waste on the individual, and self-report higher frequency of engagement in individual efforts to reduce waste. We conclude with recommendations for further developing the critical thinking capacity of campus common reading programs.

Impact of Higher Learning Institutions in Provision of Quality Socio-Economic Development in Tanzania

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of Higher Learning Institions (HLIs) in provision of quality socio-economic development in Tanzania. In the new knowledge economy, the main roles of HLIs are: to provide high level manpower needs of the society, provide new knowledge and diffusing it into the national economy, provide services to the community and provide employment to the community. In reality, however, not much of the above mentioned roles has been done. If higher education is to become the drivers of high productivity, competition and socio-economic development, the following factors need to be taken on board: First, there is a need to re-think and to re-define the purpose of establishing the higher education to match with the local needs. Second, there is a need to prepare students for the future by building capacity for curiousity, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and imagination. Finally, the curriculum of the higher education must be liberated from the tyranny of the course book and content. Teaching and learning must be thematic, driven by experimentation, discovery and problem-solving based approaches. Keywords: Higher learning institutions, quality, outputs/outcomes, inputs-output model, socio economic development, Tanzania

Beyond MereConjectures: Young’s Method of Original Composition

Frequently quoted in the context of contemporary philosophical reflections on ‘artistic creativity’, Edward Young’s Conjectures on Original Composition (1759) are generally read as articulating an anti‐traditionalist account of genius. Against this reading, I argue that Young does not reject the value of traditional models and conventions, but rather means to insist on the artist’s capacity to determine such values through her natural capacity for autonomous critical thinking. I support this claim by showing how he draws from Neo‐Platonism and the experimental philosophy of Francis Bacon in order to develop what has all the appearances of a method of original composition. In the last lines of the paper, I suggest that this method may have heuristic value for the understanding of artworks as ‘artistic creations’ in the context of contemporary institutional theories of art.

Investigating Chrematistics in Marketing Systems

Contributing to the analytical capacity of critical thinking in macromarketing, we develop a research framework that would enable researchers to investigate chrematistics in marketing systems. Chrematistics refers to regulative influences on marketing systems’ structure and operations of market action perpetuated by actors with power/dominance. We outline the research framework consisting of a seven-step process that helps to scrutinize the transformative effect of chrematistic practices on the design and regulation of marketing systems.

Management by Textbook

Critical thinking is widely regarded as a crucial capability for competent management and also for any leadership role in society. In this article, we ask, “How do textbooks play a role in the weakness of many management graduates’ critical thinking skills?” Management teachers can find plentiful advice about best teaching practices, yet the critical skills gap remains. We argue that the nature and use of management textbooks intersect and interact with students’ epistemology to support a culture of surface learning, resulting in a failure to develop critical thinking skills. Textbooks reinforce underdeveloped student epistemology through limitations of content and position students as passive recipients of an authoritative version of oversimplified knowledge. In our survey of 30 successful management textbooks, we found the majority of popular management textbooks potentially inhibit, or only weakly support, the development of students’ capacity for critical thinking. The article concludes with suggestions for improving textbooks and textbook choice or considering alternatives.

Clinical thinking in psychiatry.

I discuss the lack of precision in the term 'clinical reasoning' and its relationship to evidence-based medicine and critical thinking. I examine critical thinking skills, their underemphasis in medical education and successful attempts to remediate them. Evidence-based medicine (and evidence-based psychiatry) offer much but are hampered by the ubiquity and flaws of meta-analysis. I explore views of evidence-based medicine among psychiatry residents, as well as capacity for critical thinking in residents before and after a course in philosophy. I discuss decision making by experienced doctors and suggest possible futures of this issue.

