Strong Critical Thinking Research Articles

The efficacy of simulation debriefing in developing critical thinking in accelerated baccalaureate nursing students

Background: Critical thinking is an essential attribute of a nurse. Nursing education which incorporates simulation and debriefing learning activities has an important role to ensure key components of safety and clinical effectiveness are present before nursing students graduate. Aims and methods: To examine, using Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) based rubrics, the relationship between simulation debriefing and critical thinking in nursing students enrolled in an accelerated second degree baccalaureate program. Results: Univariate Spearman Rho regression showed a significant direct relationship between critical thinking and all five components of debriefing (allowing reflection on student’s clinical judgement and approach to patient care; feedback received supportive and constructive; feedback helpful to learning; adequate time given to reflect and discuss clinical performance; and helping understand the rational for the actions and responses to performances). Logistic multivariate regression revealed that only three out of the five debriefing components predicted developing stronger critical thinking skills: allowing reflection on student’s clinical judgement and approach to patient care (χ 2 = 34.249, p = .011), adequate time given to reflect and discuss clinical performance (χ 2 = .068, p = .030), and helping understand the rational for the actions and responses to performances (χ 2 = 119.365, p = .001). Conclusions: Debriefing is an important aspect of simulation which helps enhance critical thinking skills in nursing students and thus should be appropriately addressed in education and research.

Investigating Language Learning Context Influence: An Approach to Iranian EFL Students’ Critical Thinking Ability

Investigating to which extent language learning context affect Iranian EFL students’ critical thinking, this study was conducted to clarify the relationship between the variables. To achieve this purpose 90 EFL students in upper intermediate level of Payamnoor University selected, and equally divided to two groups of 45 person, the experimental group (n=45) with modern context of language learning by a web 2.0 environment on the internet and control group (n=45) with traditional context of language learning in regular classes. Sandra Lee M.C. Kay’s Researching Second Language Classroom book, published in 2008, was given to the both groups during 10 session of 120 minutes of study as a material. Pretest/posttest assessments and statistical package of social science (SPSS) t-test analyzed procedures clarified that experimental group’s language learner have a stronger critical thinking ability than control group ones. Confirming positive relation between language learning context and critical thinking ability of EFL learners, the results also show a strong willing of students to use modern, technological, more accessible, and new ways of learning.

All about… multilingualism & critical thinking

Nursery WorldVol. 2015, No. 16 PracticeAll about… multilingualism & critical thinkingVicky Burghardt, Beverley Barnaby, Leena RobertsonVicky BurghardtSearch for more papers by this author, Beverley BarnabySearch for more papers by this author, Leena RobertsonSearch for more papers by this authorVicky Burghardt; Beverley Barnaby; Leena RobertsonPublished Online:25 Aug 2015https://doi.org/10.12968/nuwa.2015.16.17AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View articleAbstractThe ability to speak multiple languages is linked to strong critical thinking. So how can the early years nurture learning in this area? Vicky Burghardt, Beverley Barnaby and Leena Robertson explain References Baker C (2011)., Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5th edition Google ScholarBialystok E, Craik FIM and Luk G (2012), ‘Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences Crossref, Google ScholarBarac R, Bialystok E, Castro DC and Sanchez M (2014), ‘The cognitive development of young dual language learners: a critical review’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly Crossref, Google ScholarCalvo A and Bialystok E (2014), ‘independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning’, Cognition Crossref, Google ScholarDFE (2014), Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage Google ScholarMorales J, Calvo A, Bialystok E (2013), ‘Working memory development in monolingual and bilingual children’, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Crossref, Google ScholarNALDIC; http://www.naldic.org.uk Google ScholarPoulin-dubois D, Blaye A, Coutya J and Bialystok E (2011), ‘the effects of bilingualism on toddlers’ executive functioning’, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Crossref, Google ScholarWang X (2011), Learning to Read and Write in the Multilingual Family, Multilingual Matters Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byBotanical Research, Vol. 06, No. 03 10 August 2015Volume 2015Issue 16ISSN (print): 0029-6422ISSN (online): 2059-9358 Metrics History Published online 25 August 2015 Published in print 10 August 2015 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

Critical Thinking Assessment Across Four Sustainability-Related Experiential Learning Settings

Today’s complex societal problems require both critical thinking and an engaged citizenry. Current practices in higher education, such as service learning, suggest that experiential learning can serve as a vehicle to encourage students to become engaged citizens. However, critical thinking is not necessarily a part of every experiential learning process. This project explored several learning experiences that used mindful instructional design of experiential learning to promote critical thinking outcomes. This project looked at four different learning settings that varied in sustainability topics and extent of experiential learning that suggests applicability to a wide educational audience. Our work identified four effective features of instructional design that supported critical thinking: planning, instruction method, content, and explicit critical thinking outcomes. We found that strong critical thinking outcomes result from experiential learning with appropriately scaffolded critical thinking exercises and processes.

