A study of critical thinking in higher education students

Abstract

The study shows a proposal on specific diagnosis of critical thinking skills in higher education students according to literal, inferential and critical reading levels. A literature review on Critical thinking was done to support concepts. This proposal is adapted from the variables of the information obtained. One of the conclusions shows that the career profile is a determining factor in the result and that motivation and interest are outstanding in the reading and writing processes. Teaching students to evaluate their own processes and helping teachers to include critical readings in their curricula will help to develop effective skills associated with critical thinking. The general objective of the research project is to strengthen Critical Thinking and the argumentative capacity of the students of the schools of Administration, Health Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, Social Sciences, Humanities and Theology through strategies of reading and writing. A mixed methodology was used; the researches designed and administered 2 critical reading texts, each with 10 questions and organized in 3 reading levels (literal,inferential and critical), to 158 students; then, a data analysis on how students infer, interpret and analyze text content before they start a communicative course was done. The results show that according to the professional profile, some students are more argumentative that others and that students lack Critical Thinking skills.

Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective

“…In addition, the result supports that of Morozova et al’s [ 20 ] study, which showed evidence of the connection between critical thinking ability and independent learning; students who learned to think critically boosted their independent learning. Besides, the current result echoes that of Zuluaga et al [ 37 ], who showed that reading and writing techniques increase students’ argumentation capacity; nonetheless, they lack critical thinking abilities. Moreover, Al-Fneikh [ 51 ] unveiled that the critical thinking level is low among Qassim University students.…”

“…According to the findings, critical thinking achievement is more challenging in English as a second language. According to [ 37 ], reading and writing techniques increase student argumentation capacity; nonetheless, they lack critical thinking abilities.…”