Critical thinking, social education and the curriculum: foregrounding a social and relational epistemology

In this article, I examine the extent to which, given how critical thinking has been most commonly conceptualised and taught in schools, the subject indeed develops modes of thinking, relating and reasoning that allow individuals to collectively work towards the appreciation and solution of social problems. In the first section, I outline a number of perspectives among social studies researchers and educators that demonstrate the importance of developing critical thinking capacities in students. This is followed by, in the next section, a close examination of two widely popular approaches through which critical thinking is taught – one in the general school curriculum and the other within social studies lessons. I argue that in their current forms and for a number of reasons these understandings of critical thinking fall short of developing the social and relational dimensions of thinking that are more than a little necessary in fulfilling the raison d'etre of the subject. Towards this end, the final section presents a social epistemological framework for the teaching of critical thinking in the school curriculum, highlights a number of principles of its application and provides some examples of its use in classrooms.

Understanding Students as Followers: Discovering the Influence of Followership Style on Self-Directed Learning

The leader has typically been the myopic center of studies involving leadership on the collegiate level. However, that does not give a holistic picture of leadership as a phenomenon. Understanding the relational, influential, and often-reciprocal roles of followers, known as followership, is essential in reaching organizational goals. Understanding the relationship between followership and learning will aid the leader in creating effective followers. The purpose of this study was to assess undergraduate students’ levels of followership and selfdirected learning in agricultural leadership courses at Texas A&M University. Of the respondents (n = 166), followership styles indicated students were more engaged, but less likely to be critical thinkers and the less self-directed students were more likely to be dependent followers with less critical thinking capacity. Faculty who not only understand their students as learners and followers but utilize strategies to improve their students’ learning can produce followers who will have a positive impact on agricultural organizations.

Safe Spaces, Difficult Dialogues, and Critical Thinking

In this essay we explore a participation paradox associated with high-order learning. The greater the complexity and emotionality of the material, the more dangerous it becomes to participate in classroom discussions. We discuss the tensions involved with trying to balance building “safe spaces” and critical thinking capacity and examine those “moments of difficulty” when comfort and evaluation collide. Baxter Magolda’s four strategies that promote holistic learning are used to analyze the results from a focus group of ten graduating seniors. Results are discussed in the context of strategies to enhance student learning through the implementation of safe spaces that enhance critical thinking.

IPM-FFS Institutionalization In Nepal: A Case Study

FFS is a form of adult education based on the philosophy of experiential learning method aimed at building farmers’ expertise and capacity of analysis, critical thinking and decision-making. The objective of this paper is to assess the institutionalization status of IPM-FFS at the local level. The study is a case study and qualitative in nature. The research was conducted in Kathmandu and Tanahun districts. Hundred farmers from ten FFS, five in each of the district, were interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire. The result showed a seventy-five percent majority of FFS-graduates not having understanding and capacity of conducting experimental learning session in their own initiative. Additionally a majority of sixty percent did not use the knowledge learnt from the FFS learning session. Nevertheless, majority of the graduates acquired a lot of awareness about harmful effects of pesticides to human health, animal and environment. Likewise, eighty percent of the IPM-FFS groups did not repeat learning activities at the local level. Their majority did not share learnt skill to the non-participant farmers for its horizontal dissemination, and have a sense of ownership that empowered them to sustain the process at local level. All exhibited that IPM-FFS approach has not been institutionalized adequately for environment friendly promotion of cultivation. The Journal of Agriculture and Environment Vol:13, Jun.2012, Page 20-26 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/aej.v13i0.7583

Disenchantment and the Liberal Arts


 This paper is an enquiry into the unpredictability of the liberally educated mind. We are all familiar with the value placed on the word critical when it figures prominently in justifications for liberal arts pedagogy, as in “a liberal arts education should foster the capacity for critical thinking.” However, depending on the milieu in which “critical thinking” is habituated, the meaning of the term may degrade into a theoretical conformity and passive assent to established routines which are inevitably expressions of disapproval. This trajectory is described as disenchantment. Its origins are traced to representations of the intellectual as a distinctly secular creature and, in contemporary philosophical developments, associated with political liberalism—both of which, it is argued, are dominated by fear. Drawing on the recent Catholic “Communio” theology of David Schindler as a way to unveil the repressed theologies and hidden ontologies of liberal neutrality, the paper concludes with a brief examination of liberal arts scholarship that is increasingly open to various models of enchantment.
 
