Teaching Of Critical Thinking Research Articles

Teaching and learning how to make informed health choices:Protocol for a context analysis in Spanish primary schools.

Introduction The Informed Health Choices (IHC) project developed learning resources to teach primary school children (10 to 12-year-olds) to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices. The aim of our study is to explore the educational context for teaching and learning critical thinking about health in Spanish primary schools. Methods During the 2020-2021 school year, we will conduct 1) a systematic assessment of educational documents and resources, and 2) semi-structured interviews with key education and health stakeholders. In the systematic assessment of educational documents and resources, we will include state and autonomous communities' curriculums, school educational projects, and commonly used textbooks and other health teaching materials. In the semi-structured interviews, we will involve education and health policy makers, developers of learning resources, developers of health promotion and educational interventions, head teachers, teachers, families, and paediatric primary care providers. We will design and pilot a data extraction form and a semi-structured interview guide to collect the data. We will perform a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the data to explore how critical thinking about health is being taught and learned in Spanish primary schools. Conclusion We will identify opportunities for and barriers to teaching and learning critical thinking about health in Spanish primary schools. We will formulate recommendations-for both practice and research purposes-on how to use, adapt (if needed), and implement the IHC resources in this context.

Cultivating Health Policy Analysis and Communication Skills in Undergraduate Public Health Education: An Active Learning Approach

Public health programs are increasingly offering health policy content to meet workforce demand for public health professionals with health policy analysis and communication skills. Undergraduate public health education in health policy and related curriculum is lacking. Existing work describes service- and experiential learning approaches, which may not be feasible in large courses or public health programs with limited administrative or financial resources. This article describes health policy curriculum, learning objectives, and course activities (i.e., individual writing assignment, mock policy debate, and policy analysis exercise) that integrate an active learning approach and use simulation to develop policy analysis and communication skills in an undergraduate classroom setting. An active learning approach can increase teaching effectiveness, critical thinking, peer interaction, and student engagement to cultivate these applied skills. The described curriculum has been used in various modalities (in-person, hybrid, and remote) with positive reception in a public research university with a high percentage of first-generation college students. Student course evaluations and an independent assessment of the policy analysis exercise reflect high student interest, engagement, problem solving, satisfaction, perceived benefits, and application of policy analysis and communication skills, providing support for teaching health policy curriculum to undergraduate students using an active learning approach. The discussion includes strategies to address resistance by public health instructors and students to using active learning techniques.

The Effects of Subject-Based Critical Thinking Education in Mathematics on Students’ Critical Thinking Skills and Virtues

The Effects of Subject-Based Critical Thinking Education in Mathematics on Students’ Critical Thinking Skills and Virtues

Teaching critical thinking about health using digital technology in lower secondary schools in Rwanda: A qualitative context analysis

IntroductionAdolescents encounter misleading claims about health interventions that can affect their health. Young people need to develop critical thinking skills to enable them to verify health claims and make informed choices. Schools could teach these important life skills, but educators need access to suitable learning resources that are aligned with their curriculum. The overall objective of this context analysis was to explore conditions for teaching critical thinking about health interventions using digital technology to lower secondary school students in Rwanda.MethodsWe undertook a qualitative descriptive study using four methods: document review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and observations. We reviewed 29 documents related to the national curriculum and ICT conditions in secondary schools. We conducted 8 interviews and 5 focus group discussions with students, teachers, and policy makers. We observed ICT conditions and use in five schools. We analysed the data using a framework analysis approach.ResultsTwo major themes found. The first was demand for teaching critical thinking about health. The current curriculum explicitly aims to develop critical thinking competences in students. Critical thinking and health topics are taught across subjects. But understanding and teaching of critical thinking varies among teachers, and critical thinking about health is not being taught. The second theme was the current and expected ICT conditions. Most public schools have computers, projectors, and internet connectivity. However, use of ICT in teaching is limited, due in part to low computer to student ratios.ConclusionsThere is a need for learning resources to develop critical thinking skills generally and critical thinking about health specifically. Such skills could be taught within the existing curriculum using available ICT technologies. Digital resources for teaching critical thinking about health should be designed so that they can be used flexibly across subjects and easily by teachers and students.

