Critical Thinking Development—A Necessary Step in Higher Education Transformation towards Sustainability

Abstract

Education for sustainable development has been addressed by professionals, authorities, and a number of research studies in the last decades, and yet the results are not clearly visible. Teachers as agents of a new mindset do not seem to understand the ways of approaching raising awareness of the issues of global challenges. This study investigated the possibility of raising the extent of applying critical thinking to the problem-solving issues of a group of student teachers in their initial training. The sample consisted of 48 student teachers. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used: namely, a questionnaire, content analysis, and focus group interviews. An archive of the students' materials was also used for content analysis. In the data analysis, inter-rater reliability, as well as parametric (t-test) and non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U test) were applied. The results of the study provide evidence of the positive impact of the use of case studies in teaching pre-service teachers on the development of their critical thinking skills. It can be concluded that it should not be taken for granted that teachers automatically know how to develop the competencies that are necessary for sustainable development (SD). Instead, teacher education institutions need to incorporate thorough training that focusses on education for sustainable development (ESD) into the entire teacher programme in order to make sure that the teachers leave their initial training well prepared for guaranteeing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Determinants of the Effectiveness of Using Renewable Resource Management-Based Simulations in the Development of Critical Thinking: An Application of the Experiential Learning Theory

“…Empirical studies have shown that critical thinking in students can be developed using student-based learning strategies and having them face everyday problems that require approaches to reasoning that allow them to construct new knowledge, based on the mindsets they already have [8,[44][45][46]. Thus, by facilitating the planning, adaptation, and reflection used to solve the problems posed, business simulations constitute an adequate tool for students to construct knowledge and therefore represent an element that facilitates the development of critical thinking [7,[47][48][49][50].…”

ESD for Public Administration: An Essential Challenge for Inventing the Future of Our Society

“…One of the central premises for the development of ESD is access to education and the individuals' capacity to engage in training and learning, for the purpose of developing skills such as: anticipation, interdisciplinarity, diversity of perspectives, working with incomplete or complex information, participation in sustainable development processes, cooperation, individual decision-making capacities, empathy, solidarity, and self-motivation [31,34,35]. Given that self-organising, self-determination and project-based work capacities are essential in forming these skills, the employees' training becomes an on-going need [36].…”

Technology-Enhanced Learning: An Optimal CPS Learning Application

“…Therefore, collaborative and problem-oriented approaches may be essential to the implementation of sustainable development and education [1]. Education, therefore, calls for transdisciplinary knowledge and skills in collaborative problem-solving (CPS), whereby students build and integrate their and others' knowledge across disciplines and apply transdisciplinary knowledge to real community problems [2,3].…”

“…Instead, people have to work together and use different information collection strategies to tackle problems. Consequently, an individual has to be supported by others to be able to complete sophisticated tasks [3].…”