Who are Respiratory Therapists?

Respiratory health care providers who have strong critical thinking. Respiratory therapists are dedicated to breathing. Respiratory therapists (RTs) are highly skilled health care professionals. They care for patients by evaluating, treating, and maintaining cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) function. Respiratory therapists have specialized medical expertise and use advanced medical technology. They are educated to treat all age groups. Their knowledge of the scientific principles underlying cardiopulmonary physiology and pathophysiology, anatomy, pharmacology, microbiology as well as biomedical engineering and technology, enables them to effectively assess, educate and treat patients with cardiopulmonary disorders and patients who are on ventilators. Therapists participate in clinical decision-making and patient education, the development and implementation of protocols and treatment plans, health promotion, disease prevention and disease management.

Learning to Think Critically

This article examines whether exposure to the arts has an effect on the ability of students to engage in critical thinking. We conduct a randomized controlled trial involving 3,811 students who were assigned by lottery to participate in a School Visit Program at the newly opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Students who participated in the School Visit Program demonstrated significantly stronger critical thinking skills when analyzing a new painting. These effects were larger for students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In light of recent declines in the availability of the arts for disadvantaged populations, our results have important policy implications for efforts to restore and expand access to the arts.

Moral sensitivity and critical thinking disposition of nursing students in Korea

This study aimed to examine the level of moral sensitivity and critical thinking disposition among baccalaureate nursing students in Korea. A convenience sample of 142 undergraduate nursing students was surveyed on moral sensitivity using the Korean version of the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (K-MSQ) and on critical thinking disposition using the Critical Thinking Disposition Questionnaire (CTDQ). Data were collected from June 2009 to July 2010. Mean score was 2.83 out of 7 on the K-MSQ (relatively low) and 3.70 out of 5 on the CTDQ (relatively high), indicating the need for nursing educators to continue to develop and incorporate strategies that enhance moral sensitivity into ethics courses in undergraduate nursing programs in Korea. Nursing students who regarded nursing as a lifelong career exhibited stronger critical thinking disposition than did students who considered nursing to be a temporary or premarital job. Moral sensitivity should be further emphasized in nursing ethics courses in undergraduate nursing programs in Korea.

Thinking practice: Iteration, peer review, and policy analysis in a governmental accounting class

• We present a project to be used in a governmental accounting course. • Students conduct policy research and make recommendations in a written format. • The project incorporates peer-review and iterative elements. • Results of the project reflect improvement in critical thinking skills. All accounting graduates need strong critical thinking skills to succeed. However, possessing these critical thinking skills upon graduation is particularly crucial for new accountants working in the field of governmental accounting. As public servants at the local, state, and federal levels, they may face both short-term budget constraints and long-term sustainability concerns that cannot be solved with technical skills alone. Due to the proliferation of standards and technical practices across the accounting profession, governmental accounting educators may find it difficult to incorporate critical thinking instruction into their courses. In response to these concerns, this paper presents a project developed for inclusion in a governmental and nonprofit accounting course. Over the course of one semester, students choose a governmental policy topic of interest, conduct background research, evaluate the costs and benefits associated with a policy issue, and prepare recommendations in a written format addressed to the appropriate legislative committee. The project also incorporates review and iterative components that allow students to revise their written work based on feedback from the instructor and classmates. We report results of pre- and post-surveys that suggest that the project offers promise as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking skills among governmental accounting students.

Exploring the Utility of Measures of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Professional Behavior Development in an Audiology Education Program