Involvement of Critical Thinking Education in University Studies: A Qualitative Research

Involvement of Critical Thinking Education in University Studies: A Qualitative Research

The effect of critical viewing on the critical writing skills of the translation studies students

Developing translation students’ critical writing skills is an important issue in academia since they are expected to be critical thinkers and contribute to the field of study. The most important precursor of critical writing is critical reading which is an active, probing, and recursive approach to interpret and use the information and ideas from the text. Meanwhile, keeping in mind the vast explosion of mass media products and technology, critical viewing is unavoidable serving the same purpose of hard-copy texts. Moreover, in recent years, the role of literature as the main component and material of its original texts has accelerated as a teaching of critical thinking and writing rather than a final goal. This paper aims to examine the effect of critical viewing and reading of literary texts on the critical writing skills of undergraduates of the Department of Translation and Interpreting. “Ennis - Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”, designed by Ennis and Weir in 1985, was used to identify the impact of critical viewing and reading on critical writing skills. In this quasi-experimental study ANOVA, Kruskal- Wallis, and T-test were used to analyze the impact of critical viewing and reading on the critical writing skills of the 30 undergraduates.

Importance and possibilities of development of critical thinking in the university: the teacher's perspective

In our globalised, pluralistic, and often information-swamped society, critical thinking is recognised as an important competence to be developed in university education. In order to investigate this, 142 Latin American and Spanish teachers were asked about the importance of and potential for developing critical thinking in university education. Their responses were subjected to an inductive analysis, which lead to 13 categories about the reasons why it is important, and 11 categories about the potential and limitations for developing it in university education. These categories were found to remain statistically unchanged regardless of age, years of teaching experience, area of knowledge, gender and geographical area. Results show that teachers consider important to teach critical thinking at university and mainly for students to become good professionals in a complex world. Teachers believe it is possible to teach it, as long as active methodologies are used, in addition to other reasons, such as taking into account the lack of interest and preparation about critical thinking that students bring to university. Getting to know university teacher´s views about the importance and possibilities of teaching and learning critical thinking is crucial for the establishment of meaningful curriculum plans and learning activities for its development.

The Effects of Argumentation-Based Teaching Approach on Students’ Critical Thinking Disposition and Argumentation Skills: “Population in Our Country Unit”

As there are limited studies examining relationships between argumentation-based teaching approach and critical thinking and argumentation skills in social studies, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of argumentation-based teaching approach on students' critical thinking disposition and argumentation skills, and the relationship between students’ argumentation skills and critical thinking disposition. We used a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest equivalent control groups. The participants of this study were 94 seventh grade students from three different classrooms in a middle school in Erzurum district of Turkey. We utilized University of Florida Engagement, Maturity and Innovativeness Critical Thinking Disposition Instrument (UF/EMICTDI) to identify students’ critical thinking disposition and argumentation activities to document students’ argumentation skills. We used one-way ANOVA and multiple comparisons Tukey tests to analyze the data obtained via the UF/EMICTDI, correlation and regression analysis to investigate the relationships between students’ argumentation skills and critical thinking disposition. Argumentation Evaluation Rubric was used in order to evaluate the arguments that the students formed. Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between students’ pre-test critical thinking disposition scores in the experimental and control groups but there was a statistically significant difference between students’ post-test critical thinking disposition scores. Additionally, we observed that students’ argumentation skills enhanced throughout the study, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between students’ argumentation skills and critical thinking disposition, and argumentation skills variable was the predictor of critical thinking disposition. We recommend future research studies to examine the effects of the argumentation-based science learning approach on different higher-order thinking skills. Additionally, in social studies classes, similar activities employed in this study on “Population in Our Country” unit can be used in teaching different topics/units in order to improve students’ argumentation skills.