 
 
 
 

A study of the development of critical thinking skills using an innovative web 2.0 tool

Healthcare educators face numerous challenges including technological change, information overload, and the need to maintain clinical expertise and research knowledge across multiple specialities. Students also need to develop their capacity for critical thinking, using and discriminating between diverse sources of knowledge in order to advance their own practice. To investigate student perceptions of the affordances of a novel web 2.0-based tool--the Web Resource Appraisal Process (WRAP), designed to support the development of critical thinking skills, and to identify how student's understanding of critical thinking and their use of web 2.0 resources might inform the cross-disciplinary development of the WRAP. A two phase, action research study of student perceptions of the WRAP and their ability to source and identify valid information sources. Implemented at the University of South Australia, development of the WRAP is an international project with the University of Westminster, UK. Students from international locations participated in the project. A mixed methods approach was adopted involving a two phase action research study. In phase one, student perceptions of the WRAP were obtained using a modified course feedback questionnaire. This informed the development of a subsequent questionnaire used to survey student perceptions of their usage of online resources, the ease of access of such resources and their approaches to determining their validity. Results suggest that students mainly use traditional resources when preparing work for assessment and they either do not understand the concept of, or do not exercise, critical thinking skills in such activities. However, the feedback from students using the WRAP, demonstrated that they found it instructive and useful. To ensure that practice developments are based on authoritative evidence, students need to develop critical thinking skills which may be facilitated by tools such as the WRAP.

Implicações do processo de Acreditação Hospitalar no cotidiano de profissionais de saúde

A fim de alcançar os mais elevados padrões assistenciais, são adotadas iniciativas voltadas para o processo de Acreditação Hospitalar, as quais impõem mudanças comportamentais, mobilização dos profissionais em busca de metas e objetivos propostos, além da melhoria permanente e contínua do atendimento prestado. Trata-se de um estudo de caso de natureza qualitativa que teve como objetivo analisar as implicações do processo de Acreditação Hospitalar no cotidiano de profissionais de saúde de um hospital privado em Belo Horizonte. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram 34 profissionais de saúde, alocados em diferentes setores do hospital. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas e analisados por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Observou-se que o processo de Acreditação se configura como uma possibilidade de crescimento e de desenvolvimento da capacidade crítica dos atores envolvidos. Contudo, as exigências impostas por este processo desencadeiam stress profissional e sobrecarga de trabalho.

Enhancement of Critical Thinking: Case Study of Kazguu (Kazakhstan)

Critical thinking skills are undoubtedly considered today as an important outcome of higher education, they are viewed as essential abilities that need to be germinated and developed in order to train a qualified specialist. This paper throws some light on the current teaching approaches applied in General Linguistics and Translation Studies Department (KAZGUU, Kazakhstan) aimed to improve language students’ critical thinking capacity. One of such approaches described in the article is interactive home reading class specially designed for students learning English as a foreign language. Home reading classes are not merely designed for students predominantly perceiving world verbally while reading, but can be easily changed in such classes that can satisfy requirements and preferences of students having dominant interpersonal intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, existential intelligence, special intelligence. All this is achievable due to, firstly, interactive teaching methods when students can cooperate whether in class or out of it, mingle in the class, and secondly, thanks to new technologies making lessons more vivid and exciting. Films give students an opportunity to observe the details they missed in the narration while reading, to get film director’s point of view on the issues described in the text, as films are also considered as a form of text interpretation. The given research was carried out with the help of such methods as sociological survey among students, statistical analysis, observation and descriptive method. Overall, the information is presented in the form of reflection on present situation in the department and personal teaching experience.

Critical thinking in a first year management unit: the relationship between disciplinary learning, academic literacy and learning progression

While there appears to be broad acceptance that university graduates must have the capacity to think critically in an increasingly complex, information‐rich world, there remains a gap between aspiration and teaching practice in many faculties. We examine this issue through our experience of designing assessment to develop critical thinking in a first year management unit. This case highlighted three important pedagogical considerations. First, there is the need to articulate a conceptualisation of critical thinking that is both discipline‐ and unit‐specific. Second, there is a need to consider the crucial link between critical thinking and academic literacy. Third, there is a need to consider the relationship between the capacity for critical thinking, student learning progression and the development of disciplinary knowledge. These factors will all assist higher education teachers in meeting the challenge of designing developmentally appropriate assessment of critical thinking at each year level.