Discussions about professional behaviors are growing increasingly prevalent across health professions, especially as a central component to education programs. A strong critical thinking disposition, paired with critical consciousness, may provide future health professionals with a foundation for solving challenging practice problems through the application of sound technical skill and scientific knowledge without sacrificing sensitive, empathic, client-centered practice. In this article, we describe an approach to monitoring student development of critical thinking dispositions and key professional behaviors as a way to inform faculty members' and clinical supervisors' support of students and ongoing curriculum development. We designed this exploratory study to describe the trajectory of change for a cohort of audiology students' critical thinking dispositions (measured by the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory: [CCTDI]) and professional behaviors (using the Comprehensive Professional Behaviors Development Log-Audiology [CPBDL-A]) in an audiology program. Implications for the CCTDI and CPBDL-A in audiology entry-to-practice curricula and professional development will be discussed. This exploratory study involved a cohort of audiology students, studied over a two-year period, using a one-group repeated measures design. Eighteen audiology students (two male and 16 female), began the study. At the third and final data collection point, 15 students completed the CCTDI, and nine students completed the CPBDL-A. The CCTDI and CPBDL-A were each completed at three time points: at the beginning, at the middle, and near the end of the audiology education program. Data are presented descriptively in box plots to examine the trends of development for each critical thinking disposition dimension and each key professional behavior as well as for an overall critical thinking disposition score. For the CCTDI, there was a general downward trend from time point 1 to time point 2 and a general upward trend from time point 2 to time point 3. Students demonstrated upward trends from the initial to final time point for their self-assessed development of professional behaviors as indicated on the CPBDL-A. The CCTDI and CPBDL-A can be used by audiology education programs as mechanisms for inspiring, fostering, and monitoring the development of critical thinking dispositions and key professional behaviors in students. Feedback and mentoring about dispositions and behaviors in conjunction with completion of these measures is recommended for inspiring and fostering these key professional attributes.

Uncovering hidden profiles: advocacy in team decision making

PurposeResearch shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.Design/methodology/approachIn order to mitigate this team decision‐making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.FindingsResults show that devil's advocacy groups achieved higher decision quality than groups under free discussion. However, devil's advocacy teams also had higher levels of affective conflict. As a result, while they selected the best solution, devil's advocacy introduced conditions that may hinder the solution's implementationResearch limitations/implicationsSimilar experiments with advocacy techniques suggest that the positive effect on decision quality found here may be reduced in the presence of stronger hidden profiles.Practical implicationsWhile the devil's advocacy technique has the potential to uncover hidden profiles and improve group decision making, the paper recommends that managers use this technique only in teams with strong critical thinking norms that foster constructive conflict.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, no study has examined the impact of devil's advocacy in groups where information is not shared equally prior to deliberations.

Narrative Writing: Its Role in Nursing Literature

Narrative Writing: Its Role in Nursing Literature

DELVING INTO CRITICAL LITERACY IN THE ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM

There is power in the written word. However, the power behind any idea requires the reader to be judicious in its meaning. When we read any literature—a poster, billboard advertisement, newspaper article, artwork, book or play— are we being unwittingly coerced by the author’s message? In fact, we may simply be absorbing someone else’s point of view with little insight on our part. Developing critical literacy skills in students from an early age is vital and should be every teacher’s goal. When students are taught how to evaluate a text in critical terms, they are empowered to consider and analyze the influences that are shaping their thoughts and ideas. Strong critical thinking skills enable students to question and challenge attitudes, values, and beliefs that are hidden below the surface as they read or listen to an author’s message. The challenge for teachers is to help students unlock its mystery, to understand the basic intent of an author’s message. As teachers, how do we provide students with the critical literacy skills to comprehend?

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Further Evidence of Critical Thinking and Final Examination Performance in Advanced Financial Accounting

This study examines whether in-course test components requiring stronger critical thinking skills can help explain final examination performance in an advanced undergraduate financial accounting course, conducted in 2003 and 2004 over three continuous semesters at an Australian university. It proposes and validates two levels of dimensions affecting final examination performance: in-course test components and students’ previous university academic performance. Analysis of a database of 1,816 students using standardised multiple regression over three continuous semesters suggests that while overall Grade Point Advantage (GPA) is the single best predictor of final examination performance, in-course test components that require more critical thinking are better predictors than others, except for the in-course ethics essay test. Length of stay also had some predictive ability. This study suggests that academics should pay attention to monitoring and providing feedback to students on their in-course performanc...

Further Evidence of Critical Thinking and Final Examination Performance in Advanced Financial Accounting

This study examines whether in-course test components requiring stronger critical thinking skills can help explain final examination performance in an advanced undergraduate financial accounting course, conducted in 2003 and 2004 over three continuous semesters at an Australian university. It proposes and validates two levels of dimensions affecting final examination performance: in-course test components and students’ previous university academic performance. Analysis of a database of 1,816 students using standardised multiple regression over three continuous semesters suggests that while overall Grade Point Advantage (GPA) is the single best predictor of final examination performance, in-course test components that require more critical thinking are better predictors than others, except for the in-course ethics essay test. Length of stay also had some predictive ability. This study suggests that academics should pay attention to monitoring and providing feedback to students on their in-course performance in tests that examine critical-thinking skills covering a wide range of topics. Such monitoring and feedback may assist in improving the final examination performance of students in this course.