Procena kritičkog mišljenja i postignuća u nastavi stranih jezika na univerzitetskom nivou

The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between the critical thinking skills and the success rate of the English language acquisition modelled on similar research conducted in other academic settings. This paper presents an overview of previous research and conclusions on the role of critical thinking in education. The results of the quantitative study confirmed that there was a strong correlation between students' critical thinking skills and their abilities to learn foreign languages, and that better critical thinkers were far more successful in learning foreign languages. The correlation between the success rates of English language learning and the critical thinking test section devoted to deductive reasoning proved particularly significant. Further research should be done to determine the nature of this relationship as accurately as possible so that its practical application in the teaching process is of greater importance.

Exploration and Practice on the Teaching Path of Critical Thinking Ability in College English Based on Cooperative Learning Theory

Integrated English is one of the compulsory courses in colleges, and combining critical thinking cultivation with the course is an inevitable tendency. Based on Cooperative Learning Theory, this paper aims to analyze the corresponding strategies of cultivating critical thinking and its assessment approaches, so as to pave the way for effective teaching of critical thinking for Chinese university students.

The impact of critical thinking training using critical thinking cards on clinical decision-making of CCU nurses.

Introduction:Due to the complexity of the situation and rapid changes in patients' clinical status in intensive care units, it is necessary to teach decision-making skills to nurses, alongside critical thinking. The aim of this study was to evaluate critical thinking training by using critical thinking cards on clinical decision-making of nurses in cardiac care units (CCU).Methods:In this quasi-experimental study, 74 CCU nurses from the selected hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz and Dezful Universities of Medical Sciences were selected based on the inclusion criteria and were assigned to either the intervention or the control group by using permuted block randomization. The data were entered into SPSS V22 and analyzed.Results:There was no statistically significant difference between the demographic characteristics of the two groups (P < 0.05). The mean total score of nurses' clinical decision-making before training sessions in the intervention group was calculated to be 141.59 ± 10.76, which was lower compared to a score of 148.56 ± 10.95 in the control group (P = 0.011). Therefore, covariance analysis was used to modify the results. The mean total score of nurses' clinical decision-making after the training in the intervention group was calculated as 163.82 ± 8.83, indicating a significant increase compared to a score of 154.50 ± 11.25 in the control group (P < 0.001).Conclusion:The findings of the present study show that the education of critical thinking by using the critical card tool leads to improved clinical decision-making in CCU nurses.

Virtual World of Children and Young People: Challenges on Road to Adulthood

The media raises our children and form an important part of their daily lives. It is impossible to imagine life without the presence of the media. They are the main source of information, content, and topics on upbringing, education, culture, politics, and entertainment. The media are socializing agent which impact on society, children and youth is significant. Accordingly, there should be a greater social intention for media education and training. The role of media education in our schools is still underused, often marginalized and sometimes misunderstood by both teachers, preschool teachers, children and young people. The number of media, internet users and profiles and social networks is growing every day, as evidenced by numerous studies, but there is not enough education for the media nor education for critical thinking. Therefore, in this paper we tried to explore the media habits of children and youth in the local community, with special reference to the time that they spent on the Internet, mostly on social networks, and whether the time spent affected their daily interactions with the environment, friends, family and, at the end of the day, their succes in school. We where interested in how much they used social network, at what age they created their profiles, and how free they felt in providing information about themselves and others through the media. According to the results, children create their profiles on social networks at a very early stage, even when they are not ready or educated for it. In addition, children are very open to the virtual world of communication with the people they do not know in real life, even to meet strangers without being aware of possible manipulation, false profiles, violence and the like. There is a clear awareness among most respondents about the need for media education, regardless of the difference in the amount of time that they spend on social networks, as well as a clearly articulated stand on the need to introduce media education as part of compulsory education in schools.