Outdoor education and the national curriculum in Australia

Australia is in the midst of an education revolution driven by federal government reform. The centrepiece to that reform is a national curriculum that will wrest power from state education authorities and ultimately see a nationalised education process that determines what is taught and learned in all Australian schools. At present, outdoor education is not a subject in all state curricula and so stands to be disempowered by the channelling of resources into a national agenda. In this paper I describe the strategic directions taken by Outdoor Education Australia in an attempt to position outdoor education as a subject with distinctive contributions to make to a national curriculum in Australia. The national curriculum submission was framed around the distinctiveness of outdoor education in promoting a connection to nature, a capacity for critical thinking about human nature relationships leading to ecological literacy and the importance of teaching young Australians how to assess and manage personal risks. It acknowledged also the role of outdoor education in personal and group development, while accepting such outcomes were not unique in schooling. The veracity of the claims made is contestable and highlights the need for ongoing research that is both targeted and co-ordinated. This paper also invites response to the question of whether a professional consensus on the distinctiveness of outdoor education in schooling is a worthy goal.

STRUCTURING MULTIDISCIPLINARY BIOLOGY COURSES ‐ A case study: Cellular Microbiology

Biology curricula have been traditionally based on disciplinary approach to instructional topics like biochemistry, cell biology, immunology, microbiology, etc. However, biological sciences knowledge is revised with an increasingly rapid rate due to multidisciplinary approaches in research, which involves concepts from many fields of biology. This necessitates implementation of multidisciplinary biology courses for preparing students. To address this need, we incorporated an upper‐level elective course, Cellular Microbiology that integrates topics from a number of biology disciplines. The course complements the scientific knowledge and principles established in eukaryotic cell biology, molecular microbiology, immunology, microbial genomics and proteomics. The course topics establish a framework for reviewing fundamental biological mechanisms and processes with relevance to research along with appropriate relevance to clinical applications involving medical microbiology, parasitology and infectious disease control. The course provides an opportunity for learning outside the disciplinary thinking and recruits students’ interest in areas where they develop capacity for critical thinking and problem‐solving. Multidisciplinary biology courses like Cellular Microbiology are essential to achieving greater synergy and efficiency in the continuum of biomedical education.

A Modern Technology in the Leadership Classroom: Using B logs for Critical Thinking Development

Web-based resources are increasing both in number and conventionality. In particular, blogs have become a popular method for self-expression. Educators have been encouraged to utilize blogs in the classroom. This paper presents a model for effectively using blogs in the leadership classroom to enhance critical thinking capacity and provide leadership students with more effective reflection opportunities.

Enhancement of critical thinking in curriculum design and delivery: A randomized controlled trial for educators

Critical thinking is an important outcome criterion of higher education in any discipline including nursing. If nursing programs envisaged preparing graduates who are equipped with critical thinking, then the educators who plan and deliver the programs must exhibit higher level thinking in their teaching practices. This paper presents finding of the 1st phase of a National level research study that aims to assess, develop and enhance educators’ critical thinking capacity.

Creating Pathways to College for Migrant Students: Assessing a Migrant Outreach Program

Migrant students are among the most disadvantaged of any groups in the United States, yet little is understood about factors that facilitate their college access. College access outreach programs rarely collect data on whether and where their students go to college. This longitudinal study tracked the college-going behaviors of migrant students who participated in the Migrant Student Leadership Institute (MSLI), a program whose goals include increasing migrant students' 4-year college access. The program emphasizes developing students' capacity for critical thinking about sociopolitical conditions, as well as their academic preparation for, and knowledge about, college. Results from analyses using an equivalent comparison group suggest that the program positively affected participants' application rates to, and enrollment rates in, more selective California public higher education institutions, including campuses of the University of California (UC) system. This article addresses factors that potentially accounted for these outcomes.