A Restart of What Language Arts Is: Bringing Multimodal Assignments Into Secondary Language Arts

Multimodal assignments in language arts involve student learning through not only print and verbal language activities but also visual, kinesthetic, aural, and spatial activities. Language arts teachers can use these elements as a means of developing stronger critical thinking among their students. Traditionally, in language arts classrooms, print media has been at the top of the media hierarchy. Multimodality instead posits print texts as part of a wider range of communication options. Students who participate in multimodal activities fall into one of three groups: students who struggle to connect the multimodal course activities with what they see as real language arts and literacy work; students who connect quite actively and dramatically with multimodal course activities and see them as highly relevant to language arts; and students who are not certain how nonprint and print texts are connected but who start to accept such connections as important over time. These contradictions within student experiences highlight a need for educators to carefully consider both the conditions under which multimodal assignments are given and the underlying reasons for bringing multimodal thinking into the classroom. Multimodality can free students' thinking, but only if students understand that multimodal activities are part of an overall orientation towards thinking and communication. If students see them as a temporary change of pace before returning to print-based thinking, then such activities can easily be devalued or seen as a way to avoid traditional reading and writing as well as thinking. Larger curricular goals also need to be made clear for students so that they have an opportunity to move beyond a mindset of assignment completion and think about how multimodal thinking fits into broader communication purposes.

Integrating Critical Thinking Into Agricultural Communications Curricula

Agricultural communications instructors were provided with summary findings from a previous study on agricultural communications undergraduate majors’ level of critical thinking skills and were asked to respond to the findings by determining reasons why students’ skills were low, identifying ways to enhance critical thinking in courses, and stating the benefits for students to have strong critical thinking skills. Respondents identified these factors that contribute to agricultural communications students’ lack of critical thinking skills: an inability to read critically or to read well, a lack of analytical skills, and a lack of curiosity. The instructors identified four major areas to better utilize critical thinking in their courses: using real-world projects and situations, emphasizing research, demanding more and richer writing assignments, and exposing students to differing viewpoints. The benefits to students for having strong critical thinking skills include becoming conscientious consumers of information, mature leaders, and better employees. Recommendations for implementing critical thinking into agricultural communications curricula include providing opportunities for real-world, practical projects; incorporating case studies into courses; incorporating varying viewpoints—not just a proagriculture attitude; and emphasizing analysis of information—not just finding information.

Making Critical Thinking a Classroom Reality

Critical thinking is core to my teaching. I encourage students to be independent thinkers, who examine assumptions and look at the implications of ideas, both their own and those of others (Brookfield 1987, 7-8). However, I see critical thinking as more than a series of thinking skills. As Richard Paul has pointed out, skills may be used for selfserving ends and in ways that may do ill to the public good (1987, 2). Instead, Paul advocates a strong sense critical thinking (1990, 369-78), which demands that one carefully think about the nature and biases of his or her own thinking and also cultivate certain essential character traits. If we are interested in cultivating the kind of intellectual independence implied in the concept of strong sense critical thinking, we must recognize the need to foster the intellectual moral virtues essential to that mode of thinking and being. These are intellectual [epistemological] humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, empathy, and fairmindedness (Paul 1987, 3). Thus, if we are interested in enhancing our students' critical thinking capabilities, while we must encourage logical analysis, more is required. We must also nurture students' examination of their own thinking as well as the development of the character traits that allow them to engage in such an enterprise. Part of the art, and the magic, of teaching is creating, choosing, and implementing strategies to move students forward as critical thinkers. While there are no quick fixes or simple formulas we can adopt as teachers, the opportunities to enhance critical thinking are numerous. Below I describe two parts of my American political system course which I consciously structured to develop students' ability and willingness to think critically about politics. The first section focuses on tolerance for expression, in particular the issue of flag burning. The second deals with the evaluation of American politics and public policy presented by third-party ideologies.

Siegel on Competency Testing and Critical Thinking

Harvey Siegel argues that minimum competency testing (MCT) is incompatible with strong sense critical thinking. His arguments are reviewed and contrasted with positions held by John E. McPeck and Michael Scriven. Siegel's arguments seem directed against the prevailing form of MCT. However, alternative formats which allow for the aggregate and context-sensitive nature of critical thinking are not doomed to the arbitrariness Siegel finds. MCT may be a legitimate and useful means for furthering critical thinking as one of our educational ideals.