From Alienation to Solidarity: Educational Perspectives and Possibilities in Brazil and the UK

Abstract In this paper, we examine how alienation plays out in conditions of advanced neoliberalisation in education. We discuss two examples which exemplify the depth and extent of alienation. First the attacks on critical thinking in education that have been spearheaded by the ‘School without [political] parties’ [‘Escola sem Partido’] project in Brazil. Second, the mental health crisis that is rampant among staff and students in the UK higher education. Drawing on Freire, we explore how ‘the organization of alienation’ can fuel acts of resistance and praxis which can help us reclaim education and society from the forces of the market. The examples we draw on in relation to Brazil and the UK have not yet become mainstream strategies, especially internationally, that can sustain a resistance movement in education, but they form successful local, in some cases national even, strategies that seem to be able to open new possibilities which can eventually help us find creative and effective ways to make the organisation of alienation the project for Being More that Freire envisaged.

Development of critical thinking as a means of forming STEM competencies

The article analyzes the scientific literature in order to determine different approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “critical thinking”, describes its components, discusses the basic concepts, functions of critical thinking in teaching. Critical thinking is presented as one of the main competences of STEM education. The conditions for the development of critical thinking in the process of STEM-learning are determined. Methodical problems are solved, which should help students to develop STEM competences based on the development of their critical thinking.

Implementation of reflective model of educational practice in the modern Finnish school

The article considers the example of a country whose educational system has absorbed the ideas of philosophical concepts of critical thinking of I. Kant and M. Lipman. After all, thanks to the dynamic integration processes in the world, we pay attention to reflective models of education, which lead us to the question: What is more relevant today — memorization of information or its critical analysis? The article attempts to investigate the organization of education in Finnish schools through the prism of I. Kant’s reflexive model and M. Lipman’s reflexive model of educational practice. I. Kant in his work “Critique of Pure Reason” used the concept of reflection in order to explain the specifics of the work of consciousness. He divided the concept of reflection into transcendental and logical. Logical reflection only compares concepts with each other and cannot judge things a priori. Transcendental reflection — the basis for the possibility of objective comparison of ideas with each other. Based on the provisions of Kant’s work on reflection as a way of forming new concepts and judgments through the comparison of existing ideas, M. Lipman proposed a reflective model of education, which is devoted to his work “Reflective model of educational practice”. The article also analyzes the role of phenomenon-based teaching and learning in the education of critical thinking, which is necessary for the successful life of the individual in the modern information society. The Finnish school shows us that the study of phenomena helps the student not only to understand what is happening, but pushes him to formulate an independent opinion on any issue in life. This creates an approach called “reflective model of education”, which was fully discussed by I. Kant in the field of philosophy, and M. Lipman in the field of psychology and pedagogy. The article attempts to argue that the construction of the learning process in the Finnish school has the features of a reflexive paradigm of critical practice, which is its integral feature. The experience of organizing education in a Finnish school can be used in the development of a new Ukrainian school.

DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper is devoted to the role of critical thinking in teaching and focuses on asking the right questions to get the right answers. Critical thinking is being able to think logically and reasonably. It also provides novice teachers and students with practical example of a lesson plan for a reflective teacher. It helps to see the essential elements for a lesson plan, but most importantly it provides an example of a plan heading which is crucial before planning as it helps teachers think critically before they start the lesson. A critical thinker is analytical, reflective, fair-minded, positive, curious, perseverant and creative. The researchers suggest a lesson plan for PD workshop on the importance of critical thinking with detailed procedure.

Critical thinking in social work education. A case study of knowledge practices in students’ reflective writings using semantic gravity profiling

ABSTRACT The study explores how critical thinking can be practised and taught in the training of social work students. It investigates the nature and possible developments of critical thinking in an educational environment, asking which learning practices can be described as ‘critical thinking’ since this is not well defined or understood in an academic context or, particularly, in social work education. The approach, based on Legitimation Code Theory, allowed the creation of pedagogic interventions suitable for teaching skills and practices which clearly demonstrate what constitute examples of critical thinking. Students’ reflective writing showed a capability for recontextualising, generalising and assessing the meanings connected to the incident through weakening semantic gravity. High-achieving students produced ‘semantic waves’ by comparing different interpretations of knowledge, based on incident analysis, and successfully transforming these into a new form of individually ‘invented’ knowledge. Additionally, the study proved that mastering ‘semantic gravity’, the ability to manage knowledge which is to be decontextualised, transferred and recontextualised, may improve critical thinking skills. The analysis demonstrates how movements in semantic gravity in students’ writing assignments provide conditions for cumulative knowledge building that could be used in the future implementation of ‘semantic gravity’ in social work curricula.

Investigating the effects of a systematic and model-based design of computer-supported argument visualization on critical thinking

Computer-supported argument visualization (CSAV) is an educational technology that has been identified in many studies to be effective in stimulating university students' critical thinking (CT) skills. However, the instructional design principles and strategies that are effective in enhancing students' CT with CSAV have not been sufficiently explored. This study investigated the effectiveness of a systematic and model-based design of CSAV-based CT instruction on the enhancement of university students' CT skills. Two groups of students (experimental and comparison) were recruited at a Chinese university to participate in a preparatory course, Modern Education Technology (MET). The experimental group, which comprised 39 students, was fully engaged with CSAV cooperative activities designed systematically based on the First Principles of Instruction model. The comparison group, which comprised 31 students received a regular instruction designed by the subject teacher. Participants in both groups were pre- and post-tested with the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA) test. Findings disclosed that participants in the experimental group significantly outperformed the comparison group in overall CT performance, and especially in hypothesis testing, problem-solving, and argument analysis sub-skills of the HCTA test. This result suggests that a systematic and model-based approach of designing CSAV-based CT instruction is effective in developing university students' CT skills. Implications of the findings for designing CT-supportive subject-matter instruction in line with the CSAV strategy are discussed.

IDAINILAIPPALLI TAMILAASIRIYARKALIN KADRAL KARPITTHALIL NUNNAAIVU CHINTHANAITHIRAN [CRITICAL THINKING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING SESSION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TAMIL TEACHERS

The research paper is entitled as “Critical Thinking in Teaching and Learning session among Secondary school Tamil Teachers”. This research consists of two objectives. First, to identify the use of critical thinking in teaching and learning session among Tamil teachers. Second, to identify the techniques to implement critical thinking in teaching and learning among Tamil teachers. Therefore, I have chosen an urban secondary school at Kuala Langat, Selangor as my research area for this research. Researcher also chooses 5 Tamil teachers consists of one senior assistant dan 2 form 2 teachers and 2 form 4 teachers as research's sample. The types of methods used to collect data in this research are Interview, Questionnaire and also Observation. Besides that, Quantitative and Qualitative analysis methods were used to analysis the data obtained in this research. As a Researcher I have used Bloom’s Theory for better results in this research. By using Interview and Questionnaire instruments, researcher had collected data for the first objective while done observation for second objective. Most of the teachers used Question &amp; Answer (Q&amp;A) and I-Think maps methods to improve critical thinking among the students.

The Unique Study of Talent Cultivation for English Major in Private Universities of China

The paper focused on the research of talent cultivation for English major in the universities of China, especially in private universities. It is often criticized that the English major makes no difference from public English or English training. The main problems of English major at present in China Universities are in its personnel cultivating program, and course design. These problems are shown in the paper mainly by case studies, literature research from the authors’ teaching experience. To solve these problems, the traditional English major must make some tentative innovation and improvement. For the personnel cultivating, it must make a balance between specialists and generalists. For the major setup, it should make refinement in different fields and aspects to let the students make a choice according to their own interests and characteristics, so the paper proposed the mechanism of general enrollment and stratified cultivating. For the course design, it is necessary to make a change from “learning English” to “learning in English”. Learning English mainly lies with students. The learning process, especially the skill-based learning, mainly lies in the learners themselves, while the task of the teacher plays the role of mentor and supervisor. Learning in English is the main direction of English teachers’ efforts. It is the main mission of the teachers of English major to teach humanities courses in full English, cultivate students’ critical thinking in teaching, and let students actively participate in classroom interaction. With these changes, the English major can strive to achieve its own development by being unique and new.